Botany Manor is one of the best games I'll play all year
In Botany Manor, an adventure puzzle game by Balloon Studios, you play as Lady Arabella Greene, an elderly botanist in 1890s England. Your task throughout the game is to grow plants with ever-increasingly complex needs to complete Forgotten Flora, Arabella’s book on rare plants.
To progress through the manor and the game, you'll need to successfully grow your plants and assign all relevant clues in Forgotten Flora. Based on clues you find throughout the manor house—notes, letters, and textbooks—you’ll discover the precise circumstances required to make your little seedlings take full bloom. For example, the first puzzle you complete requires learning the plant's origin location, cross-referencing it for average ambient temperature, and then setting your greenhouse temperature to match. All of the plants have their own discrete requirements and it's a thrill putting all your clues together and watching the flower sprout. The puzzles are clever and, at least for me, perfectly tuned for that “A-ha!” moment to strike before I ever wanted to look anything up.
The clues you find aren’t stored in the book, but their locations are, so you may find yourself criss-crossing the manor house multiple times to remember numbers or patterns. It was never a problem though, because Botany Manor is stunning to look at. Every corner of the titular Botany Manor house is eclectic and beautiful, perhaps best described as Downton Abbey by way of The Witness. The soundtrack is laid back, caught in the same summertime spirit as the rest of the manor house, but the "you just solved the puzzle" swell of strings is thrilling every time.
There are plenty of couches and chairs to sit on and I found myself taking breaks often just to admire the scenery and chirping of birds. Each new section of this sprawling manor is unique and presents you with generally believable and diagetic ways to solve puzzles, whether it’s a bathtub or bell tower.
The core puzzle mechanic is strong and varied enough to carry the game and I’d play hours more of them if Balloon Studios made more. Which makes it all the more satisfying when the story being told through collectible letters is really good. There's just enough story bits peppered through the house that by the end of the game, I had a great idea of who Lady Arabella was, what she believed, and just how strong of a woman she is. It's a heartwarming and empowering tale of defiance against the Victorian norms of womanly work and a male-led scientific community that thinks they know it all. Odds are, even if you’re not hunting for every letter, you’ll find enough to piece Arabella’s story due to the game’s mechanic of picking up clues to complete her book. Just like the puzzles, the game doesn't hold your hand in piecing the story together, you'll need to use your deduction skills to connect a mention of a particular hooded orchid to other articles.
On top of wonderfully crafted story, Botany Manor is a work interested in conservation and the effects of Victorian industrialization on the natural world. The first plant you learn to grow is one naturally good at dispelling smog, while others have been all-but destroyed by pollution, weeding chemicals, or the introduction of invasive animal species. The longer you play, it's hard to wander Botany Manor without a dash of forlorn melancholy. Arabella has been fighting an uphill battle for 30+ years–one she may never win–and the world she loves is being destroyed by the men who constantly tell her she is not worthy.
As you explore the manor, you’ll also become familiar with a group of intrepid women climbing the Alps, sending Arabella seeds, or just generally supporting their friend’s work. There’s a subplot that expands from these friends and their daughters that I’d rather leave for you to discover, but suffice to say, there is still hope.
Botany Manor manages to pack a story of a strong woman trying to break into the male-only scientific community, a commentary on industrialization, and some rock solid puzzles all in about four hours of playtime. The puzzles are wonderful, the story is well-crafted, and the message is clear. I can already tell, Botany Manor is one of the best games I’ll play all year.
