Flock joins Annapurna’s rising catalog of “private, emotional, and unique” video games, conjuring comparable 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 attraction. Because the title implies, you doc and attraction numerous creatures into following you. Flock doesn’t boast wealthy worldbuilding and a deep narrative, however there’s nonetheless an overarching objective, 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 in regards to the journey, not the vacation spot.
Flock’s gameplay loop is easy, but satisfying. You’re given a chook to fly about on as you discover an ever-expanding open surroundings 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, often by zooming in to get a greater vantage level. Your zoologist aunt, Jane, then asks you questions in regards to 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 you will need 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 outcome. Whereas it’s a pleasing 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 acquire whistles scattered in regards to the surroundings so you’ll be able to attraction them into following you as properly. This course of is extra concerned. It’s essential to get the corresponding creature’s whistle by unearthing it from numerous meadows that you simply 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.
“It’s essential to synch up the 2 vertical strains a number of instances to attraction the varied creatures inside Flock’s world”
After getting a whistle, it’s time to attraction the corresponding creature into your flock. The presentation of the charming course of is completely cute. Your chook echoes the distinct melody performed on the whistle to the creature, which engages you in a little bit minigame. The whole thing of this charming minigame consists of lining up a frequency meter, which relies in your proximity to the creature. Lining up the meter will be irritating on account of your chook’s turning radius simply not being tight sufficient to accommodate the wild sporadic actions some creatures exhibit. Whereas there may be satisfaction in synchronizing the timing appropriately, it does get repetitive, since each single creature requires this similar 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 a substitute 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 satisfying in a leisurely method.
“The map slowly expands as you decrease increasingly more cloud layers.”
Against this, I’ve nothing to complain about concerning Flock’s exploration. Creatures exhibit rigorously designed sound cues with distinct cries, which makes finding them inside the surroundings very intuitive and pure. Visible landmarks are straightforward to determine as properly, and the map means that you can 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 chook bursts of velocity. There’s additionally a number of whirlwind gadgets scattered about that push your chook excessive overhead so you’ll be able to swoop down and canopy huge distances with velocity. 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 total premise properly. Take the flight controls for example, there’s no option to management verticality by any means within the recreation. That is an intentional choice meant to streamline the expertise, permitting the participant to chill out and give attention to scanning the surroundings. The whole thing of Flock’s content material can be shared with a pal via on-line co-op. You’ll be able to’t actually provide you with a extra chill picture than two associates simply hovering via the skies as they discover and doc the wildlife collectively. After all, that brings me to probably the most chill side of Flock total, the aesthetic presentation.
“The visible palette of Flock‘s environments is a deal with, and the day/evening cycle permits totally different colours to shade the surroundings in distinctive methods”
The impressionistic painterly aesthetic of Flock serves the environments and creatures properly. Inaccessible components of the map are visualized by cloud cowl, and these whispy clouds encompass everything of the Upland surroundings that you simply’ll be spending your time in. This prevalence of clouds actually provides the entire location a dreamy and whispy really feel to it. The creatures all look cute, with distinct designs characterizing their particular species. I significantly 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 give attention to ambiance over robust melodic hooks. The sound design in Flock is nothing in need of exemplary and it’s among the best issues in regards to 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 properly price it, but it surely’s extra in regards to 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 inventive path as a chill recreation fairly properly. Nevertheless, documenting and charming creatures might have used some extra mechanics to maintain it from feeling repetitive. The premise of accumulating information 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 just isn’t a groundbreaking recreation with deeper lore or secrets and techniques hiding beneath its charming floor; it wears its simplistic attraction on its sleeve and might be higher for it.
This recreation was reviewed on the PC.
