Ever wanted to explore a secret garden? Well that’s exactly what you can do in The Garden Path. This cozy, slice of life game, sees you explore a secret garden, uncovering its mysteries and bringing some life back to the garden.
In this article, we’ll be giving a full review of the game and ranking it from decaf to fully caffeinated.
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Story
The Garden Path has a pretty open-ended, play-at-your-own-pace story. The game is designed to be one you can pick up and put down at your own leisure, and this definitely shows. You begin the game entering the garden, with nothing but a mysterious note inviting you to visit. You’ll explore the garden as you attempt to work out who wrote the note and perhaps uncovering some of the garden’s other secrets too.
The story is quest-based, seeing you follow linear storylines, but with different quests happening concurrently. You’ll be able to choose how much you engage with the story, but you do need to complete some quests to be able to unlock different tools. The story is primarily told through interactions with the garden’s residents, with a variety of different creatures calling the garden home. Each has their own story, and different tasks that you can complete for them, with many offering trades for equipment or seeds.
The Garden Path definitely doesn’t have an in-your-face type of story, and it’s one that has cleverly been designed to make it easy to pick up where you left off. The story is interesting enough to drive some of the progression and gameplay, but doesn’t impose on how you play, providing a really great balance that makes the game feel really cozy. So for story, I’m rating The Garden Path as Buzzed.
GAMEPLAY
The gameplay of The Garden Path follows in the footsteps of many exploration-style games. You’ll navigate the garden, uncovering different plants, and items as you go. You’ll have some basic camping gear to keep you going, with a tent, lantern, and tea in your pack. As you explore, you’ll be able to investigate different plants, uncovering their uses, and what you can harvest from them. Unlocking new tools will see the addition of harvesting, fishing, and planting elements, so you can really interact with the garden in whatever way you choose.
You can catch a range of different song fish, that when released, have different effects, and you can plant a range of different plants and flowers, creating a beautiful garden. Collecting certain plants will allow you to brew different types of tea, that each have a different effect, and you can truly create a cozy campsite, setting up your tent wherever you choose.
While the game may have a linear story, the gameplay is anything but, allowing you freedom to explore and create at your own leisure. The controls felt a little bit janky in the game, with the game recommending a controller, but having some odd button mapping, that often felt confusing to navigate. The pace is predictably slow, so if you’re not one that enjoys a laid-back pace without a lot of rigorous structure, this may not be a great choice for you. But if you love a nice cozy, relaxing game to unwind with, this is a great choice. This is a game you can dedicate a lot of time to, simply building up your garden, clearing an area to create the ultimate campsite, or learning everything you can about all the plants that make up the landscape. So for gameplay, I’m rating The Garden Path as Buzzed.
DESIGN
The Garden Path has a really beautiful design aesthetic. The game features a really lovely watercolor kind of design style, with a beautiful autumn palette. The game blends the ordinary with the unusual brilliantly, adding a touch of magic to the game through the different character designs, that really transports the game. The game cycles through a day-night cycle in 24 hours, allowing you to experience day and night gameplay, and also features a 28-day seasonal cycle, so you can experience all four seasons.
The sound design completes the design perfectly, creating a wonderful soundscape to explore to, and really digging in to the cozy aesthetic. I will say that it can be a little tricky to differentiate between plants and items because of the color choices, but the investigation tool allows you to identify the different plants if you’re having trouble. Overall, this is a game that is absolutely beautiful. So for design, I’m rating The Garden Path as Buzzed.
ORIGINALITY
In terms of originality, The Garden Path doesn’t feel overly unique or innovative. The game is delightful to play, but doesn’t offer anything overly new or unique in terms of mechanics. The game feels similar to other games in terms of overall vibe, and could be compared to games like Snufkin Melody of Moominvalley, or Sky: Children of the Light, but does stand out as different in terms of design style.
Perhaps the most original part of this game is that it’s intentionally designed to be played in small doses, despite not being a game that feels casual, which as a parent who often is squeezing in a half hour of gaming where I can, I actually really loved. Because of this, the game feels like it’s broken up into smaller, more achievable, pieces, that are enjoyable regardless of how long you play for. This is a game that may not be overly unique, but definitely hits on some much-loved marks. So for originality, I’m rating The Garden Path as Buzzed.
THE FINAL BREW
The Garden Path is a thoughtfully designed game that combines exploration gameplay with a whimsical setting. It’s a game that will definitely hit a lot of marks for a lot of cozy gamers, especially those that love a go-at-your-own-pace game.
We’ve ground the beans, we’ve carefully weighed and pressed the grinds and brewed this game down. Now it’s time for a taste test…. The Garden Path is Buzzed.
The Garden Path is available on Steam now. You can find more info here.
Until next time, stay caffeinated!
