POSTED 25/10/11


EUFLORIA

Omni Systems
PS3/PSN (also on PC)

Whoa! We’re seeing circles before our eyes. Oh, hang on, what’s this button do? Zoooooooooooooooom – ooh, pretty!

Yep, the first thing that strikes you about Eufloria is its unique visual vibe; it looks like nothing you’ve ever seen on the PS3 before. Well, it looks like nothing we’ve ever seen on the PS3 before. Seemingly simplistic, that zoominess unveils a bustling yet delicate-looking world of seedlings and trees. Meanwhile, those circles are actually asteroids – but not your generally assumed vectory, arcadey ones. In fact they look more like ophthalmologist wall porn.

Eufloria certainly isn’t an arcade game, it’s actually a sneakily disguised real time strategy thing – but with its inherent trippiness it’s more what Neil from The Young Ones would genre-bust if he dropped the bong long enough to harness those zeroes and ones, rather than the usual war, war and more fucking war weaponsfest.

Life starts on one asteroid with your seedlings, the aim being to convert other such circles to your particular way of seediness. Unfortunately – or fortunately, for without them there’d be little challenge - other factions are trying to take over the same circles. So, you plant trees to germinate more seedlings then send them wafting about increasingly complex maps trying to go the gentle-but-effective smackdown on those not-you interlopers. Sowing the seeds of shove – or summat.

That’s the tease. With different strengths and weaknesses of asteroidal flora and increasingly intricate challenge Eufloria blossoms. However, it’s a languorous experience – you can play for hours with little happening, which is where the faster-forward button shines. We’d still advise reserving a chunkified time block to slip into the experience’s vibe though.

Eufloria’s kind of a gamey equivalent of an album by The Orb – just with asteroidy circles rather than crop ones. Sorry Dr Alex.

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