As a New Yorker in my late twenties, it’s solely a matter of time till I get into birding. Flock is perhaps the factor that lastly makes me make the leap into the passion. The brand new shepherding/creature amassing sport from developer Hole Ponds is filled with colour and life, inviting you to discover its vibrant world and sate your curiosity in regards to the wildlife that abound. The phrase “cozy” will get thrown round so much in video games at the moment, however Flock suits the invoice due to easy mechanics that ease you right into a meditative calm. Flock is about simply vibing out, and generally that’s precisely what you want.
Flock is a picturesque pastoral journey wherein you roam round numerous biomes astride an enormous hen. Your mission, although it’s a really laid again affair, is to doc and categorize all the assorted flying species within the sport on your Aunt Jane, a professor of zoology. A brief tutorial runs you thru the sport’s sparse mechanics. You fly by directing your hen with the left stick and dashing with the best set off, that’s it. If you discover a new species, you go into an remark stage to select all of its distinctive features, after which you’ll have to match it to its descriptor and title in your trusty pocket book.
As soon as the tutorial is completed, massive swathes of the map open up. The overarching purpose is to catalog each creature and observe down your aunt’s misplaced whistles. Every whistle is related to a selected household of animals and allows you to allure them. As soon as charmed, they change into a part of your flock, that means they’ll comply with you round wherever you fly, so that you regularly accumulate a private menagerie stuffed with dazzling colours.
Let’s speak about that menagerie, because the creatures are the principle occasion of Flock. The sport’s colour palette, obvious within the landscapes however most evident within the creature design, is extremely shiny and various. Every species is one thing between a fish and a hen. Some creatures have clear and direct real-world inspirations, such because the eel-like Piper household, however others are extra various and fantastical. Even when creatures are a part of the identical household, nevertheless, they’ve their very own colours and small gildings. To stay with the Pipers, one is a straightforward purple whereas one other appears like a rainbow snake toy you may use to entertain a cat. Cataloging the sport’s species merely requires you to watch, and that instruction is perhaps an important a part of Flock. It’s all about observing the sweetness on show. You can too play the sport with buddies in co-op, although I’ve solely explored solo up to now.
The fluid flying creates a flow-state-like expertise. With out the necessity to management the altitude at which you fly, shifting round turns into an intuitive push ahead into new areas, every with their very own beautiful landscapes and species to find. By the point you’re flying round with a posse of creatures behind you, it would change into clear that this sport is a non secular successor to 2014’s Hohokum. That’s intentional, as each video games are from the minds of Ricky Hagget and Richard Hogg. Whereas the cataloging and whistle amassing of Flock is way extra structured than the Hohokum, each instill the identical sense of calm.
In a Polygon preview for Hohokum, Hogg mentioned that the sport was “about stress-free in an area and simply having fun with the expertise and the music.” That’s the similar ethos behind Flock. It’s all about going the place your curiosity takes you and having fun with no matter you uncover on that journey.
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