Flock joins Annapurna’s rising catalog of “private, emotional, and unique” video games, conjuring related feelings as The Outer Wilds and even Stray. With Flock, Hole Ponds and Annapurna have crafted a meditative explorative expertise punctuated by impressionistic visuals and loads of allure. Because the title implies, you doc and allure numerous creatures into following you. Flock doesn’t boast wealthy worldbuilding and a deep narrative, however there’s nonetheless an overarching purpose, specifically to fill Aunt Jane’s Creature Information and collect whistles used to gather creatures. It’s a recreation all about exploring and documenting wildlife at your personal tempo; it’s concerning the journey, not the vacation spot.
Flock’s gameplay loop is straightforward, but satisfying. You’re given a fowl to fly about on as you discover an ever-expanding open setting for brand spanking new creatures. The primary order of enterprise is documenting a creature. That is achieved by getting up near it and scanning it, normally by zooming in to get a greater vantage level. Your zoologist aunt, Jane, then asks you questions concerning the creature’s look and motion. Curiously, answering incorrectly has no penalties, because the creature’s information will get added to the Creature Information no matter your observations. The sport, and Jane by extension, make it look like it’s essential to take note of the distinctive markings and behaviors of the creatures, however nah, you’ll be able to simply reply randomly to get the identical consequence. Whereas it’s a nice expertise to fly as much as creatures and add them to the information, there’s this persistent feeling that an additional step is lacking within the course of.
Fortunately, documenting creatures isn’t all you do in Flock, you’ll need to accumulate whistles scattered concerning the setting so you’ll be able to allure them into following you as effectively. This course of is extra concerned. You will need to get the corresponding creature’s whistle by unearthing it from numerous meadows that you just graze with sheep. These meadows are additionally the place you’ll discover cosmetics to your character and, extra importantly, baubles that improve the variety of creatures you’ll be able to maintain in your flock. There’s no rhyme or purpose as to the situation of those whistles and the meadows they’re present in, however they’re scattered evenly about, encouraging exploration at a pleasant constant tempo.
“You will need to synch up the 2 vertical traces a number of instances to allure the assorted creatures inside Flock’s world”
After getting a whistle, it’s time to allure the corresponding creature into your flock. The presentation of the charming course of is completely lovely. Your fowl echoes the distinct melody performed on the whistle to the creature, which engages you in somewhat minigame. The whole lot of this charming minigame consists of lining up a frequency meter, which relies in your proximity to the creature. Lining up the meter might be irritating resulting from your fowl’s turning radius simply not being tight sufficient to accommodate the wild sporadic actions some creatures exhibit. Whereas there’s satisfaction in synchronizing the timing appropriately, it does get repetitive, since each single creature requires this identical course of. Like with documenting creatures, it will have been good to see this whistle minigame expanded a bit additional, like perhaps using distinctive rhythms for every species as an alternative of the identical proximity button press utilized universally. The sport’s core mechanic being tied to a repetitive timed button press simply feels underwhelming, even whether it is in the end pleasurable in a leisurely manner.
“The map slowly expands as you decrease increasingly more cloud layers.”
In contrast, I’ve nothing to complain about relating to Flock’s exploration. Creatures exhibit fastidiously designed sound cues with distinct cries, which makes finding them inside the setting very intuitive and pure. Visible landmarks are simple to establish as effectively, and the map permits you to pin factors of curiosity and filter creature habitats. Going from one finish of the map to a different is made enjoyable and painless due to the quite a few linked arches and holes that give your fowl bursts of pace. There’s additionally a number of whirlwind units scattered about that push your fowl excessive overhead so you’ll be able to swoop down and canopy huge distances with pace. Exploring the world of Flock is breezy and enjoyable due to the intelligent map design.
Small gripes apart, Flock’s simplistic gameplay does accommodate its chill ambiance and general premise effectively. Take the flight controls for instance, there’s no strategy to management verticality in anyway within the recreation. That is an intentional determination meant to streamline the expertise, permitting the participant to calm down and deal with scanning the setting. The whole lot of Flock’s content material can be shared with a good friend via on-line co-op. You’ll be able to’t actually provide you with a extra chill picture than two mates simply hovering via the skies as they discover and doc the wildlife collectively. In fact, that brings me to essentially the most chill facet of Flock general, the aesthetic presentation.
“The visible palette of Flock‘s environments is a deal with, and the day/night time cycle permits completely different colours to shade the setting in distinctive methods”
The impressionistic painterly aesthetic of Flock serves the environments and creatures effectively. Inaccessible components of the map are visualized by cloud cowl, and these whispy clouds encompass the whole lot of the Upland setting that you just’ll be spending your time in. This prevalence of clouds actually offers the entire location a dreamy and whispy really feel to it. The creatures all look lovely, with distinct designs characterizing their particular species. I notably just like the whale-like creatures that blow smoke as they float about. There’s a variety of creature sounds, from cicada-esque cries of the shining Thrips to the geese-like honks of Gleebs. And at last, the music accompanies this Seussean dreamscape completely, with impressionistic harmonies and a deal with ambiance over robust melodic hooks. The sound design in Flock is nothing wanting exemplary and it’s among the best issues concerning the recreation.
There’s not a lot else to say about Flock. It’s an enthralling indie recreation about documenting and shepherding numerous creatures. You’ll be able to technically ‘beat’ the sport by finishing all of Jane’s requests, and the credit music is effectively value it, however it’s extra concerning the journey. The sport doesn’t have deeper lore or story significance than what’s on the floor, and I can’t fault it for that. The simplicity of the story and gameplay serves the creative route as a chill recreation fairly effectively. Nevertheless, documenting and charming creatures might have used some extra mechanics to maintain it from feeling repetitive. The premise of accumulating knowledge on creatures for a bunch of zoologists is somewhat just like one thing like Pokemon Snap, whereas the ambiance and really feel of the sport leans into Journey a bit extra. Flock shouldn’t be a groundbreaking recreation with deeper lore or secrets and techniques hiding beneath its charming floor; it wears its simplistic allure on its sleeve and might be higher for it.
This recreation was reviewed on the PC.
