Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Puddle is a physics based puzzle game available for download from the PlayStation Store for the PS4. Puddle originated as an entry for the Independent Gaming Festival at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in 2010, which received a Student Showcase prize. The PS4 version of the game is an enhanced port that combines the best components and content of the PS3 and Vita versions.

Puddle challenges you to retain as close to 100% of the liquid that you start out each level with. The concept is made particularly original as you have to tilt the environment in order to move the puddles of liquid, so you are effectively controlling the environment to create a reaction from the liquid thus creating a feeling that it is almost as though the environment is the real character, rather than the puddles. There are a total of forty-nine levels spread across eight environments each containing six levels with an additional unlockable level to round off the count of forty-nine levels. There is a short but sweet cut scene before the first level of each environment that shows the purpose of how the environment contains its particular elements. The loading screens before each level provide an insight into the elements of each liquid with details on the type of liquid, particularity in regards to how the liquid dissolves and tips on how to move the liquid efficiently.

There are different types of liquids including coffee, water, oil, nitro-glycerine, molten lava and even weed killer, amongst many others that all contain their own properties that react differently to the surrounding environments. Each level contains various traps and hazards with elements such as flames attempting to dissolve the liquid, gaps in the environment that liquid can become trapped within, spills, Venus Fly Traps and many more resulting in you having to ensure that the liquid is moving slower or faster depending upon the element that is trying to destroy it, which results in you having to take varying approaches to different levels and in some cases from one area to another in the same level.

The indicator informs you as to how close you are to not having enough liquid remaining to complete the level. If you lose too much liquid you will see the blue puddle of liquid in the indicator progressively drops and if it drops below the red marker, then you will not be able to complete the level. Upon selecting a level, you are provided with a menu detailing the name of the level, your best score, your best time, the amount of bonus particles that you have successfully achieved, the medal you have received and the time you will have to beat in order to receive the next best medal. The medals range from a normal green tick if you have completed the level without hitting all of the appropriate targets to achieve a medal; followed by bronze, silver and gold medals depending upon your time and the amount of liquid you have been able to retain.

Puddle supports the share feature that allows you to upload a video clip to Facebook or Twitter; upload a screen shot to Facebook or Twitter; and broadcast live gameplay footage via Twitch or Ustream as you are experiencing the game with a simple tap of the share button and selecting the option of your choice. The PS4’s hard-drive continuously stores your most recent fifteen minutes of gameplay footage, so you still have the chance to decide if you would like to share something amazing a few minutes after it has taken place. The share feature is a next-gen revolution that will only continue to prosper and flourish as it matures with additional features and further experimentation.

Puddle also supports cross-buy between the PS4 and Vita, although the PS4 version has to be purchased first, so if you have already purchased the Vita version, then you will not receive the PS4 version as part of the cross-buy initiative, which is the first case of this that some may have come across and will certainly hope that it does not become a recurring trend as it can be quite confusing for other consumers. Puddle unfortunately does not support cross-save, so you will not be able to continue from your previous progression on the Vita version when playing the PS4 version and vice versa, however as Puddle also supports remote play; you can technically continue on playing the PS4 version anywhere you want to with the same save file during remote play. Cross-buy presents a superb amount of value as it means that you will be purchasing both the PS4 and Vita versions of the game with just a single purchase; although in this case just make sure to purchase the PS4 version first in order to appropriately activate the cross-buy initiative with the Vita version.

The controls consist purely of tilting the world in order to move the liquid through the environments and you are provided with three control schemes as you can use the DualShock 4’s motion sensing functionality, touch pad or face buttons. The face button control scheme consists of pressing L2 and R2 to manoeuvre the environment back and forth, while there are recurring face button controls across both of the other control schemes as pressing triangle restarts the level; pressing the share button takes you to the share feature menu; and pressing the options button to display the pause menu.

There are not many PS4 games that have made use of the motion sensing functionality of the DualShock 4 controller yet, but Puddle has implemented it to perfection with subtle movements of the controller from side-to-side being quite effective, while the touch pad control scheme is also rather accurate and works by gently moving and holding your finger in the direction you wish to move the environment. All three control schemes work very well, so it is more about the player experimenting with their favourite type of control scheme in order to find the appropriate and most comfortable configuration.

The light bar implementation is pretty good as the light bar starts out as a lighter blue colour than the neutral blue to reflect that the first liquid featured in the game is water, then changes during the second set of levels to green when the liquid is plant related, such as weed killer and then continues to change as the liquid changes form. Meanwhile, the implementation of vibration from the DualShock 4 controller is rather effective as the controller vibrates whenever any of the liquid has been lost or melted.

Graphically, the environments, hazards, traps, elements and puddles of liquid are beautifully detailed and are looking better than ever before on PS4. The environments range in scale and content with one of the many standout backdrops being an x-ray of the human body.

The presentation of the game is solid with a great user interface across various menus, such as the laboratory menu, online leaderboards, options menu, difficulty menu and various gameplay menus with support for navigation via the left analogue stick, directional pad, face buttons and touch pad, although it does not include support for navigation via the right analogue stick, although that is not an issue, especially when considering that Puddle is one of the first games to allow for navigation of the menus via the touch pad. The heads up display (HUD) can be customised to your liking with no indicator; an indicator or an indicator and timer, which allows you to effectively choose whether you want a full HUD or a clear screen. In a puzzle game of this nature that can be a massive help to have a clear screen or an added challenge by having to judge for yourself in regards to how much liquid you have actually retained and the amount of time remaining, so it depends upon your personal preferences..

There are puzzles during the menus, which is a very positive and interesting design choice as it brings a level of interactivity to the menus and actually adds to the gameplay. The puzzles consist of moving liquid through funnels as you attempt to retain 100% of the liquid that you started with. You will know when you have completed a puzzle successfully as the steam counter will turn green and another colour of liquid will be released to start the following puzzle, although if you have failed in your attempt to retain 100% of the liquid; you will see the steam counter turn red and the same colour of liquid will be released for you to try again.

The audio consists of a soundtrack of thought provoking music, alongside such sound effects as the rushing and splashing of liquid as it travels through the surrounding environments and the sizzling of liquid as it passes through nearby flames that really bring you into the experience in regards to the importance of keeping the liquid away from certain elements that would harm it. However, there is unfortunately no implementation of the DualShock 4 speaker in the PS4 version, which would have added greater immersion by producing another layer to the existing sound effects to create more depth throughout the general sound effects.

The trophy list includes twelve trophies with eight bronze trophies, three silver trophies and one gold trophy. The majority of the trophies have particular requirements to how you should approach a certain level, such as the Green peace bronze trophy for pushing the second bulb inside the sundews without letting the particles fall inside; The price to pay bronze trophy for finishing a level after at least ten nitro-glycerine explosions; the Eating is cheating bronze trophy for not triggering any nausea during the Slightly acid level; the Souvenir bronze trophy for keeping your glass ball intact in the Tahiti level; and the Roundabout bronze trophy for finishing the Nova level by only turning in one direction throughout the entire level, amongst other trophies of the same variety. However, despite the trophies that have particular requirements to how you should approach certain levels; there are even harder trophies, such as the Total reaction silver trophy for finishing all of the levels with or without medals, which can still be rather difficult due to time constraints for particular levels or the requirement of a certain amount of liquid making it through to be weight at the end of the level and the Gold rush gold trophy for earning all 48 of the gold medals. Depending upon skill and a good trophy guide to provide some tips for the best methods of how to approach each level, it should be estimated that it would take between ten to fifteen hours to 100% the trophy list.

There are two difficulty levels including: normal mode and extreme mode. The game can be rather frustrating at times even during the normal mode with rather harsh difficulty spikes even to the point of having to restart when you were merely seconds away from completing the level, but fear not as you can use up to four whines to skip levels of your choice that you find particularly frustrating and difficult, although you can still revisit that level at a later time to earn the whine back by completing the level. The extreme mode is unlocked by completing the entire game in the normal mode with the extreme mode proving to be a lot harder in comparison to the normal mode as it is less lenient on mistakes as it provides significantly less opportunities to use whines to skip the levels that you do not see yourself completing. While the whine feature is well executed; Puddle could have perhaps benefited from an easy difficulty level to be able to skip a level whenever you could not achieve any level of success in any given level after having tried for ten consecutive attempts.

There is no local or online multiplayer component, which is a little surprising, it wouldn’t have been a stretch to imagine a pass the controller local multiplayer feature in which one player attempts to retain more liquid than the other player in a faster period of time and when you consider that the levels usually do not take a huge amount of time to complete; it would be perfect for a pass the controller local multiplayer component.

The online leaderboards focus on the overall world ranking and friends ranking based upon the total time you have taken to complete the levels with each leaderboard containing each players’ rank, name (PSN ID) and overall time with each leaderboard containing the overall amount of players within that particular leaderboard.

The replayability of Puddle is undeniable as the medals and competitive online leaderboards provide an additional layer to the pick up and play focus of the game that works in harmony with the short period of time it takes to complete each level. The various environments and elements of the liquid make each of the levels feel unique, which certainly helps to make the game feel consistently fresh and keeps bringing you back for more. There is certainly a lot of gameplay here with forty-nine levels across eight different environments, despite the lack of any cross-play or cross-save functionality with the PS3 and Vita versions of Puddle.

Overall, despite the lack of any compatibility with the PS3 and Vita versions of the game via cross-play or cross-save functionality; the PS4 version of Puddle certainly packs a lot of content that will have you coming back time after time for just one more go whether it is to earn a faster time, a better medal or a higher leaderboard position; there is certainly motivation to return to the game. There are a lot of features made possible by fully utilising the motion sensing functionality, touch pad, light bar and vibration functions of the DualShock 4 controller, while the share feature allows you to share any spectacular times you have achieved and your technique for retaining all of the liquid throughout any given level with the world and the remote play feature allows you to continue on playing were you left off on PS4, while playing the PS4 version portably on the Vita, despite the lack of cross-save functionality. With forty-nine levels spread across eight environments; Puddle is a worthy physics based puzzle game that would be highly recommend to anyone that is a fan of puzzle games, especially for such exceptional value at a cross-buy purchase of £5.99 for the PS4 and Vita versions.

 

Jason Bonnar

Analysis

• Title: Puddle
• Developer: Neko Entertainment
• Publisher: Neko Entertainment
• System: PS4
• Format: PSN Download
• Cross-Buy: Yes (PS4 and PS Vita)
• Cross-Play: No
• Online Multiplayer: Yes (Online Leaderboards)
• Hard Drive Space Required: 1GB