Puz: Overflow [by Sibos]

Playing Overflow at first started to remind me of some of the magic that I felt when I first played Lemmings.  This game has good production values that don't leave you thinking you are playing an amateur project.  The changes between boards are very well done.  The graphics are not amazing by any stretch, but they are original and different. 

The real treat here is the game concept itself.  Far too many puzzle games end up playing something like Tetris.  Overflow is about as far as you can get from Tetris while still being a puzzle game.  The purpose of the game is to route water to a specific location on the board.  The water comes out in little droplets that of course head for the lowest point that they can find.  So you need to build bridges and barriers to help get the water to where you need it to go.  You have a limited amount of building material, so you need to plan ahead to figure out where you are going to build your structures.  You can pause the game by hitting ESC and un-pause it the same way, which can be helpful.

The big issue that took away from the game for me was building things.  If you look at the pic shown here, the red line is the bridge being built.  It is built by simply clicking the left mouse button and then moving your mouse where you want to "draw" the bridge.  It works just like any paint program.  The problem is that I use paint all the time, and I still cannot draw a long straight line in it to save my life.  Many many times in this game I found myself restarting a level because I had drawn a line that was slightly off, making a small divit that would fill up with water droplets and keep me from winning the game.  This one major flaw aside, Overflow is a fun game that is built on a great concept and well-designed.
 

Added: September 24th 2003
Reviewer: Russell Carroll
Score:
Related Link: Official Website
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