Trees Hate You

Trees Hate You is a puzzle-driven rage game at heart, built around tricking players by turning familiar gaming tropes against them. This game excels at this; however, the constant deception left me more frustrated than amused. Even so, I kept returning; I was determined to outsmart this god-damned forest and reach the end.

Before the game began, I could create my own unique character or select their pre-made “loser” character. I chose to play with my own creation, making the deaths and traps feel just that little bit more personal.

The game starts with my character enjoying a picnic in the woods, next to a spectacular, shimmering tree. Walking closer for an inspection, I soon found myself being chased by coin-shaped mines and was soon tossed into the woods with an explosion. After reloading and learning the first of many painful lessons, the real challenge begins. I decided hiking through the forest was the best choice to continue this adventure; even with a path to follow, I was still questioning every tree nearby. Trees Hate You is the perfect title, as the trees really did hate me.

The entirety of the game is focused on a cycle of failure, discovery and slow progress. If a trap stopped me, it was time to learn how it worked and how to pass it, using that knowledge on the rest of my journey. Reaching a checkpoint often felt like a bit of a relief before the trees came up with their next deadly trap. This hostility wasn’t limited to the level either; with the menu containing a deadly tree within, I found this out the hard way.

Movement in the game felt good, with a snappy and responsive control scheme for both keyboard and controller. Though each method worked well, I did prefer the controller due to the diagonal movements being made easier. In-game,e this slight positioning sometimes was the difference between life and death, so the precision was appreciated.

For the most part, the challenges felt fair, with each death usually teaching me something that could be applied to the next attempt. However, in some sections, I felt that I had little control over the surrounding elements. During these moments, progress definitely felt like it was more luck-based than skill-based. I found I could accept being tricked by the game and often laughed at my own failure, but I also felt frustrated when it felt like the deaths were completely out of my control.

The checkpoint placements were generally good; there were even some trick ones. They were typically placed conveniently enough that it didn’t always feel too punishing. Even so, there were some sections that felt particularly gruelling and tedious, especially when I felt less like my mistakes and more like I was unlucky. Despite those frustrations, when I finally overcame those sections, the sense of elation was incredible. The harder the section was to beat, the sweeter the victory felt.

The game allowed me to visit several biomes, with each having its own unique elements of malicious trees and vegetation and a theme. I like the winter and autumn biomes the best. The variety of trees in this game is impressive, and the way they attacked me was ridiculous. Some trees tackled me, others tripped me; in one section they had axes, in other areas guns or missiles, while others were just in the most inconvenient places. Each new type made me reconsider what I thought I knew and, more importantly, taught me not to trust a tree.

While thegame’ss visuals are relatively simple, the style suits the game’s ridiculous premise well and gives the hostile trees vast amounts of personality. The changing biomes welcome a bit of variety throughout the journey.

The melodic soundtrack creates a pleasant atmosphere that doesn’t distract from the game’s puzzles. The game’s sound effects are somewhat less comforting; this is particularly so when it is accompanying a tree’s brutal attack on me. After hearing some of these too many times, I am starting to worry about venturing outside into my tree-surrounded backyard.

The game’s performance across my three main computers and handheld was great; the game ran perfectly on all three systems. I did not see any problems during my time. I did, however, prefer to play on my main PC due to the screen size and the fact that It’s a lot harder to toss across the room when being frustrated. Overall, Trees Hate You is a brilliant juxtaposition of love and dislike for me; I loved the game’s style, premise, sense of success and tone,e but also disliked how frustrated it made me during times when I was less than successful. The art and music tie well into the game’s overall nature,e and it was a fun, yet frustrating time spent with this game. The game’s humour and great variety of trees and traps were interesting; however, I am also now scared to go outside.

Overall, Trees Hate You is a brilliant juxtaposition of love and dislike for me; I loved the game’s style, premise, sense of success and tone, but also disliked how frustrated it made me during times when I was less than successful. The art and music tie well into the game’s overall nature, and it was a fun, yet frustrating time spent with this game. The game’s humour and great variety of trees and traps were interesting to me; however, I am also now scared to go outside.

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