The Flock

I picked up the game on sale a long time ago, when it was still "Active" but was unable to play for the first week because Life is a thing, by the time I actually had time to sit down and try it out, The game was dead. 100% No servers, No one online, Player count was nonexistant. I never even got to try this game before It went from playable to unplayable in a week.

I paid £14 for a multiplayer game i LITERALLY couldnt play... Because the community never existed.

Game still being sold at full price despite...?

I remember the reason i bought the game was because this whole thing with the life system and everyone collectively had millions of lives, and when that number ticked to zero phase 2 began and no one could buy the game anymore, well that number was false, it didnt tick down, it would show that it would and when you restarted the game the number was right back to where it was. Kind of a shame

The Flock was once a great concept but due to the original developers not wanting to repopulate the The Flock this is surely going to raise a few eyebrows. Considering Steam are still charging real money for a game that no longer can be played.

The concept was there were a finite amount of the creatures (The flock) in which players could play as. There were only ever a few hundred million from memory. In game there was a flock counter, every time a creature was killed the counter went down.

Up until late the game was completely playable but now there are no creatures for the game to populate the game with so it is completely unplayable except if you wanted to just roam around and explore the world in which you played which is pretty cool but none the less completely useless as a game.

You are in fact buying a game that CAN NOT be played anymore.

Actually i want to vote this game positiv but... i cant.

The idea was actually really cool. A game who is running out of his time, but now... the day 0 is come. The population of "The Flock" counts 0 and is not awayable to play anymore. Its sad... cause i rly want to play it.
And a sad fact: The devolper tell's us that "Valve wants to take this gama away from the buyable games list"... but they doesnt.

So dont buy this game for your own. The population is 0, the game is dead, but i hope a game like these will rise again.

Interesting concept of a game, and for all I know, it could be fun.
Turns out literally *no one* plays this anymore. I bought this on sale for $1.50, and it's worth about that. Maybe less. In an ideal world, someone will take this concept and make it into a better game.
Good luck in the future guys.

TL;DR don't buy this game because it's a waste to buy a multiplayer game that no one plays.

Gladly I bought this on a sale!
The game is good, it's a good immersion in the horror abience!
But I can't recommend the game as it is now, no servers, no players, no bots (would be way better if had bots at least).
Buy if you're gonna play with friends!
I'll change my review if the game gets better in those aspects!

In the time I have in this, I have honestly seen almost all maps and mastered being the hunter thing and the guy with the lantern.. I have also noticed that the counter has stopped on their site and in game there are less and less players..... hope they will add something more innovative in the future.

As of now I have to call this game a ripoff and I am truelly dissappointed. It seemed interesting but it is exact the same over and over again. Just a different environment so now and then.

If this game gets below 2 bucks it MIGHT be worth buying it then, but as of now I don't recommend it, at least not for this price.

Also after the life counter hits zero the game will be unavailable and a new thing will happen or so.. but at this rate, I don't think it will ever lose more than 1% of the total lives remaining.

If the devs ever read this, it can be good this game, perhaps with different game modes, or more type of enemies. Maybe give the guy with the lantern some tool that makes him either more agile or aggresive towards the enemy, but balance it out. Maybe a type of enemy that is fast but has low health against light and one that is slow but high health against light or something like that, think out of the box. This is kinda like Evolve, but just the core concept (that is as of now, might change later and I will adjust my review properly if that happens).

EDIT:
1 and a half year later since my initial review and the devs have done nothing. If anything they led a community down with something that could've been good. Such a waste. I hope it will get removed from the steam store.

EDIT 2:
Literally 2 years, 2 months and 5 days later, this garbage is still on steam while this game was abondened by the devs, community (mostly) and ghosts.

DO
NOT
BUY
THIS
GAME...
... even if they pay you.

The Flock will never achieve its ambition, the lack of variety in the game play not enough to sustain it until the huge population reaches 0. At a technical and mechanical level the game is sound, playable even at high pings that often happened due to the lack of players. However this game had grander visions, of enticing players in with the notion that they could be part of something exclusive. something that no game had attempted before. Unfortunately that vision will never be realised, the population set too high and the interest in the game too low. I would say I'm disappointed but, honestly, the developers grossly overestimated how popular their game would be and have been subsequently punished for their hubris.

Read my full review here: https://www.therefinedgeek.com.au/index.php/2015/09/11/the-flock-our-hubris-doomed-us/

08/26/2015: Intresting concept but definatly not worth $17 atm (even with the buddy key bonus). if they come out with more maps and mabye abilities or something to make the matches more intense it's actually very boring. One match pretty much sums up the experience at this point unfortunatly also deaths in the tutorial count against the finite population.

If the price was lower I would recommend this game but as it stands there is not enough in the game to warrant almost $20 when there are numerous other indie titles that are same price or cheaper with far greater content at release.

Pros: Devs say they'll add more stuff in future.

Cons: Graphics are not the greatest but passable. Matches are rather dull, not intense or scary.

Neat concept - poorly executed.

Had immediate issues after loading the game. Unreadable text appeared, squashed into the screen. Followed by notifications and on-screen prompts for a joypad (specifically X-box pad), telling me to press non-existant buttons to continue.

Clicking on options/menu screen choices does nothing - you need to highlight the chosen option with the mouse and then press the enter key on the keyboard? (how intuative). OR just use keyboard only to navigate the menus.

The game really wants you to use an X-box pad and pretty much assumes that everyone is or will - as all prompts and bindings you are shown throughout the game will be pad-related.

The game itself :
After a few matches I honestly felt that i'd had my fill. It's quite fun, but after a few rounds I felt no desire to play anymore. The whole experience just felt a bit stale and, well, meh....

There are very few maps to play on and only the one game mode - sneaking about is fun, but gets boring rather quickly.

After being pounced on from a rooftop - I had no urge to jump back in and avenge my death. I didn't really feel anything at all - Usually such an attack would spur me on, leaving me chomping at the bit watching the respawn time, eagily awaiting the opportunity for revenge. Just one more go, Just one more go!

Sadly, that delicious 'just one more go' feeling is lacking from the Flock, at least for me. I just felt a bit bored and slightly regretful, thinking of other games I could have bought instead (and prob will having requested a refund on this).

From what I have seen the Dev's are working to improve the game, so it might be worth keeping an eye on this one as with some polish, this could be a really neat experience. In it's current state, it's good for a few matches and nothing more.

"I wanted to like this game, I really did. But it's just not possible..."

I'm pretty sure that's everyone's mindset right now.

Sure, I only played the game for half an hour, but that's really all there is in this game to decide... 30 minutes.

Concept: The concept for this game is incredible, it really is. You have a game where the developers look at the statistics and realize games only have an "active life" of a few months. So the developers made a game where as you "Die" you actually affect the population of the game. The game's devs gave the game over 215million lives, thinking the game will go for a few months, and then after the population drops the game can NO LONGER be bought on Steam. Holy Shit! That's an amazing idea! Now you bring people in because it's basically a limited time only game. Then they have "Phase 2" which after the population hits 0, no one can buy the game and only the people who HAVE the game can play it. They add in a "Finale" (Which hasn't really been discussed) but it means the games goes into "endgame" mode where in a few weeks(?) the game will finally end with the race of creatures you're playing as becoming extinct. It's a GREAT concept. I was sold, I really was. I wanted to be part of that finale! I wanted to stream it and say "I was there when the Flock ended!" Sadly, I don't even think this game will drop it's population below 214mil because it's... just not a good game.

Visuals:
The game's environment is meant to creep you out. 3 maps that are similar but kind of different. It really send chills down my spine when you're walking past all these statues of the Flock and thinking "Which one is a real person, and which isn't??" Yeah, I couldn't help but be incredibly creeped out by the environment. The character models though aren't good. The models are creepy when standing in "Statue" mode, but that's about it. When they are moving they look kind of... "Derpy" and I mean they have their claws up and it makes them look... not scary. Especially when you see them in the distance, they are just like 'Oh hi, I see you, you're not scary" But the lighting is pretty awesome. The flashlight you hold really does it's job at being a huge flashlight, lighting up areas, and when turning it off it's dark.

Gameplay:
This is where the game falls short... incredibly short. It feels like the devs just didn't try. You have this game where it could easily be incredible, but instead lacks a lot. Let me explain: We have scary creatures fighting over this "Light", which is awesome. You get the light, you become a 'humanoid" and then walk slower, but have a light to defend yourself, you keep the light... you gain points, simple enough. It's creepy for the first ten minutes because you have people following you all the time. They want to kill you and take the light. But you don't know WHEN you die, or how. They have so much emphasis on the population dropping that they didn't add in death animations. When you do get attacked your screen almost immediately goes to the "Population drop" screen. Sometimes you say "Wait what? How did I die?" It's also infuriating when you're shiny your light on someone, and it DOESN'T kill them. Makes no sense.

The gameplay gets stale quickly, doing the same thing over and over.

I honestly don't even feel like adding anymore to this review, because it's kind of all I can really say. I'm really disappointed, I am.

I asked for a refund, and hope to get it, because I just don't want to play this anymore.

I'm also very sad for the developers, because they put such a BIG number as their population. Over 215,342,530... The sad part is I HIGHLY doubt the population will drop to 0. I really do. Now that I've played the game I know for a fact that the population won't even drop past 215mil because people just won't play this game in a week.

Sure you might have a few boys who will think the game is great, but in all seriousness, it's awful and it probably won't be played by next week, I'm calling it.

Don't buy this game. And if you did... get a refund before you hit 2 hours.

Sorry devs, great concept, poor execution...

Holy shit, this game was a complete let down and a waste of money.

All there is to the game is going around as a flock creature jumping at a little alien thing called the carrier who hurts your with light. No death animation. Just a screen flash. It's so damn repetitive and boring!

It's so annoying that the game was hyped quite a fair bit and was such a let down. To be completely honest, i dont think the death count will ever reach 0. why? It's such a boring game, not enough people will give a damn to play it enough.

I really loved the concept of the game, and felt like the price was right for a game plus a code. After roughly an hour of gameplay, it was evident the game isn't quite finished. Popping textures and muddy controls were not appropriate for a fast paced horror style game. I would love to see the concept grow, but for now, I cannot recommend this title.

it feels like the devs didn't even beta test this once.
there are graphic glitches and you can't even turn on fullscreen mode
there are so many "string not found" errors
the devs need to make a clean sweep of this game's errors before it's even playable

This game...is absolute trash. I have to lead with this statement because I cannot make that clear enough. At first, I absolutely loved the game, because the idea alone is fantastic! A game that has limited copies based on in game deaths? That's fantastic! So I rushed to buy it...but then I played it. The controls are bland, and in fact, there are things you can't even do with a keyboard that can only be done with your controler, if you have one hooked up. There are spots in the game where bright white flashes of light happen if you look at a corner, and these flashes are squares that sometimes turn green. A glitch, that's fine, right? Well that's not it. You're playing the creatures most of the time, but you can only jump, sprint, and use decoys. With there being only 3 maps, most of which need you to be up high to "get the drop" on your target, you can't readily jump up to the tops, you have to take a round about way up, which would be fine if the game wasn't painfully short. My first 3 games didn't even total up to 10 minutes of gameplay because the light carrier just learned how to camp, and when I learned how, I couldn't be killed...until glitches were exposed. If the enemy stops close enough to you, they can freeze, turn to stone, and then lunge and kill you, even though the light is right on them. This game is unbalanced because it's not even finished. The controls for all TWO classes are bland as all hell, and you can barely have map mobility as the monsters. This game is just a let down, and the fact that it's not even enjoyable while you CAN play it is even worse, because according to the description, after the "climax", you can NEVER play the game again. Don't waste your money on this game, just wait for Youtube videos, because this game is a waste of money and time. It should only be 5 dollars, even including the free game. This is just trash.

This is a small multiplayer mini-game of tag that they've been working on since last winter, and yet it's STILL RIDDLED with bugs!

I simply cannot recommend this, it's playable, but the amount of simple-to-fix bugs are just going to leave a sour taste in your mouth. Besides, the simplistic gameplay will get stale withing 4-5 rounds of playing it. This is yet another game that should have been a Garry's Mod module.

Update. The idea is dead.

Some general statistics. Math may be off by a hair because I did not factor in release time vs what time I pulled the last numbers.

38 - Days since release.
--
215,358,979 - Population at release.
--
215,299,794 - Population on 9/28/2015 @ aprox. 2:00pm EST.
--
59,185 - Deaths since release.
--
1,557.5 - Daily deaths.
--
138,234.218 - Days until population reaches zero at current rate. (#'s include release rush so probably much longer.)
--
378.724 - YEARS until population reaches ZERO. HUMAN YEARS.
--
I would be 410 years old when population reaches zero. Game uninstalled.



**Original Review**
The basic concept of this game is outstanding. Taking permadeath to a new level. Would I recommend this game? Unfortunately no.

I've only played for a short while and I'll update this as I play more but as it stands there are only 3 levels and the gameplay is extremely repetitive. If this game had been under $10 I would whole heartedly recommend it. Having a buddy chip in half then giving them the extra game makes the sting more beareable. I just can't see putting this into my normal game rotation as it stands.

The "Ending" is the only reason I'll continue to play this game unless the developer adds some diversity to the gameplay

This game is a horrible disaster. This plays like an early access title with bugs included. Coding isn't even completed in certain parts. But don't let this deter you, however! I look at it as an Easter egg: which string of code won't be found in this part of the game? Also, the "Population" aspect of this game is ridiculous. The limit will never hit 0, same as how updates will likely never occur. This game is horrendously overpriced for the current stage it's in.

Edit: I have returned! For 20 minutes I sat in a queue, waiting to play. This game has died. Do not waste your money with this game.

Meet the Flockers!

Great name, an excellent name for a horror game! It's evocative, right? Birds are weird – carry diseases, vomit all over their babies, have cloacas, flock, etc. Oh, and religious heads often refer to their congregations as their “flock,” which is kind of creepy, cultish when you think about it. So the name works fabulously, we've established that.

Concept is pretty cool too: twisted humanoids hunting one another, fighting one another with light in a twisted game of Red Light Green Light with a finite number of lives. Very novel!

And the concept artwork? Beautiful, freaky, brilliant. Absolutely!

“So why is The Flock a steaming pile of dog shit?” A hypothetical person might ask.

Fortunately for you I spent $17 USD so I can find out and you don't have to!

First off, it looks the part of steaming dog shit. Now that's a bit harsh of me; it doesn't look BAD, but it certainly won't be winning any monster beauty pageants. The models look goofy whether they're standing still or in motion. They just look silly; like decayed, neutered necromorphs with a slapdash texture job. The three maps currently available all sort of look the same – you've seen one gray, blocky, near linear map, you've seen them all.

Secondly, it isn't scary. Now if that isn't the kiss of death for an asymmetrical horror multiplayer game I don't know what is. I mentioned in the paragraph previously that the models all look goofy, but on top of that there appear to be no death animations for carrier and flockers alike. You'll just be minding your own business or stalking some carrier and suddenly poof, the screen goes white and you're either dead or a carrier.

Well that's no good – smacks of rushed laziness.

Thirdly, the titular flock appears to have flown the coop. No one is playing. Now to be fair this could change. In a few hours the word might get out and The Flock's population will explode!

But we don't live in Pretend Land, no. We live in cold, hard Realityville where the meals are infrequent and the winters are harsh.

Fourthly, it isn't fun! It just isn't fun to sprint around the aforementioned gray maps, attacking gray beings with no death animations, to grab a Portal light gun to point at doors and gates.

You know what I think? I think The Flock is one precarious step above being a scam. “Buy this game with a trivial finite lives system! If you don't it will be gone forever!”

Because the developers think you're all a bunch of hoarding, hyperconsuming man-babies that will grab a questionable product because one day it might be gone.

I promise you, PROMISE YOU, that The Flock's population will never hit zero.

Because fuck-all people will play this ugly, rushed drek.