This is an independent remake for windows of the classic game Pipe Dreams by Lucas Arts. The game has some similarities to tetris in that you are given a series of piping parts which you have to fit into the small playing-grid so that water can flow through smoothly through the level. The parts come randomly in different shapes so you have to think and move fast to figure out where a part will fit best. The flow begins a few seconds after the start of each level and if the "water" reaches a dead end in your piping construction, the level comes to an end. If the water hasn't travelled a certain goal distance at this stage then the game is over. Otherwise some deductions are made for each piece of wasted piping placed on the level but without having been touched by the fluid. If the total score for the level is negative after these deductions your game is also over. You get some bonus points for "crosses" which are squares where the fluid can pass over twice. This isn't quite explained anywhere in the program (there are no helpfiles).
As the game gets harder, you are beset with additional complexity in the form of some preset pieces, obstacles, and directional tiles that only let water flow in one direction. After a certain number of stages you will also be given special bonus levels that are just all about getting as many points by flow distance, without worrying about deductions or failing the level.
This version is nice and small, runs on all windows and is easy to pull out and run when you're bored. It is equally as addicitive as the original and the superior mouse interface make it more accesible (the original allowed mouse control but it was in pure DOS so had some limitations). The downsides are that the levels are completely random and because of this can occasionally be somewhat unbalanced (i.e. too many tiles of a single type coming out at times). I also found after playing a few dozen times that one or two random levels would pop-up that were simply impossible to complete e.g. the flow starts downward with an obstacle directly beneath the flow point! Thankfully this doesn't happen too often and i encountered it mostly on bonus levels where it didn't count for much. Another difference from the original game is in the bonus levels - can't say if this is an improvement or a failing, they're just different and perhaps more suited for the mouse interface.
Overall a pretty addictive game worth the small download. Be warned - you can't save games and this added to the fact that the game (due to better control) is easier than the original, might cause you to find yourself wasting lots of time on this addictive little gem.
Written by:
~shedoggy
