The Flock, an asymmetrical first person game of tag with a twist, when every dies at least once, the game comes to an end. Unfortunately it’s hard to see the current population of 215 million plus actually wanting to play long enough to die that many times.
The basic premise of The Flock has all players starting off as strange gargoyle like creatures. Your creature can run, jump and scamper, and when you stand still you become stone, and impervious to your prey. There are no other attacks or actions, or special moves you can do as the gargoyle. Your first objective from here is to lactate the light. The light is basically a big flashlight with a terrible battery.
Once the first player finds the light, the game play changes slightly as you the carrier of the light are now the prey of everyone else and becomes a simpering weak human. Taking away all the movement advantages of the gargoyle creature, you are left with only the light to protect you. As the human you can only walk or sprint, you can’t jump or crouch or crawl or anything else. You’re only protection is your flashlight which can burn up the other players who remain gargoyles.
Here the objectives change slightly, as now you as the human must run and hide from other players, while waiting for objectives to light up that you can activate for extra points. You also gain points the longer you carry the light. The other players adversely are trying to find you and attack you to take over the light. The light however hurts them and their only protection is to stay still to avoid damage.
This seems like a interesting concept, but it’s lacking in various areas. For one, as compared to other asymmetrical games like Evolve, there is absolutely no teamwork involved here. Everyone is out for there own score and objectives. There is no in-game chat or any other form of communication to use, nor is there any benefit from working together as each individual is simply trying to get the highest score each match.
The other big issue, is after a match there is literally nothing else left to do. Each match is the same, regardless of what map you choose to play on. There is no variation to the game, nor is there any development to your skills or abilities. There is literally no replay value here.
There’s not really much to look at here either. Visually The Flock is drab and repetitive. Every map though unique is dark and grey, with very little variety. Though I will say there are generally some interesting areas to set up ambushes if you’re patient. Character animations are also very limited, as you can see the gargoyle characters warping across the land and generally looking silly and un-detailed.
Sold as a horror game, there’s little to be afraid of with The Flock aside from wasting too much money on it. With zero story progression, no replay ability and no other modes to try out, there’s little chance I will see the end game when 215 million other players die.
Thanks for reading, and as always, make sure to comment and like below, and let me know what you thought of The Flock.
Check out my review for Evolve for something much better to play.
MicBeMac Games 