Cancel those Halloween plans, Undermere beckons!
I’ve been chomping at the bit to return to Undermere since playing Strange Horticulture, and Bad Viking’s follow-up did not disappoint. Featuring new and returning characters, an expanded research mechanic, and a wonderfully eerie atmosphere, Strange Antiquities is a delightful puzzler more than worthy of your time.
My Rating: ★★★★★ (More at the bottom)
2025 has been the year of the puzzle game. First came The Roottrees Are Dead in January. Then Blue Prince exploded onto the scene, followed by The Drifter and Is This Seat Taken? The year has been a veritable buffet of games for your brain, and I, for one, couldn’t be happier. Bad Viking adds to this distinguished list with Strange Antiquities, the follow-up to their 2022 debut Strange Horticulture.
In Antiquities, you’re an apprentice thaumaturge to Eli White in the city of Undermere, where Strange Horticulture also took place. He’s put you in charge of the shop for a few days, and of course, leaves with a warning not to touch or mess with anything. By this point in the game, though, a whopping five minutes in, I had already reorganized the current trinkets in the shop to my liking and fiddled with enough of the drawers and knobs and pet Jupiter (the resident mysterious cat of Strange Antiquities) so many times that IT’S ALL MINE NOW, ELI. (Hehehe)
Regardless, you quickly learn that all isn’t okay in Undermere again. The ravens are out in force, and there’s a mysterious affliction running about. People are scared, so they’re turning to anything that may help or protect them in such times, bringing a revolving door of people to your shop. If you played Strange Horticulture, the gameplay loop is similar. They’ll make a request, and you’ll use the tools at your disposal to attempt to fulfill said request.
This time around, instead of just one book to base your research on, there are several. There’s a main encyclopedia, but in addition, you’ll also have a book on curses, another on gems, and even another focusing on symbols. The combination makes the game even more immersive than the first, and each time it flashed that I made a correct recommendation, I couldn’t help but feel accomplished. (And in awe of how well-crafted all the items you come across are.) There are no time constraints, no ticking clock while you’re doing your research and figuring out whether the stone item you have in your hand is a Fortinance or an Evocant.
You’ll have a daily mystery or two to solve as well, as you did in Strange Horticulture. At the start of each day, you’ll have a tarot card that contains words, or sometimes just an image, and it’s up to you to figure out what it means. Again, there are no time constraints, so if you spend fifteen minutes (of real time) poring over one of your maps to see if lines or squares match up, that’s FINE. Sometimes, when David Chafer would come with the mail, I’d joke about it being lunch time and head off to wherever the letter pointed me toward.
Being that this was a sequel, you may think that playing Strange Horticulture is a must. It’s not, but it should be because it’s that good. Several characters from that game will pop up at your shop in Antiquities, and each time I saw one appear, it was like seeing an old friend for the first time in years, a feeling I never thought I’d get from a dark detective point-and-click game.
My only wish is that there had been more connections between Strange Horticulture and Strange Antiquities (the shops themselves), such as needing a specimen of a particular plant to unlock a feature of one of my wares, or needing an artifact from me to do something in their shop. You can visit the shop and spend a nice moment there, but that’s all.
Strange Antiquities is available now for $17.99 (USD) on Steam and Nintendo Switch!
