Games have been finding new and interesting ways to allow gamers the ability to design their own creative space using user generated content. Recently games have been taking this to an entirely new level by making it an integrated part of the game, not just an option via PC development kits. LittleBigPlanet showed us the way last year on the PS3 and now Flock! is showing us that it can be done in a downloadable game available on PSN. This novel puzzler will get your attention, but at around 15 dollars, is it worth the price?

Gameplay

In Flock, it’s your job to pilot a UFO to herd the variety of farm life back to your mother ship, otherwise known as the Mother Flocker. Each animal is different and will react differently. For example, sheep spook easily but cannot pass through fences; however, once wet they shrink easily passing underneath. Cows will stampede if you follow too closely, knocking down obstacles in their path. Chickens can fly over short distances but are recklessly unpredictable. It’s up to you to take advantage of these quirks and habits along with the terrain to guide them using your UFO to rack up points.


Players are racing against the clock to obtain either a gold, silver or bronze medal. Each level has a different herd requirement, but once that is met, players can return back to the map and try for a perfect abduction, similar to the World of Goo. With 50+ levels available, plus user generated content, levels increase gradually with difficulty. Training is appropriately placed along the way without feeling like it’s holding your hand.

There’s more here than just herding however, after all that would get boring after a while. Players will need move wood and boulder’s to construct bridges and create barriers, flatten fields and catapult your herd as you guide these farm creatures through challenging puzzles. You’ll have to defend your flock from predator’s and the terrain itself. Your herd will not purposely walk off a ledge; however, if you push them, off they will go! This is handy in some cases, but should you push them off the ledge into water, they will be instantly heaven bound, depleting the size of your herd.

As you complete levels, you earn pieces that can be used in the game’s level editor. There’s plenty of inspiration to be had among the game’s myriad scenery, the only problem you may have is actually trying to adapt your idea into a level. The level editor as a whole takes patience to get a hang of, but those willing to take the time to learn the process will be rewarded exponentially. It may take some practice combining different elements before you design a level that rivals that of the developers, though. While clumsy and difficult at first, the level editor adds a lot of potential for Flock’s longevity. The best part is that these levels can be shared online. Players can download new user generated challenges as players publish them.


Unfortunately, the game is designed to add an element of challenge that is sometimes just downright frustrating. A huge element of the game is learning the animal’s behaviour. At the same time, the herd is often at the mercy of the game’s physic’s engine. Due to issues with collision sensitivity, the herd has a tendency to wander off aimlessly and get lost in the nooks and crannies. In one of the first puzzles, I became exceptionally frustrated after shrinking my sheep and pushing all except one underneath the fence to the waiting Mother Flocker. The lone sheep, for reasons unknown would not go under the fence, forcing me to shrink that sheep again, at which point it happily, or perhaps fearfully ran under the fence into the waiting ship. This lost me valuable points, which is earned as you flock animals together in larger and larger herds.

The sensitivity of the UFO beam can have your herd going in directions you hadn’t expected. I somehow managed to get a sheep to leap over a hedge and dive into the water before water became a factor. The result was a sheep who managed to do the dog-paddle or maybe it the sheep-paddle back onto land, hop back over the hedge and skedaddle into my waiting ship. These can definitely create a challenge but at the same time, unexpected challenges like that are more likely to create frustration.

Graphics and Sound

Flock has an art style that is appealing to the eye and draws us in for more. Just about everything in the game can be manipulated by being pushed over, uprooted, squashed or moved to make something else. While I was surprised to see pinball bumpers in a farm setting, they fit in well with their surroundings. Each animal is unique and easy to identify on the screen apart from the others and they are all charming, cute and whimsical. Sheep actually look like little white cotton balls. These soft toy styled visuals may not work for some, but they were a hit with me.

My only complaint here is that some of the visuals made it difficult to find some of the more hidden animals. There is no option to rotate the camera around the terrain (Y-axis). Due to the collision sensitivity issues, you could be move that missing animal around in a hedged corner, hidden from your eyes, and never know it’s over there. While I understand adding a camera would be extremely difficult and costly, it still would have been a welcome addition here.


Sounds are exactly as you would expect in this title. The animals sound exactly as barnyard animals should: chicken’s cluck, sheep bleat and cow’s moo. The background music has a slight country hoe-down theme to it bordering on a shanty town barn dance, and that works here. The only complaint here is that on some levels, the background music overpowers the sound effects. This can be a real pain when that lone animal gets stuck somewhere unseen and you have to search by listening to the sound effects to find it.

Value

With over 50 levels and user generated content via its level editor, Flock makes up for its shortcomings with its strong replay value. Timed challenges will give players the incentive to return for better times and encourage to beat their friends while user generated levels will continue to provide players with new and ongoing challenges giving the game longevity. The only problem is that after a few hours of herding animals, it does get repetitive.

Conclusion

Overall, Flock will draw players in with its cutesy and whimsical world. It’s definitely not for everyone, but if you liked the idea of building your own levels in LittleBigPlanet and the adorable world of The Maw, you’ll enjoy the marriage of the two here. But at 14.99, it might seem a little pricey for a downloadable title. Keep in mind, the game comes with a level editor that lets you upload your levels to share with other’s increasing the number of levels available. Despite its flaws, the game is addicting and if nothing else, Flock’s unique concept will keep you here to stay.