Go With The flOw

I had read about Jenova Chen before at Wired.com, back when they did a story on some free games, two of which were Chen creations/collaborations. Now he has flOw (link goes directly to Flash game).

Let's be clear on one thing right now: I have not read the directions for flOw. I figured that the name suggested everything I needed to know, and, oddly enough, I was right. The player begins the game as a simple microorganism with a mouth (you'll figure that out easily) and a couple links in its body. Move the mouse, and your little guy swims toward the mouse. Hold the mouse button down, and he swims even faster. Yay! Wait, there's more.

There are two things that show up on every level (well, one is missing from the lightest, and the other from the darkest), but first you need to understand that "level" here is more about depth into some sort of sea, not something you pass and move beyond forever. Eat the one with the red center to go deeper, the cyan center to rise (the periodic colored ripples indicate their direction and distance). At various levels, you may see simple organisms without mouths, and they are good eatin'. They usually make you bigger and/or more complex. Some levels have organisms like the one you control, and they can get a little hungry. Eat their larger circles (whether on a tail or in orbit) without getting too many of your own eaten, and you can break the bad guys, such as they are, into their component parts, which equates to food for you or other nearby bad guys.

Eventually, on the darkest (deepest?) level, where no red-centered thing ever appears, is the big organism. You could call this the "Boss" at the end of the level. Beat that one, and you evolve into another kind of life form and start all over again. No, you can't lose. If they eat everything that is you, you just get sent to shallower waters to build up (unless you really want to go back right away and take on whatever just beat you so handily, which can work too) before returning. Pay attention to the background. As you munch the red-centered doohickeys to move deeper, you may see organism with which you cannot interact, but they are one level deeper. It's a free preview of what is below.

While I can see how very many people would find this game utterly uninteresting, those who are willing to take an hour or two at a stretch to relax—OK, sometimes it is not entirely relaxing, but those are rare—this is a wonderful break from the world of FPSs, turn-based strategy games, MMPORGs, MUDs, and the like. I have yet to get my second life form to evolve, but one day . . .