Perhaps the best thing for media and content creators attending Summer Game Fest Play Days is a lot of the games we play are by appointment. Devs, publishers, and PR people expect you there, and pretty much know how to prepare for you, but every once in a while — there’s that rare moment where everybody is free, so I took that moment to play Flock.
As someone that loves cozy games, Flock was definitely a game that caught my eye. I had some free time, and every time I walked by Annapurna’s booth, I had to catch a glimpse of it. It’s not a game that was on my radar, but as soon as I saw it, I had to play it.
So I convinced myself to have the courage to walk up to the attendant and mentioned I’d like to play it after the person already playing it was done, and I was lucky enough for the attendant to set up one of the booths for the other games to play Flock, so I was super thankful for it.
That said, once I got my hands on it, I knew it was something different.
As a cozy player (but I think too often we see cozy games that are just farming and cooking simulators) the fact that Flock isn’t any of those things was a breath of fresh air to me.
The demo started with a customization screen for both your character and the bird you ride. (Being the Green Bay Packers owner that I am, I tried going with some sort of green and gold combo). It was explained to me that it was a bit of a flight simulator, and that being said, I was a little lost at the beginning. You start off in the sky with no sense of direction, but when you keep flying, you end up at this floating island where you finally meet other people. I wasn’t completely comfortable with the flying at first, being unsure if you could actually change your bird’s trajectory, but I just went with it.
I don’t know if anything special happens when you perch on branches, but there’s no shortage of these opportunities in the game.
Where the tasks come in is when you talk to the people on the island. It requires you to fly around and examine parts of the environment. The main thing you do is discover various creatures inhabiting the area. When you find them, the game goes into a menu to classify what kind of creature they are, because they’ll be one of several different types, and it quizzes you based on what the creature either looks like or what they’re doing. There was one that I found that had a yellow spot on its head, and another one I found that was constantly jumping; these are characteristics important to your discovery, so you have to be paying attention. That said, it’s a cozy game, so you won’t get punished if you’re wrong.
As for the bad, and it’s probably on me — I eventually got to a point where I didn’t know what I was doing. I had to find something, but there was no indicator of where I had to go so I aimlessly flew for a few minutes, and before realizing I was just a few moments away from my next appointment.
So again, Flock isn’t a game I’ve known about before. After reading the press kit, I never thought about it being a “multiplayer shepherding” game, even though I can agree that that’s what it is. I guess that’s a fancy way of saying cozier Pokémon, without fighting. Aside from the end there, I had a lot of fun in my experience and I’m excited to know that the game will be out on PC via Steam, as well as PlayStation and Xbox platforms (including Game Pass) on July 16. This’ll definitely be on my radar assuming it isn’t that long of a game.
Perhaps the best thing for media and content creators attending Summer Game Fest Play Days is a lot of the games we play are by appointment. Devs, publishers, and PR people expect you there, and pretty much know how to…
Perhaps the best thing for media and content creators attending Summer Game Fest Play Days is a lot of the games we play are by appointment. Devs, publishers, and PR people expect you there, and pretty much know how to prepare for you, but every once in a while — there’s that rare moment where everybody is free, so I took that moment to play Flock.
As someone that loves cozy games, Flock was definitely a game that caught my eye. I had some free time, and every time I walked by Annapurna’s booth, I had to catch a glimpse of it. It’s not a game that was on my radar, but as soon as I saw it, I had to play it.
So I convinced myself to have the courage to walk up to the attendant and mentioned I’d like to play it after the person already playing it was done, and I was lucky enough for the attendant to set up one of the booths for the other games to play Flock, so I was super thankful for it.
That said, once I got my hands on it, I knew it was something different.
As a cozy player (but I think too often we see cozy games that are just farming and cooking simulators) the fact that Flock isn’t any of those things was a breath of fresh air to me.
The demo started with a customization screen for both your character and the bird you ride. (Being the Green Bay Packers owner that I am, I tried going with some sort of green and gold combo). It was explained to me that it was a bit of a flight simulator, and that being said, I was a little lost at the beginning. You start off in the sky with no sense of direction, but when you keep flying, you end up at this floating island where you finally meet other people. I wasn’t completely comfortable with the flying at first, being unsure if you could actually change your bird’s trajectory, but I just went with it.
I don’t know if anything special happens when you perch on branches, but there’s no shortage of these opportunities in the game.
Where the tasks come in is when you talk to the people on the island. It requires you to fly around and examine parts of the environment. The main thing you do is discover various creatures inhabiting the area. When you find them, the game goes into a menu to classify what kind of creature they are, because they’ll be one of several different types, and it quizzes you based on what the creature either looks like or what they’re doing. There was one that I found that had a yellow spot on its head, and another one I found that was constantly jumping; these are characteristics important to your discovery, so you have to be paying attention. That said, it’s a cozy game, so you won’t get punished if you’re wrong.
As for the bad, and it’s probably on me — I eventually got to a point where I didn’t know what I was doing. I had to find something, but there was no indicator of where I had to go so I aimlessly flew for a few minutes, and before realizing I was just a few moments away from my next appointment.
So again, Flock isn’t a game I’ve known about before. After reading the press kit, I never thought about it being a “multiplayer shepherding” game, even though I can agree that that’s what it is. I guess that’s a fancy way of saying cozier Pokémon, without fighting. Aside from the end there, I had a lot of fun in my experience and I’m excited to know that the game will be out on PC via Steam, as well as PlayStation and Xbox platforms (including Game Pass) on July 16. This’ll definitely be on my radar assuming it isn’t that long of a game.
by Danreb Victorio
