FLOCK! is a game of herding, and abducting sheep in a challenging puzzle format. Different terrain, various obstacles, time limits, and stubborn sheep or other farm animals will put your wits to the test, or break them. Now, lets go flock some sheep. Don't look at me like that, we'll be using space ships to do it properly.
I don't know that I can properly describe FLOCK! without sounding like a crazy person, so I won't bother hiding it. You are a space ship, and your goal is to successfully herd skittish sheep, chickens, and other barnyard animals into a mothership dubbed the "Motherflocker". You are given a quota of animals to herd to the Motherflocker within a set time limit, with puzzles on your way to the finish line. Puzzles range from environmental to downright silly, for example soaking your sheep in water which shrinks their wool to get through fences, or using cows to smash through obstacles.
Since FLOCK! is a very puzzley arcade game, score is everything, so get all of the animals quickly and safely to the Motherflocker. While the actual goal of aforementioned spaceship herding is pretty unclear, I would imagine the game is a kind of social commentary on farmers, crop circles, and UFO sightings. Or perhaps it has to do with an alien affection for agriculture. Who the flock knows? Humor plays a huge part in this game, which is always something to look forward to.
As you progress through the campaign, you unlock special terrain and obstacle items for custom maps. In the co-op mode, you progress and unlock co-op specific items for the custom maps. This is definitely a cool feature since it allows you to create co-op specific maps to share extending the experience further. Unfortunately, at the price point of 1200 Microsoft Points (14.99 on the Playstation Network and PC), none of my friends have played or made maps for me to try out. Likewise, I didn't have anyone to share maps with online, so I didn't get the full experience of it.
Since the Internet doesn't condone the act of flocking, you'll have to get cozy up for some couch co-op with another player. FLOCK! made sure to have a separate campaign for the multiplayer, to make use of both players mad skills, and ability to communicate while sitting in the same room. Co-op specific obstacles, like gates that one player has to hold open while the other herds the sheep through, or heavy items that require both space ships to lift, give the co-op it's own unique tasks. Communication is key so the ships complete the tasks efficiently without wasting time herding the same group of animals.
The challenges were very interesting, but the single player scoring system doesn't work well with two ships. If both ships herd a flock of sheep to the Motherflocker at the same time, whichever ship is closest to the Motherflocker gets the credit for the abducted sheep. The team effort should be awarded a team score, without trying for the friendly competition that forces players to do their best in other types of games. The person left holding up fences, or flattening corn fields gets completely left out, thus creating unnecessary tension and lots of flock yous.
For some reason when programming all these bouncing sheep, someone decided it was a good idea to have the co-op ships bounce away from each other, throwing both ships way off course should one stray too close. This puts a huge damper on moving around one another, and cooperating to complete tasks - which I was under the impression was the purpose of co-op.
Another strange technical issue was not having split screen for local co-op, restricting how far away ships can move from one another, and with bouncing ships this made things flocking difficult. If sheep are spread throughout the level with a time limit, stuffing both ships on a crowded screen is very hindering to progress. Both of these things add to the difficulty of the game, and made some things more frustrating than fun.
Co-op specific challenges can either be hit or miss. In the case of FLOCK!, the challenges are very original and satisfying to figure out. However, the damper comes from the technical issues. When your space ships are temperamental bumper cars on a cramped single screen, frustration occurs quickly.
Humor in FLOCK! helps out immensely, but can't make up for the local co-op, it's too flocking difficult! Physical barriers like a single screen and bouncing ships are as fun as a bow legged sheep. However, having co-op specific challenges, and custom co-op maps are a nice addition, too bad FLOCK! isn't at a more affordable price.