by Caren Hannon

Created on: January 09, 2009   Last Updated: July 06, 2011

Imagine running through a corridor with people throwing rocks at you, and you have to evade them, and that's pretty much the gameplay
of Brainpipe.

The game focuses on reflexes, but also of relaxation (sounds like a strange combo doesn't it?). At first glance you're invited to one of the most gorgeous menus you will ever find in a downloadable PC game. The buttons are eyeballs that follow you and, although there's no text, they are fairly obvious to their purpose.

This is inviting. This is intriguing. The music seems odd, but soothing, and you press "Go", choose your difficulty, and get ready to play.

And then you start. "?What do I have to do?". If you didn't read the readme file, too bad - there's no tutorial in this game. Not even a help section, or even a message at the beginning of the level. Eventually you'll hit something and notice the circles in front of you (the iris that represents you) is getting red - that's when you realize you're supposed to be avoiding obstacles. Ok, now it makes sense. Your character (whom you can't see since you're in first person mode) is now trudging through a type of tunnel with obstacles and if the iris gets too red you die. There are spheres, or glyphs, that you should pick up if you can. They look fairly inviting, but if you didn't read the readme file you might have mistaken them for obstacles as well. Suddenly everything speeds up, and then it slows down. To truly test reflexes the speeds do change at random times, and if that weren't bad enough sometimes you're dealing with 4 or 5 obstacles at the same time.

Did I mention you're still on level 1, on difficulty 1? While the game does start easy, it can get difficult very quickly. On the bright side the gameplay in itself is easy - just dodge by moving the mouse. You can also, for a few seconds, slow down time by clicking the left button. However that's a feature that ends up forgotten when it's needed.

Even with all of this, you find yourself still relaxed. Perhaps it has to do with the hypnotic aspect of both the graphics and music. The background doesn't change much. It's still a vortex with random patches of color; the vortex colors might change a bit but that actually adds to the hypnotic effect.

There are only 10 levels, making this a very short game if you're able to beat it. If not, it's even shorter. There are no extras, no mini games. This is basically an arcade game on your PC and it's sucking your quarters for only about 5 minutes of gameplay until game over.

While the gameplay itself, the visuals, and the music are all fine. The few designs errors that are present (no tutorial, difficulty comes quickly, few levels) pretty much render this game to a 1 day try. You'll play once, twice, maybe three times. Then you'll forget about it for months until you decide to uninstall it.

Rating: 2/5

As always, different people feel differently. If you are a fan of first person obstacle games, or if you like a challenge, give the demo a try.

Learn more about this author, Caren Hannon.
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