Flock

Written by Jason Dailey on 7/16/2024 for PC   PS5   XSX  

From the time I first saw a trailer for Flock, I couldn’t shake the feeling that it looked distinctly like this artsy, flowy game from 2014 called Hohokum. The bright colors, the art direction, the movement – I chalked it up to the developers of Flock simply taking a lot of inspiration from Hohokum, but upon further investigation, I discovered that Richard Hogg – the artist behind Hohokum’s wonderful vibes – is also the artist for Flock. Thankfully, Richard hasn’t lost his eye for this sort of thing even after a decade, as Flock is a joyous, time-melting experience that can be just what the doctor ordered after a long week.

In Flock you are a Bird Rider who visits a region known as the Uplands to assist your Aunt Jane – a zoology professor whose research students have been displaced after an event known as a Cloudsurge. With her students stranded, Aunt Jane turns to relying on you to complete her creature guide for the Uplands. To do so, you will locate, observe, and identify creatures in the wild based on their features and behavior. This gameplay loop is so compelling, along with its flowy movement, that Flock can be tough to put down as you work to identify more than 60 creatures for Auntie-dearest.

The first creature I encounter is a member of the Gleeb family – one of 12 you can discover. I observe it for a moment, taking mental notes regarding its color, shape, markings, sound, and general behavior. The game then offers me a list of the members of the Gleeb family, with a couple of notes to base my decision on. The Gallus Gleeb is said to be identified by its chicken-like appearance and distinct hop – precisely what I observed, meaning that I correctly identified my first creature. It sounds simple (and it is) but that is the mechanical beauty of it. It is deep enough to keep you engaged, but basic enough to keep thrusting you forward, almost like how catching Pokemon felt on the original Game Boy titles years ago.

Speaking of, identifying creatures is only half of the equation in Flock, as you will also capture them to add them to your, well…your flock. As you begin charming and capturing animals, you don’t realize it, but the game is doing the same to you. To add creatures to your flock, you need the appropriate whistle, or call, for each family, which can be collected around the map. Charming an animal requires you to keep the proper distance from them to not spook them but also keep them enticed, pressing a button to initiate the whistle when everything is aligned properly. Different species take longer or shorter to charm, and some even have a time limit before they scurry off.

The whistles you need to charm your way through the creature guide are scattered around the Uplands, pilfered by a member of the Bewl family – the appropriately named Burgling Bewl. These thieves are nestled in grass patches around the map, for which you will also need a flock of sheep (yes, they went all-in on flocks) to graze away the grass, exposing the Bewls and their hidden loot. Sometimes they’re holding a whistle, other times it’s a collectible, like new clothing options for your character. Not every part of the map is accessible from the start but opens as you complete tasks for Aunt Jane, eventually revealing the entirety of its peaks and valleys. Regions vary from grasslands, to forests, to wetlands, each containing its own creatures and hidden items to find.

As you might expect, some creatures are harder to locate than others. While some are simply flying, floating, or lying about, others are disguised or camouflaged within the environment. The animals in Flock aren’t your normal animals, though they are inspired by real-life counterparts, but instead they are Frankenstein versions of animals you know – fish that look like birds, and birds that look like fish, for instance. The real trippy part is when you hear a fish-bird thing bark like a seal, or a bird sound like a cicada. As you work to charm and collect more creatures, your flock that follows you and your bird companion around grows in both size and color. The blend of colors can be quite a sight to behold as you zip across the Uplands, or you can gather an entire flock of the drab looking Gallus Gleebs if you prefer drabness – it’s entirely up to you.

While roaming around identifying and gathering creatures is satisfying in its own right, I don’t know that the gameplay loop would be as compelling without the free-flowing flying of Flock. Zooming around the Uplands is a treat, letting you scale cliffsides or whip around trees and obstacles intuitively by simply aiming the left stick where you want to go. Pulling the right trigger thrusts you forward, with consecutive thrusts maintaining a breakneck speed. One of my favorite things to do was hover over a wind tunnel to gain maximum altitude and then nosedive back down – it never got old. There is also decent implementation of haptic feedback and adaptive triggers PlayStation 5's DualSense controller, which heighten the movement experience a bit.

Flock can be played solo or in online co-op with two, three, or four players. Smartly, each player progresses independently of each other, meaning that no matter how far you and your pals have made it while playing offline, you can still hop-in together for a laid-back session of creature-collecting. The entire map is open and doesn’t require you to stick together, though you certainly can. The structure of Flock’s online play reminds me of Sky: Children of the Light in the way that you can choose to interact or not with other people. But again, if online isn’t your thing, you can stick to an entirely solo experience as well.

Part Hohokum, Bugsnax, and Sky: Children of the Light, for its $19.99 asking price, Flock is an easy recommendation, particularly if you like cozy games. Regardless of if you choose to go it alone or flock-up with some pals, its creature-collecting gameplay loop and amazingly flowy movement is likely to have you in a flow-state of your own, thrusting you forward as you find just one more creature for your growing flock. Delightfully charming and zenned out – it might be just the distraction you need after a long week.