The heat is rising, so what’s best than a game where you lead a herd of Calicorns to the mountains? The demo of Herdling, okomotive‘s upcoming game, offers just the right amount of calm, cuteness and mystery.
The demo is short, around 1h if like me your try to explore and look for hidden objects, and doesn’t reveal a lot about the story or the true goal. There’s no dialog, only a calm and atmospheric music, and the sounds of an almost empty world.
We play a young shepherd who actually looks homeless at the beginning of the game. We meet them in a concrete tunnel, sleeping on a mattress, and beginning a game this way is very intriguing. The first thing we see outside of the tunnel is a wrecked car, on its side, in a deserted and dilapidated city. Even more intriguing. Following red petals on the ground, we soon meet our first Calicorn, an animal that looks like a mix of a yak and a goat or a sheep (or something else). Taming it is fast and simple, and we immediately need to guide it to be able to walk together through the city. I have to say, it took me a few minutes to understand how guiding the Calicorns works. The shepherd, the herd and the destination point are all on a same line, using the herd as a pivot point to place the point of destination.
An advice, that is actually recommended by the studio: if you play on PC, this game is really made to be played with a controller. Using a keyboard and mouse doesn’t offer the same comfort and immersion. With the controller, everything is so much more smooth and easy.
Once we get out of the empty, sad city, nature welcomes us and we understand that our destination is the mountains in the background. The journey can begin.
Collecting Calicorns is not difficult during this demo, small puzzles need to be solved to move on, and now I’m ready for more! The graphics are pretty, there’s a nice simplicity about this world that reminds me of Journey in a way, not in style but in the atmosphere, with this empty land full of hidden magic. Because while the world of Herdling doesn’t seem to be the fantasy-type at all, it even seems at first very normal with its grey city, the surrounding agricultural fields and a few cars on the roads in the background, there is magic there. The Calicorns are nothing like what we know, they have some interesting abilities that the shepherd seems to share, and we come across small altars that indicate a sort of belief system.
As an animal lover, I’m hoping Herdling will tap into the bond between the human and the animal and how we can support and help each other. I’m also expecting a sad turn at some point but hope for a positive ending.
Herdling is set to be released in summer 2025, and will be available on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
