Original Game by Creobit
Xbox One Port by SPL
Published by 8Floor Games
Released for Xbox One (7/4/2018)
Also on PC/PS4/Switch
The first thing that struck me about Gnomes Garden 3 was the fresh title music. After using that same played-out tune in the first games, this is definitely a step in the right direction. There's also some animation on the title screen, with lightning flashes reflecting off the surroundings and an animated fire flickering from the troll queen's hand. The second entry was very similar to the first game, so seeing even this small improvement makes a good first impression and gives hope that the developers stepped it up this time. Let's take a look at Gnomes Garden 3 and see how it fares.
The story involves the princess returning back to her homeland only to discover that the castle has vanished out of thin air. The warlock from the Great Grey Wastelands possesses an "all-powerful magic" that can shrink anything down to the size of a child's toy. So off you embark on your journey to figure out where the warlock is, which of course involves completing 49 stages filled with various tasks. It's a bit odd how they always act like the princess is such a big part of the action in the story bits, but during the game she's never anywhere to be seen, but I suppose we should just be content they've given us any kind of story at all. Perhaps the player is supposed to be the princess, issuing the commands out to her gnome troops.
The core gameplay is exactly as you remembered it in the previous entries. You collect the same resources: wood, stone, food and crystals. Each building that produces these resources can be upgraded up to 3 times and when upgraded will produce more of whatever resource that building handles. Some stages take away the ability to upgrade your buildings, but we'll come back to that in the next paragraph. Each stage has a time goal in which to be completed and finishing the fastest will get you 3 stars. Overall the difficulty felt much more lax on the time requirements and there weren't any stages that gave me trouble, where the previous games had at least a few stages I had try repeatedly before nailing that 3-star rating. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, just a heads up that this game is a bit easier than the previous entries.
They've changed a few things up for the third entry of Gnomes Garden. There is a new building on certain stages called the Merrymaker's House. On stages that have the Merrymaker's House, you lose the ability to upgrade your buildings, but now gain the option to send a merrymaker over to one of your production buildings. Once clicked, the merrymaker will enter the building and play music for 20 seconds, increasing the output of whatever resource that building pumps out. You can continue to use this guy as much you'd like. There's also the ability to upgrade the Merrymaker's House, up to 3 levels, to allow multiple merrymakers to occupy several buildings at once. It's a cool feature and part of the reason this game is easier than previous entries.
Another change to the gameplay involves the trolls that occasionally show up to pester you. In previous games, these guys would show up and would temporary stall your workers until you send them away, which required a firefighter. Instead of pestering your workers, in this game the trolls will show up and steal a bundle of resources that you haven't sent a worker to collect. The trolls are still taken care of in the same fashion, which requires having a firefighter available and clicking on the troll to send them over.
Gnomes Garden 3 is another very similar yet enjoyable entry into the franchise. While it is mostly more of the same, it's still a fun little time-killer that doesn't demand a whole lot from the player. There's still the issue of accidentally clicking buildings and upgrading them when you mean to collect the resources, you've just got to be careful where you're clicking sometimes. These games are a bit of a guilty pleasure, they're kind of dumb and super simple but for whatever reason they can be fun in little bursts here and there. They're definitely not something I'll come back to once I beat them, but not something I regret having spent the time playing either. Give it a shot if a simple resource collector and builder sounds like fun.
Final Verdict: Gnomes Garden 3 contains more of the same resource gathering and building that the earlier games had, but it changes a few things and still proves to be an enjoyable little time-killer.
Related Links:
Buy Gnomes Garden 3 - Microsoft Store
Buy Gnomes Garden 3 in 1 Bundle - Microsoft Store
Buy 8Floor Strategic Collection - Microsoft Store
SPL - Developer Official Site
8Floor Games - Twitter
Gnomes Garden 3 - Metacritic
Gnomes Garden 3 - GameFAQs
Gnomes Garden 3 - True Achievements
Gnomes Garden 3 - Xbox Achievements
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