Xbox Game Pass peaceful puzzler is a sleeper hit for 2024

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Sometimes a more sedate pace is needed, and what is more sedate than wandering through the gardens of a stately home planting flowers? Though Botany Manor, a recent addition to Xbox Game Pass, is more than that. It's a puzzle game at its core, maybe a touch of a walking simulator. When you look past the colorful visuals, the arcing blue skies, and glorious historical touches, you'll find a range of puzzles that will never tax you too much but do enough to give the brain a workout.

Botany Manor is a place - one that simply captures aspects of the UK that is often unseen in video games. Aside from classics such as Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, which took a surrealistic look at quaint village life, seeing the manors and mansions of the UK is rare. Somerset is a very picturesque location, one filled with birdsong, the vibrant greens of plant life, and plenty of spots where it seems modern life has been forgotten, and that's where you find the manor.

The whole game takes only a handful of hours to complete and it's a delight while it lasts. Botany Manor is a building filled with lovely details and wonderful touches that bring the personality we lack from our central character who remains silent throughout. I wanted to see every corner, and look at each room in minute detail.

Set in the very early years of the 20th century, you play as Arrabella Greene, a woman who is an expert in botany, often pushed aside by the patriarchy and the archaic nonsense that women couldn't lead unless it was as a mother.

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Returning to her home of Botany Manor, she wants to research a variety of plants, all of which sprout in unique conditions. These conditions are a bit of a puzzle, as is accessing some of the manor that has been closed off.

As I was slowly walking around the gardens and through the manor house, I kept pausing to look around. Not just for the telltale signs of a clue in how to sprout a plant, which are scattered throughout, but to marvel at the details. It feels like stepping into the past, walking halls that echo with long dormant conversation.

I've traipsed through many buildings and gardens in my time, touring the history of the UK via the houses that were once royal dwellings, now tourist locations where you can view the past with ease. They are peaceful places, despite the raised voices of kids looking for somewhere to play, and so is this. The sense of peace here is a balm for the soul.

In hindsight, the puzzles are sometimes simplistic, but that doesn't matter. Because the whole game is crafted to be a place to stop and admire. Oftentimes I was carrying a seedling to another area in order to try out a solution, desperately hoping to see it flourish and hear a swelling of gentle music signifying that the plant was grown. Usually, I would end up just walking around, sitting in random places and admiring the view.

Arrabella is a lady getting on in years, so it's no wonder she needs to sit down and let life pass by occasionally.

It's hard to ignore those little spots tucked away in the garden or in the corners of rooms. Basking in the sunshine, gazing out over a very pretty landscape constructed from bold, simple visuals, takes you away from the busy chaos of life. I played Botany Manor on a lazy Sunday afternoon, the sun beaming through my window, no hurry to do anything except grow plants and enjoy the view. It was a sedate few hours I didn't know I needed and when the credits rolled, I felt at ease, riding a wave of simple contentment.