Grow Home

 PC
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

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  1. Zandros
    Feb 8, 2015
    10
    Was extremely fortunate to have found this little gem. The overall graphics style and feel to the game is great, especially that feeling when you lose your grip on a mountain way high up and fall down. Really wish there were more relaxing games like this.
  2. IriathZhul
    Feb 6, 2015
    10
    Beautiful game about growing weed to get rock and crystal. Can't say I've played anything like it before but it's engaging, cute, exciting... Actually laughed and screamed at parts but I guess that's just the heights getting to me.
  3. 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 from Ubisoft,would recommend.
  4. coopert
    Mar 25, 2015
    8
    This little charmer is the best thing to have Ubisoft's name attached since Far Cry 3. A true breath of fresh air grow home is a must play despite the few technical issues that bog it down, though not enough to hurt a truly lovely experience. If your looking for something a little different you won't go far wrong, the game is five hours and every minute is enjoyable.
  5. JigiSix
    Mar 24, 2015
    9
    Drunken Climbing Sim 2015: Ubisoft Edition.
    I would give this game 10/10 if it had a first person mode. (Modding community, make that stuff happen!)
    I love games that are very vertical, so this one is bloody amazing. In Grow Home, the whole concept is growing a plant while gathering crystals. And no, it's not about drugs.
  6. elacil
    Jun 20, 2015
    10
    This game is short but beautiful and extremely enjoyable. I hate games where you are limited by walls or cliffs, there is no where you can't explore in this game. I haven't laughed out loud so often from playing a game in a long time.
  7. Hokanu
    Feb 5, 2015
    10
    A lovely art style that is different from the norm combined with a really fun climbing mechanic have given me hours of pleasure so far and I feel like I have lots more to see in this world still.
  8. curzon_dax
    Feb 7, 2015
    9
    A solid 9 for originality and game mood. The only reason it doesn't get a 10 is that the controls on a PC are slightly tiring since there is very heavy usage of the mouse buttons in a way that doesn't leave much else.
  9. dwarfdew
    Feb 19, 2015
    9
    Mind blow Number 1: Ubisoft.
    Mind blow Number 2: Unity.
    Wow this is a good game I played this not expecting much and my mind exploded on how good this game was I played this to 100% completion and I don't usually do that the art style is outstanding the game play is great! It could do with some more levels and the ability to have more than one save file but if you can by that Go Buy    Mind blow Number 1: Ubisoft.
    Mind blow Number 2: Unity.
    Wow this is a good game I played this not expecting much and my mind exploded on how good this game was I played this to 100% completion and I don't usually do that the art style is outstanding the game play is great! It could do with some more levels and the ability to have more than one save file but if you can by that Go Buy This Game Go Go Stop Reading And Go!    … Expand
  10. kraenk
    Feb 10, 2015
    10
    Lovely and lighthearted game which really should be featured on the front page of Metacritic. The game is alittle short but one can hope for future extensions. Adorable game, please try!
  11. plotlesviolence
    May 15, 2015
    9
    OVERALL - 9
    The first great climbing game since Shadow of the Colossus, except it's a short 2-hour tech demo. I hope the company puts these mechanics into a full game with multiple levels.
    PRESENTATION - 7 Simplistic untextured vector graphics, almost voxels except not boxy. It's colorful and it gets the job done, and there's a nice tradeoff of the day-night cycle where platforms are    OVERALL - 9
    The first great climbing game since Shadow of the Colossus, except it's a short 2-hour tech demo. I hope the company puts these mechanics into a full game with multiple levels.

    PRESENTATION - 7
    Simplistic untextured vector graphics, almost voxels except not boxy. It's colorful and it gets the job done, and there's a nice tradeoff of the day-night cycle where platforms are more visible in the day but the hidden collectibles glow so they're more visible at night. It's also really cool to look down at the level and see the intersecting collections of vines in a shape you individually have drawn on your way up. Audio is bleepy but fine. The story is just a few dialogue boxes here and there, mostly your robotic ship "mother" praising you no matter how poorly you perform. Lots of grabbable objects (including moving animals) have physics, and a few trees even bend on impact. Animation is procedurally blended with your movement speed and collision with obstacles, which looks cool, but even with the floating limbs there are still errors where you collide through objects.

    CONTROL - 10
    Grow Home is a platformer, the goal of which is to ascend the level while collecting gems that upgrade your abilities. You start out with just a jump, earn a little jet boost to slow landings, and eventually a functional jetpack.
    You also climb by holding down either shoulder button to "grab" with left and/or right hand. While holding onto a surface (ANY surface in the game, including moving animals), the left joystick can hoist you up about the distance of your forearm. So by alternating left and right hand-holds, you can climb anything.
    Other games have climbing, but it's always handled the way FPS games handle ladders: attach-to-ledge-and-move-left-or-right or attach-to-climbable-wall-and-move-up-or-down. Other than "Shadow of the Colossus" and "I am Bread", I can't think of any other videogames where climbing is an actual gameplay mechanic (certainly not any of the Assassins Creed games, by the same company, which I don't feel qualify as platformers because they lack a dedicated non-context-sensitive Jump button).
    Bizarrely, there's no "cost" to climbing. SotC and IaB both have "grip gauges" that deplete and refill when you're on level surface, but in "Grow Home" it's almost impossible to fall unless you have a brain fart and forget to hold down one of the grab buttons. The motivation to take risks like make jumps is based around climbing simply being slower than other forms of travel.
    Additionally, you can collect either a flower (depleting parachute) or a leaf (a reuseable hang-glider that lasts until you crash), the latter of which controls incredibly well and speeds things up greatly.
    In the level are giant vines with sprouts. Once you climb on the sprout, you can activate it, at which point it will grow, and you direct the growth upwards towards more floating islands to get more gems or into glowing power sources which are necessary to grow the main tree trunk and complete the game. Each new vine comes with leaf bounce-pads and more sprouts, so you can grow yourself a path essentially anywhere. And once you master the gameplay mechanics, you can travel across the bounce pads much, much faster than running, or teleport to the top of the map and hang-glide down.

    DESIGN - 6
    The goal of the game is to activate the flower at the top. You can die from un-slowed falls or the water at the very bottom, but there are checkpoints you can teleport between and an instant-respawn. The problem with the game is that it feels like the first level of a much larger game that hasn't been released yet. You have a ton of abilities, especially once you're halfway upgraded, but the game never becomes hard enough to really challenge you. For example, you can land in the bending trees to slow your descent, or use the bendy tree recoil to launch you even higher, but you never actually need to. It's as if the entirety of Mario 64 was limited to "Bob-omb Battlefield." You have to make your own fun to an extent, like trying to grow vines out to the limit of the map, or trying to make difficult jumps without using the hang glider. If the purpose of "Grow Home" was to sell me on the gameplay mechanics as tech demo, then, congratulations, I love it, now where's the full game? Where's the challenge? The only real motivation to play well is either to find 100% of the hidden gems or to try and ascend as quickly as possible without making mistakes like accidentally running off a vine and falling. And yes, that is fun, but I wanted more. Admitedly, the game is very cheap. You get much more than your money's worth, a truly excellent 2-3 hours. What I'm really saying is please, please, please, make a sequel.    … Expand
  12. sscott0829tw
    Mar 3, 2015
    8
    Grow home is an extremely beautiful game,
    the fantastic art style makes you revel in this gorgeous world of floating islands.
    The gameplay is simple and fun,no need for tutorial,you will know what to do.
    A fine masterpiece from UBI
  13. ToFewViews
    Sep 13, 2015
    8
    Grow Home is a fairly original Platformer developed by a small Team at Ubisoft. It's a fairly short game but offers a lot to do. Grow Home follows "BUD" (Botanical Utility Droid) and his journey to grow a plant that will oxygenate his home planet. The controls can feel very clunky and hard to learn at first because of BUD's physics and momentum, If you keep running in one direction on jumpGrow Home is a fairly original Platformer developed by a small Team at Ubisoft. It's a fairly short game but offers a lot to do. Grow Home follows "BUD" (Botanical Utility Droid) and his journey to grow a plant that will oxygenate his home planet. The controls can feel very clunky and hard to learn at first because of BUD's physics and momentum, If you keep running in one direction on jump multiple times you will find it very hard to come to a complete stop without falling off of something. The main objective is to scale a giant bean stock type plant and find points on the plant you can use to grow further to reach food/energy that the plant needs to grow. This is where Grow Home really comes together, As you branch out with your plant and work towards the floating islands you can look back at your progress and see the beautiful mess of a plant you have grown. But at anytime it is possible to fall off and have to rather start climbing again or use a checkpoint that are placed. There are things like Flowers,Leafs and Packets to also help you get around and hopefully not fall back to the beginning. Finding Crystals that are placed throughout the game will increase BUD's jet-pack as well. Altogether Grow Home is a extremely fun light heated game suitable for almost anyone and for the 8$ Price tag or Free if you got it with PlayStation Plus it's a steal of a deal.… Expand
  14. SuperkenGaming
    Jul 10, 2016
    8
    Grow Home
    a charming and floaty experience...
    Grow home is an open world platformer where you play as a robot named B.U.D. Your missions in this game is to grow this giant bean stock like star plant up to your home base in order to oxygenate the planet you’re on.. You grow this star planet by riding star shoots to energy rocks... Star shoots are buds that grow on the star plant as it    Grow Home
    a charming and floaty experience...
    Grow home is an open world platformer where you play as a robot named B.U.D.
    Your missions in this game is to grow this giant bean stock like star plant up to your home base in order to oxygenate the planet you’re on..
    You grow this star planet by riding star shoots to energy rocks...
    Star shoots are buds that grow on the star plant as it grows…
    And you get to controls these, which I didn’t know I could do until the final stretch of the game...
    Needless to say I was frustrated with the seemingly meaningless and random star shoots going all over the place…
    Only to find out I’ve been playing the game wrong the whole time…
    Once I figured this out this game became much less frustrating to me... but not completely unfrustrating…
    The controls in this game are far too floaty...
    your robot character feels completely weightless…
    You rely mostly on your grip by using any of the 4 shoulder buttons to control a separate arm….. and even that isn’t all too reliable
    Bud would constantly slip when I jumped from stock to stock, leading me to fall to my death only to respawn at my most recently activated checkpoint and climb again. And again... and again...
    This weightless feeling needless to say greatly hinders your platforming experience as you have no idea where you’re going to land after a jump and you seemingly have no control of your character once in air...
    Thankfully you do get a jet pack and are able to pick up leaves and flowers to float… but these items don’t equalize the floatyness of the platforming and can sometimes even add to the frustration of feeling no control…
    The jet pack will definitely become your best friend as you’re screaming at the screen for constantly cheap feeling deaths due to the platforming and grip…
    you can upgrade this jetpack by collecting crystals throughout the world..
    To eventually be able to completely fly around at no risk by the games end... making collectibles in this game actually worthwhile… and the world is intriguing enough to want to explore in search of new caves and other secret areas…
    you can also grab items and animals that inhabit the planet to work towards unlocking a special skin…
    There are 2 special skins in this game that give an added perk beyond pure cosmetics
    One for collecting all of the creatures and plants... and one for doing the bonus mission after you complete the game…
    … The issues with this is the complete the game part…
    What’s the point in keeping special perk skins to when you’ve already completed or nearly completed the game…
    Why bother to collect everything and have the ability to make star shoots grow twice as long when I’ve got a jet pack that never runs out of fueled by that time?
    It’s pointless…
    This is also one of those games that doesn’t auto save and it did crash on me and I lost all progress...
    thankfully it happened after I collected everything and beat the game and not while I was on my way to doing so…
    so be cautious.. save and quit frequently, which won’t really cross your mind as this game is only about 5 hours long
    Grow Home is a charming game that I ultimately enjoyed.. But its floaty controls tried really hard to stop me…
    I give grow home a
    7.5/10    … Expand
  15. SergioVM87
    Apr 30, 2016
    9
    Este juego es precioso, sus escenarios, sus mecánicas, sus físicas... El apartado artístico es simple pero bien trabajado. La forma en la que se engancha el robot a según qué cosas es lo que más me gusta del juego. Y la exploración, me encanta su diseño de exploración.
  16. BBQnaoplox111
    Nov 25, 2015
    9
    Do not play this without a controller.. your wrist will thank you lolololol Over all this is a very charming game with a cool look and fun gameplay mechanic... Very unique... enjoyed it very much. ALSO NO DRM!!!!!
  17. rukola
    Feb 2, 2016
    9
    This is the type of pc games that i've been hoping to return to the spotlight my entire life.
    3D platformer exploration, no fighting, just jumping, flying, climbing, all in bright, colourful surroundings with a distinctive graphic style. Sense of freedom, but most importantly - an amazing sense of vast space (the rocks you climb levitate in spae - any platformer fan would love that) and    This is the type of pc games that i've been hoping to return to the spotlight my entire life.
    3D platformer exploration, no fighting, just jumping, flying, climbing, all in bright, colourful surroundings with a distinctive graphic style. Sense of freedom, but most importantly - an amazing sense of vast space (the rocks you climb levitate in spae - any platformer fan would love that) and enormous distances to jump through and glide gives an exhilarating experience (though probably short) and almost a giddy feeling. What's more, the main objective is to feed a gigantic plant penetrating the entire planet you're on. What's not to like?    … Expand
  18. Mr_Origami
    Jun 12, 2017
    8
    Grow Home is a lovely 3D platforming where the main goal is to reach the top of an area (your spaceship) starting to the bottom (a beach, sea level) with the help of seeds that generates a main gigantic plant with flexible finger-plants that will allow you to reach the apparently unreachable. The level design is based on a unique scenario (just one gigantic area surrounded by the sea)Grow Home is a lovely 3D platforming where the main goal is to reach the top of an area (your spaceship) starting to the bottom (a beach, sea level) with the help of seeds that generates a main gigantic plant with flexible finger-plants that will allow you to reach the apparently unreachable. The level design is based on a unique scenario (just one gigantic area surrounded by the sea) where secondary objectives are represented by crystals finding aimed to upgrade your jet pack power (that gives you just little jump-boosts) and flora/fauna collection to bring under scanning through the teleporter machines (placed as sort of checkpoints on different heights) that will enrich your computer database called M.O.M. (your spaceship). Plus, a final objective once you reach the very top and your plant has completely grown.

    Technically, is based on the simple gravity/physics basics but the originality comes out when you understand that your character have inertia speed (once it runs then suddenly stops or just jump+jet pack boosted) and hand grabbing technique (left hand- right hand) that allows you to climb rapidly (once you get it well) or slowly if you carry a specimen on the other hand (there is no inventory! And that's cool). Obviously, the game pad is strongly recommended as the right stick for camera view will be fundamental to add yourself an extra extended view (pressing the right stick) in order to catch all the things that might goes out of sight while you're climbing a rock, for example.

    It's a fresh game play, no matter if the story is simple and short. It's a basic concept to play and enjoy and maybe it will be shaped into something more spectacular, who knows? The effort is considerable but it must be mentioned that is not the entire Ubisoft company that made this...just a little group of people under Ubisoft company, just a little seed, comparable to an indie work...exactly like the entire philosophy of this game!

    Well deserved, guys.    … Expand
  19. Kotofon
    Jan 29, 2020
    8
    Довольно таки забавная милая игра, когда хочется отдохнуть после всех этих мясных зубодробительных шутеров, то что доктор прописал

Awards & Rankings

93
#93 Most Discussed PC Game of 2015

Critic Reviews

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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. 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]
    Read full review
  2. Games Master UK
    Apr 9, 2015
    87
    Clever, pretty and endearing. [April 2015, p.63]
  3. CD-Action
    Apr 1, 2015
    80
    Beautiful, cute and wonderful. Unfortunately also very short. [04/2015, p.67]
See all critic reviews »