Artful, understated brilliance.
All games, to some degree, are designed to tease emotions out of you -- excitement, fear, joy, intrigue. What's so incredible about Flower is the emotions it brings out in such a compact, beautiful and simple game design. The pure joy of exploration, the elation of soaring through sky carried by wind -- these are to be expected. It's the final two levels of Flower which I didn't expect. (Even after knowing to expect something different, based on other reviews.) I won't spoil it, but I will say I didn't even consciously realize the game was having an emotional effect on me. I was just drawn completely into it like a great movie, except this character I identified with was just a simple flower.
Also worth commending thatgamecompany for their seamless design of the front-end "menu" and endgame "credits". This is a unified experience from front-to-back and a memorable, artful achievement in video game design.
