Indie Games Corner: I-Fluid Review (PC)

Thu, Dec 4, 2008

When I got a press release telling me that a new indie game was added to Steam, and that its main purpose was to “experience life from the perspective of a drop of water,” I knew I had to try it. I-Fluid, developed by French studio Exkee, sounded intriguing, to say the least. Then again, the description did make it sound like one of those indie titles...

Thankfully, despite my initial worries I-Fluid is not one of those games that tries too hard to be all existential and artistic, like some of the indie fare I’ve seen at E3 in recent years. (I’m not saying they’re bad, but sometimes I see a non-game game and think, “Why?”) So instead of thinking of I-Fluid as a game where you experience life as a drop of water, think of it as Marble Madness, but with a water droplet instead of marbles, a quicker pace, platforming, photorealistic graphics, and a physics-based sandbox environment for each stage. That’s a much better description than its little tagline blurb, even if it’s not quite as impressive sounding.

Like Marble Madness and all of the eventual bastards to the Marbley throne, I-Fluid gives you a starting point, a sphere to control, and a finish. The finishing points range from random spots where a flag is implanted to places like the inside of a pencil sharpener, and each stage is laid out with multiple possible paths to take and several environmental events. For example, in the first stage at one point a roll of tape ambles its way into your path, and each time it does so the physics dictating it cause it to fall in a different way. One time you may need to just go around to the right, others you might have to kill yourself because it blocks the entire path. As the game progresses, these events increase in scale, so you can imagine how they impact gameplay on subsequent playthroughs. Combine the events with the sandbox nature of the title and the many ways to victory in most levels, and you have a game which seems rather limited, but in actuality is different almost every time you play.

There’s also a surprising level of strategy to the game. I never thought this type of game COULD involve critical thinking, but hey, I was proven wrong. Not only do you need to manipulate objects to reach destinations—whether it’s rocking back and forth to build momentum so something can tip slightly, allowing you jump, or ramming full speed to knock over stacks of paperclips—but you also need to pay attention to where you are, and what you’re touching.

In each stage, various surfaces and objects will either replenish your fluidity, or absorb/evaporate it. Touching an apple slice? Your droplet will grow and thrive. Accidentally roll onto a sheet of paper? Prepare to slowly disappear as you leave your essence in a smudged trail behind you. Touch a cake freshly removed from the oven? Sayonara. It’s hard to know which objects cause which effects until you actually experience them, so your best bet is to just play “The ground is lava! So is that thing!” the entire time.

Still, I-Fluid isn’t without its faults. For one thing, the game’s controls speed up so quickly sometimes that I swore my copy was having issues. One moment you can be rolling along fine, and then turn left and you’ll shoot off and completely overshoot your target, hit a cookie, evaporate, and restart from the last checkpoint which may have been three minutes ago. I know keyboard + mouse controls better in most games, but this is one I would definitely recommend using the 360 controller (or any gamepad) for. With a keyboard and mouse, I-Fluid is more frustrating and difficult than it needs to be, and will lead to lots of angry moments. With a controller, it plays like it was meant to be played.

The other big issue with the game is the camera. Most of the time, it’s fine. At times, however, it will be nigh impossible to see what you’re doing, and no amount of rotating or zooming will fix it. If you do play the game with a controller (as highly, highly recommended) you also can’t invert your axis, so that can take some getting used to.

The game definitely looks like a casual title (and is even labeled as such in Steam’s store), but if you get to level 10 (of 15) prepare to have your ass handed to you time and time again. While the first 9 levels are fairly easy and can be beaten without many issues, level 10 is one of the most frustratingly difficult moments I’ve experienced in a long time. Basically, you need to follow a firefly through a pitch-black level. The problem is, the firefly is set at a fixed speed and on a set path; fall once or miss a jump, and it will leave you behind and you’ll have to start over from the very beginning of the level. No checkpoints on this one, folks. It took me about 15 tries to finally pass it, and it took my friend (who designs PC games for a living) 12 attempts before he gave up and swore to conquer it some other day.

Given the difficulty of the latter stages and the detailed physics engine, I would say that I-Fluid is a casual game, but for the more accomplished gamer. Played in short bursts, it’s a perfect break from long RPGs or action titles, and unlike a lot of casual games it actually takes quite a bit of skill to beat and master. On the flip side, those who have a Steam library dominated by PopCap will probably never progress past level 10, if they even get that far without being put off by the constant dying.

No matter how you classify it, though, there’s no denying that I-Fluid is a gorgeous looking, unique title. It may not be fully polished, and it may have its issues with controls and camera views, but for an indie game with such an obscure focus, it’s damned impressive. If you ever loved Marble Madness or physics-based puzzles, at least give the demo a try. If your doctor told you to watch your stress levels and relax more, however, I’d say you’re better off elsewhere. There’s certainly nothing relaxing about this drop of water.

I-Fluid is available on Steam for $9.99

Exkee, I-Fluid, Indie, indie games, Indie Games Corner, Marble Madness, photorealistic, Review, Steam, water

This post was written by:

Brendon Lindsey - who has written 274 posts on GameCyte.

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1 Comments For This Post

zerb Says:
December 25th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
the Game is great...
BUT...

It Crashes so often, the installer got several Problems and the Publisher dont seem to correct these Bugs...

Don't even try to play on a other Language than english.. The game will crash down even more.. Every "?" is a Crashpoint ..

And don't look out of the Windows, or maybe your FPS drops down... Ressource Management.... Where are you?

So I've to say... Buy it if it's ready.. This version looks like a Alpha-Version to me.

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See the World in a Grain of… er.. Drop of Water! : Says:
February 12th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
[...] environment is beautifully complex, each object behaves uniquely, even from replay to replay. The game’s review from Gamecyte.com states: For example, in the first stage at one point a roll of tape ambles its way into your path, [...]

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