If you thought your time in Radlandia was over, then think again because developer Roll7 has just released the latest expansion for OlliOlli World: Finding The Flowzone. Is it worth grabbing your skateboard and getting your trucks dirty? Let’s find out. . .
In Radlandia, skateboarding absurdity never stops. You may have met the skateboarding gods and proven yourself worthy, but there’s always more to do. Wherever there may be a pipe, there’s a grind waiting. Now you’re joining a group of explorers in their search for the mythical, sky-floating city of Radlantis. And of course, the only way there is on your deck pulling off as many gnarly tricks as possible.
Finding The Flowzone is the second expansion for OlliOlli World. Where previous expansion Void Riders added a new area and characters to the game with a focus on alien shenanigans, Finding The Flowzone takes you into the skies of Radlandia with three new companions as you attempt to grind the friendly skies in search of Radlantis, a mythical city built by the skate gods themselves.
Your journey will take you across five new areas all with one thing in common: death-defying, cloud-surfing madness. If you bail, it’s a long way down. . .
Now if you’ve played OlliOlli World – and you should have if you’re interested in this expansion – then you know exactly what to expect. Breakneck skateboarding speeds, improbably designed tracks full of massive air, all the grinds and wallrides you could ever want and a great soundtrack to accompany your high scores pursuits.
None of that has changed in this DLC. The Flowzone is just as ludicrously designed as anything else in OlliOlli World. The cloud-based setting allows for some gorgeous backdrops to the skateboarding, with insanely placed gaps and grinds across the cloudscape to catch your breath as you make one massive jump to another, all the while hoping that you’ve judged your jump just right to land your trick.
Each level is composed of multiple objectives and routes to complete. There are high scores to chase, items to unlock, and specific tricks and characters to meet, all requiring multiple playthroughs for you to see it all.
There are two additions to the gameplay this time round: map pieces you need to collect to unlock more stages and air currents to speed you on your way. Now the map pieces may sound like a pain but, thankfully, the developers have kept the amount you need to unlock further stages, including the last one, to a minimum. Most of them are easy to get as you just generally clear a stage but you will need to return to some more than once to get those final pages to continue.
Air currents are the biggest change up this time. They can help you glide a gap to make it to the other side but their overall use is to increase your speed as, without them, you won’t be making many of those gaps. And boy do they speed you up. OlliOlli World was already a fast game, to begin with, requiring lightning-quick reactions to complete the base game but Finding The Flowzone has pushed that speed to turbo-overdrive levels. And boy is it exhilarating. You’re really going to have to bring your twitch reflexes to the table.
Now in my review for the base game – which you can find here: OlliOlli World Review | Invision Game Community (invisioncommunity.co.uk) – I said that OlliOlli World was a game that screenshots simply don’t do justice. And that statement holds up true here as well. No, still image does the expansions gameplay justice either as it simply doesn’t convey the thrilling and fluid gameplay in any sense. This is a game that you have to see in motion to appreciate just how exciting it is.
Now visually, the game still looks great with its stylised Adventure Time style design. The setting and colour palette fits in perfectly with the aesthetics of the base game, as does the game’s charming writing. The sound effects are fantastic and the soundtrack continues to be excellent as a backdrop to the madness.
If there is one problem with Finding The Flowzone, it would be that it’s over far too quickly. Even with all the map pieces to collect, multiple routes to discover challenges to complete with extra ones unlocking after finishing the campaign, Finding The Flowzone breezed on past. Perhaps my skills had been honed to razor-sharp perfection, but Finding The Flowzone felt significantly easier than the base game.
As the last expansion for OlliOlli World, developer Roll7 is winding down OlliOlli World with style and panache. With its exhilarating, white-knuckle gameplay, chill soundtrack and sense of accomplishment on completing a run, Finding The Flowzone is an experience that I didn’t want to end.
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