As with many indie games I review, I pick them and go in totally blind and this was the case with Garden City. Firstly it is a game with an extremely low price point of just under five English pounds which you would probably classify as a bargain these days, even boxes of cereal cost more. Developed and published by 8floor, they are no strangers to this game genre and have pushed out a few of a similar style. After debuting on Steam for Windows PC at the tail end of 2020, it appears on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S two and a half years down the line.

Gameplay

If I was to describe this straight off the bat then I would say it is a classic mobile device style of game that has been bought to the big screen. Judging by the title I expected it to be gardening itself but it is more about solving puzzles and timing movements in order to tidy up unkempt gardens. Each level starts pretty much with the same premise of unblocking obstacles, clearing debris and rubbish and fixing elements of gardens. Whilst this sound easy on paper, you do have to be mindful about your approach as you’ll need to pick up tools to do certain jobs to allow you to proceed to another part of the garden. Take one wrong move and as I found out, you’ll end up having to restart the game and figure out which order to perform tasks.

Some levels are slightly more tricky than others but soon you’ll find options to stop limiting items such as gloves. For example, some buildings churn out unlimited gloves, paint and suchlike if you repair them. Each level has tasks to tick off and you’ll be granted a star rating, complete the level quickly enough and you’ll accumulate three stars. Take your time and you may end up with just the one. There are enough tasks to keep things interesting like reconstructing bridges, removing debris and more. But after 50 or so levels it did get repetitive probably halfway through the run of levels and the variance starts to lack.

Graphics & Audio

Visually Garden City is very basic and not demanding whatsoever when it comes to its presentation. As I have mentioned already, it gives off a mobile phone game feel and that isn’t a bad thing by any means. A lot of levels looked nearly identical in their backdrop and design with the only difference being the layout of obstructions and so on. The art style is really well illustrated with a warm cascade of colour that sets the tone of a quaint and quiet garden lifestyle. Sound effects are quite minimal with the constant same scurry of shoes across the stone paths but I wasn’t expecting award-winning audio in a low-budget title.

In Conclusion

Garden City is a decent play if you really like some challenging yet casual puzzle-solving. Whilst it is a basic and simplistic game in both the look and feel, it did have me scratching my head on several occasions and provided me with a good 7-8 hours of enjoyment. For the cheap as chips cost, you’ll get plenty out of your investment. If you grow to enjoy this one, then you may want to check out some of the other games from 8floor.