Botany Manor is a first person puzzle game developed by Balloon Studios and published by Whitethorn Games. It was released on April 9, 2024 on Windows, Xbox Series S/X and Nintendo Switch.
The game takes place in 1890 and you play as Arabella Greene. She has recently inherited her family’s manor in Somerset. Arabella is a botanist who’s researching plants for her book. In order to grow the plants, you must solve puzzles involving the plants. You will find clues in numerous places, including letters, posters, postcards, etc. Some of the puzzles involve modifying air temperature, doing morse code, among other things. The year of the game plays big into the story as you discover letters and notes saying that Arabella is just doing a hobby and that she should just stay home.
The game isn’t long and can be beaten in a few hours, but the scenery of the manor is something you should take in and fully enjoy. While not important to the game, there are many places to sit and just enjoy the world. The art style is unique and it reminds me of the Witness, but the puzzles were no where near as hard.
I found that the puzzles were more along the same difficulty of Myst than the Witness. I did solve some of the puzzles with trial and error. Having your phone to take photos of some of the clues definitely helped to solve some of them. It was just easier than trying to remember the locations of the clues as well as what the possible result could ultimately be. If there was one thing the game could have done better, was being able to see the clue from the notebook instead of just saying what it was and the location so you had to go back and find it.
