Strange Antiquities review

Having played (and loved) Strange Horticulture when it launched back in 2022, I’ve been very excited to get my hands on Strange Antiquities. It’s not a sequel per se; this is very much a standalone game. But taking the same format of Strange Horticulture, it’s squarely aimed at anyone who enjoyed the weird and wonderful experience it brought to the table. For better or for worse, Strange Antiquities is more of the same, but this time you’re dealing with antiques rather than plants.

While the owner is away, you’ve been given the responsibility of looking after Strange Antiquities, a strange little antiques store hidden away in the town of Undermere in England’s Lake District. You aren’t dealing in regular antiques, however — this isn’t your run-of-the-mill episode of Bargain Hunt. Instead, your shop is filled with items imbued with weird and wonderful properties. Cursed objects, objects that are believed to have healing or protection powers, and a whole lot more. You’ve simply got to match your customer with the correct item. Easy, right?

Well, not quite. The joy of Strange Antiquities is in identifying and labelling each item. You’re new at this, and so you don’t know what anything is. When a customer comes in asking for a Shadow Hold or a Voice of Cernunnos, you’ve first got to figure out what that is. Thankfully, you’re equipped with a very helpful book, providing a description of each item. They’re never obvious, though, and you’ll still have to use your powers of deduction to pull the correct item off your shelves.

Perhaps you’ll be told what colour it is, or what material it’s made out of. Sometimes you’ll be told what something weighs, so you’ll need to pull out your trusty scales to weigh it for yourself. Other times, descriptions are more vague, and you might need to check your other books — books about patterns and gemstones — to see if you can decipher any other clues.

That’s what makes Strange Antiquities so enjoyable: it puts the onus completely in your hand as the player. If you get stuck, there is a hint button, but it never hands you the solution on a plate; it simply points you in the right direction. If you don’t have an analytical mind, if you don’t enjoy solving puzzles, you’re probably not going to get along with Strange Antiquities. But if you do enjoy holding all the power and being able to figure things out for yourself, then you’re going to love it.

Sometimes, your customers don’t exactly know what item they want. They’ll tell you what they want help with — a customer who has lost their sight wants to be able to paint again, for example — and you’ll need to use the tools available to you to figure out the right object. Thankfully, that helpful book about antiques has an index, and by searching up the right keyword, you should be able to find the object that’s needed. Providing you can then identify it on your shelves, that is.

There’s much more to Strange Antiquities too, from the curious letters you’ll receive and the odd secrets that litter your shop space. You’ll constantly be solving clues and figuring out what things mean in order to move forward with the game. A letter may contain a clue to the location of a new object, for example. By using your map of the area, you can travel to new locations where you might find something else useful. Later, you’ll also get a map of a castle and a catacombs map, giving you even more areas to explore.

Sometimes, further investigation is optional, but most of the time you’ll need to crack the clues you’re given on letters or cards because you’ll need the items they uncover. If you don’t keep on top of investigating all leads, you’ll soon find yourself in a situation where you’re unable to help the customers who come into your shop. And you don’t want that, do you?

Despite putting you in charge of an antiques shop, Strange Antiquities isn’t a simulation of any sort. You don’t need to worry about your balance sheet or stock levels, and despite giving customers what they need, no money will exchange hands. You just have to assume it’s happening, I guess. It isn’t important. What is important, however, is finding the right items for the people of Undermere and unravelling the secrets of the town.

Like Strange Horticulture, there is an overarching narrative to Strange Antiquities. It was perhaps my least favourite part of Horticulture, feeling a little underdeveloped. Unfortunately, it’s the case here too. It’s not bad, but it’s difficult to closely follow when you’re so invested in finding items and solving any clues or cryptic messages that come your way. Does it make the game any worse as a result? Not at all, but it’s slightly disappointing that developer Bad Viking hasn’t thought to change things up a little in order to make the story of Strange Antiquities more gripping.

But Bad Viking hasn’t wanted to change much, really — and when the recipe of Strange Horticulture was such a good one, it’s easy to understand why. It’s a formula that works really well, and while I think that identifying plants might just have the edge of antiques, I’ve loved every moment here almost just as much as I did with its predecessor. If you loved Strange Horticulture, too, then consider this a must-play. And if you’re new, you’re in for a treat.