I Am Fish describes itself as a ‘charming, physics based adventure starring four intrepid fish friends’, and that about sums it up. Playing as Goldfish, Pufferfish, Piranha and Flying Fish, the goal is to escape the confines of the fish bowl and make it to the freedom of the ocean, by any means the necessary.
The actual gameplay of I Am Fish is a pretty standard physics based affair. For the Goldfish, you mostly roll around in a fish tank, swimming into the side you wish to and rolling to your destination. It’s quite a slow and laborious process, which means its very easy to die. You can find yourself in uncontrollable rolls or drops, but that’s kind of the point, as you are just playing as a regular Goldfish after all. It takes a bit of time to get used to the tank-like controls, but after a while, it does kick in. Just don’t go into this expecting it to play like Super Monkey Ball.
Each of the other fish play a little differently. Pufferfish is able to roll across land, Flying Fish can glide, and Piranha can bite. This mixes up the gameplay, but the game could do with being paced a little differently. You play as the same fish for long stretches, but it would be better if the game mixed and matched a little more, so it didn’t get too tiresome playing as the same fish for too long.
In terms of the level layouts, they range from being quite linear to being fairly free-form. Most of the game is set out more as a physics puzzler rather than an open playground, with the routes towards the end being pretty clearly laid out, though there are exceptions where there is much more freedom given.
The game is set in the fictional English county of Barnardshire, and to it’s credit the game uses its setting well. Whilst you start in pet shops and rooftops, you eventually move on to parks, pools, sewers, nightclubs and even farther flung locales. It does a good job in giving a sense of distance that the fish have travelled, making it feel like a proper journey. There are some pretty contrived instances of the fish almost making it to freedom, only for a plot convenience to send them back to another level, but what can you really expect.
In terms of the performance, there are some slight bugs here or there, such as getting caught on surfaces and some strange technical issues, like the ‘High’ fog setting using 30% more GPU than the ‘Mid’ fog setting, despite looking very similar. The graphical style though is very clean and nice to look at, the developer has done a great job keeping things simple enough that you can see where you are going, whilst rendering it in such a way that it still looks high detailed. Additionally, the music is very relaxing, and fits the game well.
Ultimately, I Am Fish is a pretty nice game. It’s relaxing to play and doesn’t take itself too seriously. If you’re the type of person that gets frustrated over dying a lot, or by not having total control, then this one will probably stress you out. If you’re just in the market for a unique, physics based adventure, then I Am Fish will serve you well.
I Am Fish is currently available for £12.79 on Steam or as part of Game Pass for PC. The Steam price is set to rise to £15.99 on the 30th September, which I think is too dear, so if you’re interested I’d recommend grabbing it at the lower price.
