“Urban Jungle” Offers a Cozy Plant Deco Experience – Game Review

Indie title Urban Jungle makes for a cozy game experience where you get to decorate numerous living spaces with tons of indoor plants.

I was provided with a review code for Urban Jungle on Steam/PC for free. The opinions I have shared are my own.

If you have been looking for a cute-looking cozy game that allows you to place a bunch of plants (tiny and somewhat large ones) in different rooms then Urban Jungle is for you. Even though I’m not the biggest plant lover out there (I appreciate plants – just don’t ask me to take care of them), I liked being able to collect different species of flora and finding the best spots for my pots to earn higher scores.

Developed by Kylyk Games and published by Assemble Entertainment, the premise of Urban Jungle is simple. You get to play as a woman named Ayta Borisova. She’s excelling in her career but at the cost of her passion for plants and her personal life. The story is about making the time to reconnect with what you love and appreciating relationships when you still can.

It’s not the most well-written story, with several major developments in Ayta’s life feeling rushed, but then again, Urban Jungle is about allowing you the time to relax and take a breather from whatever stress you might be experiencing in life rather than trying to feel for Ayta. Most of the emotional layers to Ayta’s character are likely due to what the player will project on her as they make their way through her backstory and how they relate to what Ayta’s been through.

The first chapter took me back to when Ayta was very young and excited about helping her grandmother place plants around the house. The gameplay mechanics were easy to grasp. It’s a point-and-click mechanic merged with a simple puzzle design. The objective is to put potted plants in a given area while trying to maximize points to unlock new plants and advance through the game.

Each green buddy has needs covering their affinity to Light, Humidity, and other plants. For example, an African Violet needs light and humidity. It loves being next to a cactus. And it hates being next to a ficus. The points you will gain from a placement appear above the plant. The points will increase or decrease as you move the plant around a room depending on how many of the plant’s needs are being met.

You can move a plant whenever you want to during a stage and you can basically place it anywhere. I wasn’t expecting to be able to move around decor, knickknacks, books, and other items to make space for the plants. So, yeah, it’s up to you if you want to completely rearrange a room to ensure every plant placement not only fulfills floral needs but also makes for an aesthetically pleasing environment or you can simply focus on placing pots in high-scoring areas without worrying about how the room looks like. I mean, you can literally transform the room into a jungle of potted plants if you want. It all depends on how chaotic or relaxed you feel during a particular gameplay session.

Objects such as lamps and humidifiers can be moved as well as turned on or off. You will get to see the range of the humidifier and the lamp to get a better idea when it comes to where certain pots should be placed.

You also have the choice to keep decorating a room even after meeting the requirements to move to the next chapter. And if you do proceed, you can return to a previous room with your creative hat on. Urban Jungle offers a lot of replayability even though you can complete the story mode in a couple of hours.

A diary lets you keep track of the different plants you have unlocked. While playing you will have access to free plants as well as plants that cost in-game currency. Being a cozy game, earning coins is incredibly easy. And sticking with the cozy theme, there’s no countdown and no need to worry about watering your plants or them wilting.

Here’s some of my gameplay footage!

The visuals in Urban Jungle can be described as bright and colorful without being garish. Everything has a nice cartoonish look to it. The text is easy to read. You can also zoom in and out if you want to be more detailed about your decorating spree or wish to better appreciate particular rooms.

The soundtrack is easy on the ears and doesn’t try to divert your attention away from the screen or whatever thought you might be into while moving plants around.

Urban Jungle is currently available on Steam/PC. You can own it for an introductory price of CAD $12.85 before it goes back to the original pricing of CAD $15.49 on April 4, 2025.

What did you think of Urban Jungle? Have you played it yet?

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Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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