Oh my goshhhhhhh!!! Move already!!! HurryhurryhurryhurryhurARG! If you are not shouting these or similar things at your browser within a few levels of starting Paint Land, a new fast-paced strategy game from OneGoodGame (the makers of Liquid 2), you are inhumanly zen. Built on a very cool, isometric field with Nitromesque graphics, this new take on the virus genre adds a timed element to gameplay which gives Paint Land just the right amount of tension. Apparently, you control a land of paint, with evil black droplets trying to take over, and time running out to take your blue drops to the safety of a rescue tube. As with most virus games, you can drag or click the paint vials to direct your drops to the next bulb or container. Different kinds of vessels have different attributes, and the amount of paint they already contain has to be overcome. At first it's a straightforward game of beat of the clock, but by level two, black paint is raining from the sky and the race is on to see which color wins the day.
As you play, you also have to keep your eye on the encroaching blob of black paint chasing you down from the left side of the screen. If it reaches your right-most container before you have sent the next batch of drops to safety, the level ends. As life in Paint Land succumbs to the darkness, holes open in the floor and more obstacles are placed in your path. Since there are often multiple choices of safe containers, you often have to make a split second strategic decision that might place your droplets in the path of a gaping hole, or provide you with the breathing room you need to make your next move. Watch for occasional power-ups to drop from the sky... if they are falling, it's because you need them. With only 15 levels, this game looks like it can be bitten off during a break, but don't let the pretty colors fool you. You'll be shouting at the screen in no time, and replaying some of those levels until you're as blue in the face as the paint in your bulbs.
I really want to like it, but it gets to the point where you have to start memorizing the levels, because stage hazards will just cause you to instantly lose if you hit them with all of your little paint dots.
Its a fun idea, and the graphics and music are great, but I feel like the execution is lacking.
The tutorial level was very unclear and then I got graded on it?! Lame. I totally don't get how to play it at all and I quit after one go at level 2. Hard for the sake of hard.
@shipoopie, I thought the tutorial was tough to understand as well--took me a while to figure it out, and it's why I put more detail about specifics of gameplay in the review than I normally do. I guess I should have come right out and said "the tutorial is confusing", but it may not have been to other players. It's a balancing act!
i am assuming that this game requires the latest flash player, which utterly left my mac version in the past. I have 10.5 and none of the time nor $$ to update it, yet.
Not my kind of game.
Beautifully made game, but unfortunately I can't get beyond level 2 -- I'm defeated every time.
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