Gameplay issues in an otherwise stylish game
Your task is to guide your droplet in between and over the cozy-looking but often moving, rolling and crashing objects, gaps, absorbing paper and fabric surfaces, and passable surfaces that may also come in a tilted form, to reach the finish line.
The droplet moves by accelerating along and in level three you will also learn to jump up a short distance. The droplet can move slower by pressing the right mouse button, but this only works in the sewer screen, not in the actual game levels 1-3 and only for a short period of time. Moving is impractical through the course since there is no brake button, only deceleration, and on tilted surfaces the droplet will drift towards the edges. Jumping by pressing space is not possible at the same time and that makes landing hard. By the way, I'm using an USB gamepad and a keyboard-to-joystick software and I paid 25 euros for I-Fluid in Finland.
Between the scenes there is a sewer screen where you can choose any level you can reach with your current repertoire of moves, and the gametype, a mission, petals or a timeattack. These gametypes become active only gradually as you accomplish more levels.
This concept is refreshing since there is no violence involved as in most computer games, and it is a pleasure to see the aesthetic, artistic impression created by the graphics, the scenery, the soundtrack, the homely objects and the environment.
The soundtrack consists of relaxed music that reminds me of a typical puzzle game, that is slow, but intriguing and active in style. There are not much variety in the soundtrack, which plays the same tune at least for the first three levels, but its duration is long enough. The sounds of the game consist of a contact sound from falling, a jumping sound, that is reminiscent to the sound of dripping of water, sound of absorbion of extra drops of water that you can find around the courses and the environmental sounds of birds and some other sounds.
The otherwise pleasant style of I-Fluid has an issue with violence-related texts in the clues, such as the "timeattack" mode and the clues on level one that say "Try to not end up in perilous situations". Are they suggesting the player is unreliable? "Watch out!" It seems that the clues don't quite work out as humor and that they don't fit in with the overall tone of the game. I found it best to avoid the texts to enjoy the game.
The maps are repetitious, as I saw only two maps for the first three levels. However, the courses change on every level.
The gameplay is twitchy. Considering the courses are challenging and require precise movement, this kind of steering makes the game if not unplayable at least ruins the concept by level 3. I can't get past dropping down from a surface of a book onto three narrow and tilted cookies above a surface of absorbing fabric. Only way to steer with this kind of system is by trying multiple times to jump fast and to try to land on the right spot, or by trickling slowly down and along the path. The steering is inaccurate and in conflict with the game concept.
I-Fluid V1.22 is broken and unbalanced but the style and concept are pleasant and refreshing.