flOw

When Tabitha suggested we review this game, I was little reluctant to begin with. Like I told her, it's already been reviewed on Something Awful. My fear of bandwagons is exceeded only by the twinge of self-loathing I experience when, yet again, I hop on one. Then again, how many games are reviewed in more than one place? More to the point, we've both been playing it for a month or so now. If that's not a good reason to review it, kindly fax us with a definition of what is.

Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough.

Put simply, flOw is different. This game's development forms part of Jenova Chen's thesis, so naturally one would expect something a little different. One can hardly submit a Space Invaders clone and expect a good mark! The background music is a soft new-agey drone that evokes memories of aquatic games like Ecco the Dolphin. The characters drift and dart across the screen in a graceful manner that one rarely sees outside of a Richard Attenborough or Jacques Cousteau documentary. Games set entirely underwater are a bit of a rarity, and it's great to see a game that captures the feel of such a setting. Though the graphics don't have much in common with reality, they're possessed of a kind of simplicity and sparse beauty that puts one in mind of Asteroids. The creatures don't just glow; they're all but bioluminescent. Damaged sections of monsters fade into semi-opacity.

With a game this appears that esoteric, one would hope that it's as easy to play as it is weird. Gameplay is pretty straightforward. Your character swims towards the mouse pointer, and clicking the left mouse button gives you an extra burst of speed. Beyond that, all you need to do is eat. Point your character at the fish and let nature take its course! Fish vary in size and therefore food value. The more you eat, the more segments you get for your character. The more segments you have, the faster you move. The game also throws in a load of hostile creatures for you to fight, in the shape of other fish that resemble your character, jellyfish and mantas. Each has its own peculiar behaviour and style of motion. Some monsters are totally hostile, relentless in their attempts to feast on your body segments. Others are made of less stern stuff: they panic and scarper as soon as you separate them from their fellows or give them so much as a nibble.

Eat them up, yum!

The game is not particularly hectic, but at the same time it's not dull. The operative word, really, is soothing. The game is quite immersive, if you'll excuse the choice of words. One can quite happily while away half an hour and come away from it feeling chilled. For those of you that are technically minded, it's also quite easy to customise the offline version of the game to your own tastes, as the game refers to quite a few external files. If you know XML you can put in more food, more enemies, and even modify their behaviour to a modest degree. Had enough of the soundtrack? Rename some mp3 files and put them in the game's directory! (Now there's an idea for an article! - Bluey)

The only nit I feel I can pick with the gameplay is that sometimes it can get a little sluggish, even with a 1.80GHz processor and a gig of RAM under the hood. I found that especially evident when I tried playing the game in fullscreen.