Wasted potential. That is the best way to describe this game.
I'll admit, this was the first PSN game I downloaded. Usually I disregard these titles, but after I ended up playing, and becoming hooked to the demo for a weekend I knew I had to own this title. What begins as possibly the ultimate chill/relaxation game is absolutely obliterated by an unforgiving difficulty as well as a cheap ploy by Q Games to extend the play time of the game.
I can't help but think Q Games had the game right at one stage and then somebody raised their hand and announced, "Hey! If we add in time limit and make the player replay every level 5 times it will instantly give the game up to 5X more length." Unfortunately common sense did not prevail, and someone listened to this guy.
The main goal of the game is for your grimp to collect all the Spectra in each of the 9 gardens. enough pollen to fill all the nearby seeds. As the seeds are filled, the plants will grow (upon touching them) and you will go higher and higher reaching all the Spectra. If this was the final product, I'd slap an 8.5 on the game and call it a day. Unfortunately, in order to add more difficulty (not really required for this game type), a time limit is in place. When the time bar collapses, so does all the progress you have made and you must start over (if you can still play after chucking your controller against the wall). Yes, there are ways to replenish the time bar (every Spectra collected resets the time, as well as time bonuses floating around). Where this game goes wrong is that instead of trying to find the Spectra you are instead looking for time bonuses, and the balance and fun of the game is lost.
The second big fault of this game lays with the way it progresses. Each level possesses 5 Spectra, which you need to collect in order to expand your overall garden and unlock new levels. Common sense would tell you that when in each garden you can find as many Spectra as you can, and when the time limit runs out you're left with the progress made. Instead Q games decided to format the levels so that you must play each level (a minimum) of 5 times, with the first time unlocking 1, then start again, then the second, start again and so on. As far as cheap ploys to extend the longevity of games goes, this is up there for the worst. The game went for the quantity over quality approach.
To sum up the faults of this game the most, there are few events in life where I feel as though I have wasted my time more than when I have just spent 30 minutes trying to collect 4 spectra only for the time limit to run out, and all progress being lost.
So, why did I give this game a 7? For all its faults in difficulty and cheap longevity ploys, it seems to keep bringing me back. For a game that retails for $10, it really is a steal for all the replay value given. Have I beaten the game? No. Will I beat it any time soon? Probably not. This isn't a knock on the games quality, but more a response to the unforgiving difficulty.
The biggest problem with PixelJunk Eden is that it suffers from an serious identity crisis. The audio and visuals want to be a game of relaxation while the game attempts to be. If Q Games is reading any of the reviews for this game, I hope a patch will soon come out eliminating the time limit, or dramatically slowing it down.