Analysis of Strange Horticulture

I imagine Tom Barnes hitting the table with his fist. I gesture a lot when I write, and I like to think that other colleagues are also taken by emotions before an opinion text. «Can we, please, stop making games based on H.P. Lovecraft? Write the editor of Thumb sticks with what I perceive as a mixture of fury and frustration, I beg you, designers, based on your game in literally another horror mythology that is not Lovecraft. In his article, Barnes details the frustration of him with Call of The Sea, underlining the developers of this and other similar games seem to perfectly understand the lore of the Writer of Providence but refuse to review the ideas of him; Premises that make us strangers within a threatening social and cultural context, vividly inspired by the racist ideas of its creator.

But he's anger goes further. At the time I write this article there are more than 5000 games labeled as terror in Steam and about 10% of them also carry the description of Lovecraftiano, he says. And he is not the only one who feels that video games have embraced Lovecraft in a way, perhaps, too enthusiastic. Since 2018 the texts that point to an over saturation of the cosmic terror in the industry and the need to leave behind the premises and ideas of it seem a constant with which a certain part of the audience is arranged. But reading between lines I understand a different thing. Barnes, Fault, and the rest of analysts cited above seem tired of Lovecraft's mythology and, of course, of a certain generic approach limited to tentacles, strange beings of another world and the presence of madness as synonymous so much of perdition and understanding. «The games inspired by the author present sects, mansions, and a ordure meter, writes Fault, letting himself understand that his discontent is related more with the Lovecraft elements present in the iconic Games of Fantasy Flight Games that with the real work. But Lovecraft can be much more.

My interest in Lovecraft, by the texts, not by the games, resurfaced from the hand of a H. Bomberguy video. In 2018, just when from within the industry, we accused the wear of the influence of the Cosmic Terror Creator, the Harris Brooks video permanence published one of the most personal jobs on the basis of reflecting on how to adapt to Lovecraft in the 21st century. The central idea of ​​the video, also the main inspiration, part of how the film Cthulhu, a furiously free adaptation of the author, had helped him understand and accept his bisexuality. As Brooks points out, the main theme in the work of Lovecraft is stirring around anxiety before social changes. Of course, and given the political ideas of the author, Enable, social changes that are symbolized in the stories are racially cutting, wagering that terror part of accepting (and even venerate) to a strange dangerous, lower, and clearly non-human creatures. However, it is possible to talk about the fear of change from terror without repeating, even in an unconscious, the harmful ideas of the Writer of Providence. In Cthulhu, the newcomer to an isolated people of oppressive customs is a gay university professor who precisely grew up in that atmosphere of intolerance. The myths are there. The sects, the mist and the creatures also make an act of presence. But although the issue is the same the conclusion is another: the stranger can be us. The fear of the stranger comes from intolerance. And the monsters, therefore, are a representation of the backward beliefs of it.

Strange Horticulture is not intended to revolutionize the way it adapts to Lovecraft and, however, it manages to distance itself with its freshness from the rest of the Lovecraft games. History does not start with a newcomer in a society as suffocating as an exotic, but with a mysterious inheritance that puts us in charge of a small plant store. With the help of a guide and our observation skills, we will soon begin to identify and classify the specimens, attending to the different needs of our customers. But not everyone who passes through the threshold comes with the best intentions. The people of the people speak, and many feel intrigued and threatened by women who live in the forest and by the rapid succession of bloody murders. From our small corner we can only listen; Learning little by little which are healing plants. Identifying, one after another, those petals, bulbs and leaves that can be killed.

The most explicit slope of the plot in Strange Horticulture is organized through the tent of the key characters - a cultist, a medium, a librarian, and the rest of archetypes that we will have to identify - as well as their messages, letters and requests. In some inflection points in history, the game will explicitly invite us to make decisions that will affect the evolution of events, unlocking one of four different situations in the end. Strange Horticulture presents its decisions in a visible way, usually posing a puzzle that can have two different answers. For example, by learning that a character has begun to have visions we can choose to enhance them through a natural infusion or silence them with different herbal extracts. Precisely for this, despite being based on the resolution of puzzles, the title developed by Bad Viking has a certain component with a reputable component by recognizing the characters from the beginning and being able to make the decisions knowing what role they play in advance.

Although we, as protagonists, we do not have the role of traditional detective in charge of discovering the different mysteries around the murders, the truth is that Strange Horticulture does not get us as researchers. The bulk of its gameplay focuses on identifying its more than 70 plants through drawings, descriptions and riddles, as well as following different clues to find new specimens and manuscripts by the map. It turns out an effort in front of the tone to leave RASTA with books as long as we want and allow us to move around the map at the time we created convenient. Regarding the puzzles itself, it is interesting how those related to the identification itself are the most care at the beginning of history while in the end the true challenge is in understanding the tracks related to the letters; A clear reflection of our growth as horticulturists. In general, the type of riddles and puzzles presented by the Bad Viking team reminds those of us who find in a escape Room and convince more for their ingenuity and physician that for their design or final presentation.

It is difficult for Strange Horticulture, passing over the visual section, do not leave a good taste of mouth. The plot is mysterious and fascinating and earns points thanks to the perspective of the main character and the cross-cutting of it with her. Play is especially glad thanks to all those decisions related to the game feel -fore having to use a book and pass your pages, to have a map on the screen that we have to analyze with different instruments- that manage to convey a stiff urgency tone that It instinctively leads to a much more analogue time. But, above all, what stands out from the proposal is its elegant approach to Lovecraft, the way it shines in an embarrassed subgenre whose topics generate rejection. It can be a sign that those get up again. Reality begins to make waters. Afro AI'f get'Lee yog-sothoth 'Noah'NG AI'y zero.

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