Over the course of playing all of thatgamecompany's games, I can say with confidence that their games get better with every installment. This means that flOw has the unfortunate position of technically being the "worst" game out of them all, except that it isn't.
There was a game before flOw named Cloud, released for free in 2005 which you can find my review for here on Grouvee. Cloud is a weaker game compared to flOw.
flOw serves as thatgamecompany's debut as game developers, introducing their brand of experimental game concepts and art design to the gaming community. I think flOw is a vastly underrated and underappreciated game and while it received generally positive reception, most people shrug at it especially when compared to its more handsome and younger sibling, Journey.
I think flOw is shoved in the corner while flower and Journey get the spotlight for the following reasons:
- flOw has a more simplistic art style and static environments
flOw is a great looking game with a unique style to which all of the game's creatures adhere to. Every animal looks like segmented, glowing white bundles of simple shapes. This really helps the organisms stand out from the dark colors of water that surround them. Sometimes certain animals will have a different color of glowing parts on their bodies, like red or yellow to indicate some special effect. For example, eating a red dot will cause you to dive deeper into the ocean and eating a blue dot will cause you to rise higher towards the surface.
The game looks undoubtedly beautiful and swimming around feels graceful and relaxing, but the sea creatures are, at the end of the day, a pile of simple shapes. I give credit to the designers for being able to come up with so many individual species of animals by using a few shapes, it still isn't as visually interesting as designs seen in flower or Journey. It also doesn't help that the environment is only the ocean, granted it changes color which adds to the game's unbelievable beauty, but there isn't anything else to look at.
In flower and Journey, the environment would change and there would be more things to take in.
flOw has only animals and water. I still think that even with that fact, flOw manages to be one of the most beautiful games I have ever played.
- There is no narrative.
While Cloud had incomplete, gross looking graphics it still had some stills and words to frame the game with a story. flower and Journey also have ambiguous, but apparent snippets of a narrative. flOw has no such story or moments for the player to really piece to together into a narrative. The idea is that you are an organism and you eat to survive and grow.
Nothing to suggest that you are saving nature or having a dream, you just are what you are.
Life. Life must grow and survive. You eat and survive until the end of the level, then you assume the role of a different creature that must, again, EAT AND SURVIVE. It's THE CIRCLE OF LIFE!
The idea here is that such a game doesn't need a story, but people like to have one, as it is a good way to get a player invested in the game. My guess is that flOw's lack of story is a letdown for some people. It simply doesn't bother me because, like flower and Journey, flOw is able to make the player feel emotions.
I feel the tranquility of peacefully gliding through the water, the satisfaction of consuming other creatures and growing, I feel panic and dread when a larger creature swims by. Feeling is what thatgamecompany does best, and it is impressive that they didn't need a story to do so.
- The gameplay doesn't change too much throughout the course of the game
In flOw you start with a small creature and eat smaller creatures to make your creature bigger, then you go deeper into the sea and repeat. You also avoid harm from other creatures, but ultimately you eat until the end of the stage.
Then you unlock a new creature that you can use in the next stage. This creature has a unique power such as a speed boost or invisibility. Other than that there isn't much else. Unlike flower and Journey, there isn't any secrets or collectibles to add replayability to the game.
flOw surprisingly does have co-op, but all it does is adds a friend who can now eat things alongside you, which can be fun. flower and Journey establish their gameplay in the beginning, but then, later on, they introduce new features like the windmills in flower or the ancient guardians that attack you in Journey.
Other than what I already stated, flOw's gameplay doesn't really change drastically throughout the game. For game about evolution, the gameplay doesn't evolve very much. I can see this getting boring for some people, but honestly to me, the gameplay there already there is fun enough to keep me interested and I am sure many other would be completely satisfied.
So that's why I think some other people would disregard flOw in favor of its successors. Though flower and Journey are better games, flOw still stands on its own as an experience that hasn't been recreated since.
Like all of its siblings, flOw has an amazing OST and is gorgeous. It is cheap on PSN and I would recommend it to anyone who wants a game that they can they can just go with the flOw (lol a pun, kill me plz).
