Instead, the game offers a simple premise. It’s essentially the fast paced puzzle solving of Lemmings mixed with the dark humour of the Worms franchise, with tinges of the Oddworld universe. It’s a compelling mix, I’ll give you that. And thankfully it comes together rather well too.
The sheep themselves look much better than you’d think. While the promotional artwork for the game is rather generic, seeing the sheep themselves in motion is a different story. They’re fluffy, they’re happy, their eyes dart around their environment as they blissfully step through the assembly line and they have a modicum of personality.
The game has that trademark Team17 humour – where these cute fluffy sheep are instantly pulverised into a bloody mess. It’s an almost funny juxtaposition that is best described as something like Chicken Run but MA15+ rated, but those who are sensitive to that kind of thing will be happy to know there’s an option to turn off all the blood and gore too.
The controls themselves feel like they were designed for a PC rather than consoles, so many times it can be a bit difficult to multi-task. Alas, they are simplistic – sheep can be selected, tools can be selected and there are options to apply them to one or a small group of sheep at any given time. You can also zoom in and out of the action, pause the game or even fast forward it if you’re impatient. Pausing in particular sounds like a bizarre feature to praise but it really is invaluable in a game like this, allowing you to plan out your approach to a certain level.
Throughout each level there’s a multitude of things to find and avoid – from spikes, heavy blocks, rotating blades. You name it, it’s probably an obstacle for these little sheep. There’s also a few things that appear in the environment that help players around – including teleportation and gravity devices. But the main crux of the gameplay comes with the items which give your sheep the ability to do certain things. While not as exhaustive as a game like Lemmings, some of the upgrades that the sheep can be equipped with are capes to allow them to fly up vertical surfaces, jumpers which make them, well, jump as well as explosives to help open up new areas.
The latter of those items is confusing as it is means that you’ll effectively have to sacrifice one of your sheep. On one hand, it creates a challenge to create an explosive sheep with as little collateral damage. On the other, it means that some of the levels can’t be completed without sacrificing sheep. Another issue is that with the limited tools and uses of those tools available, it’s hard to get creative to prevent the loss of your sheep. To be entirely fair, the game does allow you to complete a level with only one sheep surviving, but the end of level ranking will be lower. And yes, it’s completely possible to get a full three star ranking without saving every sheep, but it is still bizarre that it’s something like that can be done.
Flockers is definitely a challenging game and it’s one that’ll last the player for quite a while, especially if they go for the full three star ratings on the games. But it’s also quite an acquired taste so it’s definitely not going to appeal to everyone. To make things a little bit more interesting and spice up the game, there are some boss battles peppered throughout the game as well as leaderboards and unlockable customisations for your sheep.
Finally, there’s a golden fleece in select levels which usually requires a bit more abstract thinking to reach. It’s a simple and yet effective way to provide a greater degree of difficulty to those who want to go for it without forcing it on the player and potentially hindering their progress. Finally, there’s also a selection of secret levels which have a bit more fun with the player rather than the frenetic puzzle solving feel of the main levels.
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Looks interesting...