Gardenscapes is a free-to-play match-3 style app available for Android and IOS devices - but unlike the usual slew of Bejeweled clones or multiple Candy Crush Saga spin-offs - Gardenscapes also features an RPG-style story mode which involves restoring a run-down botanical gardens back to its former glory.
As you complete the match-3 levels, you will be rewarded with stars - these stars can then be used to complete various tasks within the garden, such as planting trees and flowers, repairing fences and fountains and building new features such as a tree house and spring. Part-way through the game, you will also adopt a dog, which you can name (I named mine Rufus) who will create chaos within the garden and provide you with other things to build, such as a kennel.
For such a simple concept, Gardenscapes is actually filled to the brim with content - throughout the game you interact mainly with Austin, your butler - but as you progress, you will meet and unlock more characters who can be recruited to complete tasks within your garden. There is also a Facebook-style newsfeed app where you can read conversations between them - the posts between Austin and his parents are particularly amusing.
Unlike many match-3 games, each coloured piece is unique - made up of fruits, acorns, droplets of water and flowers - and Shelly (who is red-green colour-blind, remember) assures me she has no problems distinguishing between colours like she has done in similar games.
Of course, the game is not without issues. As with many free-to-play apps, you CAN use real money to purchase in-game coins, which can be traded for lives, boosters or be used to speed up tasks taking place within the garden. You are rewarded with these coins simply by playing the game, but it's a paltry amount. For each level you complete, you'll receive 50-75 coins - but it costs 900 to refill your lives and even more to buy boosters.
Once you pass level 60, the levels begin to become unforgiving - whether you can pass the level or not will be determined in your first few moves, and quite often, it's based on luck - hopefully you can start a level with the means to create bombs and rainbow blasters in your first few moves.The game can also be linked with Facebook - to IN THEORY send and receive lives between your real-life friends - well I'm calling this feature out right now - it DOESN'T WORK. Shelly and I were constantly asking for and sending each other lives - the requests for help sent, but the actual lives we sent each other were lost in cyberspace. I think out of the dozens she sent me, I only received about two of them.
Also, unlike Candy Crush Saga, Bejeweled Stars and similar games, you can't see your friends' progress - and overly competitive people like Shelly enjoy this feature. You also can't replay levels - so if there was a level you particularly enjoyed - too bad, you only get to play it once. I'm not sure why this feature isn't included - even if they allowed replaying of levels but didn't reward you with the paltry amount of coins they do initially.
I enjoyed Gardenscapes initially, for the first few days I played it - before the levels began to become unforgiving and downright frustrating. I can't help but think it's fallen into the typical trap of trying to squeeze real money out of players just so they can continue progressing through the game - and I'm only onto the 3rd area of the garden - there's a greyed-out area you can scroll across that's 3 times bigger than the area I've already unlocked - so clearly this game is pretty beasty. The Facebook-esque newsfeed also has several greyed-out profiles of characters I can potentially unlock in the future - if I can ever get past fucking level 77.
