A Treeplanter: Plant Real Trees review might seem out of place on a video game site and more appropriate for your Grandpa’s toilet reading, Gardner’s World, but trust me: this is a video game. On top of that, it’s also making the crossover like Jumanji and bringing the game to life in the real world. But how?
For every copy of the game sold, the developer will plant an actual tree. This is neither a gimmick nor a marketing ploy, but an excellent effort to bring some focus to the world outside and make a difference. Yes, most of you are afraid to touch grass, and the developer knows this as they’re doing all the heavy lifting. You simply have to purchase the game, and the job is done.
Couldn’t you just donate money to a charity, or plant your own tree instead? Sure, do both, and buy Treeplanter: Plant Real Trees, as there’s a product at the end of it. That product is a very wholesome simulator that lets you place trees in various settings, then appropriately dress the scene with mushrooms, ruins, bicycles and bunting. If the words aren’t painting a picture, and you’re desperately heading towards a YouTube trailer, think SUMMERHOUSE with trees.
Trees aren’t meticulously planted as seeds to watch grow, as it’s clear gamers want results. From a selection of available wood, you simply select from a menu that sits at the foot of the screen and place, rearrange and resize, adding the appropriate leaves for that particular wood brand, i.e. oak or cherry tree. You can mix and match, however, though anyone with an ounce of symmetry might want to stick with Nature’s rules. Once you have placed your tree(s), the next step is to create a scene with the available objects.
Bark, bushes and bicycles are the first things that come to mind – anything to make your Treeplanter: Plant Real Trees scene come alive. For everything you place, it subtly becomes animated in line with the weather, or radiates some sort of energy to indicate it’s very much alive. As there are no objectives besides fun and relaxation, the point of the game, other than promoting awareness of our world, is to create our own custom one, encapsulated as a desktop diorama. I say desktop, as I would have loved the option to export this as a desktop wallpaper. You can take pics at any time, mind.
Building your biome is pretty and all, but when it’s done, that’s it, right? Not necessarily, as you can also add weather changes, seasons, and the time of day. Rainy scenes are zen-like, foggy settings are the opposite of Silent Hill, and for those with a penchant for the psychedelic will love the toggles the colour selector provides, creating serene, trippy postcard art that makes it very inviting and… cool.
Naturally, you can run out of steam when your creative juices dry up. Fortunately, there are fun facts throughout that give details on wildlife, allowing them to populate the landscape. There are also external links on how you might want to get involved, too. Other bits? I wasn’t a fan of the music. It suits the themes, though I found it overpowering and had to mute it and instead soak up the ambience of the badgers and their house parties. Well, more techno. Works great on the Steam Deck, though I’d suggest playing via a big screen, what with the aesthetics being the focal point. And get this: it costs £3.99 to plant an actual tree, which someone else will do for you, and you get a lovely sandbox to play on your PC, too!
