<\/p>\n

Further populating the Earth with well done side-scrolling games, Strange Loop Games<\/a> has brought unto the public its creation Vessel<\/em><\/a>. Arkwright is an inventor who has formulated a method of creating watermen called Fluros.\u00a0 Built with the goal of reducing the amount of repetitive work in the world, or destroying jobs depending on one\u2019s viewpoint, these beings are capable of independent action and are comprised of any liquid they happen to be near.\u00a0 In a Sorcerer\u2019s Apprentice<\/em>-like fashion, the Fluros get out of control and dogmatically go about tasks, causing chaos in a huge factory, and other areas, hopping on platforms and pressure plates all willy-nilly.\u00a0 Either as an interested party in local operations or a man worried about any potential liability on his part for negligently designing the waterguys, Arkwright sets out on a journey to make things right.<\/p>\n

Within this world, setting things right consists primarily of moving from one room to the next.\u00a0 The overall goal is not exciting, the way in which it is accomplished is.\u00a0 To bring the world back to the realm of efficiency, Arkwright must either open a gate in a room or return a machine to complete functionality.\u00a0 In gameplay terms, what this means is that certain switches, pressure plates and levers will have to be manipulated or various chambers filled with certain kinds of liquid or steam.\u00a0 To assist in this, he will strap a tank on his back fitted with a hose that can suck up watery substances to spit out on command, very similar to the Delfinoian FLUDD, just not as chatty.\u00a0 Also helping the quest for efficiency are the Fluros themselves.\u00a0 Some are wandering around the environment and others are created whenever Arkwright pulls a Seed out of his pocket, which looks like a big creepy eye, and throws it into a body of fluid large enough to make it coalesce into a Fluro.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

The game sets it up as though the different species have a set pattern of behavior. Some will run after the tinkerer and others are supposed to be switch happy, always pressing on any unactivated mechanism.\u00a0 I found this to, at times, be inconsistent as a Fluro might just stand still doing nothing or move in an unexpected way.\u00a0 Most of the time they do what they are supposed to do, making them automated tools to operate remote mechanisms or move to a certain spot, only to have their not-a-solid-not-a-gas bodies crushed by our hero to have their juices run down into a sluice chamber or otherwise mix with some liquid beneath a grate to interact with some contraption that bars progress.\u00a0 Usually the Fluros do what they are supposed to, but on the rare occasions when they do not, it can be annoying to have to create new ones or restart the puzzle until everything works.<\/p>\n

Eventually it is even possible to get upgrades for the world\u2019s most versatile wet-vac.\u00a0 Different nozzles lead to different ways to attack problems, but are hardly the stuff children\u2019s dreams are made of (\u201cYou saved up and got the broad nozzle?!?! No way!\u00a0I\u2019ll bet that gets things wet super quick while sacrificing distance.\u00a0 Now that sprayer is way more versatile!\u201d). In order to unlock these, Arkwright will have to find globs of silver liquid just floating around, typically hidden out of sight somewhere, and cash them in at what is basically an upgrade store.\u00a0 Often these CCs of quicksilver are the reward for completing optional challenges, but sometimes they are just hard to find.\u00a0 This does add some incentive to replay certain areas of the game, but it would have been nice if there were some way in game to get a general sense of where these collectibles are located.<\/p>\n

All the liquid in the game looks good and some of it even affects the lighting of the area.\u00a0 As the Fluros are comprised of this same liquid, it is a shame that the camera often will pull back such that it is usually difficult to see the internal physics of these liquid automatons.\u00a0 It makes the situation easier to assess certainly, it just doesn\u2019t showcase the subtle movements in the bodies of the creatures.\u00a0 The main character himself is poorly animated.\u00a0 He has no reactions to the world around him; when he dies he sort of just falls to the ground.\u00a0 Pointing the water gun in a given direction only causes him to throw his arm\/nozzle that way, but he doesn’t look at or react to any of the results for adding factory juice where once there was none.\u00a0 In most side-scrolling games this is not that big of an issue, but when the character is a person with a face more detailed than Mega Man\u2019s two eye dots and a line mouth, it looks odd for him to gaze at things without any perceivable emotion or reaction.\u00a0 The blue bomber at least reacted to getting hurt, but the same cannot be said for the hero in Vessel<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The real showpieces here are the various rooms that the deadpan man will explore.\u00a0 Huge gears and vats of molten ore will impress players with the grand scope of some of the mechanisms at play.\u00a0 Most of the settings and backgrounds are nicely detailed, yet not so much that they distract players from the clear and discrete moving parts of the game world that are interactive or necessary to solve the problem at hand.\u00a0 One might pull back from the fiction and ask how anyone gets any work done in places with such a complicated layout where problem after problem has to be solved to move on, but then one would have to question the believability of just about any place in a two dimensional game.\u00a0 A mild electronic soundtrack is a good accompaniment to the cerebral nature of the game and does not distract while thinking about what levers and activators need to be pulled while different sprays and Fluros are being used.<\/p>\n

If there is any problem with the game I would point to it is that the world feels unconnected.\u00a0 Ostensibly, the progression of Vessel<\/em> can be likened to that of Metroid<\/em> or Shadow Complex<\/em> in that it is a large, vertically sliced world of connected rooms and corridors.\u00a0 In most of these styles of games the hero will blast, whip or otherwise eliminate enemies in a given space, here players will primarily be solving puzzles.\u00a0 Choosing to eschew the obscure, difficult to track\/remember \u201ca door has opened somewhere\u201d style of worldwide puzzle solving in favor of smaller obstacles, the puzzle-meat of the rooms is largely separate.\u00a0 A menu feature allows players to jump around from puzzle room to puzzle room, avoiding the completely forgettable traversal if a place has already been found.\u00a0 As a result, Vessel<\/em> tries to convince players it is more than a menu with selections for Puzzle 1, Puzzle 2, etc., but it is not more than this.\u00a0 The traversal and exploration parts of the game, critical to Metroid<\/em> and its kin, are almost completely absent and what is there feels like filler.\u00a0 I appreciate a desire to add context to all the valve pulling and twisting, but when it falls flat it detracts from the experience.<\/p>\n

Another issue is that the few times any sort of precise jumping is required, the controls can readily be seen as lacking.\u00a0 There were a few spots that required avoiding deadly traps by jumping at the last possible second and sticking the landing, but the little guy would sluggishly miss either one of these components and a checkpoint respawn would be my reward.\u00a0 The controls work well enough to solve basic puzzles, jump around a little or guide liquids, but nothing more.\u00a0 I used a wired Xbox 360 controller to play the game, which seems to be the default and preferred method, which worked just fine.\u00a0 What did not work just fine was any movement more complicated than provocatively moving the little man back and forth to eventually squirt liquid into the face of things.\u00a0 Thankfully there are relatively few instances where the level designer thought he could successfully make a 2D Super Mario Sunshine<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

These small detractions aside, Vessel<\/em> is a well made puzzle game with light platforming elements. \u00a0It is not, however, well suited to long play sessions.\u00a0 Unlike Portal<\/em> or Q.U.B.E<\/em>., other games which are the same in structure and essential level progression, there is not enough character or visual amazement to drive players to keep playing until there are no more wet puzzles to be conquered.\u00a0 This game feels like one well made puzzle after another and nothing more.\u00a0 Even the Professor Layton<\/em> games, which are really only a collection of puzzles, have the charm and character to make players want to go on for more than additional puzzles.\u00a0 People that do not necessarily like problem solving in their spare time can get something out of the other games I have mentioned because of the puzzle-trappings, the bread of the riddle sandwich.\u00a0 It is almost as if the other aspects of these games have enough sugar on them to make people forget they are using their brain and not getting paid for it (bitter medicine, indeed).\u00a0 There is no sugar here.\u00a0 The great environments are a half-packet of artificial sweetener to people that like good art direction.\u00a0 To those who like coming up with logical solutions, I would say buy this game.\u00a0 If you are reading this and thinking \u201cI am not sure problem solving is enough for me\u201d and $15 is an uncomfortable amount of money for you to splurge, then you might want to wait until it goes on sale or is part of an inevitable indie bundle.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Pros:<\/strong>
\n+ Good use of liquid physics
\n+ Highly detailed environments<\/p>\n

Cons:<\/strong>
\n– Movement controls are sluggish
\n– Not much of a world beyond levers and water<\/p>\n

Game Info:<\/strong>
\nPlatform: PC (also in development for consoles)
\nPublisher: Strange Loop Games
\nDeveloper: Strange Loop Games
\nRelease Date: 3\/1\/2012
\nGenre: Puzzle-Platformer
\nPlayers: 1
\nSource: Review code provided by publisher<\/p>\n