Cosy gaming is really coming into its element right now. Joining the esteemed ranks is Botany Manor.
Promising puzzles, exploration, and plenty of plants, Botany Manor is an immersive sim to exercise your green thumb. Since the plants are digital, even the worst gardeners can grow a thriving array of flora. (Yes, I am counting myself in that statement, I can kill cacti.) We’ll be taking a closer look at this verdant game and a cheeky round up of hardware to play it on.
What is Botany Manor?
Botany Manor is developed by Balloon Studios and published by Whitethorn Games. You play as Arabella Greene, a retired botanist living in a stately home in 19th Century England.
This time period was rife with scientific discovery, and you have a few of your own to make! The home and grounds are there to be explored, providing a beautiful backdrop and setting as you conduct your research.
Puzzling Plants
There are two main goals in Botany Manor, explore your land and grow some plants. Except, the plants are fussy things, and each is their own puzzle. You need to figure out what they need to grow and thrive, by gathering clues from the items around you. This could be botanical posters, newspapers, letters, paintings, or even postcards.
Room by room, garden by garden, you’ll learn more about the forgotten flora and Arabella Greene, herself. Set to a quaint and cosy soundtrack, Botany Manor is the perfect game to stop and smell the roses.
What Platform Is Botany Manor On?
Botany Manor is available to play on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam.
Across all platforms, Botany Manor offers great accessibility features. In keeping with the laid back themes, there are no time limits on the puzzles, so there is no pressure on the little grey cells. You can play using either a mouse and keyboard or game controller, thanks to full gamepad to support. Plus, you can choose to play with a single stick as the game does not require both analog sticks or one used in tandem with the D-pad. Actions can also be set as a hold press or toggle, depending on your needs.
Accessibility goes even further, with dedicated audio and effects channels, plain text overlays, and even motion sickness reductions! As someone who can get nauseous from all the fancy camera effects and first-person views, I am forever grateful for the increasing motion sickness settings!
Is Botany Manor Multiplayer?
Botany Manor is a singleplayer adventure. If you wanted to share these chill vibes with friends, it would make a great game to stream.
Botany Manor Gameplay Review
We were lucky enough to get our hands on a review copy of Botany Manor.
Botany Manor is a delightfully chill game that brings the same joy as visiting stately homes or botanical gardens. With the added bonus that you aren’t surrounded by other people or hurried through the grounds. You can take your leisurely time exploring the house and gardens, discovering secrets, seeds, and interesting ways to get your flora to flower and flourish.
Instead of having free reign of the entire grounds, you discover areas one at a time. Other rooms and gardens are locked, their keys nestled among the clues for growing your plants. Each area comprises of a few interconnected rooms with a seed packet and a series of clues to guide you, providing the necessary information you need for the flower to bloom. Best of all, there is no ticking clock pressuring you to solve the puzzle before the time runs out!
The puzzles themselves are very satisfying. All of the information is readily available, with your Forgotten Flora book there to store and organise the clues. Once they are all placed, they seamlessly become part of the page and you are ready to plant! Certain plants require extra steps, which I especially enjoyed. One flower, for example, required lightning to bloom which you needed to manufacture with the correct ratio of powders to create the chemical reaction originally used in flash photography. This cascade of little details makes each puzzle truly come together. Pair that with the dramatic flourish of music with your discovery, and it feels like a triumph!
Motion Sickness
As mentioned before, I really struggle with motion sickness and gaming. FPS, as a genre, is entirely ruled out for me. (Last time I tried to play Borderlands 2, I had to lie down after five minutes!) Frankly, it is frustrating. When games offer accessibility settings, especially those to reduce motion sickness, it’s like a locked door is being opened just for me!
Botany Manor offers a sliding scale for field of vision and camera speed, and a vignette toggle. I am still experimenting to achieve the sweet spot, but I absolutely got more than five minutes of gameplay before the nausea became too much. Currently, I can happily solve one flower puzzle without a hint of queasy!
Sadly, I am still limited in playtime – but that is entirely a me problem, rather than a fault of Botany Manor. The silver lining is I can play it one puzzle at a time – spreading the joy out further!
Overall Thoughts
Botany Manor is the perfect game to pick up with a cup of tea and grab yourself some relaxing downtime. The puzzle difficultly is beautifully matched to the gameplay style and themes, allowing you to unwind whilst you explore the hidden secrets. There is detail for days, each room packed with fitting decor and every blooming flower is unique. Plus, the game design gets the right balance of colourful, friendly, and inviting without being at all cartoony. (No hate on cartoony, it’s just not the vibe, here.)
It is a delight to play, and I very much look forward to seeing what else is tucked away within Botany Manor.
Botany Manor Official Specifications
Your gaming PC is an integral part of the plant puzzle. Without the proper hardware, you’ll never be able to grow even a seedling! Here are the official specifications for Botany Manor:
| Component | Minimum Specs |
|---|---|
| Operating System | Windows 7* 64-bit |
| Processor | Intel Core i5 2500 AMD FX 6350 |
| Memory | 4GB RAM |
| Graphics | Intel HD Graphics 4600 AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 |
| DirectX | Version 11 |
| Storage | 5GB available space |
Best PCs to Play Botany Manor
With entirely modest specs, Botany Manor could make its home on pretty much any gaming PC. But we’re not about that life. We want to stop and smell the gaming PCs like they’re the roses. (Which is fancy for get heart eyes over gaming PCs.) We’ve picked out a selection of gaming PCs and laptops that we think will be great for this botanical adventure. If you need more inspo, the full range is just a click away.
Refract Gaming Crimson Pre-Built PC
- Pre-built gaming PC – fully assembled, tested, and ready to plug in
- AMD Ryzen 7 8700G APU with Radeon RX Vega Graphics
- 32GB DDR5 RAM
- HDD and SSD storage
- Three years parts and labour warranty
MSI Cyborg 15 Gaming Laptop
- 15.6” gaming laptop with 144Hz FHD display
- Intel Core i5-12450H CPU with hybrid architecture
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 GPU
- 16GB DDR5 RAM
- 512GB NVMe PCIe SSD
OcUK Gaming Kestrel Configurable PC
- Configurable gaming PC – adjust the base spec to suit your needs!
- AMD Ryzen 5 5500 CPU with alternative options
- AMD Radeon RX 6600 GPU with alternative options
- Up to 32GB DDR4 RAM
- Choose up to four high-speed SSDs
Need More Cosy Games?
Sometimes you just need some chill, wholesome gameplay to help you unwind. Check out more cosy gaming covered right here on the Overclockers UK blog.
Let it Grow
Have you picked up Botany Manor? Let us know what you think in the comments below!
PC specs are subject to change.
- 7 min read
Emily Haylock
Author
Emily is a board and cosy gamer, keyboard obsessive, and content copywriter for Overclockers UK. She has been with Overclockers UK for two years, writing about everything from noblechairs to 8Pack PCs. She writes from within her desk nest with a foster pup at her feet. (What, a desk duvet is a totally normal thing!) In her downtime, she likes to play board games, farming sims, and old-school Final Fantasy. IX to be specific. It is the best, and that is a hill she will die on.
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