Gardening is usually associated with patience, peaceful surroundings and the satisfaction of watching something grow. Planted! takes a rather different approach, turning horticulture into a competitive sport where stealing someone else’s vegetables is perfectly acceptable and throwing a giant watermelon at their head is just another part of the competition. Developed by Cloth Cat Games, this unusual party game combines farming mechanics with competitive multiplayer action, challenging players to grow the most valuable crops while sabotaging everyone around them. It’s an entertaining idea with plenty of potential for chaotic encounters, although the execution doesn’t always produce the satisfying experience it aims for.
The single-player Story Mode introduces Gus, an ordinary farmer whose prized giant carrot is stolen by a mysterious competitor. His search for the culprit eventually leads him into the world of the Aggressive Gardening Federation, where he must compete in a series of increasingly unusual gardening challenges. The narrative is presented through comic-book-style sequences and is fairly lightweight, primarily providing an excuse to introduce the different gameplay mechanics. While there’s enough personality in the premise to give the adventure some character, the story never becomes particularly compelling. More importantly, the campaign doubles as an extended tutorial, gradually introducing players to the various activities and tools available. This is useful for understanding the basics, but the process can feel unnecessarily drawn out for a party game that should ideally encourage players to jump straight into the action.
The central gameplay loop revolves around preparing patches of soil, planting seeds, watering and fertilizing crops, and harvesting the resulting vegetables before throwing them into designated scoring areas. Bigger vegetables generally mean more points, so there’s a constant strategic decision between quickly harvesting smaller crops or investing additional time and resources in growing something more valuable. Fertilizer can improve the harvest, while watering cans, water balloons and sprinklers help plants develop. However, there’s another option that becomes increasingly tempting as matches progress: stealing someone else’s hard work. Players can raid neighbouring gardens, take their equipment and even harvest vegetables that other competitors have spent time growing. It’s a wonderfully mischievous mechanic that creates plenty of opportunities for revenge, although it can also become frustrating when a carefully prepared harvest disappears just before it can be collected.
Throwing vegetables is another important part of the experience. Players need to aim their produce into the appropriate scoring receptacles, which can take the form of trucks, baskets, goals or other environmental objects depending on the arena. Distance and delivery combinations can influence the rewards, encouraging players to improve their throwing technique while keeping an eye on their surroundings. There are also twelve power-ups to make things considerably more unpredictable, including defensive equipment, explosive attacks and automated turrets. These can be used to disrupt opponents, defend valuable crops or simply create opportunities to steal someone else’s harvest. The resulting encounters can be genuinely entertaining, particularly when several players start attacking one another instead of concentrating on their gardens. Unfortunately, the balance between the different mechanics isn’t always convincing, and some encounters can feel more frustrating than competitive.
The multiplayer component is arguably where Planted! makes its strongest impression. Supporting up to four players through local and online multiplayer, the game also allows combinations of human and computer-controlled competitors. Cross-play makes it possible to compete with friends on other platforms, while the different environments provide some welcome variation. There are eight main biomes, including traditional farmland, a football stadium, underground areas, construction sites and a volcano. Each introduces its own hazards and occasionally changes how vegetables must be delivered. A football-themed arena, for example, revolves around scoring goals, while other environments introduce unusual collection points or additional environmental obstacles. These differences help prevent every match from feeling identical, at least initially. The unpredictability of playing against other people also makes the stealing and sabotage mechanics considerably more entertaining, as carefully developed strategies can quickly fall apart when someone decides to interfere. However, the limited number of arenas means that the available variety can wear thin after repeated sessions.
Although the Story Mode provides a useful introduction, it also exposes some of the game’s more significant problems. Certain challenges require considerably more precision and speed than the game initially prepares players for, with computer opponents sometimes proving surprisingly competitive even at lower difficulty settings. The platforming sections are particularly demanding, requiring accurate jumps and quick reactions while avoiding numerous environmental hazards. This would be less problematic if the movement and controls were consistently responsive. Unfortunately, the PS5 version has some noticeable shortcomings in this department. Character movement can feel slippery, making it difficult to position yourself accurately when navigating obstacles or avoiding incoming attacks. Harvesting also requires a short button hold, which can interrupt the otherwise frantic pace. Throwing objects takes some practice as well, since there’s no clear visual indication of the distance a throw will cover. The button layout takes a little getting used to, and the combination of imprecise movement and demanding challenges occasionally makes the experience feel unnecessarily punishing.
Visually, Planted! adopts a colorful cartoon aesthetic that suits its light-hearted premise. The characters have an exaggerated, almost animated-series appearance, while the different environments provide enough visual personality to distinguish the various arenas. Watching oversized vegetables grow before launching them at rival gardeners also gives the game plenty of amusing moments. The environmental designs are particularly important because they help communicate the different objectives and hazards, although the overall presentation doesn’t necessarily offer enough visual complexity to remain impressive over extended play sessions. Audio is another relatively successful aspect. The upbeat, energetic soundtrack provides an appropriate arcade atmosphere during matches, while the sound effects accompanying vegetable impacts and the various attacks add to the slapstick humor. Neither the music nor the sound design is especially remarkable, but both contribute positively to the game’s overall personality.
Technical performance is a more complicated subject. We saw a few issues, including a crash problems that prevented further campaign progression. This is an important concern because technical instability can undermine an otherwise enjoyable multiplayer concept, particularly when it interferes with progression through the introductory campaign. This is difficult to overlook, especially when combined with the already questionable difficulty balancing and control issues.
Planted! has an appealing concept and understands how to create the sort of ridiculous situations that make party games memorable. Its combination of gardening, competitive scoring, theft and sabotage offers something different from the usual collection of party-game activities, and multiplayer matches can deliver some genuinely funny moments. Unfortunately, the underlying gameplay doesn’t evolve enough to maintain that excitement indefinitely. The limited selection of arenas, repetitive core mechanics, occasionally frustrating computer opponents and imprecise controls all prevent the experience from reaching its full potential. The Story Mode is a useful introduction, but its lengthy tutorials and demanding challenges don’t always make the best first impression. There is certainly a fun multiplayer game buried beneath these shortcomings, particularly when played with friends, but Planted! needs a little more refinement and variety before its competitive gardening ambitions can truly flourish.
Score: 6.4/10