Flaskoman

Nice game with nice graphics, takes about an hour. Of the negative aspects, I would like to note the lack of the ability to change controlls

[quote]For more puzzle game reviews, news & everything puzzle-related, follow [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/25928931-Puzzle-Lovers/]Puzzle Lovers[/url] & check out our [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/puzzlelovers]Steam group[/url].[/quote] [i]Flaskoman[/i] is a short (~1h) arcadey puzzle platformer with 32 levels. It's [i]alright[/i] but not great, and I'm landing on a thumbs down. [b]The whole game is really a fairly minimal proof-of-concept for the basic mechanics[/b]. Your head is a flask than can hold 1 gulp of liquid. You can then deposit that gulp into a container, which somehow fills a whole pipe system with the liquid. When the pipe system is filled, then a switch will become interactive, which allows you to control a gate and some pitfalls. Liquids of different colors (red, blue, purple) control corresponding switches/gates/pitfalls. As you go, you also gain abilities to spend the liquid while it's in your head -- red shoots a fireball, blue gets you a longjump, purple gets you a high jump. On most levels there is a finite supply of multiple liquid-colors, so the game is a mix of resource management and environmental logic puzzles with arcadey platforming to avoid pitfalls. These mechanics could work great together, and on a few levels they do, but for the most part it's all just rushed, leaving these tempting bits and pieces under-explained and under-explored. The final level really minimizes puzzley gameplay and turns into some pretty standard platformer stuff. Keyboard controls with [b]no rebinding[/b] are workable up until Level 20: [b]after level 20, you probably need a controller[/b]. Past L20 you often need to be jumping and moving in one direction (so, e.g., pressing up and right) AND pressing the Enter key in mid-air to use your special ability. That's just awkward on a keyboard, to the point of being impractical. The only available settings/options are (1) Separate sliders for soundFX and music, and (2) toggling between Russian language and (mostly decent) English. All in all, while a big fan of puzzle-platformers can respect the novelty here and probably enjoy it, what's on offer just doesn't feel like it's worth it as is.