Garden In! Review (blackkatz13)
I do enjoy this game enough to rate it a thumbs up, HOWEVER, there are some pretty big flaws that may make this game completely unenjoyable for some people. I teetered on its rating and finished almost every achievement before deciding.
You start with a few plants, each having different requirements. You breed these plants together to create new breeds, and continue until you've unlocked them all. You start in one room, and as you unlock, get more rooms and furniture to decorate with. The art is beautiful, so is the music, I love every plant and it's a lot of fun being able to decorate.
Now, here's where people may not be so happy. This game is VERY grindy, and not at all an "idle" game like the creators seem to market it as. You need to be CONSTANTLY breeding new seeds, watering, and spraying if you want to get anywhere. Even after returning just an hour later, all your plants will be withered and infested. It takes unbelievably long to water and spray them all, and the controls are finicky enough as it is (even on keyboard). They also don't grow if they're in this state, so they're stunted until you fix it. It makes you just simply ignore them after they're grown, which means they look kinda ugly. So what's the point?
This is such a big flaw, especially as a late game player with all 4 rooms, that I may not really touch this game once I've finished redecorating. I would LOVE to be able to just sit with this game open and chill with the nice music, but I can't when I see the plants actively withering before my eyes with flies around them. Even a "Water All" after you unlock the "Water 500 Plants" achievement or SOMETHING. ANYTHING.
For me, it was well worth the money for the art and 15hrs active time I put into it, I just wish it could be actually idle. And if watering and spraying genuinely every time you open the game (or they don't grow) seems like a bit more than you were hoping for, I'd say wait until they hopefully release some sort of fix for that. But definitely add it to your wishlist until then.