Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 Hours or Less

The Bottom Line:

"Rocks"

Botanicula perfectly synthesises a fantastically whimsical yet cohesive visual style, brilliant sound design and manageable, far from ridiculous puzzles.

Botanicula follows the journey of five insects through their home tree being slowly absorbed and destroyed by alien creatures. They delve deeper into the root system of the tree (depending on how you interpret it) until it appears to be their fate to destroy the dark creatures once and for all.

There are four distinct (though not specifically labelled) episodes. The first episode is the most light-hearted and shows the natural beauty of their home. The music throughout this episode shines. It is dynamic; constantly affected by environmental factors and user input and clearly a product of utmost care and talent. The following episodes omit the layered, dynamic and uplifting theme of the first episode but in no way has any less care put into sound design. Every plant, every creature, every item that can be manipulated in some way has a sound to it, creating a world that really feels alive.

There are no written or spoken words of any discernible language in Botanicula, its narrative and events have all been animated and programmed very smoothly. The game was occasionally and a variety of challenges may prompt you to use a walkthrough if you want to see it through in one session.

I really like the interface design and the slickness interactions within the game. Coming off the back of Resonance, a throwback adventure game by Wadjet Eye, it was nice to see this facet had been carefully considered in detail.

It is nice to hear Botanicula is being ported to the iPad where I think it would shine, not that it doesn't already.