Matt Wales
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Botany Manor – the beautiful, bucolic country house puzzler from developer Balloon Studios – is finally PlayStation-bound, and will be planting itself on PS4 and PS5 from 17th December.
Botany Manor, which released for Xbox and PC earlier, whisks players to Somerset, England on an almost impossibly Mediterranean summer’s day in 1890. Here, they’ll embark on a wonderfully serene journey through the life of retired botanist Arabella Greene, which unfolds as they explore her sprawling, memorabilia-strewn home – the Botany Manor of the title – doing a sport of genteel first-person puzzling as they go.
Central to Botany Manor’s puzzles is the Herbarium – a book of pressed plants for scientific study – which players gradually fill in by combining and cross-referencing clues found around Arabella’s home, slowly uncovering how the fantastical flowers detailed within will bloom out in the wild. Its conundrums can only be fully completed, however, once freshly procured seeds have been teased to life by replicating the process in the book using artificial means.
It’s soothing, quietly brilliant stuff, Botany Manor’s puzzles gradually increasingly in complexity in a way that really encourages players to explore their beautiful surroundings and immerse themselves in Arabella’s world. “Perhaps an afternoon in Botany Manor’s company will inflame your own curiosity for nature,” I wrote in my four star review earlier this year, “or perhaps you’ll simply be content to explore its sun-dabbled corners, solve its few clever puzzles, and enjoy the timeless pleasures of an enchanting summer’s day stroll.”
Botany Manor is a genuinely lovely thing, and – I imagine – a perfect summery escape for PlayStation owners who’ll be firing it up as the icy embrace of winter draws near. And if that appeals, it’ll cost £20.99/$24.99 USD when it launches for PS5 and PS4 on 17th December.