Grow Home

 PC
Metascore
75

Generally favorable reviews - based on 46 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 32 out of 46
  2. Mixed: 13 out of 46
  3. Negative: 1 out of 46
  1. Gamer.no
    Feb 27, 2015
    70
    Unlike a lot of other Ubisoft games Grow Home never overwhelms you with needless side-quests that go nowhere or watered down game mechanics. It's just you, a giant beanstalk, some floating islands and a little robot that can scamper up basically anything. It's a simple and fun little experience that definitely deserves to be played.
  2. Softpedia
    Feb 20, 2015
    70
    Grow Home is fun and innovative experience that, unfortunately, gets weighed down by bugs with the climbing system, the iffy camera, and the repetitive audio effects. It's still a blast to play but it could've been much more.
  3. Gameblog.fr
    Feb 9, 2015
    70
    Grow a plant, try to climb it, and enjoy the view... Grow Home is all about the pleasure of discovery. Take your time and enjoy the road, up to the top, where M.O.M. awaits you.
  5. Everyeye.it
    Feb 9, 2015
    70
    More an experiment than a fully accomplished videogame, it can still entertain with its ethereal gameplay. The only drawback is the entry price, way to high for what the title has to offer.
  6. Multiplayer.it
    Feb 11, 2015
    68
    Grow Home's got a huge potential, but at the same time it's limited and lacks polish.
  7. GamesBeat
    Feb 9, 2015
    65
    Grow Home is a better experiment than a game.
  8. games(TM)
    Apr 11, 2015
    60
    Grow Home isn't the masterpiece you'll hang on the wall, it's the vase of tulips on the coffee table - appreciated at the time, but forgotten once they wither. [Issue#159, p.90]
  9. ActionTrip
    Mar 9, 2015
    60
    Its appearance is intriguing, I’ll give it that, but appearance doesn’t make it any less tedious or frustrating. I noticed on Metacritic that several people have loved it, but for me, it was absolute torture.
  10. DarkStation
    Feb 19, 2015
    60
    The use of procedural animation and rag doll physics for a protagonist may pay off some day down the road once the idea has been refined. In this game, however, it usually just gets in the way of what is otherwise a charming and colorful platformer.
  11. Shacknews
    Feb 18, 2015
    60
    Grow Home gets high points for creativity and providing a relaxing, almost meditative, experience. Except, the game is designed around a mechanic that's often more tedious than fun, and uses a robot that's prone to random spasms and collapses. Still, it's a nice distraction from action games.
  12. Hardcore Gamer
    Feb 18, 2015
    60
    There’s a lot to love about Grow Home, and if controlling Bud was one of them then this would have been a truly fantastic adventure instead of the flawed platformer.
  13. Game Informer
    Feb 13, 2015
    60
    Not every release needs to have ridiculous triple-A aspirations. That being said, even considering its limited scope, Grow Home doesn’t feel complete. The technology behind the gigantic plant is cool, and seeing it take over the world below you is interesting. However, the game that you play between those realizations rarely blossoms into entertainment.
  14. GamingTrend
    Feb 10, 2015
    60
    Ultimately, Grow Home ends up feeling like a product you really want to love, but is unable to produce the content required to hook your attention.

Awards & Rankings

93
#93 Most Discussed PC Game of 2015

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
7.4

Mixed or average reviews- based on 159 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 104 out of 159
  2. Mixed: 34 out of 159
  3. Negative: 21 out of 159
  1. xdgdf
    Feb 5, 2015
    10
    The game is full of creativity,аll very high quality painted,аmazing visual style. Good jokes. Very pleased.Another great game fromThe game is full of creativity,аll very high quality painted,аmazing visual style. Good jokes. Very pleased.Another great game from Ubisoft,would recommend.… Full Review »
  2. TitaniumDragon
    Jul 14, 2015
    0
    Grow Home is a 3D platforming game which centers around being a small robot who slowly climbs up a vine, guiding its growth into crystals toGrow Home is a 3D platforming game which centers around being a small robot who slowly climbs up a vine, guiding its growth into crystals to allow it to grow yet higher, so he can get back to his space ship and go home. With extremely loose controls, a dodgy camera, tedious mechanics, and no depth, this is a game to avoid, feeling more like a school project than a finished game.

    Story

    There is very little story to the game; there are a few bits of flavor text here and there, and MOM – either an AI of some sort, or a fellow being who is elsewhere in the universe – occasionally gives you hints or makes “wry” (non-voice acted) remarks on your progress.

    Gameplay

    The game centers about climbing around the game world, slowly growing your vine upwards. To grow the vine, you must crawl up the vine to various red flowers, which you can then command to grow outwards. Each of these will sprout bouncy leaves, to help you ascend a bit faster, and additional red flowers, to allow you to grow additional vines. There are 100 small crystals hidden around the various floating islands in the game, and collecting those power up your robot’s jetpack; there are also large crystal islands, which you must direct the growth of the vines into in order to grow the main vine higher and burst through various barriers and reach the top of the map. There are also a number of things you can drag into your various telepods – locations you can teleport back to when you die – which unlock entries in a data bank.
    That is literally 100% of the gameplay, and it is very dull. The controls for your robot are terrible, and carrying things around is extremely tedious, as you can easily drop them while doing other tasks. Climbing is an arduous process of alternating clicks of the shoulder buttons, and is made all the worse when the surface is uneven. Jumping and using your jetpack feels a little better, but is still very awkward, and it is easy to miss jumps and fall to your doom. A few pick-upable items – a flower which slows your descent, and a glide leaf which lets you glide around like on a hangglider – do little to spruce up the gameplay.
    All in all, the game is a very tedious process of ascending the vine and growing it outwards, then upwards, then outwards again; less than half an hour into the game, you have seen everything it has to offer. If you don’t bother to collect the collectables, you could easily beat the entire game in an hour, and you’d still think it was too long. Collecting the collectables is tedious – most of environmental items you collect for the databank aren’t too bad, but a few have to be lugged large distances while suffering from the dodgy controls.
    The small crystals, on the other hand, are extremely tedious to find; the only hint to their presence is an audio cue when the camera is close to them, which means that at the end of the game, if you’re missing any crystals, finding the rest of them is a matter of pure chance. Many are hidden in places which aren’t readily visible while gliding around, making this primarily a job for consulting a FAQ – if you were bothered to do it, which you really shouldn’t bother to do.

    Graphics

    The game has graphics which would have been an embarrassment in the Playstation 1 era; they’re ugly and unappealing, and the creatures in the game look terrible. The only thing which looks at all passable is the world from great elevation; it slowly becomes increasingly spherical around the horizon, and from a great distance, the vines and islands look somewhat visually appealing. Unfortunately, you will spend very little of the game admiring this, and most of the game looking at low-resolution textures and extremely blocky polygonal vines.

    Final Summary

    There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to spend your time, let alone your money, on this game. If it was a school project, I might be impressed, but as an actual commercial release, it is just not up to snuff. It is boring, tedious, repetitive, and yet manages to annoy you even though the entire game is likely to take no more than a few hours to complete.
    Save your money and your time and do other things.    … Full Review »
  3. Zer0TheHer0
    Jul 21, 2015
    0
    could be a decent game, but the lack of keyboard binding options makes it absolutely unplayable. the lack of rebinding options is absolutelycould be a decent game, but the lack of keyboard binding options makes it absolutely unplayable. the lack of rebinding options is absolutely lazy and something that is not to be tolerated in this time and age.… Full Review »
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