Flock Around Review (PC)

Flock Around taught me that patience is a virtue, and that birds, as beautiful and as photogenic as they can be under the right circumstances, are arguably one of the most mischievous, dung-addled creatures on planet earth. In any other case, it wouldn’t be an issue — to gracefully gaze at their wings and their flight paths from afar, either over a panoramic sky or from the foot of a local picnic bench. But in Flock Around, it is an issue, especially if you’re a fledgling wildlife photographer who has little to no idea how to operate a camera lens or keep two lips sealed to prevent a blue tit from scampering and dropping a giant turd on your forehead.

As it turns out, wildlife photography does have its fair share of perks. For example, you can more or less earn your stripes (or up to three “Stars” in this case) by simply snapping a shot of a tree. Moreover, you can earn spare cash for that ever-elusive golden camera by tapping into your inner David Attenborough and actively spouting out nonsense about the birds and the bees. Oh, you don’t need to be a photography wizard to make ends meet in Flock Around. You do, however, need the patience of a saint to venture back and forth between points on a map to snag that all-important image of a bird in flight for your trusty guide book.

Flock Around isn’t a painfully difficult game, though it is one that requires you to sit idly by as the world moves around you at a snail-like speed. As a bug-eyed cylinder of vibrant gloop, it falls to you (and up to ten friends) to embark on a quest to capture and formally chronicle the wildlife that orbits a retreat for all sorts of birds. With a camera, a guide book, and a grading system that rewards you for each shot that you take, the objective is as clear as day: venture out, snap, and bulk out the journal. There are no rabid creatures to fight, and there are no hidden boss battles to stumble upon. It’s just you, a ridiculously colorful retreat, and a flock of winged angels that will do all in their power to prevent you from printing pure gold on matte paper.

While the bulk of Flock Around is a stress-free graft that requires little more than a slither of patience and a stern eye for shutter speed, the game does introduce some curveballs for you to face over your short but seemingly important archival journey. For example, it features proximity chat, which essentially means, if you talk when you’re near a bird of interest, then it will flee. And, let’s be honest, with ten people flailing their cameras about trying to get “the shot,” silence is an audible mirage here. The fact is, you can play the game on your own, but that sort of removes half of the fun from the experience. It’s who you choose to slump around with you, that’s the problem.

As far as capturing the fleeting moments go, what you essentially have is a multi-angle criteria to fill for each bird that you come into contact with. For example, if you spot a bird during your travels, you will need to capture an image of the from all angles, as well as an aerial shot of them in flight. Once you compile your images, the guide book gets updated, and you move on to the next chapter in the scrapbook to, well, do it all over again. It doesn’t matter how you choose to complete the guide book, only that you gather all of the necessary shots to fulfill the page requirements. It’s a simple cycle, and one that, in all honesty, almost anyone can tackle.

While there might not be a huge flock of birds to unearth and document in the game, Flock About does make it so that your time on the reserve is bursting with things to do whilst you mindlessly explore just about every crag and crevice. With friends, you can capture random images to document your travels, as well as collectively work together to bulk out your guide books and earn stars, cash, and other valuable keepsakes. Granted, the majority of your time is often spent volleying back and forth between bushes and other hidden spots. But then, that makes the act of snagging the perfect shot all the more rewarding. That is, of course, until your accomplice sneezes and effectively spoils a forty-minute photo opportunity. But we don’t like to dwell on that.

Suffice it to say, Flock Around is an excellent choice for those who simply wish to unwind and ricochet around the brush with a few friends for a couple of hours or so. Visually, it’s lot of fun to mindlessly gaze at, more so given that the birds, in general, each have their own unique personalities and flight patterns, which of course makes each shot that you take a fresh experience with a new focal point. It might not be the most challenging game of its kind. That said, for a simple social affair with lightweight bird-watching elements, it gets the job done — and then some.

Verdict

Flock Around adds a stroke of color and vibrancy to an otherwise monotonous pastime in an attempt to make the painful act of bird watching a lot of fun, with a tropical retreat of eccentric feathers and a weighty guide book that makes each and every shot feel like a fever dream image in David Attenborough series. If you can turn a blind eye to the bird droppings, then you should be able to appreciate all of this at face value. Sure, it’s a niche game, but if you can wrangle enough friends to join you on your endeavors, then you shouldn’t find an issue with plucking the feathers from this simple yet oh-so-wholesome photography contest. Just, eh, don’t expect it to be a quick and efficient process. You’ll see.