Flow: A Race Against the Waves

Help four animals navigate their way to a boat and safety through rising waters and giant waves.

Flow is a cooperative real-time tile-laying game published by Brain Games, designed for 1-6 players, with a 15-minute playtime.

Gameplay

The board is made up of a seven-by-seven grid with an animal in each corner. In the center of the board is the boat tile. The goal is to create a path of connected water passages from each animal to the boat in order to win the game.

Each round, the one-minute sand timer is started. Players then take their turns as quickly as possible before the time runs out. On a turn, a player may either play one of his action cards or draw a tile.

When drawing a tile, it must be placed adjacent to either an animal corner space or to another tile. It must create a path to one of the animal tiles. Its edges must match any tiles it is placed next to — an open water path must be connected to another open water path while an edge with no path can only be connected to another edge with no path. If there is no valid place to play a tile, or it would lead to the animal being completely blocked from forming a path to the boat, then the new tile is discarded instead.

Action cards have special abilities. A certain number are dealt out at the start of the game, and once all players have used all their cards, there are no more action cards available for the rest of the game. Special abilities include, for example, placing a bird token on a tile to keep it safe from the giant wave phase or revealing two tiles from the draw pile and either selecting one of them or drawing another face-down tile.

Players continue taking turns until the sand timer runs out. Once this happens, the current turn is completed, and then the giant wave phase occurs. Two dice are rolled: one corresponds to the columns on the grid and one to the rows. After the dice are rolled, all tiles are discarded from the column and row indicated by the dice rolled. If a bird token is present on one of the affected tiles, it is removed instead of the tile, as long as both dice do not call for its removal. Once the phase has been resolved, the timer is started again and players continue taking their turns.

If players manage to create a path from each animal to the boat before they run out of tiles, they win the game.

There are also scenario cards. Once players become familiar with the game, they draw a certain number at the start of each game. The more they choose to draw, the higher the difficulty. Each scenario card imposes an extra challenge. For example, one prevents players from communicating except during the giant wave phase. Another causes the boat tile to be flipped to its hard side so that there is only one edge that all paths have to connect up to, rather than the regular side, which allows paths to any of the four edges.

Review

Flow is a family-friendly cooperative game with a fun real-time element. It’s fun to see how quickly you can make a judgment call for each tile to draw and the best place to put each one. The faster you move, the more turns players get, but the more likely you are to place a tile at an inconvenient location.

The rules are accessible for older children and the gameplay, while keeping you on your toes, isn’t that challenging. Some of the scenario cards are a little harder than others, but in general, the choices felt fairly straightforward.

None of us were familiar with the movie that the game was based on, but we didn’t really feel excluded from enjoying the game. It’s a gorgeous game that is beautiful to look at, especially the artwork on the action cards. However, text on those cards, rather than just symbols, would have been helpful in remembering what each one did. We did have to check in the rulebook a couple of times to remind ourselves.

Overall, we enjoyed Flow, the pressure of time, and the unpredictable nature of the giant wave phase leaving you always uncertain which row and column were about to be wiped. We’d have liked it if the game had been a little more challenging, though. A good game for families, but possibly not able to stand on its own for just adults.

Pros: Gorgeous artwork, scenario cards increase variety from game to game

Cons: May not be challenging enough for all groups, no text on the action cards to remind you what each one does

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of this game.