Page 107 - PC Gamer - UK (February 2020)

NOW PL AY ING
Gardens have different essences to
match what a character needs.
Make use of the plants and fungi
guide to know what you’re growing.
PUSHING UP DAISIES
Gardens have numerous narrative
meanings within the story – they’re
not just a place to plant flowers. They
can be a place of healing, a space to
relax and forget problems, or a
special haven of privacy and peace
between two people.
To grow your garden, you collect
seeds from the various weird flora
and fauna around the Mutazione.
When potted, each plant plays its
own quiet, unique motif. When
added among a group of its own kind,
it joins the garden to create a rich
musical ensemble. Each plot is
catered to a particular character, and
even though years have past since the
devastating impact, many still
harbour pain and regret.
Mutazione reimagines a post-
apocalypse full of life. With
gardening, one quality is of the
utmost importance – patience.
Waiting for something to grow and
bloom is a slow and deliberate
process. To want immediate
gratification is missing the point –
that’s the message this game is trying
to convey with its slow rhythms and
gentle atmosphere.
Mutazione isn’t constantly trying
to grab my attention; it’s more
interested in slower moments that
are truly invested with meaning. The
want for a quick reward comes from
a place of consumption instead of
care. Gardening improves both the
garden, the gardener, and, Mutazione
posits, their community.
THE GAMES WE LOVE RIGHT NOW
It’d be nice if matches didn’t
take 45 minutes though.
“A game of gentle
satisfactions”
Gettingtogripswith DOTA UNDERLORDS
confusing enough without pulling
ROBIN VALENTINE switcheroos on me.
THIS MONTH
Combined into the three RELEASE VALVE
star version of himself Suddenly spiteful, I close TFT and
ALSO PLAYED head over to its most direct
ManaSpark, competitor: Dota Underlords. Despite
DarksidersGenesis being clueless about Dota 2’s many
champions (aside from twinges of
ast issue, I took an recognition of the Warcraft III
L illuminating but models that inspired them),
disappointing foray something about Underlords is clearer
into Hearthstone’s to me, with a clean interface and
auto-battler-inspired more intuitive mechanics. Valve
Battlegrounds mode. This month I always has been good at polish.
thought I’d see if I could use my It takes some getting to grips with,
newly acquired knowledge to but my experience with Hearthstone
finally get to grip with the genre’s Battlegrounds proves helpful.
beefier frontrunners. Without realising it, I’ve already
burned the core rhythms and logic of
I’m a lapsed League Of Legends the genre into my brain – learning
obsessive, so I figured its spin-off Underlords is just a case of filling in
Teamfight Tactics would be the the details around them.
auto-battler for me, but if anything I’m hooked. Auto-battlers create a
my prior experience is a hindrance. multiplayer experience like no other.
Weirdly, Riot has decided to remix its I’m battling seven players, but never
roster for TFT, using alt versions of really lifting a finger against them
characters with new allegiances. – combat is automated, with all the
So, merrily building myself an icy competition existing in the planning
‘Glacial’ team, I spot Ashe. If there’s stage. The strategy is fast and tense,
one thing I still know about LoL it’s as I make countless decisions against
that Ashe is the Frost Archer – her the clock. But my detachment from
defining trait is her freezing arrows. the action makes it oddly relaxed.
A perfect fit with the rest of my crew! Underlords is a game of gentle
Except, bafflingly, here Ashe is a satisfactions and disappointments,
‘Crystal’ character, with no synergy at not adrenaline and frustration. As my
all with my team. I should have gone gaming reflexes grow increasingly
for now-inexplicably chilly variants rusty, I’m grateful to have found my
of archaeologist Ezrael and werewolf path into a genre that revels in a kind
Warwick. Honestly the genre’s of pleasing passivity.
FEBRUARY 2020 107