Flocking Hell

The variety in this game can largely be grouped into sources: The level challenges and the deck building mechanic. The levels are extremely well designed, with challenges that vary how you tackle them. Where the game falls short is in the other half of the formula. There are functionally two win conditions in the game, but we'll ignore the second one for the moment and focus on the primary one: Uncover towns, connect them, then use cards to buff them. The big problem with the deckbuilding mechanic is that every card (at least that can be unlocked in the first 6 hours) does nothing but bolster what you're already doing. This results in a very half-baked deck building mechanic where exactly which cards you bring with you don't matter much. There are a couple cards that have obvious synergy with each other (such as a card that doubles a town's defense and another that copies another town's stats), but none that really make you reconsider your core gameplay loop or worry about exactly which cards you should and shouldn't take. They just make you do what you're already doing, but better. There are no, for example, cards that become stronger if you opt not to use roads or cards that allow you to really focus in on boosting the attack stat of your towns (or, if there are, they don't unlock within the first 6 hours). The game does offer a second win condition in the form of mines. Although I acknowledge the attempt at variety, the mine mechanic feels very stapled on. It's largely useless in regular play due to the extreme cost of activating it, but if you pick cards meant to turn mines into a win condition, the problems with this mechanic become obvious: The game's stages REALLY weren't built around it. When you're going for this win condition, you functionally just ignore everything else going on in the level and spam mine cards until you win. This second win condition undermines the game's strongest feature, its level-to-level challenges, by letting you ignore them. This results in the mine win condition being fun once, then never again. The problem is that the game's entire meta-progression revolves around unlocking new cards. I spent several on this game to unlock new cards, waiting to see how they'd change up the gameplay, only to find out that they really don't. This made the game have WAY less replay value than I was expecting when I bought it (and I've have probably spent far less time on the game than I did if I had known that). Although I only have half of the cards in the game, I feel like 6 hours is enough time to say I've played more than enough of this game. I suggest waiting to see what kind of updates this game gets before purchase. The skeleton is good, but the current game is extremely repetitive. Once you've done both win conditions once, you've seen pretty much everything.

Very fun tile based strategy game. A neat combination of deck-building and procedural map. If you like cute pixel graphics and subtle strategy, definitely check it out.

This is the first game in a loooong while that managed to peel me away from my Balatro addiction. At its core, it's Minesweeper rebuilt properly for the 21st Century - as a roguelite deckbuilder. A serene interface quickly gave way to me furiously clicking in search of my woolly friends, crunching numbers to decide how many more towns I can connect before I have to start spamming cards to maximize my crystal blast. (Wait, what? I thought this was Minesweeper. What the hell is going on here?) Sid Meier said what makes a game good is "a series of interesting decisions" and that's exactly what I see here. The turn limit feels perfectly tuned to make every click matter. I keep finding myself squandering too many on a pointless pursuit, only to get bulldozed and retreat to lick my wounds (Paws? Hooves? What do sheep have, anyway?) I've been playing this nonstop and have hardly scratched the surface on all the combos. 10/10, will likely continue to be obsessed for weeks to come.

Disclosure: I offered playtesting advice on this game. Flocking Hell is a game in that specific 'ten minutes of play on a break' kind a game for me. It's got more sinew than an idle game or a clicker, and instead you're playing this game where there are free resources on the ground that you need to pick up on timer. Great little game, charming interface and animations, and I really enjoyed my time with it.

Found the game because a German youtuber was playing it. Bought it on a whim. Was surprised of how much I liked grinding through the core gameplay loop. In the current state the game has about 20 hours of content to unlock. The dev is actively maintaining and updating the game, so there is more to come. The gameplay is fairly novel, concise and to the point. Rounds are short and you can restart runs at any time. I really liked the freedom of being able to just walk away when needed and come back later to continue. In terms of game balance, not every strategy is equally viable at the moment, but this will most likely change in future updates.

Moin, ich hatte die Demo bereits über 40h gespielt und hatte viel Spaß an dieser Kombination aus Minesweeper, Roguelike, Deck Builder und süßen Schafen :D. Der Support antwortet und hilft schnell und effektiv. Das Spiel kann durch die Zufallsgeneration je nach Schwierigkeitsgrad sowohl einfach als auch schwer sein und bietet immer Abwechslung. Es spielt sich sehr entspannt und ist perfekt als ein Gelegenheitsspiel für nebenbei. Ich bin gespannt was zukünftige Updates noch bringen werden, aber der offizielle Release hat schon viel gutes Hinzugefügt.

This game hits all my sweet spots. Easy to learn, engaging and unique theme, and so challenging! Addictive AND adorable! I feel like I'm going to be playing this for many more hours before I can complete a competitive campaign, and I am here for it.

A great little spiritual successor to the venerable Oasis, with some fun twists of its own. Audiovisuals are cute, and the gameplay is fun and varied. While it's could probably do with a bit more polish in a couple of spots (a fast forward button like in the olden days would belovely) and I have some mixed feelings about certain parts of the balance (with some cards like heavy walls, it's [i]real[/i] hard to tell if they're worth the price or not), I can wholeheartedly recommend it to fans of coffeebreak strategy games.

adorable and deceptively difficult

Gets progressively more expansive and challenging. Makes you think thru strategy. Has plenty of variation. Very entertaining.