What would you say if you were asked to describe a sheep? Most
of us believe sheep to be slow, basically rather stupid animals that are
raised for wool and meat. There are some, however, who believe the
story I am about to tell you. Here is how that story goes…
Many eons ago, in the far away star system of Ovis Aries, there
lived a species of highly intelligent creatures called Sheep. Yes,
you heard me right, they were Sheep. Not the dim-witted sheep that
we know today, but very smart creatures who sent a group of their kind on
a mission through space to Earth to pose as passive creatures while they
gathered information on the Earth’s habitat.
Unfortunately the Sheep’s space ship was damaged on arrival and the
Sheep had no way to return home. While maintaining their passive
demeanor, the Sheep soon lost sight of their mission and over the passing
years, they slowly became domesticated by Man and evolved into the mindless
creatures we see them as today.
Now, the Sheep ancestors have returned to Earth from Ovis, to reclaim
their lost flocks! To avoid the unwanted attention of Man, they have
abducted four Earth inhabitants and implanted in these four minds the desire
to round up all the Sheep and bring them to Mount Mouflon for the journey
home.
This is where you, the player, errr…shepherd, come in. You must
choose one of the four herders to use to gather the sheep. You have
one goal and only one! You must find as many of the sheep as you
can and persuade them to navigate their way to each Level exit. There
will be many hazards and obstacles to avoid, but there are also many bonuses
to be found! Keep in mind the ultimate goal! “Get The Flock
Out Of Here!”
Sheep is a puzzle strategy game that takes place within six worlds.
Each world has four levels that can be played in any order and a bonus
game which is only available if you have collected all the golden sheep
in that world. There is one golden sheep in each level. All
four levels of each world must be completed before you can move on to another
world; and keep in mind that the entire time you are struggling to herd
those sheep, the clock is running! The game is over if you fail to
save the minimum number of sheep or if the clock runs out before you finish.
The alien Sheep have placed special converters in most of the levels
to help the lost flocks survive the perils of that particular level.
These converters will provide some sort of protection to the sheep, such
as flameproof suits or disguises.
This Empire Interactive game has three difficulty levels: Easy,
Medium and Hard. Each difficulty level will dictate the number of
Sheep who must be saved and the time allowed to save the sheep. Advancing
the difficulty level increases the number of Sheep and decreases the time
allocation.
Now it is time to begin. First, you must choose the herder!
Will it be sweet and lovable Bo Peep who likes to gently lead her flock?
Would you rather use Adam Halfpint who is really good at shoving his sheep
into line? You might want to use one of the two sheepdogs instead.
First there is Shep, a very intelligent sheepdog who has grown a bit too
old and slow but who sees really well even if he does wear an eye patch!
Or you may want to use Motley, a simple female pet who dreams of being
a sheepdog but is somewhat intimidated by some of the harder sheep breeds.
Once you have chosen the herder, you will need to learn how to issue
commands. This is done verbally, or in the dogs’ cases, by barking.
Each herder has a number of voice commands which have different effects
on the Sheep.
There are three different traveling speeds available: creep, walk
and run. Adjusting your traveling speed in different conditions will
help, so be sure to learn how to use all three.
Sheep has been given a rating for Everybody and is a Comic Mischief
software.
Minimum PC System Requirements include: Windows 95/98, Pentium
166MHz (266 or higher is recommended), 32MB RAM (64MB RAM is recommended),
80MB Hard Drive Disk Space, 4X CD-ROM, 4MB video card (No 3D acceleration
is required, however, 8MB is recommended.), Soundblaster 16 Compatible
Sound Card, Microsoft Compatible Mouse and Keyboard.
Installation is fairly quick and easy.
Gameplay: 6.0. Sheep can be played with Joypad, Joystick,
Keyboard or Mouse. I tried the game with Joystick, Keyboard and Mouse
and found movement to be very hard to control. This game was also
played on two other computers than my own with the same results.
Perhaps a more adept action player would have greater success and there
is the possibility that using a Joypad would greatly improve gameplay.
Graphics: 8.0. The graphics are quite good.
Sound: 7.5. The Baaaaaing of the sheep gets a bit
annoying at time, but the overall music and sound effects are good.
Difficulty: 9.0. Playing Sheep at the Hard setting
is very challenging, to say the least.
Concept: 9.0. I found the storyline to be quite amusing,
even with the difficult gameplay aspect.
Overall: 7.0. Unfortunately, the awkwardness of the
gameplay aspects greatly diminish an otherwise fine product in my eyes.
