Flower marks the first follow up title by thatgamecompany to their previous PSN title flOw. While flOw seemed to divide gamers a bit on the debate of what does or does not make a game, I don't think Flower is nearly as ambiguous with it's approach to gameplay. Really, you could compare Flower to a few other existing titles, something slightly akin to Nights, but minus any type of time limit or real enemies to speak of.
Instead, playing through Flower feels almost therapeutic, and absolutely relaxing. The bright, vibrant visuals that are painted with a virtual brush in the form of a single flower petal combined with some really low key music that's aided by the random bits of noise from opening flowers, combines to make gameplay that's almost hypnotic in nature. While the main game doesn't take particularly long to play and finish, maybe a couple hours at best, it's definitely a title that you can go back into for short spurts of time, taking opportunities to explore the game world in more detail with every additional look.
As the game begins, you're greeted with a bleak view of an interior, whether a house or an apartment I'm not sure (even though you kind of get the feeling that this is some inner city apartment), with a single windowsill that houses a single flower in a single pot. This flower appears to be on its last legs, uncared for, malnourished, and in desperate need of freedom. Freedom is exactly what you're going to give this small plant, whether it's real or simply dreamed of, and by holding down a button you'll be transported to a large, open field with this single flower in place. Pressing another button will open the flower and emit a single petal, which will serve as an on screen avatar for the duration of the stage.
From the starting point, you'll notice there isn't much to controlling your petal as it trapezes in the wind and across the open plain. The control scheme is pretty much as simple as you can get, with any of the face buttons controlling the intensity of the wind behind your petal, propelling it forward, while you manipulate the direction you're flying in by tilting the Sixaxis/DualShock 3 controller. As you move forward you'll spot other under developed flowers along the way, and flying in close to them will open them up, causing different sounds to be produced as you do so. For every flower you bring to life, you'll gain new petals to join your first, and by the end of each stage you'll notice that you have incredibly long, multi-colored following of beautiful petals. Certain flowers will have an aura to them, and usually opening all of them in a group will cause a certain effect on the environment around you, like bringing gray, dead grass back to life, opening up rock formations, or re-igniting the power of nearby windmills. The entire game seems to be about breathing life back into nature, and the idea of creating instead of destroying is a theme that remains constant across all the stages. I'm sure there's some hidden meaning within the game, and probably a message or two, but I'll leave figuring all that out up to the smarter players out there, and I'll simply say that the game is just plain fun to play.
Still, it is short, and perhaps painfully so. The trophies used in the game are seemingly built around multiple plays, and quite a few are somewhat ambiguous in what they want you to do. Overall it's a pretty solid use of the trophy system in giving the game some replay value, but if you are the type of gamer to simply rush through to the end, then you'll most likely find the content of Flower to be pretty lacking, and in reality this isn't the game for you.
For those of you that like to try and find every hidden object or area, though, Flower will end up giving you a lot of game for your buck. It's not that there's a difficulty involved in completing the levels, or in staying alive (you can get damaged but you can't "die"), but if you want to try and find everything the game has to offer, then that will definitely be challenge enough. Even going through the first couple of stages on a third go around, I ended up finding a few more things I had missed before, and I imagine that will be the result for quite a few players out there. The last couple stages in particular are pretty big, and I can guarantee I missed something.
I look forward to delving back into the world of Flower again and again, and it's a great title that should be accessible to all players, of any age. It's an interesting take on a form of entertainment that often puts destruction over creation, and I definitely think some interesting conversation can come out of the theme presented by this title. The gameplay is very simple, and hardcore players looking for some type of insane challenge might be disappointed, but give this one a shot for yourself, and be willing to take a different approach to your typical game and see how you feel about it in the end.
