We could define this game as “beautifully simple”, with very simple graphics in a minimalist style, that hooked me from start to finish, it was hard to get away from the tv thinking “i want more!”, not only for its unique graphics but the excellent gameplay this is a RTS worth looking, we talk about Eufloria for the Playstation Network.
Story
Just like the graphics, the story is simple yet appealing. The seedlings are traveling through the universe, in search of the Growers. In their search they find black seedlings, a plague that is extending more and more. It’s your duty to make the Growers proud, to exterminate this enemy and to find the origin of the plague.
Gameplay
The game takes place in a kind of microcosm or universe, the style reminds me of Osmos. In this universe there are asteroids where seedlings live, in these asteroids you can find trees from which even more seedlings will be born to travel through space to explore and populate other asteroids.
This is a real time strategy game featuring 25 stages, in which you will send seedlings to grow trees in nearby asteroids, sounds easy but when an asteroid is populated by a different species of seedlings is when things start getting interesting! Seedlings are your soldiers, they fight the enemy seedlings until a tree is down and they can go inside the asteroid through the roots of the fallen tree. Once they reach the core, all the remaining enemy trees become yours along with the asteroid.
But that is not all, enemy seedlings are conquering asteriods just like you, sooner or later you will have to defend at the same time you conquer and this is not an easy feat. Early in game, levels are easy but the challenge increases as you progress becoming much harder, especially in the last stages of the game. It feels truly rewarding when you beat some of the hardest levels. Strategy is very important; as you cannot achieve victory using the same strategy all the time, some will require a lot of defence, other stages a lot of attack, and some times you will need to sacrifice an asteroid in order to win.
Asteroids can be terraformed, increasing the energy, speed or strength, this will affect the new seedlings, the process is slow as it requires a lot of seedlings to feed the core, while the whole process is completed. So be wise and think twice when you decide to terraform a asteroid.
You can also obtain weapons by discovering relics in asteroids you conquer, these new weapons are flowers that can can act as satellites, helping in the defense or attack. They can take down massive amounts of seedlings. Another flower lets you get a new breed of seedlings, much more faster and powerful, than regular seedlings, with all this floral weaponry you could as well call Eufloria “call of duty: Floral Warfare!”
As you reach the final stages you can end up using over 1500 or 2000 seedlings to get certain stages done, it can be massive and pretty intense. The end of the campaign is not the end of Eufloria, there are challenges and an unlockable Dark Matter mode. This is a much harder and tougher version of the campaign. So if you think campaign was not challenging enough, with Dark Mater mode you are in for a blast.
Graphics: 8/10
The minimalistic style of the graphics is great. What at first glance looks simple, transforms into a range of colors, that gives it that special touch to Eufloria, red, green, blue, yellow and even black, all mixing and making you think the asteroids are beautiful flowers that blossom in your screen. What looked like simple red dots traveling to other asteroids, after you zoom in, you can observe the colorful details of the seedlings; engaging in combat with the enemy, the detail in the trees and the core itself, the beauty of Eufloria radicate in the simplicity of the graphics.
Sound: 7/10
Chimes are simple yet catchy, something that clearly defines Eufloria. There is not much music but the few sounds, give the game a relaxing pace, at least i feel that way.
Downsides
Sometimes levels make you get stuck, i mean they are really hard to complete and you end up restarting the level. Once you restart a level the layout will be different, some sets will be harder and others much more easy. If not a downside or a bug perse, it is a cheap tactic, a tactic that i can’t deny, i used myself.
Overall
It’s not often that we see games like this, kudos to Alex May & Rudolf Kremers, they developed a very good… no, an excellent RTS game and deserve praise. Eufloria may look deceiving by the graphics but it’s a very addictive and challenging title for fans of the genre.
So do yourself a favor and grab Eufloria from the PSN Store, combining beautifully simple graphics a polished gameplay and controls, it’s truly a delightful experience!
we give the game a 8 out of 10!
~Mario
