Meet B.U.D., the Botanical Utility Droid. From space!
He's cute.
He's strong.
He's very, very clumsy.
And he likes to innocently ride phallic-shaped plants, but we'll get to that.
What is it?
Only recently revealed and developed by the small 8 person team at Ubisoft Reflections, you play as B.U.D., the adorable little robot who puts any lifelong yoga practitioner to shame. "Beamed down" (i.e., thrown) from your spaceship, you find yourself far below on an unnamed, beautiful island with the daunting chore of growing a giant plant skyward until it finally blooms and allows you access to its highly prized seeds.
Grow Home is primarily a climbing game, but different from the automatic climbing we have become used to with "AAA" titles. Using a controller (because you'd be crazy not to), you control the grip/suction of his right hand with the right trigger, and his left with the left trigger. By alternating between hands, you can climb up any surface you can find. If it sounds clumsy, it's because it is, but clumsy in the most charming of ways.
In addition to climbing, he can uses his metal claws to grab onto boulders that you can drag to under cover secret cave entrances (watch out for the angry bull), fruit that you can toss for no seeming benefit, flowers that you can store in your pack as a makeshift parachute, or golden leaves that you can use for some graceful hang-gliding.
About to fall to your death? Be sure to grab that sheep nearby and take him with you. Maybe he can break your fall...but probably not, if my experience is any guide.
To help you on your quest, you collect crystals scattered throughout the landscape to power up your surprisingly resilient robot body with new upgrades, like a zoom camera and rocket pack. But your most useful skill will always be your Spiderman-like sticky hands. I believe technically he's probably supposed to be gripping with his hands, but the circle indicators make it feel like he has suction cups on them.
Throughout your climb you will come across deployed teleport stations that double as save spots. Once activated, they can be used as a system of waypoints to quickly teleport between locations if by some chance you fall 1000s of feet all the way to the ground below. Which you probably will.
Finally, you will come across your ultimate goal: The Star Seed Plant. Reminiscent of the bean stalk in that one story we all know, it is already stories upon stories high when you first reach it, but your job will be to continue feeding it until it reaches the heavens. Sticking out from the side of the plant are the above mentioned phallic shaped portions that you can grip onto and then make grow. Once you begin the growing process, you can guide the direction of the plants growth (which is limited) skyward. You're trying to grow them into the side of floating islands that are filled with some sort of green goo that is a nutrient for the stalk. Each island you [word that is less gross than "penetrate"] causes the stalk to grow ever higher.
Grow the plant, get those seeds, return to your ship!
I realize "Ubisoft" is sort of a bad word to many, but if they would keep putting out games like this, I think they could turn that around. Adorable with a lot of heart, Grow Home is one of those rare games that's just pure fun to play. I hope the few of you who may give it a try will love it as much as I did.
Just announced at E3 2016: Grow Home 2! Which is actually called "Grow Up."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEBtCHk8_YA
Release Date: August 16, 2016
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And at only $8, I grabbed it to play this weekend.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSdU8oS-hHY
After watching your video I want to play again.
I gifted out so many copies of Tiny & Big, loved that game even with its quirks! Cannot wait to get started playing this. Thanks again!
Steam: Car1gt // Tumblr // Facebook // Twitter
I don't recall all of the caves, but there seems to be
Yep to both of those caves in your spoiler. And all the other random paths in and out of of it.
Steam: Car1gt // Tumblr // Facebook // Twitter
3DS Friend Code: 2165-6448-8348 www.Twitch.TV/cooljammer00
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I was thinking... multiplayer in Grow Home would be sort of silly, but at the same time I wish it had it because it seems like it'd be fun to climb with friends and then push each other off ledges.
5 crystals to go with no idea where they might be!
Nevermind, got em!
The last few crystals were rough to find, even at nighttime. I ended up just hanggliding around everywhere until I by random chance saw the last one. Ironically, they would be a lot easier to find if you already had the 100% crystal upgrade =p
It also helped to turn the sound up and the music all the way down so you could hear the crystal sound effect better.
PSN: SirGrinchX
Oculus Rift: Sir_Grinch
@Mr_Grinch - I have not seen anything mentioned about it coming to any consoles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEBtCHk8_YA
Excitement levels: Off the charts.
3DS Friend Code: 2165-6448-8348 www.Twitch.TV/cooljammer00
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I won't say you'd like this one more - that would depend on specifically what you didn't like in the last one - but I think it's certainly not as slow. You still have the climbing mechanic, but you use it much less. Very early on (within minutes) you get the ability to grow plants that work as trampolines and catapults and such. Not long after you get gliding/slow fall/etc type abilities. So you might still end up doing a little climbing but it's waaaaay less than before.
Probably not going to 100% everything, some of the timed challenges are super hard. I found the squeaky plush Bull but can't find the Sheep (Meep?) or the P block.