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Baa Baa Black Sheep

Puzzle and strategy games usually stretch a player's intellect to the limit. They don't emphasise on your ability to shoot, but instead of your logical skills is getting around, or over problems. Empire Interactive's Sheep is a puzzle that also happens to be an ironic salute. It centre around one of the stupidest (or, more correctly, mentally challenged) entities on Planet Earth-- sheep. Even lemmings seem intelligent by comparison. And instead of the usual artificial intelligence common to many strategy games, this one features rank stupidity and there's little artificial about it.

Sheep is totally whacky because according to the plot, sheep were once highly intelligent extraterrestrial creatures from the Ovis Aries star system. And arrived on Earth eons ago. They passively pose to observe and nurture the primitive natives. Unfortunately, for scientists, over the millennia the descendants forgot the mission and also lost their superior brain power. Now the sheep ancestors are visiting Earth from Ovis to reclaim their lost flocks. However, there's an evil Mr. Pear who interferes with this plan. He intends to implant sheep genes into all life forms on Earth to make everything submissive so that he can rule the world.

You are a shepherd leading the sheep to safety. There are four shepherds -- BoPeep, who leads a rock band and has a special knack in coaxing sheep to move out of danger; Adam Halfpint, a detective who uses "kind brutality" to induce sheep obedience; Motley who dreams of being a sheep dog but can be intimidated by some sheep; and Shep a bright sheep dog who is also slow and old. The four sheep breeds are Factoral (bred solely for producing wool), Longwool (a subculture that lives on the fringes), NeoGenetic (futuristic sheep), and Pastoral (normal sheep). To be successful it is imperative that you select the right kind of herder for the right kind of sheep, as each predicament calls for different tactics.

There are six different worlds, each divided into four levels. There's also a seventh practice world for an future afterlife. The worlds are Polygon Farms, Village Fete, Lost in Space, Mr. Whoppy's Happy Factory, Jurassic Playground, and Clubnation. And they let you shift from countryside to the town square. Or to outer space, a chocolate factory, dinosaur land and even a disco.

Every level has a special Golden Sheep. Collect all four to play a bonus level at the end of that world. The final Temple of Loom is available only after completion of all previous levels. But you can play other levels within each world any way you choose. The game ends if you fail to save the minimum number of sheep or exceed the specified time limit.

There are all kinds of intriguing obstacles that confront you. These include boiling tar, crushing combines, deadly fire bunnies, electrified fences, explosive cannons, fire-breathing dragons, killer vegetables, mad cows, laser beams, lava pits, rotating axe blades, smashing hammers, and steam jets. You have to watch the sheep carefully, because even when the dangers don't immediately kill, it may throw a sheep on its back, in which case it will die unless you right it again. Fortunately there are converters that temporarily make sheep immune to such hazards.

Beyond these obstacles, there are two more key ingredients for tense gameplay. Each level has a fixed time limit in which you must save a specified number of sheep. Also, the sheep have a tendency to wander off if left alone, so you need to be constantly vigilant. This is irritating when you have to leave your flock alone to find switches, open gates, or look for important gadgets. The useful power-include as a music-playing radio and sheep treats to keep sheep attracted towards you.

"Cute" best describes the game's overall tone. The sheep are downright lovable. There's also lots of subtle wit: in the Jurassic world, one level is called "1,000,000 Ewes BC" and another called "Mincing with Dinosaurs". The utter stupidity of the sheep is amusing, as is a bull on a motorcycle or attacking vegetables. While there is no Quake-like graphic violence sheep are flattened, burned up, electrocuted, or eaten.

This puzzle-strategy places more emphasis on strategy than on puzzles. You often need to judiciously choose and place your herdsman than come up with abstract solutions to predicaments presented.

Sheep is not state-of-the-art graphics. The resolution is a fixed 640x480. There is an intentionally low polygon count in rendering each object, and there are few really complex textures here. What there is is bright, crisp, cheerful, colourful, and looks like a children's game. And you can choose between the mouse, keyboard, or a gamepad/joystick. The mouse is the best and while the controls are intuitive, directional movement takes some getting used to.

Menus too are very cute. Unfortunately you can only navigate through the menus with the keyboard. You can only save games after completing a level. And you can indefinitely may replay any level completed and saved. The play screen shows the sheep alive, sheep saved, amount of time left, bonus credits collected and the player's flock of sheep and herder.

Gameplay is as dump as the main starts. To control sheep you have to approach them from a particular angle. Otherwise, as they repel from you much like reverse magnetic pull. And inevitably some are pushed in a direction other than the one you intended.Oddly, its even harder to get an isolated sheep to go in the direction you want. Some players may find the game play repetitive and tedious. The sheep often do not do what you want (sometimes they even appear rebellious rather than just stupid); if you make a small miscalculation due to an unforeseen foe, it often means you have no choice but to start the level all over again.

And be prepared for possibly being baaed to distraction. There's a pleasant and upbeat score, with a variety of tunes. Usually these melodies are rather short, and songs cycle through a lot as you struggle to achieve objectives in the time allotted.

There are three levels of difficulty: easy, medium, and hard. The difficulty levels determine both the number of sheep that must be saved and the time you have to save them in order for you to progress to the next level. The four training levels teach you a great deal about the basics of the game play, substituting nicely for the skimpy manual. But the more advanced levels are incredibly difficult, so challenging that even many veteran puzzle and strategy players may throw up their hands in despair.

Requires a 266 MMX, 64 MB RAM, Windows 9x. 54 MB. Download from http://www.empireinteractive.com/uk/tech_support/demos/sheep_demo.zip

G Menon
[email protected]

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