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| Source // PlayStation |
If there's only one unusual trilogy on the PlayStation 3, it has to be the non-trilogy that is flOw, Flower, and Journey. The 1001 list was written years before the release of Journey, but it would definitely get a spot on the list alongside the other two games.
These games aren't anything alike or connected beyond the fact that they are pretty chill experiences, asking you to reflect as much as play and explore. If video games have too much going on for your liking, maybe you just want to drift through life as an amoeba-looking thing in the first game, flOw.
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| Source // PlayStation |
Fun Times
I'm playing the PlayStation 3 release of flOw, with its motion controls and fancy minimalist graphics, but it was actually a Flash game created for a masters thesis before it was 'that weird little game' everyone was talking about for a bit.
The Flash version can be found online, but my character - if we can really call it that - disappeared after a second or two, never to be seen again, and controlling an invisible creature is quite tricky, so my first real encounter with this mysterious game was on the PS3.
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| Source // PlayStation |
The game is simple, but nothing is outright told to you. It's a game of discovery, and thankfully, there's not a whole lot to discover.
You are a creature of some sort, drifting through life with two goals in mind, eat and survive. You automatically gobble up food when you're near enough to do so, each little meal increasing your size or power, or adding decorative frills to make you look more impressive.
When you've scoured your small environment enough, you can eat a red thingy to descend to a deeper level, which you've had a blurry view of all the while, watching bigger creatures than you go about their own lives.
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| Source // PlayStation |
Some of these other creatures are aggressive, turning flOw into a real dog-eat-dog world, only with cellular lifeforms rather than dogs. If you get eaten you'll lose chunks of health and will eventually be kicked back up a level for you to regain your strength. There's no death state here, no game over. This is a calming game, remember. It's all about losing yourself in the flow and letting time just slip by.
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| Source // PlayStation |
You can play flOw at your own pace, and the early pace will be one of fumbling, as you try to work out how the motion controller relates to your creatures heading. By the end of playing, I wasn't holding the controller in any kind of sensible grip at all, rather balancing it on a few fingers and gently moving it around.
By that point, I'd almost zoned out and was onto my third creature.
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| Source // PlayStation |
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| Source // PlayStation |
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| Source // PlayStation |
As you descend through the levels, there will come a point where you suddenly give birth, or at the very least get disconnected from your creature and plopped into a single cell in a sort of hub world (a very loose definition), where you can begin a new life as a new thing. This jellyfish-like creature not only looks different but behaves differently too.
On the PS3 release, you had some powers available to you to make life a little easier, though what these were and how often they were available I don't know. A burst of speed, for example, to help you dart towards a bit of food or, better yet, pierce through an enemy and tear them to shreds, gobbling up their remains to regain health and grow to a more impressive being.
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| Source // PlayStation |
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| Source // PlayStation |
Frustrations
My third creature was this fish-looking thing, and by this point during my time with flOw, I was wondering when it would end. Partly because it was getting a bit old, but mostly because I was having a tricky time trying to control this fish.
When levels get packed with things that want to eat you, you almost need to approach them with a strategy. Tear through the target that's far away from the others, for example, rather than diving into the thick of it and hoping the chaos will help you out. Fail and it's back up a level, which is no bad thing, but if there's nothing to eat to regain health you might be out of luck.
You could always rush to the exit. You don't have to eat everything. It's not like there are scores to reach or things to unlock. You just have to play and experience flOw for the abstract little distraction that it is.
Final Word
Once you've done so, will you play it again? Do you need a second go at flOw? What does having a second attempt at such a game even mean? It's less a game and more an activity, but is still clearly based on gameplay mechanics: eat to grow bigger and fight harder, descend levels to progress through new lifeforms.
I hadn't played flOw until now, despite having known about it for a long while now. I never saw the desperate need to play it, but wouldn't ever be against trying it out. Well, now I've tried it out, played around with it and have come away from it feeling... well, what, exactly?
P2 asked "Are you enjoying that?" My response was "I wouldn't use the word 'enjoy'..." Enjoy is the wrong word, for me at least. You don't enjoy flOw. You might not even have fun. You can have both if you're running away from a bigger fish or make it to the exit in the nick of time, but at no point did I think 'this is fun'.
I just thought flOw was fine. It was a break from the norm. It was an opportunity to just forget about your surroundings and lose yourself to the flow, which was the point all along.
Fun Facts
A multiplayer mode can be found in the PS3 version for up to 4 players, but nobody made a song and dance about it. "Whatever it is, it's not good", claimed one reviewer.
flOw, developed by Thatgamecompany, first released in 2006.
Versions played: Flash, PC, 2006,
PlayStation 3, 2007.