Little Bo Peep knows exactly where her sheep are. Trouble is, between her flock and the pen are, evil robots, threshing machines, rivers, combine harvesters and more ways to splat a sheep than you ever thought possible.
In Sheep you take control of one of four herders - Bo Peep, shepherdess by day, rocker by night; Adam, an ex-bank manager turned Private Eye; Shep, veteran sheep dog showing his age; and Motley, a house pet with ideas above her station - and have to guide your flock through the hazards to their pen.
Control is surprisingly intuitive. Run up to the sheep and they will flee in terror. Walk up and they will mosey along. Sneak up and you can pick them up and carry them through dangerous areas. You also have the ability to shout (or bark) and scatter the silly beasts - often a last resort if the woolly nits are milling about on a busy road. The trick is to use the sheep’s fear to herd them where you want them to go, just like One Man and His Dog.
There are five levels, each comprised of four sub levels plus bonus levels, and you have to choose which breed to use on each level, ranging from the stupid and cowardly Pastoral sheep to the techno-obsessed Neogenetic sheep (Dolly?) who are good with roads and computers, but still stupid.
The difficulty is a little off-putting at first, but there is a training mode where you can learn the basics and try out the sheep, and you’ll soon get the hang of it.
You also get some funky video sequences between the levels. The hard-drive lookalike space craft called the Event Failure, raised a smile.
It’s been a long while coming but Sheep was worth the wait. Highly recommended. Baaa!
Also available for PC CD-ROM. Sheep is availbale to buy now.