You may not know this about me, but I actually like to touch grass! No really – at my old apartment, I used to have access to a community garden. I remember spending many a weekend morning, or weekday evening, tending plants from seedlings to full-grown “adulthood”. But one thing that I did not have to do was…fight others. I guess that that is where Planted! comes in!

Planted! is an upcoming title from Wales-based Cloth Cat Games, with publishing rights being handled by Curveball Games. Per their Steam page, Planted! markets itself as a “chaotic 1-4 player combat game where gardens are arenas, plants are weapons, and grudges are settled one harvest at a time.”

Gamer Social Club was granted early access to this title. Now, obviously, as a multiplayer game, you would expect that we were able to get some co-op rounds in. Well – we did. The beauty and curse of GSC is that while we are spread across the globe…we are also spread across the globe. And while I sadly did not get to play with my fellow GSC writers, our two amazing team members across the pond, Harry and Lady V, were able to get some multiplayer rounds in together!

So, without further ado, let’s roll up our sleeves and get dirty with Planted!

The World & The Story

The World

Planted! takes place in… well…I’m not really sure. But we are a farmer and we are also weirdly on a farm that is plopped right next to a massive city.

The actual world extends to a few unique biomes that present their own unique challenges and twists, as well as specific hazards. Obviously, this only further extends the chaos that is Planted!

The Story

Planted! has a core focus in mind when it comes to the story: the AGF. Also known as the Aggressive Farming Federation. As you could probably guess, we end up joining the AGF.

As we progress throughout the Solo Campaign (the only place where the story matters), we are set against a series of unique gardening rivals…all of whom are aggressive.

I wish I could provide you with more when it comes to the world and story of Planted!, but that is really all that there is…

So, let’s talk about gameplay!

The Gameplay

Solo Mode

Planted! has a Solo Campaign available for “lone green thumbs”. It is also where they present the actual game mechanics. Which begs the question, “Who in their right mind is hopping into Multiplayer Mode without learning the controls?” Trust me – I will be discussing that in my further review, along with the feedback from Lady V.

Now, you would think that the Planted! is just about the gardening and combat mechanics. You would be wrong. There is also platforming. It’s…a thing. I’ll get into it. Certain aspects of each level will require you to navigate Gus (our protagonist) to the “main attraction” of growing our veggies.

Gameplay Loop

Once we get into the actual farming mechanics, the gameplay loop boils down to three steps:

• Sow
  • Bags of seed will be lying around for planting – just make sure you have prepped the ground accordingly!
• Grow
  • Water your plants, and fertilize them as well (if you’re lucky to get a hand on it). Keep watering to grow the largest produce that you can! As you can guess, the bigger the crop, the bigger the point value in scoring.
• Throw
  • So, this is the unique mechanic in Planted! Simply harvesting the crop isn’t enough – you need to yeet that carrot into the back of a truck to ensure that you score the points!

As you cycle through these three steps, you’ll also need to factor in which crops need to be grown, which power-ups you can grab for your veggies/yourself, and which watering mechanisms you can snag (it’s not just a watering can!).

You know how I mentioned you throw your crops? Yeah, you can throw them at your opponents instead. You can also steal from them! While it takes a little longer, you can also harvest their crops that they have toiled over. But beware – they can stop you in the act!

Multiplayer Mode

As I mentioned, while I didn’t get to dip my proverbial toes into the multiplayer mode, my fellow amazing editors, Lady V and Harry, were able to play some Multiplayer Mode in Planted!

The Multiplayer/Versus Mode in Planted! essentially offers the same core mechanics of the Solo Campaign, with the added caveat of unique biomes. Each biome, whether it be an active volcano or just a grassy field, has their own mechanics that you’ll need to factor into your farming.

Planted! supports up to four players in Versus Mode, and there are several options, including:

• Online
• Offline
• Split Screen
• Bot Opponents
• Cross-Play

That being said, there are a wide array of options at your disposal for the multiplayer madness.

The Good

Varied & Unique Levels to Fight In/On!

Planted! does not find itself with a lack of unique levels to compete on.

There’s nothing more satisfying than throwing a fish in someone’s face.

That being said, Cloth Cat Games made a point to really craft some unique levels that provided their own “challenges” and “strategies” to get that win.

Unfortunately…that is really the only nice thing that I have to say about Planted!. Now, let’s get into what I didn’t like.

The Bad

No Mapping of Controls – Why is Jump Y???

We all know this. Jump is always A or X (depending on your brand of controller). So…why in Planted! is the Jump button Y? For my PlayStation controller friends, that’s your Triangle Button. The added complaint to this is that the game offers no way of remapping your controller. Can you get used to it? Sure. But should you have to? No!

Coupled with this is the fact that the button to pick up an item in game and the button to throw said item…are not the same. It just makes for clunky gameplay.

Getting Stomped by AI Makes for a Tedious Time

In my brief time with Planted!, I learned very quickly that the game’s AI opponents are better than you. Much better than you. I mean…like, not even fun, better than you. Even in some of the earlier Solo Campaign levels, I found myself getting stomped by the AI opponent.

I can handle a loss with the best of them. But when every opponent in the game is just going to trounce you, no matter how good you are, where is the fun?

Gameplay Loops That Get…Withered…Very Fast

While the gameplay loop is very intuitive, it gets kind of stale very fast. Coupling that with the overly aggressive AI, I really found myself asking, “When can I stop playing this game?”

Produce Changes that Get Lost in the Shuffle

I cannot count the number of times that I was growing some carrots…only to have just noticed that the desired vegetable had switched to onions. While there is a “notification” of changing produce demands in the game, it is so lost in the shuffle and chaos of the game that it leaves me wanting a more apparent “Hey, we want this now” notification.

Lost Gameplay And Save Mechanics

I typically try to knock out gameplay for reviews in pretty big chunks. My initial play of the Solo Campaign in Planted! was several hours on a Sunday morning. Now, imagine my surprise at booting up the Solo Campaign a day or so later…to find that none of my progress had been saved.

Yeah – I’m not replaying all of it again just to get to where I was. That being said, in checking into the gameplay stuff, there does not seem to be any kind of way to “save” in the game, nor is it clear if there are auto-saves going on in the background.

The Overall

Planted! is, if I am being honest, forgettable. Chaotic gameplay is always fun, but there are a vast number of games that just do it better at the end of the day. The same-y gameplay loops and lack of a really engaging story/reason to keep playing, coupled with some of the more mechanical quirks of the game, really left me unimpressed.

I would also be remiss if I did not include some of the thoughts from our amazing Reviews Editor, Lady V, and her time with Planted!

“Without the extra challenges of mazes and platforming, you’re stuck throwing the one watering can into the river and lamenting the fact you picked up the bag of carrot seeds when the game is giving you a bonus for onions. I can see a little bit of an appeal to local multiplayer, frantic games are always a bit more fun when you can nudge each other on the couch, but in an era of amazing multiplayer titles Planted! fails to find it’s place in the sun.”

While Planted! can be played on PlayStation and Xbox today, the PC version is still awaiting build approval on the Steam platform, with no concrete launch date in sight.

Gamer Social Club was provided an early-access code for the purposes of this review. This review was played on PC (Steam).