Bad Viking: Strange Horticulture
I’m testing out games that are more towards my aesthetic, rather than just the basics everyone has heard about (looking at you Bethesda and Nintendo). Bad Viking is a new-to-me company that I stumbled into because of the idea of this game.
First of all, Strange Horticulture is a perfect slow, rainy day, fall game. A warm drink is suggested. It carries the aesthetic across the board. It doesn’t have much in the way of changeable imagery to it. It’s primarily text and clue based – more on that in a minute, but it’s the saturated dark colors, the costumes for the handful of characters and the general layout of the working page that I am enamored with. The music is also decent for that dark academia feel.
The story follows you along as you re-establish an odd greenhouse with a variety of plants you ‘go looking’ for. You really don’t ever leave the main screen, it just gives you information on you having found or not found something. The characters come to you each day looking for a plant to cure an illness, lift or set a curse, or a few number of other…dealings, shall we say?
There are also a handful of different endings depending on your actions throughout the story (did you join or destroy a cult or things like that), which makes the game replayable for quite a while. Not bad when I got it on steam for, I think, $5? It was on a sale. Looking at it not on sale, looks like it’s $15. I would add it to the wishlist and wait for it to ping on a sale, but I don’t think you will be disappointed at the $15 price tag either for the replayability hours.
Now. Here’s the caveat. This thing, if you don’t feel like offing your characters in the first couple acts and incurring bad stuff, needs to be played with a side-by-side wiki opened. One that names all the plants so that you can label them appropriately, and the other as a lead through on what the characters want. You can press your luck and do it the hard way. I know there are more than plenty of y’all out there who think playing with the cheats open as not real gaming, but I honestly like playing that way. It makes it relaxing and I can take more time to appreciate the artwork and the storyline, rather than stress about randomly offing someone with deadman’s fingers fungi. There is a book in game that is supposed to give you hints and help you figure out the botany, but I found it less than helpful once I started getting deep into the plants.
This one is definitely one I would suggest for folk who like the dark academia vibe, cottagecore vibe, a bit of Victorian drizzle, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle mystery. My one suggestion is watch your screen size. The words get difficult on a smaller screen, like on a SteamDeck or Switch. I would suggest it as a monitor game if you can tolerate sitting at a desk or have a larger laptop. Otherwise, there is an in screen magnifying glass you can use, but that gets tedious.
Also. Label your plants early and often.
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