Looking for a natural way to lower your blood pressure? Stressful day at work? Have the urge to slap someone offside the head? Consider Zoloft too mild? Then look no farther.
Eufloria (PC, PSN, IOS)
Eufloria is labeled as a real-time strategy game, though it plays a lot differently than Command and Conquer and StarCraft. There are no buildings in Eufloria… no troop centers, no land / air / sea units…just asteroids and trees. I know, I know…it just isn’t an RTS if you can’t build six thousand units and Zerg rush your way to victory…or is it?
You are a commander (of sorts) of an army of seedlings that must colonize other asteroids and expand their civilization. Naturally, there are other colored seedling armies that will be preventing you from doing this. Your goal, from map to map, will often be to eliminate all opposing armies and/or control all of the asteroids on the map.
As you colonize asteroids, you’ll see trees growing from them and they will spawn more seedling units. Depending on the asteroid you colonize, those newly spawned seedlings will either have a lot of energy, strength, speed, or a combination of the three.
Ideally, you’ll want to colonize asteroids that have a good bit of all three.
Don’t let the whole “armies” thing fool you, Eufloria is a light-hearted game in which its light tones and music can help tame even the wildest of beasts, especially if you play in the original mode where seedlings take longer to spawn. It was so “calm” that players eventually requested a faster mode of play, which the game designers provided.
The game doesn’t take that long to beat, though most of the time you’ll be waiting for your seedling armies to grow so that you can send them to the next asteroid. It’s a vicious cycle of grow armies, move to the next asteroid, colonize / takeover enemy asteroid, grow armies, rinse and repeat. Still, the game gets more challenging as it goes on and the AI is smart enough to attack asteroids that you’ve left unprotected as well as retreat when overwhelmed.
Overall, I enjoyed my time with Eufloria. It serves as a game that I can go to when I just don’t feel like putting up with a complex city builder game or a long, drawn out RTS.
Final Verdict: 8/10
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You can check out video play sessions here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m0aYwaC168
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