As a New Yorker in my late twenties, it’s only a matter of time until I get into birding. Flock might be the thing that finally makes me take the plunge into the hobby. The new shepherding/creature collecting game from developer Hollow Ponds is full of color and life, inviting you to explore its vibrant world and sate your curiosity about the flora and fauna that abound. The word “cozy” gets thrown around a lot in games today, but Flock fits the bill thanks to simple mechanics that ease you into a meditative calm. Flock is about just vibing out, and sometimes that’s exactly what you need.
Flock is a picturesque pastoral adventure in which you roam around various biomes astride a big bird. Your mission, though it’s a very laid back affair, is to document and categorize all the various flying species in the game for your Aunt Jane, a professor of zoology. A short tutorial runs you through the game’s sparse mechanics. You fly by directing your bird with the left stick and dashing with the right trigger, that’s it. When you find a new species, you go into an observation stage to pick out all of its unique aspects, after which you will have to match it to its descriptor and name in your trusty notebook.
Once the tutorial is finished, large swathes of the map open up. The overarching goal is to catalog every creature and track down your aunt’s lost whistles. Each whistle is associated with a specific family of animals and lets you charm them. Once charmed, they become part of your flock, meaning they will follow you around wherever you fly, so you gradually accumulate a personal menagerie full of dazzling colors.
Let’s talk about that menagerie, as the creatures are the main event of Flock. The game’s color palette, apparent in the landscapes but most evident in the creature design, is incredibly bright and varied. Each species is something between a fish and a bird. Some creatures have clear and direct real-world inspirations, such as the eel-like Piper family, but others are more varied and fantastical. Even when creatures are part of the same family, however, they have their own colors and small embellishments. To stick with the Pipers, one is a simple purple while another looks like a rainbow snake toy you might use to entertain a cat. Cataloging the game’s species simply requires you to observe, and that instruction might be the most important part of Flock. It’s all about observing the beauty on display. You can also play the game with friends in co-op, though I’ve only explored solo so far.
The fluid flying creates a flow-state-like experience. Without the need to control the altitude at which you fly, moving around becomes an intuitive push forward into new areas, each with their own gorgeous landscapes and species to discover. By the time you’re flying around with a posse of creatures behind you, it might become clear that this game is a spiritual successor to 2014’s Hohokum. That’s intentional, as both games are from the minds of Ricky Hagget and Richard Hogg. While the cataloging and whistle collecting of Flock is far more structured than the Hohokum, both instill the same sense of calm.
In a Polygon preview for Hohokum, Hogg said that the game was “about relaxing in a space and just enjoying the experience and the music.” That is the same ethos behind Flock. It’s all about going where your curiosity takes you and enjoying whatever you discover on that journey.
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