It reared up, red eyes glowing, evil fangs at the ready, and let out an unearthly shriek. I rushed towards the demon with my pitiful club and a half-hearted battle cry. I was ready to leap into the water, where I knew the wolf spider couldn't follow, but I wanted vengeance. And then a leg appeared, coming around the corner. Too late, during a break in the conversation, I heard an alien noise: something akin to footsteps, but with more implied menace. We were hanging out in our base next to a building-sized juice box (which I've since turned into a watchtower) discussing how safe we felt, and how we were hidden from any spiders that may have followed him back. Just the other night I was chatting away with a friend after they narrowly escaped a spider. At least until I get distracted and something nasty sneaks up on me. I feel like a tiny wilderness expert, all thanks to the incredible sound design. Visibility is low when you're surrounded by tree-sized grass, but after living in the garden for so long, now I can paint a picture of it using my ears. The garden is never at rest, and every step you take is accompanied by a cacophony of bug noises-at first seemingly discordant, but eventually reassuring and familiar. There are few sandboxes that feel this alive. Rather than an issue that needs to be fixed, however, the ability to win fights through cheesy tactics just feels like another legitimate survival strategy, and even in a state of befuddlement the garden's biggest predators are still intimidating menaces. So while the critter AI seems troublingly effective at times, it's also easily baffled or broken. Or maybe you'll be even more cunning, drawing them towards a place where you know they'll get stuck. Maybe you'll climb up somewhere you can't be reached, peppering your enemies with arrows. Sometimes the best path to victory is cheating a little bit. The bugs have all the physical advantages, but you've got that clever human brain. I killed my first stinkbug-a poison-spewing devil-beast-by creating a three-way brawl between it, a ladybug and a group of ants. The world is just so tantalisingly reactive, and it's a reactivity you're encouraged to exploit.
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