Gnomes Garden: Christmas Story Reviews

great time management game. the boosts are nice and stack well, but require strategy.

Love these games. The time crunch is a lot more extreme on this one.

As a Gnome Garden, time management game, it's fine. A few annoying aspects like not having PC shortcuts (a lot of these are on console too and they have them, so it's silly for PC not to have any). And at times the workers will decide to just not do something right next to them and return to the tent and a different one will go do the action. I don't remember any other game in the series having that issue. As a Christmas themed game, no. It's very loose, much like the Halloween game. You'll forget it was supposed to be a Christmas game after awhile. It's more winter/snow themed and at times they just lazily tack on some presents that look independent of the game. Like they made another Gnomes Garden and then somebody said, "Hey, we've got quite a few and they run together... theme it after Christmas!" and just tacked that on. I mean you could have had a magic portal take the princess to the North Pole and help Santa rebuild and prepare for Christmas and to help her get home, anything. But nah, just trolls steal presents and then it's mostly just the same thing. At most a few levels let you build some Christmas themed trees which are all stacked pretty early on in the game and then they stop appearing entirely even in later snow levels. And there's some like weird Christmas ornaments that grow. It's not a well thought out Christmas theme. But if you like the games, then it's solid. Insane price, but it goes on sale for a buck and change and it's easily worth that.

Ends abruptly promising To Be Continued. Some levels have required actions that otherwise force a restart. Under par quality. Questionable price fluctuations. Buy cheap if you must have.

Finally picked this up for $0.67 after years of waiting so it's the last Gnomes Garden to complete the series in my library. It plays like the more modern versions but the Christmas theme really doesn't fit the game. Not saying that's a bad thing but they basically didn't do much to each environment or the gnomes to give it more Christmas flare. Which I feel they should have to make it the "Christmas" Gnomes Garden. They did add Christmas music in the background and a Christmas theme to the tiny bit of "story" that you read in the cut scenes but that's about it. No gnomes in Christmas attire at all. If you're looking to complete the Gnomes Garden collection then grabbing this at its deepest discount is recommended. Other than that, it's not exactly one to grab if you're not a collector. EDIT: This game has ramped up the difficulty in terms of 3 starring a level and this started at level 13 which you CANNOT get 3 stars because it's so hard. It's the last level before changing environments so maybe that's how each last environmental level will be. I'm all for this challenge but GOOD LORD is it difficult.

The last Gnomes Garden is very similar to the rest. Easy to Medium levels, story is basic, including Christmas mood being relatively minimal. Casual fun. Later titles are much more thematic, more heavily skinned, so that feedback was taken.

Pros: - Each level lets you take as long as you want/need, despite the timer. - The tutorial is very effective. - Despite not being a proper puzzle game some levels do require low levels of strategic planning. - You can continue on with the story regardless of how many stars you earned for the previous levels, as long as you finish the level before moving on to the next. - You can pause and restart levels whenever you want, and you can replay levels whenever you want. Cons: - Young players will find it frustrating or impossible to try and achieve 3 stars on every level. - The story is quite lacklustre.

If you agree the original Die Hard movie was a Christmas themed movie, than I'll agree this is a Christmas themed game. In all honesty, it's just a reskinned Gnomes Garden game, nothing wrong with that and if you are after more of the same, go ahead, a couple of levels pose a challenge, although overall easy to 100% compared to later 12 Labours titles. If you are however looking specifically for a Christmas themed game, move along. Please note that this review does not factor in the price for Gnomes Garden: Christmas Story. DO NOT buy this game at full price, it's a rip off. Gnomes Garden 1, 2, 3, New Home & Lost King are all £3.99 each and those games are worth that price. Gnomes Garden Christmas Story & Halloween are three times that price, yet are just reskins. Do not pay more than £4 for this game. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2431359812

This game is really cute and perfect for zoning out while you're waiting for the cannabis to kick in. There's no frustrating clock you're working against, really. If you want 3 stars then there's a cute little timer that reminds you softly, but other than that this game is really relaxing, cute, festive and fun. One thing I will say, though...if you're looking for that 100% achievement quickly, it won't happen because a couple of the achievs are kind of hard to get...one of them is getting 3 stars on ALL levels. It will take you some time, but completely doable. Anyway, I def recommend this game. Have fun!

Gnomes Garden: Christmas Story is a strategic path clearing, time managing puzzle game. It's simple, fun and it becomes very addictive to achieve that perfect high score. The levels take only a few minutes each to clear but are often easily completed. The game offers a decent amount of content to keep you busy for a while. Well designed levels which get harder as you progress. I enjoyed the dialog about erecting a Christmas Tree, Christmas will never be the same again for me. Even though I recommend this game, I won't recommend it for the price of 12,49€, which is absolutely a ridiculous price to me. The 12 Labours of Hercules series are very similar to this game, but those look better and are 2,99€ each.