Flower Review
Sweeping you off your feet and into a flower-filled breeze.
What does a potted city flower dream? Oddly, that's the question that Flower will ultimately attempt to answer for you, and regardless of whether that's a something you would ever ask, this short, but packed little game will give you a lot to think about. Beginning on a small window ledge in the city, Flower takes players on a journey through the dreams of several flowers. Each flower has a dream that comprises one game level, and each level tells a distinct part of the overall story -- ultimately showcasing the complex relationship between humans and plant life in the modern world.
The gameplay in Flower is delightfully simple. Players control the wind by tilting the motion sensitive PlayStation 3 controller. The objective is to simply steer the wind into flowers to collect petals and open up new areas, creating a canvas of color and a symphony of sound throughout the landscape. Flower requires only one button -- take your pick -- for controlling the wind's speed.
Since all players need to do is tilt the controller, the gameplay is extremely intuitive, but even if you struggle with over- or understeering at first, it's more or less impossible to mess up because you can't die or fail a level. If it takes you a little longer than others to collect enough petals to open up the next area, there's absolutely no punishment -- you simply get to enjoy the level for a little longer. This is the perfect game to have any of your friends try when they come over. Gamers or not, they're probably gonna love it.
For me, the truly surprising and impressive offering from Flower is the emotional journey that it took me through as a player. Most games without characters aren't going to have much of an emotional impact -- think Bejeweled. While games with sweeping stories, memorable characters, or even cute little creatures tend to make us feel, one might not have those same expectations for a game about wind and plants. When I found that Flower was making me feel really good about myself, and then quickly very bad, I realized that there was more going on under the surface here than I had initially bargained for.
Flower was making me question my role in the world. Hey, I thought I was just here to relax!
In the first few levels, you're allowed to bask in the beauty of the fields. You're a strong but gentle wind that lightly guides the petals, allowing them to paint the landscape with color and life. The experience made me feel calm, light, and satisfied.
However, the fifth level might serve as a rather jarring awakening. Its in this level that Flower introduces a new element into the game: danger. Threat looms all around in the form of electrical lines and wires, and as the player, I suddenly held the power to send the innocent petals into a catastrophic encounter with a live electrical wire, and every time I accidentally made that happen I felt absolutely awful about it.
I'm not supposed to be the baddie here!
In addition to the guilt of accidentally frying the delicate little things, I started to feel my humanity during this level. Realizing that I'm not really the wind, but that I'm a human and I depend on that nasty electricity was a little rough. I was using that electricity to play the game -- and the PlayStation 3 is notorious for eating up more energy than a full-sized refrigerator.
I've become a flower killer!
Luckily for me, and for anyone else who might be prone to getting a little panicky and guilt laden while playing this title, Flower's final level proposes a solution to the massive electrical structures that have overtaken the life-filled fields. I'll leave this solution for you to discover yourself as you play through the game's last level and make the experience of playing Flower your own. If you're a PlayStation 3 owner, this creative new title is one that you'll definitely want to try out.
Developer thatgamecompany (TGC)
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