The Garden Path Review (In Progress)
Slow and steady wins this race
*Review code provided by publisher Mooncat Games*
The Garden Path, from solo developer Louis Durrant, is a little bit Animal Crossing, a little bit Robert Frost, and a whole lot of vibes. I’m hard pressed to find a game to compare it to, as this one encourages you to play in small bites versus hours-long marathon sessions like so many others out there. In a way, that makes it hard to review, even though I’ve had the game for a little over a week.
In a way, it’s the antithesis of games like Stardew Valley, which piles up quest after quest and encourages you to do a pile of things at once and do it as fast as you can. I feel no such struggle here, in fact, as a wife, mother, retail worker, and as someone who has only mildly dabbed into gardening in real life, I appreciated the slow pace.
And I’ll be honest with you, I haven’t done a lot of gardening in The Garden Path. I’ve been walking around, making sure I talk to all of the travelers that come through, and making notes about plants and fishing, which is one of my favorite parts of the game so far.
The game is set in real-time, meaning that if I logged on at 10 am, it would be 10 am in the game. While a day in the game and a day in real life were the same, a season in the game was 7 days, making a year in the game 28 days. Aren’t able to log on for a few days? That’s okay, because the game will even pause on that day so you don’t miss the festivities.
The visual style of The Garden Path gorgeous, featuring a stunning hand-drawn art style that reminds me of some of the books I’ve read to my five-year-old. He watched me play a little, and his giggles of delight whenever he saw any of the NPCs who would come visit had me enjoying the experience even more.
Like other farming and gardening sims out there, you, of course, have tasks to complete. These are kept track of with gorgeous constellations. From exploration to meeting people, these tasks are varied and a great way to track how you’re progressing. (Not to mention, it’s very visually in-line with the rest of the game.)
Playing the Steam version, I did experience a few bugs and crashes, but almost every time I’ve been able to log on since receiving my review code, there’s been an update or patch to the game. With the game coming out on the 30th, I’m sure most issues I’ve experienced will be gone by the time The Garden Path is available for all. The game consistently autosaves, so when those crashes did happen, I lost little to no progress.
I’ll be back to finish this review after I spend a bit more time in the game, but if you’re looking for a slow, laid-back experience that you can go at your own pace with, where you won’t always be handed the answer of what to do next, it’s a game for you.