In Flock!, players are tasked with herding up farm animals using a UFO. Once corralled using the UFO's beam of light, you steer the animals back to the mother ship - dubbed the 'Motherflocker' - and, ergh, abduct them. Yes, while it sounds quite strange it somehow seems perfectly reasonable in the context of the game. You may be slightly perturbed the first few times you're cheerfully congratulated for a 'perfect abduction' for nabbing all of the animals in a level, but you'll soon get used to, and strive, for it.
Much like this review, you'll be greeted with plenty of bad jokes and puns as you play through the game but it actually suits the sty, we mean style, of the game and is a bit of a laugh. Flock! feels like a peculiar cross between Boom Blox and Lemmings, with cutesy characters and increasingly difficult puzzles that you must crack in order to beat the levels and move onto bigger challenges. The cute animal characters and evolving environments make for a nicely presented package. Of course, there are zany alien and animal sound effects and some will find the music fantastic, while others will find it repetitive and annoying. We found ourselves somewhere in between, cursing ourselves for whistling the tunes long after switching the game off.
Ah, she's a fine ship, the Motherflocker.
The story and gameplay are straightforward, as you'd probably expect for a downloadable puzzle game, and you'll find you can hop right in and get to it. Never mind your motivation for pinching these farm animals; what these mysterious alien-types might want to do with them is none of our damn business.
Things start off fairly simple, rounding up sheep, but as you complete levels you'll obtain ship upgrades and be required to herd different animals such as cows, pigs and chickens as well. Each type of critter has its own unique behavioural quirks and abilities. Sheep can be shrunk with water to squeeze through gates, cows can stampede and knock down gates, pigs like rolling in muck and chickens can fly short distances when pushed.
Each level's environment become more complex over time as well, requiring you to interact and carry out tasks before you can complete it. For example, you'll flatten crops, roll boulders and fill in deadly pits to make them safe for the animals. It never feels forced though and sits nicely within the realms of the game - these are some crazy farms we're dealing with here after all. As you proceed, the game even introduces enemy characters that come out at night, 'Beasties', that you'll need to protect your motley crew of creatures from. You'll also get the opportunity to prod the animals into interacting with each other, and without wanting to spoil things too much, relax, because you will get to play the virtual pimp in later levels.
Now, find them a room.
That's not to say Flock doesn't have its problems. Rounding up the various animals can often prove to be a little fiddly, and we found ourselves accidentally pushing the unfortunate creatures off cliffs and into deadly pits all too often. Sure it could be argued that it just takes skill and coordination to control your UFO successfully, but the problematic controls can just limit the fun of the game and make the herding a chore. That being said, the controls never get so annoying that you're not willing to reboot the level and give it another shot.
In making the control scheme nice and simple, there's one fairly annoying quirk we should mention - you cannot turn off your UFO's light beam. The problem with this is if you overshoot the livestock - which is easy to do at speed - you can't just backpedal a bit and start pushing them again as you'll push them in the wrong direction. Instead you have to circle in a generously wide arc around the animals and start cajoling them again, losing valuable seconds and increasing your frustration. As long as you can deal with the tricky controls however, you'll find Flock! is lots of fun.
The game offers replayability as you chase gold medals and the aforementioned 'perfect abductions'. If you're the creative type, you'll find the level editor satisfying, and you can upload your creations for others to play. Every level you beat in the single-player campaign will reward you with more items being unlocked in the level editor, which is a good way of keeping you interested and playing on. Of course you can also download, play and rate others' levels which really increases the game's ongoing value. There's also local co-op multiplayer if you're so inclined. You might find yourself bumping into each other a lot, but it offers some novelty value.
Crop circles 101. You fail.
The appeal in Flock! is in switching it on for quick bursts here and there. Of course some will plough through it in one sitting but doing so will lessen its appeal and longevity. If you can come to grips with the game's control scheme, there's definite fun to be had here.
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