Sheep
Empire Interactive
Playstation: Out Now

The idea of playing a game that places you as a shepherd may sound like its a little bit crazy but that's exactly what Sheep expects you to do. The fact of the matter is though, although it sounds a little bit silly, Sheep is a very enjoyable experience that will appeal to the whole family from Mom and Dad to the little kiddies.

The story behind the game is that centuries ago sheep came from another planet and were scattered across the galaxy. The sheep originally came with a mission to perform but over time they forgot what it was and became domesticated. Your task is to assume one of the four chosen shepherds (Bopeep, Adam, Motley and Shep) and collect the sheep so that you can prevent the evil Mr Pear from implanting sheep genes into all lifeforms on Earth.

Gameplay is very good; you herd the sheep by moving towards them. You have to use a side to side method to control the sheep otherwise you just scatter them. You can also pick the sheep up and creep upto them but this costs extra time and as the levels are timed you don't want to over do these two methods of control. Each level has an obstacle that requires a certain amount of herding skill to negotiate. Some of these obstacles such as tractors can kill your sheep so you have to be careful, especially as you have to finish the level with a certain amount of sheep. Speaking of sheep, there are four different kinds. There are Pastoral, Factoral, Long Wool and Neo Genetics. They all differ in appearence and how easily they are scared but they are all pretty dumb. On each of the levels for the first five worlds there is a golden sheep. If you collect all the golden sheep in a world you can play a bonus level. There is also a two player mode that enables you and a friend to have a game of sheep football. The idea is to control the ball by herding the sheep into it and then manipulating it into the goal. The football is OK but the gameplay in it falls way short of the single player game.

The game has 3 difficulty setting ranging from easy, which gives you bags of time to complete a level and a small amount of sheep to rescue, to difficult, which gives you hardly any time at all and a high number of sheep to rescue. The menus are clear and easy to navigate and generally speaking the game has a very polished feel about it. The cutscenes contain no verbal info so deaf gamers will not miss anything there and the info in the game is all provided textually. The only things to say against Sheep is that the game is not that long and also there is no overview of the level you are on as there is in the PC version. Whilst the overview is not really a problem the shortness of the game maybe and when you get into the game you will find yourself completing it in less than a week. This can of course be combated by playing through the various difficulty levels which will take a much greater length of time. Sheep has one major plus going for it, it is a delight to play for all the family and it is very original. If you like anything remotely similar to the Lemmings style of games then you will love Sheep.

Click here to see some screenshots >>>

Overall Game Rating: 8.3/10 A very original and worthwhile game. Just a bit short.

Quality of text: 9/10 Very good.

Graphics: 7/10 The graphics are OK and not much poorer than the PC version.

Interface: 8/10 Again the interface is good and makes good use of the gamepad.

Gameplay: 9/10 Sheep is a delight to play.