A very good & enjoyable low pacing game. Only complaint on this one is that if you have too many units on the level it will eventually crash. Other then that it hosts good & refreshing concepts of game play, simple but not scribbled graphics (looking at Crayon Physics Deluxe here...) & has a good concept of what the worth of the game is built into the price.

Eufloria is a game I really wanted to like. The premise is new and original: Dyson trees grow on asteroids. You use your pistils to fight 'enemy' trees and take over their asteroids. Pistils are generated by trees - building trees cost pistils.

The strategic potential is there: The larger the asteroid, the greater range of a pistil traveling from it: In theory you can strike at an asteroid that isn't close enough to strike back and vice versa. Further, each asteroid provides a unique blend of energy (basically planet assault), speed and strength (attack) to their pistils. This means one asteroid might be good for generating your scouts, another for your heavy hitters and so forth. This game could have been an abstract strategist's dream.

So what happened: First, the gameplay is far too slow. There's a difference between casual, relaxing play and staring at the screen for five minutes waiting for enough pistils to build to launch an attack. A fast forward/time contraction button would have gone far in making this game great. There is one scenario for example, very early in the campaign, where you need to build up over 300 pistils to launch an attack on heavily fortified asteroids - and do this five or six times in the scenario. Each asteroid stops producing after there's 40 in orbit, so you have to continually move pistils around to make sure you get as much production as possible.

Some sort of rally point, or even a drag box to select multiple asteroids would have been very helpful. Without it, you might be issuing orders to ten different 'fleets' (around asteroids) to rendezvous at where you plan to launch your attack. Again, there's a difference between relaxing and tedious.

The AI is very passive in campaign mode. (I've read reviews that suggest it's more aggressive in skirmishes. Good - it needs it.) Assuming you don't mind moving pistils back and forth to keep your asteroids producing, then you could literally put moderate sized fleets on the frontier asteroids to soak up any sporadic attacks, then walk away. The AI isn't very innovative, and on the off chance it does commit to a major attack, it does so by leaving a previously impregnable stronghold bare. I'm not sure the AI understands the concept of garrisoning.

The campaign story itself...could be so much more. Without spoiling anything, there's a twist towards the end of the tale that could have been used so many different ways. The storytelling is lacking however, and therefore so is the urge to keep playing.

2 stars - One for actual game execution, with another as a nod to what could have been. There is great potential in here, but it's buried under fundamental game mechanic flaws. If this game interests you, wait for it to go on special....or hope the producers learn from their mistakes and try Eufloria 2.

Even if this game has simplistic graphics and simple gameplay it has difficulty. The substance of Eufloria is basically abstract strategy in it's simplest form, with the choices you have to make boiling down to defend, attack, or expand.

These three strategies can then be blended. You can attack to defend, grab an exterior territory with a massive push then defend the borders. While defending you can begin to expand your control on the asteroids within your control zone. While spreading you could attack fat or weak targets. Or you could proactively attack one asteroid, expand completely onto it, then move on plague style.

Eufloria, while simple, is a fun stress-free way to enact strategic thinking and mental stimulation without getting a headache. The work of strategy is taken out and boiled down to the essentials to make a great experience everyone should at least try once.

There are many indie games coming out these days and on the surface Eufloria looks to be quite an enjoyeable one to relax with.

Unfortunately it's biggest achilles heel is that the game doesn't truly evolve much beyond the first few missions and completing the game will become a monotonously tedious chore; as much as the combat element in dragon age origins (which isn't even tolerable to drudge through with god mode on).

While it looks quite nice at first there ends up not being much this game has to hold you're attention. Ending up from being considered a casual stress reliever to simply just anouther game you'll have sitting in your collection unused, as the lack of meaningful variation as well as other factors simply erodes it's replayeability.

Eufloria is a simple-ruled strategy game presented beautifuly.

The basics are easy to grasp, and new elements are added in the first missions. From then on, what you do with those tools are up to you.

Even though the rules are simple, Eufloria features a dense strategic environment. You will have to scout opponents, position "troops" well, fortify worlds, attack weak spots and so on.

The game allows for a good degree of modability, so increasing difficulty of complexity is within the limits of the package.

It's a shame there is no Multiplayer but it is still a very nice game to play now and then.

Pretty decent RTS game. The art style is simplistic, yet easily appreciable, although its novelty wears out after you're past the first 2-3 chapters. There are quite a few game modes, such as Skirmish and Dark Matter, to keep things entertaining should you choose to go back.

Gameplay involves conquering other asteroids by building Dyson trees, which produce seedlings. These make up your "army", which you can then send to other asteroids to take over. The seedling is a hit-or-miss thing. You have no direct control over their actions, only being able to specifically order them to and from individual asteroids; you cannot order them to attack specific targets. Thus they will sometimes conveniently ignore tough targets like laser mines, and instead fly about elsewhere in search of more enemy seedlings to shoot down. At other times, when a tree is low on health, your seedlings may also just ignore them. Gameplay also becomes repetitive after a while, since it's a matter of just amassing as many seedlings as possible. The interface also can be worked on, as micromanagement sometimes becomes tedious when you have taken control of 15 asteroids.

All in all, it's not a bad game. It's pace and ambience is relaxing, even though the difficulty does become exponentially harder (i.e. sudden transition) in some of the later stages in story mode. Despite it becoming stale after the 15 hours or so of gameplay, and the AI can be frustrating at times, the initial part of the ride was an enjoyable one for me.

Eufloria is a simple game and it works really well maybe a little to simple if your in to your hard core RTS style games but it kills a few hours and its music and flow reminds me of flower or flow.

If you want a great little game at a tidy price

I recommend Eufloria even if you only play it now and again you will always find someone you know who will really get in to it and appreciate it its calming and in a way makes you think in a way you may find intriguing.

really worth a look

What to say about Eufloria? It is a RTS style game, but it is less like any other you have likely played. For me Eufloria was less about the amassing seedlings to take over the next asteroid, and more about the journey of getting there.

This is a minimalist style game where simplicity rules in the art work and game play. Asteroids are nothing more than a circle. It is an enjoyable and artsy style game. The music fits the game and its overarching purpose very well. To simply watch a Dyson tree set it winding root, grow, and produce seedlings contributes to the relaxed and pleasant atmosphere to the game.

If you are looking for an exceptional and unique game in presentation and sound, then give Eufloria a try. Plus, it is always a good thing to support developers that produce DRM Free games. You never know, maybe the entire family will enjoy this game.

Eufloria is a very special strategy game. It operates off a quite simple concept: You lead a swarm of seedlings which are the fruit of so called Dyson trees. Dyson Trees are genetically engineered plants which grow on asteroids.

Now seedlings serve two purposes: They can combat enemy seedlings and trees, and - after the resistance has been muted - they can capture the enemy asteroid, making it (and everything that grows on it) yours.

Their second purpose is to plant new Dyson trees, which consumes quite some seedlings at once but will provide a steady flow of new seedlings in the future.

So in essence, the strategic decisions you have to take are centered around the balance of keeping enough seedlings around to defend / attack while at the same time sacrificing seedlings for expansion of your power base. Quite simple, eh?

Well, then there's the complexity of the game: Each asteroid has specific resource values, making trees growing on it and - more importantly - the seedlings growing from those trees very different from the others. Some might be fast but weak in combat, others might be good at killing other seedlings and yet some others might be particularily good at capturing asteroids.

Of course you are not alone in the universe. Indeed, you have to compete with other swarms and even "the grey ones", which seem to be carrying a sickness with them. A quite intriguing background story makes the player discover the whole background of the very existence of the seedlings, culminating in a great (and graphically very different) battle at the end.

Throughout the game, new scenarios and battle modi are being unlocked, so the game will not end with the final showdown. Also all the levels are based on scripts, so while they will always remain the same in concept, the actual layout will change everytime you play.

Personally, I found this game very intriguing because it is easy to learn yet building complexity through the strategic level - it might be comparable to chess in that aspect.

I especially loved the graphics: You can watch how the seedlings plant themselves into the ground, creating a root which grinds itself into the asteroid. Then a little plant emerges from the surface and slowly grows larger, new branches stretching out carrying tiny seedlings which themselves grow slowly and will finally detach from the tree. All seedlings show their unique attributes in their visual representation, too: There are fat ones, slim ones, long and shorts, with large wings or barely visible wings. The asteroids will soon be bustling with seedlings - adorable!

What I disliked was the relatively low difficulty. I am usually very bad at playing games through to the end, yet there were only three levels in this game (out of two dozens) which I had to restart, one of those being the final battle. But winning the campaign unlocks a new game mode which is advertised as having a smarter AI, so not a