Title: Growth
Developer: VoodooDuck
Publisher: Assemble Entertainment
Release Date:  October 16 2023 (Steam), December 21, 2023 (Switch)
Available On: Steam, Nintendo Switch
Reviewed On: Nintendo Switch

Playing the game Growth is similar to doing a 1000 piece puzzle where you create a plan to build it with your best strategy, but once it’s done, you only feel somewhat satisfied.

Growth is a cozy tile-based strategy game where you use various animals to inhabit plots of land and clear hidden areas on a map. Let’s take a look at the game.

Disclosure: Boss Rush Network received a review code for the Nintendo Switch version of Growth. Neither VoodooDuck nor Assemble Entertainment made any stipulations upon this review, nor did they or any representatives read it prior to publication. 

Synopsis

In the world of Growth, an active volcano is disturbing the peace in the land. It’s up to you and your ensemble of animals to soothe the volcano. The narrative is quite light, so the game focuses entirely on mechanics. Growth gives replay value by giving you incentives to hit goals and unlock new terrains. Maps are also different on every play as well.

Gameplay

In this tile-based strategy game, you start off in the center of a honeycomb-shaped grid. There are seven sections of the grid and you must clear a certain amount of hidden map on your current grid before you can unlock another grid of the map. Once all seven grids are cleared, there is a final challenge grid you must pass before you can get to the volcano to soothe it.

To move and explore in Growth, you can use one of five animals to reach a habitat. Each animal has a different skill to help you avoid obstacles. Deer are your starter animals and their terrain is a forest; they are the most basic animal in the game. The deer help you easily connect plots of land but they don’t move very far. By connecting plots of habitat, you can acquire boars which travel a bit further. Bees have the ability to cross rivers. Mountain goats can cross, you guessed it, mountains. Lastly, ducks can fly over large areas of water and cover land next to water.

Additionally, there’s points of interest to find on the map that look like mountains. These will reward you a special animal like an eagle to scout space or a beaver to knock down a mountain. You earn points of interest through the in-game achievements.

The strategy in this game is that your resources are limited. At times, you may find yourself left with only one animal and only blind spots to explore; this is where you have to find a strategy to build your team. Growth doesn’t reward the player with aggressiveness, rather it will have you mapping out every move.

Where Growth Strives

Growth is a great game to pass time in between larger games with strong narratives. If you reach the volcano and win a round, your playtime should be roughly one hour. However, if not played correctly a run can end in as little as 5 minutes.

The music is perfect for the setting of the game. Calm, relaxing, and helps you think your way through some tougher spots.

Where Growth Stumbles

I had mentioned before that you gain points of interest and new animals through in-game achievements. Achievements can be found on the title screen or on the in-game menu using the up button on the d pad. Achievement prompts will be something like “Send mountain goats 100 times” with a picture of what you can earn. Unfortunately, when you earn the achievement, it just tells you the name of the point of interest, but it doesn’t tell you what it does. For example, I earned a point of interest that gave me a beaver, but when I tried to use the beaver there were only certain tiles highlighted and I didn’t know what they did until I ended up knocking down a mountain that didn’t help my run.

Outside of the quick tutorial, the game gives you zero explanation on what anything does in the game. I find this very frustrating because the game forces you to use planned moves and without knowing in advance what an animal does you do not know how to plan your strategy.

Finally, the loading times to get started are atrocious. I know the game generates a new map every time you play, but it takes a long time to get started which isn’t fun if you just want to do a quick run.

Final Score

Growth is a basic strategy game that leaves a lot to be desired. The concept of the game is great. I do however wish there were some quality of life improvements in the menus, with the loading, and maybe a few different songs mixed in. I don’t see myself playing Growth very much, but if they do decide to make a second game with improvements, I will absolutely give it a try.

Image Credit: VoodooDuck

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