Grow Home

Let's start with the basic premise. You play as B.U.D (Botanical Utility Droid), on a mission to explore an unknown planet.

Upon arrival you realise that the tiny planet is mostly covered in water, with only one small island on its surface, and many more floating in the skies overhead. On your island is a huge Star Plant, which has the potential to grow thousand of meters into the air, as long as you tend it. Growing branches will allow you to ultimately reach the various isles that float serenely above you. So nurturing this abnormal growth is the main goal of Grow Home.

The plant has numerous red sprouts, which when grabbed start to grow long green tendrils. By applying pressure you can control (and ride) that growth spurt to create a walkway somewhere new, ideally directing them towards one of several energy rocks. These are smaller floating isles, identified by a yellow underside, into which you need to 'plug' a sprout into to harvest. Doing so grows the central stem of the plant upwards. They're dotted randomly over the world, forcing you to bridge gaps between islands, and all the while not losing your footing and dropping into the ocean below.

As time goes by, the sprouts will form a unique environment with the enormous plant stretching out in all directions. Together it creates a game world we have never seen the likes of, and on several occasions I had to stop just to savour the scenery.

BUD also has the ability to pick up flowers and leaves and use them as a primitive parachute, and it feels great soaring over the lush vegetation you sort of have built yourself.

It's a unique concept, helped by great visual design, a style reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. Even though the textures are not hugely detailed, there's a beauty to it.

All fine fine and dandy, wouldn't you say? Well, not quite. At least not in my opinion. While there are glowing reviews for the game already, for myself the experience is hampered by the poor controls.

BUD is a rather clumsy robot. He is definitely not without his charm, but is very hard to control. Too hard. He can climb any surface with his magnetic hands, but at times I have have trouble controlling him, the transfer between controller and command seemingly out of sorts. The sensitivity of the controller input leaves something to be desired. It means a slow and steady approach to your destination is the only way not to fall to your death time and time again.

I realise this is supposed to be a part of the droid's charm, but to me it feels both needlessly exaggerated and limiting, and I found myself screaming at the screen because BUD refused to do what I wanted him to. Cue headache (perhaps from the number of times I slapped my forehead in disgust at his antics).

I really like the concept of Grow Home. I like they way its different and innovative, making it all the more a shame that I had to spend so much time fighting the controls.

In the same way as a range of indie games, Grow Home is refreshingly different, and in spite of my battle for control I kept on playing. My frustration ebbed low once I learned to take everything nice and slowly, but I never lost the sensation that this overly calm approach was being forced upon me for unnecessary reasons.

That being said, Grow Home is not an AAA title. Far from it. It's something of an internal project created in the confinement of the offices over at Ubisoft Reflections, and which was surprisingly released for only a few quid (£5.99, to be precise).

It's a strong concept, one that's to be commended, but the experience would have been all the more brilliant if I hadn't spent half the time annoyed and agitated.