Our green grandma is the \u201cGardener\u201d, an alien who creates Terrorariums for the Intergalactic Horrorcultural Society gardening competition. Giant, monster filled terrariums, if you hadn\u2019t already got that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dark humour is spot on, and it\u2019s certainly one of the more unique platformers that I\u2019ve come across. The matching music is a darn delight. There’s a kind of sinister quirkiness that matches well with the sheer weirdness of the premise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But don\u2019t be fooled\u2013 this ain\u2019t no gardening simulator; it\u2019s a 3D puzzle platformer. You\u2019ll spend your time traversing each level with the help of the smol squishy Moogu, avoiding death via crazy carnivorous plants along the way. Each Moogu type has a different ability to help you through the puzzles, from Thick Moogu weighing down platforms, to Spicy Moogu setting weeds alight. Moogu die, a lot, and that\u2019s kind of the point, but kill off all of them and it\u2019s game over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The puzzles themselves are great, but gameplay relies heavily on your Moogu count. As such, Moogu pathing can become the difference between fun puzzling and hair-tearing frustration. The full release has improved the pathing somewhat, but they still get stuck more often than I\u2019d like, leading to level restarts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One significant change from the early access mechanics is how you replenish lost Moogu. The original breeding loop chaos where Moogu bred with the corpses of other Moogu has been done away with, sensibly replaced by select points where Moogu can multiply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I kind of miss the squishy explosions and Moogu corpses littering the screen. I don\u2019t know what it says about me as a person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gardeners know all the dirt<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The main draw-card of the full Terrorarium<\/em> release is the long-awaited story campaign. This has been implemented in the form of cut scenes which add much needed context. The petty rivalry between the gardeners rivals Downton Abbey\u2019s Dowager Countess and Lady Merton, which was a real highlight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Moogu themselves are goddamn adorable, particular the Thick Moogu with his grumpy little face. The overall visuals have always been beautifully bright and fun, with the night-time biome a personal favourite of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much like a moth, I can\u2019t get enough of pretty glowing light sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The areas I assumed were unfinished in my original preview turned out to be the \u201cedges\u201d of a round terrarium, which I suppose works with the premise. I still can\u2019t help but think the edges could have been jazzed up a bit though. It still looks a bit rough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plant your own garden of terror<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The developers have been pretty upfront that the main thing they\u2019re keen for players to enjoy is using Maker Mode to plant their own murder gardens. The mode doesn\u2019t have any tutorials, but luckily it\u2019s not too difficult to get started. There\u2019s a lot of care evident in the development of this mode, like the trademark humour that\u2019s carried on into the description of assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The original 24 campaign levels have been scrapped and built from scratch, reflecting the hard work that\u2019s gone on for the last year. The upgrades also unfortunately mean that old community-made levels are no longer compatible, meaning the community has had to restart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\u2019ve gotten to a great start however, with the Inaugural Intergalactic Murder Gardening Contest \u2013 a Terrorarium <\/em>level design contest for students in game design schools across Canada, the USA and the UK. What they came up with was so dastardly that the grand prize winning level was used in the official campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Final thoughts<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m still a bit bitter about my favourite part of early access (the crazy death\/breeding explosion loop) being removed. I guess that’s an issue I\u2019ll work through with my therapist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The strength of Terrorarium <\/em>is its potential as a playground for budding game designers. And if you like cute little guys, and a solid dose of dark humour, this is a goodun. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When reviewing games, one warm-up I use is summing up the game in a single sentence. Badly, because this was never going to end well. Terrorarium\u2019s summary? Green grandma kills countless cuties in quest for best intergalactic murder-garden. Still with me? Terrorarium is out now on PC. Having previewed the early access back in July […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":16031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"A green grandma kills countless cuties in quest for best intergalactic murder-garden. Read Hannah's Terrorarium review here","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[222,223,207],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n