Making strange animals go places.

QUEST LOG #40: HERDLING (DEMO)

Opinions on this title are based on the demo so it’s all subject to change.

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Herdling (developed and published by Okomotive and Panic Inc. respectively) stood out to me as a strange one as I browsed the demos available this Next Fest, and after downloading it and entering into the world, I was struck immediately by its incredible art style and direction. The scenery is perfectly rendered in its own stylised way, and combined with the eerie lighting and weather effects, it makes for a truly unique atmosphere. The game starts out giving you control over what appears to be a homeless child, waking up in the shelter of an overpass. There you begin your explorations of the strangely haunting environment, following clues to a nearby disturbance. There you find your first creature, and after aiding it in removing a bucket that is stuck on its head, you acquire a stick, and are introduced to the herding mechanics, allowing you to guide the wayward creature through the city streets.

As you go, you meet several more of these creatures, and they are able to aid you in navigating certain environmental puzzles (mostly, at least in the demo, pushing heavy objects and gates). After a while, your herd increases to three, and you escape the confines of the city streets and enter into the expansive countryside. The shift here is lovely, and combined with the music, creates a real sense of freedom.

Crossing the fields and farms, you pass into an old train yard and find a fourth member of your group, learning additional herding commands along the way, learning how to set up camp, and to feed your herd, all the while encountering increasingly more complex puzzles.

Games such as this don’t offer quests or missions in the conventional sense, and the whole experience is more about, well, just that, experiencing the world, navigating the environment, overcoming puzzles, and allowing the story or lore to unravel as you go - from the demo, little is given away about the story, but it really doesn’t matter, the feel of the game is clearly its selling point, and the simple but interesting mechanics, the incredibly characterful creatures, and the stunning environments and the subtle hints at a wider and stranger world all combine to create a truly enchanting experience.

The beautiful aesthetics make the world feel familiar, but also hauntingly lonesome, and almost bewildering from the point of view of the protagonist, and as you explore, you get a sense that perhaps you don’t quite belong, at least not in the urbanised human setting.

Along with everything else, the sound design is incredible. It is subtle, shifting to match the action on screen, and is just as enchanting as the visuals, character design, and the gameplay. These elements, as well as the score have an emotional depth hinting at the unknown. The darker tones are offset nicely however by the whimsical nature of the whole experience, bringing to mind games like Pikmin and the Last Guardian.

I’m not sure what you could expect from the full game, but I am eager to see more after experiencing what the demo had to offer, and from what I can tell, it’ll be worth diving into when the full release comes out.

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Have you given this one a go? Have you played similar games like it? Do you enjoy games with a stripped back approach, ones where you gleam the world through exploration? Or do you prefer a bit more of a transparent experience? While you’re here, check out previous Next Fest posts, perhaps you’ll find something that has passed you by!

As always, thank you for reading. If you’d like to support the blog, you can do so by subscribing and sharing!

Also, a big thank you to the TYPEDBYTOM Patreon/BMAC supporter(s) this month:

• Jamie B