I attended New Game Plus, where The Florist caught my eye. It immediately reminded me of the original Silent Hill and Resident Evil games,which I’m a die hard fan of, so I eagerly asked if I could give it a go.
I took a seat and The Florist‘s developer asked me if I’d prefer a controller or keyboard and mouse as a control scheme. As the game uses tank style controls, he recommended I use a controller for ease of use, so I went with this. Tank controls, if you’ve never used them, simply mean there’s a deliberate clunkiness to the controls that make them awkward to use on purpose. It took me a few minutes to adjust, but after that I was away and immersing myself in the game itself. We awaken covered in overgrowing plants and tear ourselves away, quickly finding lots of stray blood and bodies wrapped in flowers and vines, just as we were. We leave our supposed grave and find ourselves in a bank, overgrown with foliage and surrounded by bodies.
Straight away I felt like The Florist had taken me back into the original Resident Evil‘s mansion, and the gameplay certainly compliments that. We move from room to room, reading documents left by the still alive occupants here and through these, we can find some context clues and information to move forward, such as keypad numbers and the location of key items. After heading upstairs and rounding a corner, I get my first glimpse of our monsters; naked and covered in flowers, they were both horrifying and beautiful to look at. Our short demo ends with us finding our way to the roof with the promise to escape, with the creature from before hot on our heels.
Despite some grumblings with the controls that I could hear from around me as I played, I personally don’t think they could’ve made a horror game such as this any other way. The awkwardness of the controls, combined with the fixed camera angles, re-creates that unique brand of 90s horror that serves this game very well. I’m extremely excited to give this a full playthrough when it releases later this year!
The Florist is currently available to wishlist on Steam, with its full release due sometime this year.