- Delightful, cozy, family-friendly co-op party game.
- Adorable art and character design.
- Accessible, relaxing, yet engaging gameplay.
- Diverse levels with fresh mechanics and objectives.
- Single-player mode struggles with difficulty and pacing.
- Core herding gameplay suffers from unresponsive sheep.
Emotions
Players experience joy primarily from the game's fun, cozy, and cooperative nature, especially when playing with friends or family. The adorable art style, charming dog characters, and humorous gameplay moments, often leading to laughter, contribute significantly to this positive emotion, making it feel like money well spent.
Satisfaction stems from the game's well-designed, accessible co-op experience, often compared to 'Overcooked' with its progressively challenging levels and interesting mechanics. Players appreciate the responsive controls, thoughtful game design, and the rewarding balance of moderate difficulty with challenging hidden tasks, making for a fulfilling party game.
Excitement is generated by the game's dynamic and innovative content, including constantly renewing mechanics, diverse mini-games, and unique features like a rewind option. The anticipation of chaotic fun in multiplayer and the game's potential for future updates or sequels also fuel this enthusiastic response.
Frustration arises mainly from the difficulty of solo play, particularly due to the uncooperative sheep AI and a small herding range. Technical issues like unplayability on Steam Deck in docked mode and visually tiring high saturation also contribute to player annoyance.
Contentment is derived from the game's relaxing and low-pressure environment, featuring adorable landscapes and a pleasant overall aesthetic. Players feel comfortable and stress-relieved, enjoying the easy-to-play nature and the simple joy of running freely within the game's beautiful art style.
Verdict
Mostly positive
Summary
Positive 98% · Negative 2%. Score: 2 / 100
Positives:
- Players consistently praise the game for its fun, cozy, and charming atmosphere, making it ideal for families and friends. Many find it relaxing, suitable for all ages, and a truly heartwarming experience.
- The game's 3D cartoon art style, soft colors, and wonderfully designed, cute dogs and sheep are highly acclaimed. This visual appeal significantly contributes to the game's wholesome and enjoyable atmosphere.
- The game excels as a local and online co-op party game, offering immense fun with multiple players. It provides a good balance of challenge and accomplishment, reminiscent of other popular party games like "Overcooked."
- Praised for its ease of access and stress-free nature, the game is suitable for gamers of all abilities. It offers a casual experience without tight time limits, while still providing enough challenge to keep players engaged.
- Reviewers appreciate the innovative and varied level designs, noting the continuous introduction of well-thought-out new game mechanics. This keeps the gameplay engaging and prevents players from becoming bored.
Negatives:
- The late-game experience feels repetitive, and single-player mode becomes overly difficult, especially with complex new mechanics. The automatic return to the starting point after level completion is also a source of frustration.
- Players find the sheep highly disobedient and oblivious, requiring constant guidance. Issues include sheep frequently running into incorrect colored areas and the dog's herding range being too small, leading to flocks splitting.
- Players report blurry screens and excessively high color saturation, causing eye fatigue after extended play. This suggests potential optimization issues or a need to adjust visual settings.
- The game is currently unplayable on Steam Deck in docked mode due to the integrated controller being incorrectly identified as an additional player. This is a critical barrier for Steam Deck users.
- A specific bug in snow levels causes broken snow piles to immediately regenerate during snowfall, resulting in newly spawned lambs glitching and spinning on these piles.
Gameplay:
- The game features 22 distinct levels with diverse objectives, such as herding specific numbers or colors of sheep. Levels incorporate elements like portals and special night segments involving color dyeing, alongside optional challenges for bonus rewards.
- Players control dogs (or pigs) to herd sheep, collect wool, and complete various missions. This involves guiding sheep to specific locations, into pens, or through migration routes to progress through levels.
- The game offers adjustable difficulty, particularly for single-player modes, and reviews indicate a varied challenge curve across levels. Difficulty is also noted to increase when playing with more players.
- The game fully supports 1-4 players in both online and offline co-op modes, including remote play options. Many players reported enjoying the game with friends and family, highlighting its social appeal.
- Players can unlock a variety of dog breeds, such as Corgis and Border Collies, along with different outfits and decorations. These cosmetic items are earned by completing optional challenges and collecting 'dog biscuits'.
Performance:
- Players noted that the game generally runs well, specifically mentioning a positive experience on devices like the Legion Go S. This indicates a solid base level of performance for some configurations.
- A player reported that the game experienced a crash. This suggests potential instability issues that could disrupt gameplay for users.
- A player reported that the game's screen appears blurry, speculating it might be due to optimization issues. This suggests a potential visual quality or rendering problem that could affect player experience.
Recommendations:
- Players overwhelmingly recommend the game, highlighting its value, enjoyable visuals, and strong potential as a must-have couch gaming experience. It's particularly praised for being fun when played with friends or family, making it an excellent party game.
- The game resonates with players who enjoyed the older 'sheep' game, suggesting a specific nostalgic appeal and potentially a familiar gameplay style that can attract a niche audience.
- Based on limited feedback, at least one player reported spending a significant amount of time on the demo, indicating that the game's trial version is effective at engaging potential buyers.
Miscellaneous:
- Players are highly engaged and actively seeking expansion of the game, specifically asking for more challenging levels, additional dog breeds and customization options, new game modes, and an increased maximum player count. This indicates strong player retention and appetite for future development.
- Players express interest in a 'friend pass' system, which would facilitate sharing the game experience with friends. This feature could boost co-op engagement and attract new players.
- Feedback suggests that the game's user interface could benefit from aesthetic improvements. A more polished UI would contribute to an overall better visual experience for players.
- A charming suggestion was made to allow players to interact with the dog character on the main menu by petting it. This minor interaction could add a touch of personality and player connection to the game's aesthetic.
