Herdling Review – A Journey of 1000 Miles

Herdling only needs to take a few moments to harken back to the adventures of Indie games gone by. Similar to Journey and Abzu, the game makes clear that the destination is secondary to the path you walk to get there, and that is honestly fine, since the journey delivers on the promise to transfix you with the monotony of your everyday life, and offer you a fantastic moment guiding fantastical creatures into the unknown.

Players take control of a young kid who we first meet sleeping on a crappy mattress in the streets. There is no offer of understanding here as to whether this kid is actually homeless or if this world is beyond repair, making housing necessary, with the mixed messaging of a barren city that appears like it could still function, which helps to raise the questions you will ask as you leave this place behind. For me, the question was whether this was all a fantasy of escape or if it was happening at all. Meeting your first member of your Herd in the park nearby, by chance, with a bucket on its head, conjures the familiar feel of Where the Wild Things are as it ushers you away.

As you progress, you collect more creatures, both big and small, that you will guide with a magic stick you are given. Here, the game can stumble slightly. The controls to give commands to your flock can be a little wonky as you attempt to issue them, like the stampede ability that involves holding a button, then quickly pressing it again after letting go to trigger it. In particular, this is an ability you will use a lot, so it becomes noticeable very quickly that the trigger can often not trigger when you want it too. Abilities like the stop command also took a few times on occasion to get my herd of herdlings to come to a stop, which can become frustrating since you often will find yourself spamming it as they walk carefree towards a cliff or spiked metal.

The core control to your heart isn’t as bad, but it presents its own frustrations. Your character can run, but the command for the herd to walk is along a straight line indicated from your character. This means you always need to position your character behind them, and it can often require running from side to side behind them rapidly to try to guide them in a more manageable line. Your character can move independently to explore the areas you traverse through, but after running back into position, rather than having some way to send them in a direction you would like, it can be a little annoying.

Thankfully, the journey makes up for any frustration in controls and, in fact, makes overcoming them worth it. The game has a multitude of chapters, all themed around new environments such as a deep forest or a mountain that all seemlessly blend together as you move, again invoking the fantasy of your travels. While the focus tends to be on forward progression across these areas, giving you wide areas of beauty to get lost wandering around in, you will find the occasional puzzle to overcome along the way. Most are cleverly designed, though only a few posed an actual struggle. The creativity comes from how they blend commanding your herd and traversing platforms on your own to solve them. The game doesn’t rely on the usual rule of threes for its bigger areas, which makes it more unique in progression.

The Calicorns (as your creatures are known) can die along your journey, though at times it might feel like you need to actively try to kill them if you want that result. Having the ability to name each one as you find and tame them, and decorate them, puts some emphasis on each creature that makes the death of any one feel weighted and emotional, even without there being a built narrative. Having just watched K-Pop Demon Hunter for the 40th time, I named three of my herd after Rumi, Mira, and Zoey, and I made a point to make them stand out so I knew which was which… Then I didn’t realize I had to manually save Rumi from falling off a cliff. That was a dark day for us all. Unfortunately, these decorations, which are awesome and fun to equip, serve as the only tangible things to find along your travels.

There are a few points where the game clearly wants, or at least thinks that maybe your herd should be thinned out. Don’t let the often tranquil soundtrack that accompanies the mostly zen experience fool you, and these moments will have both build up and pay off. Many moments break from expectation, keeping every stage of your adventure feeling unique and never a blended together passive walk. These aren’t moments that I can mention here as they are best experienced for yourself, but they are absolutely worth it. This being said, the game is pretty short, only taking me about six hours to complete, but this size never feels like a letdown, and the fact that I left satisfied should say something.

Verdict

Herdling’s most lasting question, at least for me, is just what the meaning of your travels are. Since the game doesn’t give you answers, in fact, it features no dialogue, the open-endedness of it leaves a lot of room for interpretation. The journey starts off, and before you know it, you are attached to these Calicorns. Guiding them isn’t just a task you took on; it is a responsibility that you feel attached to through the clever use of subtle nods to individuality in a group of like creatures. You come to depend on these animals through the puzzles scattered throughout the land, which remind you that you need them as much as they need you. There is a beautiful journey in Herdling to both lose and find yourself along the way, with the destination being less important the closer you get.

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