I love my garden. Now, I’m certainly not on the level of Alan Titchmarsh or Capability Brown’s profound skill set, but I get by with my little flowerbeds adorned with various plants I’ve lovingly curated. I’ve never ventured as far as growing my own vegetables though, no matter how many times my mum tells me it’s ‘easy’. A garden for me is an oasis and the idea of harvesting herbs or planting potatoes sounds very much like a threat to my peace. So, when I heard that developer Cloth Cat Games had created a “horticultural combat party game” I felt a little… uneasy.
Planted! wants you to not only dig, sow, and nurture your crops, but it requires you to do all that whilst battling other players doing the same. It quickly turns into an actual full-blown battle transforming what you grow into your ammunition, lobbing oversized vegetables at each other in an angry, “have a load of my big onion” knockout kind of way. You’ll also then need to throw said big onion into a designated goal to score points and cash in before someone else beats you to the punch. The bigger the vegetables, the better. Understandably so.
It’s important to note that this is only a demo. I’m only getting limited access to upcoming features and so I’ll bury my expectations a little. After all, there’s certainly more to come, which I’ll delve into later. For now, I’m introduced to Versus mode, inviting me to get my green fingers ready against other players (bots, for now). There appear to be only two game modes for me to try out in this early preview: Versus and 2v2 team match.
It’s chaos, immediately. The first match I’m put into against three bots is a baptism of fire. Or, shall I say, a reckoning with radishes. You have to prepare your patch with a spade, grab a bag of seeds to sow, and get them watered as quickly as you can, all while the other players are stealing your tools and, as I soon found out, stealing your vegetables too. At points, I almost felt like wagging my finger at the screen and telling them off. If they were my real friends, we’d be having stern words.
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t find my first match in Planted! infuriating. Like any good amount of chaos in a game, getting to grips with it is only done in one way, by playing. This may be a personality issue rather than a game issue, but I struggled with how much better the bots were than me.
I’m nothing but willing to learn though, I just didn’t know how to defend myself from the petty theft going on in what felt like a neverending circle of green-fingered bullying. The bots were just so OP to the point I just wanted to sit in the arena’s babbling brook and sulk. To rub salt in the wound, the game labelled me ‘useless’ when I got the lowest score, but that only made me more determined.
Against bots, it’s a hard time. I’ve found myself spending most of my time on the floor while everyone robs my stuff. I can’t comprehend how quickly they’re managing to chuck their veggies into the goals because I feel like I’m moving fast, yet I’m behind. The 2v2 team match gave me a better chance to shine and after winning a couple of those, I felt a shift in my opinion. It was fun but now, I am exhausted. One of my favourite party games, Fall Guys, is relentless in nature, but there’s still moments of reprieve somehow. In Planted! I felt like I could never stop moving.
No amount of zingy upbeat music that I found myself bopping my head along to was going to retract from the fact that this party game requires a lot from you. If you want to be any good at it, you’re going to need some energy. I only drink decaf and I’ve got two small kids, there’s a limitation to my oompf. Gardening, all of a sudden, has become a bit of a crazed dream for me. It’s non-stop from start to finish.
This isn’t going to be the reality for many playing Planted! though. You’ll have mates, not bots. I swear I do, too, but in demo mode my social circle is restricted. Online and local multiplayer sessions are on the way, as well as cross-play support. Fortunately, after a few rounds with the bots, I did begin to improve. But, I surmised that I’d really need to try out multiplayer mode with a fellow gamer if I was going to get a better insight into how I feel about this as a party game. After all, playing with bots isn’t how they expect you to play it.
Unfortunately, there’s no local mode yet, which meant even if I could convince my husband to come and play with me (a feat not attained since Overcooked days for reasons I don’t want to discuss), it wasn’t possible yet.
It’s rare that you’ll gather your friends on the couch for a game these days. At least, it is for me. We’re all in our mid-30s with busy lives and growing families, but we still find time to play games. Right now, that’s limited to Fortnite on weekend evenings. Fall Guys, on occasion. But, Cloth Cat Games have listened to the changing landscape and there’ll be plenty of ways to play, when the time comes.
Like any good party game, I’m eager not to get too intense about the intricacies of the gameplay mechanics so much as how fun it is to play. And it is quite fun, I’m pleased to say, but what I’m not so sure about is how much longevity there is to it. I’ve only played a couple of the demo game modes, so it’s not fair to make any ultimate judgment on this, but I’m struggling to see any variety in the gameplay other than what it says on the tin; sow, grow, and throw. It’s fun and chaotic, but how long do I want to be hammered with giant watermelons and carrots?
I’m fairly hopeful this is down to the limited demo. There will also be a single player mode on full release of which I’m endlessly curious. Will it offer rounds just like these versus games, battling my way to the top, or will there be more storyline akin to Overcooked where I have ultimate goals to become the ruler of the garden? With direction, I hope there will be more reasons to play it. Couple that with promises of eight different biomes coming in, more power ups, more characters, and more veggies and Planted! has the potential to be a party game that you roll out whenever you fancy just unleashing absolute veggie-based chaos on each other.
The developers say it all leads back to one question, who doesn’t love a spot of gardening? But this is the opposite of the reason I love gardening. It’s tranquil and relaxing. This game is anything but. If anything, it totally obliterates my love of gardening and makes me need to go out into my garden to cooldown. Competitive gardening to me is about putting together a miniature floral arrangement at my town’s local fair.
For Cloth Cat Games, it’s peril and chaos from the start, which is executing on exactly what they said this game would be. If that sounds like a bit of you, then Planted! will certainly provoke some delighted squeals. For me, I think I need to lie down in a flower bed for a while.
