Gardenscapes – the most entertaining garden renovation ever

Gardenscapes received favorable critics, and it became Facebook’s game of the year in 2016. One year after its release, the game reached number 11 on the Android game download list, garnering more than $150 million in revenues.

By the end of 2017, Gardenscapes surpassed more than 92 million downloads. Today, nearly nine million people play this game every day. But despite its success and welcoming reception, Gardenscapes is often entangled in controversies and player confusion.

Accompanied with other Playrix games, Gardenscapes causes disputes and negative comments online due to misleading ads that show gameplay that doesn’t match the one players encounter in the game. Because of that, the Advertising Standards Authority banned two commercials for Gardenscapes and Homescapes as they were depicting a deceptive premise.

But what about the game itself and the actual gameplay? Is Gardenscapes still worth your time in 2021? We played it for you to get the answers.

Here’s what we thought.

Colorful and enjoyable, but also unnecessary challenging

Although Gardenscapes is often under a veil of controversies, it’s overall an entertaining game set in a colorful and adorable world. The character you’ll be playing is Austin the Butler, the only heir to his uncle, who left them a mansion and various antiques.

Since the lead character was getting tired of the city, they are happy to move in and start the necessary improvements on their new estate. Although the mansion has potential, your role as a player will be to repair it and equip a large garden.

However, the problem is that you have insufficient funds for everything that the house requires. That also kicks off the gameplay.

The goal is to match three items to gain stars that allow you to renovate the patio. After you line up three elements in a given puzzle, you will earn the means that help you start your mission of repairing.

Your tasks will include lining up a row, group, or column of minimally three identical elements. Each level has a unique goal. – For instance, collecting a particular number of flowers, mystery sacks, apples, fishing floats, or lemonade glasses. But your objectives could also include finding where the garden gnomes are, uncovering where the rabbits reside, or dig emeralds.

The thing is, all of these goals include the match-three approach. Hence, as you finish these puzzler levels, the game will reward you with coins and stars that help you complete your assignments, achieve progress, and move up the storyline. Thanks to that, you’ll also unlock various new areas to explore.

As you nail the puzzles and get rewards, you’ll meet various amusing characters that make your adventure lively and playful. Besides strengthening the in-game network, you’ll also have an adorable pet, a dog who follows you around and makes your stay more cheerful.

After each task you complete, the game will allow you to choose decor objects for a particular area of the garden, although you’ll get only three available options. You’ll also enjoy making friends with other characters inside the game that you can follow on social media networks.

The patio contains various sections needing renovation. But no worries, assignments are segregated enough to complete them without too much hassle.

Gardenscapes has various activities. – For example, fixing benches or adding new ones, repairing fountains, or planting bushes. Hence, the tasks are always updated and align with what the garden needs at the moment.

Whatever the assignment, the game doesn’t struggle with a lack of fun and dynamics. You can always count on surprises and excitement. Thus, tasks concerning garden repairing are not overly challenging.

On the other side, the match-three levels can be. These are necessary to earn the stars that allow you to finish restoration. For example, you’ll have to spend one star on repairing a bench, or more, depending on the task.

These levels include various games of different intensity, but they’re generally engaging and thematic. Thus, these tasks are always in sync with the garden mission. Hence, the tiles you line up always match the patio theme. Because of that, you’ll find the ones with apples, lemonades, or whatever fits your backyard needs.

Each level comes with different challenges and difficulties, but you’re never bored or out of things to do. Sometimes you’ll encounter multiple obstacles, and it could look that you don’t have enough viable moves to complete the challenge. Indeed, with over 8300 levels, the game’s been getting more demanding and challenging.

You can also purchase in-game packages and power-ups to pass the levels with more ease, but these are highly pricey. But without these purchases, you might spend a few days completing particular tasks, especially after you pass level 2500. In that sense, Gardenscapes gets unnecessary challenging at a certain point.

The graphics are not the most glorious element of the game because they seem a tad outdated. However, you’ll probably get involved in your tasks that much that you’ll stop noticing that the visuals aren’t particularly stunning or top-notch.

Cute with a dose of frustrating

Gardenscapes is inherently addictive, and it’s hard to let go of the game even when it becomes challenging. Imminently, at some point, it will leave you wondering how to come up with more moves and pass the level without spending money.

But Gardenscapes is still an entertaining game with a cute story and characters. Hence, if you don’t mind that you’ll also have to struggle a bit to complete the tasks, go on and start renovating your garden.