Blueberry Garden quick review

Winner of the Seamus McNally indie gaming prize has been out for quite some time, and has all sorts of mixed opinions. The one thing I think everyone can say that has played it is that it's not really much of a game in the traditional sense. While there is an objective, it's not exactly...clear at the beginning of the game, or even once you start doing things. Honestly, Blueberry Garden is more of an experience than anything else. People thinking of picking this up based on the awards or the praise it had been getting pre-release might want to check out the demo first to see if they enjoy it, but even then, it IS only 5$ so whatever opinion you walk away with, at least you won't be broke. Some people have called it a garden simulator with an abstract ending, others have mentioned how some of the things laying around in the world almost offer a perspective on environmentalism, but if there is one positive thing I can say, it's that the piano score is incredibly well done. The controls get the job done, even if you don't know exactly what the job is. On the other hand, due to poor computer optimization and no post-release updates, it's even harder to recommend since there's no way to make the game run better and its not clear whether or not your system will be able to play it smoothly. I'm playing on a 2.5gb RAM + Radeon 4670 HD pc and it runs the game at about 10-15 frames per second while all of the laptops in the house which have 256mb integrated graphics cards seem to run it flawlessly and I can't figure out why. So...what does all of this mean? There's probably 2-3 people out there that might ever read this and decide that Blueberry Garden is their ideal game, and while it IS a unique concept, it's definitely not for everyone. It's honestly not even recommendable to fans of abstract or indie games in general because of how terribly it runs. For people waiting for a score, here it goes:


OVERALL - 4/10

It's almost unplayable and even though you might completely go beyond the requirements, there's no guarantee that it will run smoothly. Maybe if there's ever some sort of fix, this will do better, but I've got to say you'd be fine watching a youtube video of this instead of playing it yourself. On the plus side, it's got a great soundtrack and a pretty cool looking art style.