Interesting concept, decent delivery, alright gameplay . In short, Blossom: Seeds of Life (BSL) provides a nice casual and quiet experience somewhat exploring and terraforming a planet. Very similar to Astroneer in its works and it's style, but no better or no worse. The terraforming raised interest, but upon completing the game I'm sort of left with mixed feelings. Will recommend, cautiously, but read on to find out why. BSL's gameplay is quite straight forward: collect resources, research technologies, build technologies, terraform the planet. The controls are sort of unique to this particular series, and will feel familiar especially if players have played Astroneer. It adds a layer of complication to the game, sometimes in a good way and sometimes in a bad way. Players have to manually select items one at a time until more automated forms of technology can be unlocked to streamline the resource harvesting scheme. It can be annoying at times especially when trying to manage inventory; manually selecting what pieces to pick up and to place in certain spots. Beyond that, the story starts the player off on a barren Mars looking planet. The player is given somewhat of a "homebase", already built, where the tutorial starts teaching some basics to the player, for example the character in the game starts with near zero battery (as they are a robot) and the player becomes familiar with cable connections. A constant challenge in the game is to ensure the character has enough power to carry out actions, or it's a near game-over. The building itself in the game isn't too bad. The camera can do some funny actions while trying to place a building. Generally, the camera is quite normal throughout with the ability to adjust the distance from the character. Most (if not all) buildings will require some sort of power connections, while some will require water connections. The player will be tasked with generating power, if possible storing it, but for sure transporting it across the map. This is done by connection boxes for both water and electricity. This is where the building got a little weird for me as I was able to build within a radius of the printer, however couldn't expand properly (or organize properly) due to having only one printer. As the player further terraforms the planet (drilling, heating, oxygen, etc...) more research becomes available for the player to unlock. This further opens the game and allows for more development of the base (or colony). Players can craft a whole load of material in addition to various types of buildings. Some of these crafts or buildings include rovers, trailers for the rovers, different mini-buildings for the rover's trailers, storage, automated storage, assortment of power plants, assortment of water collection buildings, drones to collect resources, drills for larger resource dumps, and more. The visuals and graphics are suitable to the game's environment and atmosphere. The graphics are soft in the sense they seem to focus on drawing negative space rather than having every little detail included. I like the design scheme of the game, simple, detailed enough, which in turn I feel puts more focus on the gameplay . Animations are present to give the sense that events are actually occurring in the game (such as building, leaving trail marks with the rover, machines moving to process ore, etc...). The "soft body" touches with the cables and some of the environments (such as grass) were a nice addition to the game. The environment does feel a little empty, but I guess that's what you get being on a barren planet, not too sure what to say or expect here lol. The player does see progress as the planet becomes terraformed. It's nothing too insane and no new assets The sounds and music are quite chill and suit the environment. Some of the sounds can be overpowering or annoying at times (being around a water pump and such), but again, that comes with the business of terraforming. I found both these domains of the game are adequate, nothing too crazy, nothing missing, but okay. All standard sounds and music are there to ensure there are no weird or empty moments. I will recommend this game but I do suggest doing your research. There is some replayability in playing random map seeds and organizing a new base, but it does lose it's shine after a while. I do think some coop would've seemed like a cool concept to include, however I can understand (given the way this game is designed) that it's meant for one person. There were a few limiting parts to the game. One of the biggest is when my Printer Blueprint fell through the map. See, the player is only given one printer. This one printer has to be moved around to expand the base initially. Beyond that, the game is good, but just something missing from making it great. As the planters threw more grass and other seeds on the ground I noticed a significant frame rate drop whenever I was by these machines. The terraforming concept is absolutely cool (and something I didn't think I had much interest in), but in a way behind all those colours, layers, and objects I feel like I'm simply pumping a number in an excel spreadsheet in order to change colour of the world. It's a hard effect to chase for sure, but I do give the game credit for trying to branch further into the terraforming genre. The story portion is all text based, not too sure if that's something that bothers gamers or not. I enjoyed the reads, but a few cut scenes here and there maybe would've made me feel a little more immersed in the game. That - and maybe fix the camera when launching to the stations. Not sure if it's due to how the game is programmed, but I'm always staring at the thrusters when launching. Again, will recommend, but do your research! TO THE DEV: Nice game, honestly enjoyable for how competitive and action packed I like my games. Just a few suggestions: -Major frame drop when animals, bugs, and fauna appear. -Storage needs revamping. I saw on the update with the drones there is a limit now, but I think limiting certain storages can help from having massive of amounts of randomness everywhere. Just my two cents. RATING: 7.85/10 Gameplay B Story / Campaign B- Visuals / User Interface B- Sounds / Music C+ Replay-ability C+ Overall B-
Expand the review