One of the greatest triumphs of modern videogames is said to be their ability to transport you into a role that you could never assume in real life. These days, the games we play have reached such a level of realism that it’s almost frighteningly immersive at times.
Suffice it to say, Flock isn’t one of those games. Unless, that is, your dreams consist of assuming the role of a UFO whose primary concern is beaming as many farm animals up to its saucer as possible. Throughout its 50 levels, Flock will provide you with sheep, pigs, and various other creatures that simply don’t have any idea what’s going on whatsoever when your saucer makes its appearance overhead. In Lemmings-esque fashion, you must guide the animals every step of the way through the hazardous environments to the Mother Flocker (I’m not kidding) so that they can be taken away.
You do this using your herding beam in conjunction with various features of the environment (springboards, steam holes, etc.)—and that’s where the game’s hidden complexity is found. Let’s say you run into a fence which clearly is blocking your path to the Mother Flocker. Now you must find a steam hole to shrink the sheep (think wool jacket) so that they can walk underneath the fence and onward. Or maybe you find yourself needing to make it across a large gap in the land; here, a catapult will do the trick (but first you need to find something heavy to drop on the other side of it). You can plug holes in the land by carrying items like hay bales and dropping them into the hole, and create more sheep by bringing them to heart spots, where they’ll mate (“avert your gaze”, says the game—heh). You’ll also run into terrible scarecrows (the animals just hate these things) that must be stunned in order to pass, as well as fields of yarn-like crops that you can flatten with your beam to earn crop circle points and help prevent the sheep from getting lost.
Points, in fact, are a big part of the game, which is designed to be something of an arcade experience. You’ll earn points depending on how quickly you complete a level and earn a medal (bronze, silver, or gold) to indicate your performance. You can also earn points by herding more animals, stripping trees with your tractor beam, and crashing through fences by rolling boulders into them. The game continually rewards you for your efforts, so that even after you’ve herded the requisite number of animals, the level will still continue until you send the Mother Flocker on its way. And it’s not like it’s easy; some of the levels can get to be extremely complex, requiring you to do lots of planning and manage many different things concurrently. The developer showed us a level that was entirely chain-reaction, much like a game of Mouse Trap, where animals were catapulting all over the place and one wrong move meant failure.
The game is built on a foundation of lighthearted humor, with a complimentary graphical style to boot. Everything looks like it was built in crafts class, from the stitched patches of grass to the yarn crops; it’s quite beautiful, especially for a downloadable title. While you might think you’d feel bad for the animals, Flock does its best to remind you that you’re supposed to just be having fun. Should you manage to drop a sheep in the water, the fish will spit out a cartoony barrage of lamb chops and filets. If you make the male sheep fall in love with the female sheep, they’ll follow her blindly in a line (like… sheep) wherever she goes, regardless of the danger involved. Animals poop (heh) when frightened and the pigs roll around in it if given the opportunity. In general, it’s just a very funny game, and its sense of humor makes it lots of fun to play, even when you fail.
In total, there’ll be 50 levels, plus co-op, plus “whatever else they come up with” before release. Additional map packs will be released. The maps can get to be quite huge, though a maximum size hasn’t been disclosed. Much like Capcom’s other upcoming downloadable strategy game, Age of Booty, you can also make your own maps in the extremely robust Map Editor, providing an endless array of possibilities. The game will be downloadable for Xbox Live!, PSN, and PC. No price point has been announced yet, but it wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect something in the $10—$15 range.
We’ll have more on Flock in the coming months. Keep your eye on this one; it should make for quite a lot of pick-up-and-play fun upon its release this December.
