Flow
Before Journey and before Flower, That Game Company created one of the first major 'art' games; Flow.
Flow, which was a rebuilt version of a Flash web-browser game by the same name, is like watching life as it exists under a microscope. The game itself is simple. Designed to simply provoke an emotional response instead of providing the player with a finite goal, playing Flow creates an amazing sense of calm that comes with floating around and enjoying the simple world around you.
In Flow, you control what appears to be a tiny microorganism. You float around suspended in a fluid world, tiny flecks of matter drifting around you. Just as it is when viewing through a microscope, your depth of field is so shallow that your playing field is a paper-thin 2D area. You can get a glimpse of the fore and background, but they are extremely out of focus, really solidifying that microscopic feel. You discover quickly that touching certain items will send you further and further into the background as you make your way through the world. You also discover that you can 'eat' certain other microorganisms. And as you do that, you grow in both size and beauty. Eventually swimming about as a magnificent glowing string of art.
In Flow there is no ending, no way to 'win' and no way to 'lose' and although it doesn't follow suit with our typical idea of a game in the end it accomplished a lot of the same things. It's fantastic, relaxing and interactive. Unlike some 'art games' Flow requires your input and with that feels like a proper videogame experience. I've put way more hours into Flow that you'd think is natural, but it really is just a beautiful and unique experience. And considering the price, (about 5$) it's well worth checking out if you own a PlayStation 3, PSP or PlayStation 4.
Flow, which was a rebuilt version of a Flash web-browser game by the same name, is like watching life as it exists under a microscope. The game itself is simple. Designed to simply provoke an emotional response instead of providing the player with a finite goal, playing Flow creates an amazing sense of calm that comes with floating around and enjoying the simple world around you.
In Flow, you control what appears to be a tiny microorganism. You float around suspended in a fluid world, tiny flecks of matter drifting around you. Just as it is when viewing through a microscope, your depth of field is so shallow that your playing field is a paper-thin 2D area. You can get a glimpse of the fore and background, but they are extremely out of focus, really solidifying that microscopic feel. You discover quickly that touching certain items will send you further and further into the background as you make your way through the world. You also discover that you can 'eat' certain other microorganisms. And as you do that, you grow in both size and beauty. Eventually swimming about as a magnificent glowing string of art.
In Flow there is no ending, no way to 'win' and no way to 'lose' and although it doesn't follow suit with our typical idea of a game in the end it accomplished a lot of the same things. It's fantastic, relaxing and interactive. Unlike some 'art games' Flow requires your input and with that feels like a proper videogame experience. I've put way more hours into Flow that you'd think is natural, but it really is just a beautiful and unique experience. And considering the price, (about 5$) it's well worth checking out if you own a PlayStation 3, PSP or PlayStation 4.
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