Home

 › 

Articles

 › 

Flock! Review for PlayStation 3 (PS3)

Flock! Review for PlayStation 3 (PS3)

A Mother Flocker
to Reckon With

If and when the aliens do indeed land, you’d think they’d have something more constructive to do with their time – like unleashing a killer virus or enslaving the human race, perhaps – than probing backsides, forming crop circles, and abducting farm animals. A few of these purportedly tried and true extraterrestrial pastimes are humorously woven into the wooly foundation of Capcom’s new XBLA offering, Flock!, making for a whole lot of lighthearted and highly entertaining UFO-driven barnyard antics.

Flock! screenshot

Flock! puts you at the helm of a flying saucer tasked with herding all manner of adorable farm animals to a giant mother ship (cleverly dubbed the “Mother Flock!er”). While it’s not entirely clear why the alien invaders require such a large volume of sheep, cows, pigs, and chickens (or what becomes of the critters once they’re collected), it’s a silly premise that translates quite well into fodder for the game’s concise, puzzle-heavy levels. Playing space wrangler is certainly a whimsical experience, but its one that takes some getting used-to.

Being sheepish in nature, the animals in Flock! don’t take kindly to your UFO’s presence. As your craft approaches them, they’ll run away in terror from the tractor beam-like light emanating from beneath your ship. Using their innate flight-reflex to your advantage serves as the crux of how you’ll herd the cute beasts around, over, and through numerous dangers towards the Mother Flock!er for bagging and tagging. Your mission is more complicated than that, however. Making matters more urgent, each level is timed, so there’s little room for dilly dallying. Completing levels within a set time earns you gold, silver, and bronze ratings and stops the clock to give you a chance to gain bonus points or strive for a “perfect abduction.” Herding groups of creatures at once and wreaking havoc to the terrain also boosts your score multiplier. Most levels typically take a minute or less to complete.

Early stages have you herding a few sheep through small, confined spaces, but the types of animals you’ll work with, the obstacles you encounter, and the terrain challenge you’ll face increases steadily both in variety and complexity as you progress deeper into the game’s 50+ levels. Later levels grow more maze-like, requiring you to move different groups of animals with erratic behaviors through valleys and bridges, around deadly pits, up and down ramps, and past other perilous obstacles. Completing a level typically requires a certain quota of various animals to make it to the mother ship in one piece. This gets a lot harder as tougher obstacles and distractions are thrown into their path.

Flock! screenshot

Each of the farm animals you’ll encounter possess different personalities and unique properties. Sheep tend to scatter easily and shrink when you get them wet; cows are sluggish but can be prompted to charge (destroying fences and other things they ram into); chickens stick together better and can fly short distances when herded off cliffs; and pigs roll around like pin-balls but are easily distracted by piles of poop (which they proceed to gleefully and roll around in on contact). Additionally, there are female variants of each creature that cause all males in their presence to follow them.

New tools and upgrades to your ship also let you tackle puzzles in different ways. At first, your beam only scares away critters, but eventual upgrades let you use it to pick up and move objects and flatten stuff (making crop circles in the hay is fun), among other things. These are all very useful for clearing an unobstructed path for the animals to follow, knocking down fences, removing gates, triggering catapults to send the creatures flying to other areas of the map, and more.

Flock! screenshot

Flock! features a neat look that’s clean, bright, and upbeat. The various components of each level are visually stitched together (yes, you can actually see the stitches and the frayed edges of pieces on the outer edges) like a patchwork quilt made of multi-textured fabrics, which is an interesting idea that gives the already buoyant game world additional personality.

Flock! screenshot

Environment color themes adjust to reflect seasonal motifs, some nice lighting effects kick in when day turns to night, and the water surrounding each level is ripples with translucent waves. All of the animals are particularly likeable and are well-designed to exhibit quirks from their species. While the cacophony of squeals, squawks, moos, and other barnyard sounds can grow to be a bit much after awhile, the game’s music is quirky and playful. Altogether, the presentation is quite appealing.

Moving your ship around and controlling its different processes is very simple and easy to handle, but herding masses of frequently uncooperative beasts through intricate and dangerous mazes while under pressure feels frustrating and futile at times. Rounding up the necessary herd and then delivering it safely to the Mother Flock!er is often a huge pain in the ass. Don’t be confused; this is by design – and fun, for the most part. Animals will run off in random directions, fall off cliffs, or become wedged into areas that are difficult to maneuver them out of. Other times they’ll be snatched up by carnivorous beasts, accidentally stomped out with your depressor beam, or crushed by rolling debris. The unwieldiness of controlling many little animals with a UFO beam is all part of the challenge. Whether or not some players find it to be a bit much depends on their level of patience.

Content-wise, Flock! doesn’t disappoint. Every level you beat unlocks new elements that can be used to design, build, and share your own levels using the same powerful map editor the developers created the game with. The single-player campaign is has a ton of levels and introduces lots of new gameplay tweaks along the way, even though stages do tend to feel similar over time. Multiplayer co-op mode also has a decent number of missions that let you heard your Flock! with a pal. Flock! has a few quirks that some players may not fully appreciate, but this is the type of high-caliber title we’d like to see more of on PSN.

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 4.0 Graphics
A great all-around design. 3.2 Control
Herding critters with your UFO is intentionally tedious. It’s fun and frustrating at different moments. 4.2 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Fun music keeps things upbeat. The animal sounds are cute, but they get to you after awhile. 4.2 Play Value
Tons of single-player levels, extra co-op maps, and the ability to create your own levels makes for a lot of gameplay and content. 4.1 Overall Rating – Great
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.

Game Features:

  • Animal control: Herd, poke, prod and manipulate cute, cuddly animals that react to each other and their hazardous surroundings.
  • Unique style: Enjoy the whimsical hand stitched and stuffed art style using beautiful next-gen graphics.
  • Level editor: The level editor allows for custom puzzles to be created, shared, and rated.
  • Multiplayer fun: Two-player co-op lets you flock with a friend.
  • Extras: Explore with lots of fun surprises, secret collectibles, and upgrades to find along the way.

  • To top