The UnderGarden is to Limbo as Jelly is to Peanut Butter

Written by Michael Rohde Thursday, 11 November 2010 22:05

The UnderGarden and Limbo are both essentially puzzle solving games in which you travel a set path, clear obstacles and make wondrous discoveries along your adventures in these alien worlds. But that’s where the similarities end. Limbo’s color scheme is set in a stark black and white world where death lurks around every corner. The UnderGarden splashes vibrant colors mixed with soft translucent water in which movement is depicted in effortless movement in an ocean where not even explosive mines cause your death.

In fact, after playing the first few levels of the game, I have not discovered a means in which to die yet.

The UnderGarden is the type of game that you want to play with your kids. The gameplay consists of gently floating and darting about the ocean, collecting pollen, and then disseminating the pollen to grow all sorts of flowers to create a living underwater garden full of life. The first level, or hub, starts off basic enough; with each new level increasing in tougher puzzles. Although, I haven’t been stuck on any of the puzzles yet, as they are pretty simple; at least so far.  Keep in mind that I’m the type of person that got stuck early and often while playing Limbo and had to consult walk-through sites to get past many of the puzzles. In The UnderGarden, that hasn’t been necessary so far. And I’m thankful for that. There’s nothing more maddening then not being able to advance to the next level. The UnderGarden allows you to move on to the next hub, even if you haven’t found all of the special flowers. The manner in which the caverns sprawl before you, you can easily float from the portal to back into the maze to try and finish solving how to get that last flower.

As you complete each hub, you are transported back to a main screen, where you can float over to the next hub. The UnderGarden does steer you towards the hub it wants you to play in that certain hubs are locked until you unlock the other hubs first. After a hub is unlocked, you can go back and revisit that hub at any time to try and beat your speed time, the number of flora pollinated and the number of special objects that you found.

The UnderGarden does have a certain sense of humor about it when it comes to the Achievements. There was this one time, I placed a mine and a musician next to each other. Well, I quickly learned that when you drop the mine, you set a timer for it to explode... Because there is no death in The UnderGarden, the musician didn’t die, but he is silenced for a bit and *DING* Achievement Unlocked.

As for the audio, this is another stark contrast from Limbo. Limbo had no soundtrack. It was just you in the dark and wild. The UnderGarden boasts a soundtrack of mystic proportions, which at times, certain passages might remind you of Mass Effect 2’s soundtrack; that is not a bad comparison but rather complimentary. If you want to enhance the basic keyboard tones, you can pick up musicians that you find along the way. You can pick up several at once. Each time you pick up another musician, it’s like adding another instrument to the band and suddenly you’re hearing more advanced percussion and bass. You’ll want to carry the musicians with you just for the music factor. Plus, if you carry at least three musicians with you while re-pollinating some flora then *DING* Achievement Unlocked.

The UnderGarden is an Xbox 360 Arcade game (also available on the PSN and PC) that I’ll go back and finish. Unlike Limbo, which I left twisting in the wind as it became too frustrating for me. It’s also a game that I’m sure my kids will request over and over. They found it great fun to tell me which direction to swim and they always wanted to know, “What’s next, Dad?”

While Limbo and The UnderGarden couldn’t be more different, they compliment each other very nicely. They are two opposites that go well together. Just like peanut butter and jelly.