Strange Horticulture‘s developer Bad Viking has today announced a follow-up to its occult plant investigation and puzzle title: Strange Antiquities. The sequel is set in the same location of Undermere but explores the arcane artifacts, which puts you in a position where you’ll be meeting those interested in acquiring them.
In Stange Antiquities, you’ll take on the role of an antique store owner. Running the business requires you to interact with all sorts of characters from Undermere and help them solve their fairly unique problems through the use of arcane artifacts. Along the way, there are mysteries and puzzles to be solved that will see you dive deeper into the town’s murky lore.
Strange Antiquities is a dark and cozy adventure that welcomes players into its mysteries
The bulk of the gameplay in Strange Antiquities will revolve around solving puzzles and mysteries. You’ll do this by taking requests from customers in the store, helping them solve their problems with the artifacts you’ve procured so far, and uncovering as much information as you can about the local town, Undermere.
There are books to leaf through in search of clues, information, and references you can use as you explore Undermere to help the locals in any way you can. The visuals make the game look like a cozy shop simulator, and I’m looking forward to seeing and feeling how the juxtaposition with cosmic horror elements pays off in action. I didn’t expect fishing and cosmic horror to go together so well in Dredge, so I’m hopeful this game will suck me right in.
The game is a sequel to Strange Horticulture, taking place years after its story came to a close. However, Stange Antiquities is designed to be a standalone experience, so you don’t need to have played the first game to enjoy it. However, it’s probably worth doing so just to see how the town has evolved.
With almost 10,000 positive reviews on Steam and over 500,000 copies sold, Bad Viking considers Stange Horticulture a massive success for an independent game developer. It hopes to live up to the reputation it built with that game and deliver yet another title that fans of the first will enjoy, but also welcome newcomers into its strange, cosmic horror-inspired world.
There is no release date for the game at the time of writing, but you can wishlist it on Steam to keep up to date with all the news and hear about any release windows as they are announced.
