Review: Reach for the Sun

The last few years have seen a surge in ‘simulation’ games lately, ranging from dating to driving. Reach for the Sun is no different, but instead focuses on the delicate process of growing a plant. Remember Farmville? It’s basically Farmville without the micro-transactions and mass timed crow growing.

Each plant varies in size, hardiness and cost of growing new parts.

To be fair, it’s not like Farmville at all; in any way whatsoever. Reach for the Sun starts you off with the humble Sunflower, a little sprout in the ground. When part of the plant glows, you can click on it to collect resources. Roots collect water and a small amount of nutrients while leaves do the elaborate process of photosynthesis and convert CO2 into starch by using a little bit of water in the process. You’ll use these three resources to grow your plant, adding more roots or growing your plant taller with stalks and leaves. Eventually, you’ll grow the resource-heavy flowers and you’ll need to get them pollinated. Once pollinated, you can transform the flower into precious seeds which act as an in-game currency, and you’ll do all this before the cold embrace of winter freezes your plant into an icicle.

Sometimes you’ll have insects which you need to scare off or kill by repeatedly clicking them, blight-stricken leaves need to be pulled off by clicking and dragging and leaves frozen by a sudden cold-snap need to be rubbed warm by clicking and rubbing with the mouse. That’s pretty much all you’ll do; clicking, lots of clicking. Growing your plant is a coordinated clicking affair, and you only have about ten minutes to get your plant fruiting before winter.

Other than the initial synopsis, there’s not much more to this Plant Simulator. There are four plants to grow, each with increasing difficulty. There is a small shop where you can spend your excess seeds on the four ‘upgrades’ which are simple things like more regular watering or fertilizer for additional nutrients. I completed the entire game, achievements and all in a mere 72 minutes and for the $10 price tag, despite the good quality I felt significantly disappointed by the quantity.

The design is pretty and it plays ok. I had repeated issues with my clicks not registering on several occasions, especially when the game got busy late-stage. This was a real pain since the earlier you click on a glowing root of leaf the more resources you get from it.

Overall, it’s a new idea and it plays well enough, but the price tag is too high for such a small amount of content. Otherwise I would recommend Reach for the Sun as a fun casual filler, and who knows, maybe you’ll learn something.