Wetrix

"Deep. It goes overboard on the difficulty, but buoyant players will absorb great skill over time."

There are some puzzle games which, while they are clearly are puzzle games, don't actually lend themselves to easy description beyond that label. Think of some puzzle games you've played, or seen played, and you will probably have a good idea of what I mean. Take games such as Tetris and Lemmings: two examples which I've had a fair amount of experience playing, though thankfully not explaining. They're both very intuitive to play, but describing them to your friends or family (or worse, someone who isn't predisposed not to look at you as a fool) is not nearly as simple. Wetrix, being a fast-paced puzzle game quite unlike anything else ever produced, falls into this category of puzzler neatly - or at least, as neatly such games can ever be expected to categorise. In a nutshell, what I mean to convey to you is that explaining Wetrix is a complicated job. (Dismissing it as ''Tetris with water'' is a gross oversimplification and does not, in my eyes, do.) Consequently, it shouldn't be a great surprise that I now subject you to a description of the game's system and mechanics. There will be a test at the end, so pay attention.

Wetrix is played atop a single square-ish plate of land that floats in the sky somewhere (where in the sky? It's not important). The main gimmick of the game, as alluded to above, is the inclusion of bodies of running water. The simulation of water movement is most realistic - it will flow downhill to the lowest point it can reach, after which, if possible, it will flow off the edges of the ''landscape'' (your square plate) and away. Although this may seem like some obvious stuff, let me just emphasise how clever the game is with its physics - every characteristic of water is modelled, down to waves that wash across the surface and over walls when it's disturbed. The other thing I mentioned in the aforesaid allusion is that there are those who would seek to convince you that this game takes its cue from Tetris. (Obviously you should not listen to them, but I shall nevertheless explain how it is that they have come to this misconception.) This is because of the control method - you affect the landscape using only falling pieces, which you direct to the correct spot (as they slowly, or not-so-slowly, fall) and then promptly dump. While in Tetris you could only move your pieces along one plane - left or right - the inclusion here of a third dimension means that you've to choose the correct site on your landscape in two dimensions.

This is where the control system's similarities with Tetris' end. While in Tetris all the falling blocks are exactly that - blocks of solid matter, which contribute to building up your tower - in Wetrix there are several different types of piece which each have their own effect on the landscape, and the water. There certainly are land-building blocks (termed ''uppers''), and in any game these are the first ones you'll receive; you have to use them primarily to build a container for the water. The water has to be contained because if it flows off the landscape, or out through a hole, then a test tube (the ''drain'') on the right hand side of the display will get filled up. Should the drain fill completely, the game will end, so it is of paramount importance to plug any leaks and make sure that water cannot escape from your dams. Water arrives on the landscape via bubbles (pieces which are under your control) and rain (which is random). Another important piece is the fireball, which evaporates the bodies of water it makes contact with, and also some of that which is in the drain. Alternatively, the fireball could be dropped on dry land, in which case it explodes, destroying nearby walls. Bombs will blow up wherever they land, knocking holes in the landscape - but these can be repaired with more uppers.

What I have just described is a simple version of Wetrix's gameplay. It probably sounds simple to play - but it really is not. Just this basic system is very hard to get to grips with, and it will take you some time. Conveniently, this system is also the one which the tutorials in the game teach you (In fact, rain is not part of the tutorial, but as it's an important factor for many strategies I included it anyway). You're presented with seven lessons, each concentrating on an aspect of the game, and at the end there's another, longer one which requires you to demonstrate your skills by reaching a certain score. You can then venture into the game proper - normal difficulty, or as it's called, ''classic mode'' - or you can continue to play in the practice mode (which is a considerably cut-down version of the game with most of the advanced features missing). It's here that we hit our main problem - the difficulty of making the transition from the tutorial to ''real'' Wetrix. Although many will find the tutorials to be taxing at first, usually because they aren't used to the mode of control, classic mode straight afterwards is a rude awakening.

What the tutorial fails to prepare the player for is the way in which everything happens at once - and very, very (or so it seems at first) fast. You've to build your walls, control water and occasionally evaporate it, and drop bombs in safe locations. You may cope with this for a while on your first go, if you're a whiz at video games - it's just feasible. You won't cope with the ''levelling up'', which occurs every three minutes, increasing the pace and adding new features. You won't cope with the earthquakes, which knock down all your walls, allowing water to flow off the edges, if you have too much un-demolished land on the landscape. You won't cope with the ice cubes (dropped by the computer) which freeze the water they land in, necessitating the use of your next fireball just to thaw it out, and not allowing you to evaporate it. You won't cope with the mines, which will explode if you attempt to evaporate the water in which they float - causing the water you thought you'd be rid of to drain out of newly-created holes, very fast indeed. You will constantly, probably for the first few hours of play, have to change your technique to get around some fresh obstacle to success. The tutorial fails to prepare you for any of this at all, so you'll pretty much have to teach yourself the final details of gameplay.

Once you feel that you've mastered the game, you'll be drawn more and more to the scoreboard, and you'll be modifying your technique still more to get the points rolling in. Of course, the tactics needed to maximise your score are often the direct opposite of the tactics you'd use to stay alive. Your scores are multiplied by the number of lakes, and also by twice the number of rubber ducks, which appear in every deep lake. However, having many lakes, and more importantly many deep lakes, leads to more walls, and a restricted space in which to dump bombs. This puts you at risk of an earthquake. Having lots of water on the landscape grants you a rainbow, which multiplies scores by ten, but the water also renders you prone to overflowing dams and vulnerable to the fireball-postponing disruptions visited upon you by the game (namely, ice cubes and mines). Playing for nearly half an hour allows you to reach level ten - the highest level, at which scores are multiplied by ten - but to balance this out, everything is much more difficult at the highest level than it is when you begin.

If this all seems a trifle involved, I'm just trying to give a sense of the complexity of it all and the difficulty you'll doubtless have in getting to grips with it. You'll want to spend some time with it, as it really isn't the sort of game anyone can pick up and play. For this reason, the two-player mode is of limited use as well - unless you are lucky enough to have a friend who's as much into this game as you are, you'll likely play it no more than once. With each friend, perhaps, if you're that relentlessly optimistic. For those who want to know, multiplayer is played in the same way as the single player, except that evaporating water doesn't lower the contents of the drain; instead, it raises your ''attack meter'' (along the bottom of the screen). Once this meter is at a suitable level, you can inflict an attack upon your opponent, such as uncontrolled floods or a bombing raid. I'd guess that a typical match between veterans should last five to ten minutes, but as I've never played or witnessed such a match I can't claim authority. Enough said on multiplayer - buy this game for a quiet evening's play, not for a party.

The game has a number of other, fairly versatile game modes. The first is the extra hard ''Pro'' mode; this starts you on level five and drops you straight in it with the mines, as well as giving you pairs of bombs to dispose of instead of singles. ''Handicap'' mode comprises seven game modes that are augmented in difficulty by hindrances that are renewed every three minutes. These range from removing all the water on the landscape and covering it with ice, through re-setting the drain to be at least half full, to practically flattening the landscape (or covering it with holes that need to be plugged, typically in a very haphazard way) and forcing you to begin again on the wall-building stage. Finally, ''Challenge'' mode allows you to try your hand at seeing how many points you can score in one or five minutes, or before dropping your one hundredth or five hundredth piece. These additional types of game will keep you interested for a while, but are nothing special and don't add hugely to the simple formula of classic mode. As you get better at the game (specifically, as you gain progressively higher ''ratings'' by playing for longer and/or scoring higher), you'll be granted some additional sets of pieces to play with; this is a great diversion if you're an expert on the game and want to exercise your skills by triumphing in every game mode, and have something to show for it.

On the aesthetic side, certain aspects of the game leave something to be desired. I liked the music in the game (repetitive beat music that acts as a background to the rest of the action), but I cannot see everyone enjoying it by a long way. Thankfully for those who'd rather listen to blaring rock music (or whatever bizarrely untuneful genre you personally favour), you can turn the music down (or the sound effects, if you'd rather) in the main menu. Speaking of sound effects, here's another odd aspect to the game. Many game events are heralded by an electronically synthesised (or at least heavily distorted) voice groaning out a short description - this is interesting, in a removed way. I can't describe why, but it is quite soothing to be told you have ''three lakes'' or to be given an ''Ice Cube Warning'' by this guy in his creepy drawl. In the UK version (and, I imagine, other PAL versions as well), the spoken sound effects are present, in the same style, in five European languages as well as English - and that's got to be a plus, especially on a space-restricted N64 cartridge.

The general look of the game is bright and vibrant, and the backgrounds (different for each game mode) are psychedelic, but not so much as to distract you from the action. They're nothing to complain about, but at the same time, they're not stunning. The two complaints I do have are quite minor, as they aren't often an issue. I don't like the way rainbows, though translucent, partially obscure the landscape - if they had been made to arc over the top a bit more, it would have been very helpful. Also of concern is the way in which, during periods of action in which a lot of things are happening at once and the game is moving fast, the machine grows somewhat jerky. If you're skilled you can maintain control, but it's still irritating and unnerving. You get the impression that the N64 is just slightly too weak to keep the game running smoothly, which is a shame. There are versions available for more technically capable platforms, none of which I've played. I'd certainly recommend you get the N64 version if you can find it, though - provided you enjoy puzzle games, and will have the patience to learn to play it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/02/02, Updated 10/31/02