Heaven2Ocean

Reviewed by: DeathDude

Positive Points: Interesting idea
Alright music

Negative Points: Only one map

Genre: Puzzle

Size: 55 363 KB

Requirements: Pentium 4 (or equivalent) processor
256 MB Ram
64 MB Graphics card
Windows XP

Questionable Content: None

Editor rating: 4.5

Homepage: http://www.paddyohanlon.com/h2o/

Download location: http://www.paddyohanlon.com/h2o/

The journey of a water drop, from its humble beginnings in the cloud to when it finally reaches the ground and then blop the end. Well not really, actually the idea of controlling the movement of a water drop by controlling the surrounding in a style similar to games like Super Monkey Ball is actually very well done and quite interesting to see in action, once you take control and guide this water drop to its final destination. Heaven2Ocean is an intriguing game that takes that very idea and makes it very interesting to see in action and just as much as you are playing the game, with numerous challenges along the way, some soothing music, and just a different sort of idea that may seem odd on the surface but excels quite well.

The only control you have to worry about in the game is your mouse as you will use it to control the world around the water drop, causing it to move left and right in the different environments you encounter. Sometimes you will have to move the water drop fast across different obstacles that may be in your way, and other times you will have to do slower, also keep in mind you are running against the clock, the less time you take to reach the end the better.

Other factors you will have to take into account is the fact that at times your water drop will lose little droplets, if you are going to fast or simply because you acted erratically thus causing some of the precipitation from the water droplet to separate. In addition, another nifty feature that will happen to your water droplet is throughout the map there will be obstacles that will change the state of your water. Such as the blowtorch, you will encounter near the beginning, which will turn your water into a gas, which you must then figure out how to get past a certain obstacles and onto the next area. There is another state change that will happen but I will leave up the surprise to you.

The idea itself of guiding a water droplet across a vast area may seem a bit odd to some gamers, but once you start playing Heaven2Ocean you will realize it actually is quite the fun concept that the developers have come up with. The game was developed for the Dare to be Digital Competition, which is “one of the largest video game competitions in the UK and Ireland.” The results show, as there is plenty going on as you guide your water droplet along to the finish. The faster you get to the finish, the more points you will receive. As well, another factor in determining your points is the volume of water that you finish with, more volume = more points.

Graphically, the game looks quite nice, and some of the different effects that happen to the water look quite good. You do not need a super powerful system to run the game, but if you do, you can take advantage of the more graphical effects and overall smoothness of the game, with the option to launch the game with the best quality. There are also two other quality levels, in case your computer is lagging while you play the game, from lowest to normal quality. All around from the environments, to the actual water droplet which looks great animated as it is moving throughout the environment, look great good job by the developers.

The music and sound effects in the game are also quite nice to hear. The sound effects sounds just about right, while the music I personally did enjoy listening to, but on the other hand, it may not be everyone’s cup of tea. It may not fit everyone’s taste, but in terms of the whole concept of the game, I believe it sounds just about right.

The only disappointing part of the game was that there was only one map to play through. However, the map itself is actually quite big once you do play through all of it and see the different areas, but another map or two would have been great to see. Luckily, it also looks like there is the ability to import custom maps at a later day, so hopefully one day we will be able to see some of them.

So if your looking for a different sort of game, and are perhaps interesting in seeing the concept of controlling the world around a water droplet, to reach its goal appeals to you, then definitely check out Heaven2Ocean and see it in action for yourself, you will not regret it.