The creature-collector style is dominated by Pokemon and stuffed out from there with many video games closely impressed by it. By a sure lens, Flock is a creature collector, too, however in case you go into it on the lookout for a recreation very very like Pokemon, you will not discover it. The duty of filling out your Pokedex-like Area Information by discovering a world of (largely) fantastical creatures, every with their very own bodily and behavioral traits, could be very very like the style’s titan, however past that, Flock is far more lax, to not point out charming and delicate. It is higher described as a creature observer, and that novel strategy winds up being very pleasurable.
Flock takes place in a gorgeously colourful wilderness known as The Uplands. Because the customizable participant character and bird-rider, you and an optionally available co-op companion head right into a small camp the place your aunt and a few buddies want your assist cataloging the numerous critters roaming the land. The complete recreation takes place on the again of your feathered pal, and the sport’s method of mechanically adjusting your flight path vertically, when you achieve this horizontally, makes all of it very straightforward to manage. It feels mild and enjoyable in your fingers, like taking place a slide on the playground.
This child-like spirit is current all through the sport, from its candy-colored bushes and plains to its small forged of characters who converse largely in phrases gamers of all ages can perceive, however who sometimes pack a touch of one thing extra grown-up of their musings. I discovered it much like how characters on many Cartoon Community reveals converse. It is not making an attempt to be subversive, like a Dreamworks film sneaking in an grownup joke; moderately, it treats its viewers with some maturity, expressed within the phrases characters select. It is instantly inviting, and the sport’s gentle music makes for a perpetually calming soundtrack that hold recreation feeling meditative and decompressing.
Successfully, this creature collector is extra akin to a bird-watching recreation, although I hesitate to name it a „simulation“ because you’re driving on a chicken and observing animals that do not exist on Earth, and also you do all of it with fairly easy mechanics. There are a dozen species to find, resembling Bewls, Sprugs, Drupes, and extra, and every time you encounter a brand new critter, you may be requested to guess which household they belong to and specify which sort they’re.
Not all Drupes are equivalent, in spite of everything; you might guess you have discovered your self such an animal, however are they a Wandering Drupe, a Balsamic Drupe, a Yellowlegs, or one other variety? That is resolved by observing their habits and look, then selecting their identification from a listing of quick descriptions of every sort of Drupe. You may get two tries, after which level the sport (by way of your aunt’s forgiving instruction) simply tells you the proper reply.
Naturally, the names of some creatures are helpful–the Yellowlegs has yellow legs, in fact. However generally, a couple of animal in a species could have a selected trait, which suggests you may wish to examine a bit extra intently. Have they got a singular gait? Do they modify colours? Do they journey in small teams? Because the recreation equips you with some pertinent particulars of every animal earlier than you have even met any of them, choosing the proper one from the record is mostly straightforward even when some are a bit harder than others to distinguish.
And greater than being straightforward, it is forgiving. There is not any penalty for getting something unsuitable, and neither is there a gamified reward for getting issues proper. All of it feels very purposely low-stakes, and I respect it for that. Flock is a online game and does some video-gamey issues, but it surely’s by no means actually holding rating. There are few fail states and no game-over screens. You are given a captivating world to find, which for me is reliably rewarding sufficient.
The place discovering an animal is step one, and figuring out them is the second, charming them is the third. To appeal any animal, you may have to know their name, which you study by discovering whistles scattered internationally. Each discovering whistles and utilizing them is, like figuring out animals, extraordinarily straightforward. Within the former’s case, you may ship your sheep out to eat domes of grass, thereby revealing a Burgling Bewl–a critter identified to run off with individuals’s belongings–who then forks over their pilfered merchandise.
Retrieving your aunt’s 12 whistles means you may ultimately be capable to appeal any species within the recreation, which is completed by way of a short minigame during which you attempt to line up some on-screen shapes and play the notes on the proper time, successfully making it a quick-time occasion. You’ll be able to truly fail these, which suggests alarming the animal and sending them scurrying off. However the variety of animals on this planet will not be finite; one other will quickly seem in case you zip round their habitat for a bit.
As you progress, the clouds coating the panorama will dissipate to disclose new biomes, a few of them dwelling to particular kinds of animals and even complete species you have not seen but. Every biome additionally homes extra researchers like your self, NPCs who give you suggestions and commerce challenges for wool, which may also be gathered out of your sheep and used as foreign money to unlock foolish clothes choices like „Mustard Type“ garments, a line of hats, shirts, and extra all predominantly coloured just like the condiment.
Whereas I totally loved all of those easy duties, one of many recreation’s greatest features occurs to be a bit extra advanced. The method of discovering the handfuls of various animals can generally demand very particular antecedents, like checking in a selected biome at a sure time of day, or maybe solely recognizing them from a ways away utilizing the sport’s focus mode, as some animals are shy or standoffish.
One explicit animal have to be discovered by following trails of elusive smoke; one other is barely found after you examine various colourful and oily markings; and one other blends in like drooping fungi in a mushroom forest. I have not discovered each final one in every of them but, however the act of assembly each sort of animal within the recreation is definitely extra attractive as the sport goes on, as the ultimate handful might be significantly tough.
On this method, Flock works reverse many different video games. Whereas usually acquiring each final collectible merchandise in a recreation seems like an rising grind as the sport goes on, in Flock, I very a lot wish to full my Area Information. With 55 animals within the recreation, lots of them supply these extra concerned steps and make for the sport’s most-earned discoveries. There are even a couple of who’re so uncommon that they have not a reputation but, permitting you to pick out their title from a listing of a number of options, every of them carrying the sport’s cozy and welcoming vibe ahead.
Quite a lot of creature collectors forged the player-character as a strong human who lords over their captures and sends them into battle to earn human-centric rewards, a formulation that has not simply fatigued me, however lengthy made me uncomfortable. Refreshingly, Flock feels extra like an ecosystem, one during which you’re a member however by no means the ruling physique. You do not seize animals, you simply hang around with them. When charmed, they path behind you, making a parade of various animals. There may be neither harm nor dominion in Flock’s Uplands. You are not there to understand nature and empower your self. You are there to review the world and assist a member of the family within the course of. That is all, and that change of tempo and perspective is one in every of my favourite elements of the sport.
My gripes with the sport are few in quantity. Although the sport’s goals are continuously straightforward sufficient, some directions are solely given in dialogue with NPCs, and in case you miss some pertinent info, there isn’t any approach to recall or play again what you have been informed, and the hunt log generally would not say both. This as soon as led to me being stumped for some time after I unlocked a brand new biome after which did not know the place to focus, having neglected a line during which my goal was hinted at.
I additionally constantly forgot to recall my sheep after they’d eat up a number of the pasture to assist me reveal Burgling Bewls. I by no means noticed a purpose for these sheep to wish me to actively recall them from a design perspective, which meant some occasional frustration after I’d zoom throughout the land to finish a activity, solely to appreciate too late that I would left my sheep on a hill some a whole lot of meters away. It is not an enormous open world, so neither is it an enormous downside, but it surely looks like the sheep ought to simply return to me after they’ve cleared the hilly pasture and I’ve claimed my reward hidden beneath the tall grass. Having mentioned that, these are minor annoyances that did not hinder my expertise for too lengthy in any occasion.
Flock’s largely easy mechanics and colourful world imply all of it performs like a hug. With its low barrier of entry, individuals of all ages and talent ranges can benefit from the recreation, and in two-player co-op, even get pleasure from it collectively. When issues do get a bit extra advanced, that results in a number of the recreation’s most rewarding moments, like discovering and naming super-elusive animals, or ultimately filling out the all-important Area Information with each critter and name seen and heard within the Uplands. Flock paints the image of a world that welcomes you with open arms and equips you with instruments to reciprocate the identical admiration and respect for its dozens of fascinating creatures.