Flock review – chill creature-collecting flying game is shear bliss

You might expect from the name that this would be a game about herding sheep, but it is significantly weirder than that. There are sheep, but they are fluffy flying sheep that float around after you as you ride on the back of a giant, colourful bird. Now and then you shear them for wool with which to knit new jumpers and hats with pompoms, making the sheep look like naked purple hover-sausages with eyes. But the bulk of your flock is actually made up of sky fish. Or are they fish? Some are sinuous like eels, others squawk like chickens, others are feathered whales. As mentioned, it’s quite weird.

Your job in Flock is to fill out a field guide full of these wide-eyed flying fishlike creatures, spotting them in the wild and then identifying them from short, variably obvious written clues (“floppy proboscis”, “vertical stripes”, “often mistaken for a loud radish”). They all resemble sea life through a gently surreal pop-art filter, but they’re so well-drawn that I developed a sense for the differences between a Cosmet and a Bewl, Thrips and Rustics. Some camouflage themselves among weeds or leaves, some flee your approach, some just sit there basking on rocks and clucking at you. You find whistles that teach your bird a song, and then you can collect them Pied-Piper-style into a cloud of creatures that trails in your wake.

I’m still not that good at charming creatures – I never quite got the timing down, and my bird often spooks them with a tuneless scream instead of ushering them into the fold. But I am good at finding them. Flying is taken care of for you – the bird swoops automatically around trees and mossy rocks – so you’re free to observe your surroundings, listening out for the trills and warbles that betray the presence of an undiscovered bird-fish. I was navigating by sound just as often as by sight: the nature-inspired soundscape is, along with the eye-catching art and cute, witty writing, one of Flock’s strongest features.

I enjoyed the couple of afternoons I spent with Flock – I only wish there were more of it. A couple of really interesting little environmental puzzles made me wish to find others hidden around the uplands. Most of the creatures can be found quite easily, but just a few required some enjoyable deduction from a single sentence in the field guide. Once or twice, a creature in my entourage pointed me towards another, or helped me search something out, but most of them do nothing except follow you around. I couldn’t help but imagine a just slightly more ambitious version of this game, in which key beasties bestowed interesting abilities, with races or challenges to give you something to do with your friends once you’d filled out the field guide. But after less than five hours I’d done everything there was to do.

Despite that, I keep turning on my Steam Deck just to fly around the wetlands or the moss forest for a few minutes here and there. It’s so relaxing out there, and so pleasing to look at, endearingly strange enough to stand out from the herd.

• Flock is out on Wednesday; £15.99