Review - Verde

L. Sahara McGirt

1 hour ago

3 min read

Developer: Antimeta Studio

Publisher: Assemble Entertainment

Available on: PC (Steam)

There are plenty of cozy games out there with low stakes for those who enjoy playing games without too much challenge. I myself enjoy playing a couple of these games on days when I want to put something easy on while I read or listen to music and relax. When I'm looking for a relaxing cozy game, I want something cute, something easy on the eyes, and something that doesn't feel like I need to pay too much attention to but is still engaging nonetheless.

Let's see if Verde meets some of those requirements.

The Story of a Garden

The point of Verde is to "build a town of seedlets" and provide all the things those seedlets need to live a good and happy life. From decoration and laying out pathways to building food, water, and recreational facilities, the control is all the player's. This is a cozy, casual city builder, after all.

Verde's story mode is mostly told through comic-style frames without any written text, so players have to interpret what's going on through the art. While I think the art in these parts is a lovely style and there's plenty a pretty picture can say, I do kind of wish there was more text to tell us what's going on, or at least give us some investment in the characters.

Throughout the story mode, quests are given to the player as they build up their little town of seedlets, and completing those quests progresses the story. A pretty typical way games like this are run in story modes. It's all so terribly easy to get through. Frankly, while these elements work for Verde's cozy vibes, there's a lot to be said about providing a challenge.

Cozy Vibes May Not Be Enough

While the cozy vibes are cozying, there are a few things I didn't vibe with in Verde. The lack of challenge did start to make the game, well, kind of boring after a while. I don't particularly enjoy saying that about any game, but sometimes even with a cozy vibe, I still want to feel somewhat like I'm working toward something.

In Verde's case, I discovered early on that I could just leave the game to generate leaves, which are used to build new structures in town. At that point, I decided to leave the game idling while I handled some house chores, and by the time I finished them and came back, voila, I had enough leaves to build pretty much everything I wanted.

I guess any game like Verde could be an idle game if you prefer that, but once I knew I could just do this, it was easy to disengage from the game and go do something else. Which, great, I caught up on some reading, but after a while, I started to get so distracted doing just about anything else that I kind of wondered why I was even letting the game run.

Another problem I had with Verde is that when building new structures, other structures become transparent. I kind of understand this in the sense that because of the angle the town is viewed from, we need to be able to see behind buildings to know if a square is empty. However, this effect created a lot of visual noise, not to mention the clouds floating overhead the town adding to that. It can get a little visually irritating.

At Least It's Cute

The most I can say that is going well for Verde is that the art style is cute. The seedlets are cute, as are the structures and customization options. The game absolutely is cozy, aesthetically, from visual art to sound. It's relaxing to the point of potentially getting boring quickly, however. I wish I could rate this game higher, since there were no major technical issues and this game is visually appealing and meets the cozy vibe; I have to give Verde our middling score.