flOw (PS4) - Review

So I got a brand spanking new PlayStation 4 and the first game I completed on it was an 8 year old Flash game.  Funny how things turn out.  flOw (no idea why it's written like that) was later ported to the PS3 with motion controls and has now fully evolved into a shiny 1080p PS4 launch game.  I mention this because that's the gist of the game - you start out as a very basic underwater creature that slowly grows and evolves before your eyes as you make your way through the levels becoming the most advanced version of you possible.

flOw is a very minimalistic game - there are no menus, intro videos or tutorials here, you're just landed straight into the game with no instructions on what you're meant to do.  You just start messing around and figure it out as you go.  This is all part of the game's charm - there's no pressure on you to achieve anything and playing it is a very relaxing and therapeutic experience.  Figuring out the purpose of the game is easy enough - eat stuff, grow bigger, repeat - but figuring out how the controls work might take a little longer.  

Your creature's movement is handled entirely by motion controls - although a button press will give you a boost.  Personally I found this all a bit fiddly and ended up twisting my hands in uncomfortable positions for short periods.  Eventually I did become accustomed to it and could move my character around the screen at ease, but it still felt a little gimmicky.  For such a relaxing and immersive game the controls were a bit of a pain and I don't really think they added much to it, given your movement is restricted to a 2D plane.  I can understand that they were added to show off the new features of the PS3's "Six Axis" controller, but given that the game was getting a facelift seven years down the line I would have liked to see the option of a more traditional control system implemented.

With that niggle out of the way, on to the good stuff. As I mentioned before flOw is a very relaxing game, so don't go in expecting to be hit with a bunch of challenges that will perplex your mind or test your reflexes. Calling the game "easy" would be an understatement, but it would also be doing it a disservice. This is more like a casual walk in the park rather than a mountain trek and if you approach it in this way there's plenty to enjoy.

The atmosphere adds immensely to the experience, created mostly by the subdued soundtrack that gives you the feeling of slowly drifting along in the ocean, washing away your worries.  The sound effects that are triggered by your creature's actions - simple movement or devouring other organisms - fit this tone excellently and sound quite musical themselves, so as you work your way through the levels it feels like you're creating your own soundtrack.  There are more sinister moments in the game as well and the music does an excellent job of shifting the tone with a single note evoking the isolation and the feeling of "the great unknown" that exists at the bottom of the ocean.

The graphics are pretty simple but the art style used is absolutely fantastic, often having only two to three bold colours on screen at one time but creating a brilliant contrast that will really show off what your HDTV can do.  The creatures on screen resemble balls of light more than solid objects and the effects are really impressive.

Overall flOw is a well put together game, but to be honest it just isn't that fun.  It's the kind of thing I'd much more enjoy having a gameplay video play on my TV in the background while I do something else - like one of those Christmas Fireplace or Tropical Aquarium DVDs - some kind of autoplay mode would really increase the chances of me loading it up again.  It's not an expensive game by any means and I did enjoy it for a while, but working through five different levels using the dodgy motion controls felt like more of a chore than I think playing video games should be.  There's no real climax or sense of achievement at the end either and I can't help but feel it may have worked better as just a freeplay game with no start or end points.

It takes less than two hours to see everything on offer and after that there's no real desire to go back and actually play the game again, but I still have a lingering desire to revisit the fabulous underwater world it created.  A real mixed bag of a game - not one that I would widely recommend to people, but if you like the sound of the ambience it creates and go in with low expectations of the actual gameplay then you'll find something to enjoy here.  Also, if you're on drugs it'll probably be an incredible experience.