Sheepherds! Review

Get ready to transform yourself into a hard-working doggo when you jump into Sheepherds! a cosy (yet crazy) co-op party game that has you playing as a pup with the job of herding colourful sheep to get groomed and collect their wool. Developed by Ultimo Disco, Sheepherds! is a title that can be played on your own, but it’s recommended to play with others and team up locally or online. This game is different from many others: there’s no time limit here. You’ll use your doggie abilities like barking, running, and playing to complete challenges and get these sheep to where they need to go.

Your character wants to restart the Wool Festival that used to take place in your hometown. You won’t be working alone, however; your Grandma Rosie says she’ll help with the creative side of things, while you figure out the logistics. So, it’s up to our pup to lead all the sheep to be sheared so she has wool to crochet decorations and outfits.

Sheepherds! is a super cute and vibrant game, especially when you see all the dogs and their costumes. There are a variety of different stages to take on as you progress, and there’s even a football field where you can play a match in front of an audience of sheep just waiting to take in a game. When you’re in control of the pup, the camera is zoomed out so you can see the full stage and where all the sheep you need to herd are located. From this view, the sheep look like colourful blobs moving around, but it would be nice to get a closer look at them at some point. The game’s soundtrack is cheerful and upbeat, exactly what you’d expect from a cosy title.

The first thing you’ll do is select the breed of dog you want to play as. There are two options at the start: Corgi or Border Collie. That may not seem like a lot, especially when you’re playing with others, but each dog has multiple fur colours to pick from, and there’s always the option to dress them up in a cute costume. There are four different outfits in your wardrobe, all of them adorable, with Butterfly, Christmas, Harlequin, or Wizard gear to wear. But these won’t be the only ones available to you; more will be unlocked as you complete challenges to earn treats in the game, along with other breeds of doggos.

Each of the stages you play has a primary challenge that must be completed, along with optional secondary ones. When you enter an area, you’ll see that the sheep you’re trying to herd follow and influence each other, just as they would in real life. You’ll need to be a good sheepdog and be strategic with your positioning. Like a real dog, you can run and bark, but you’ll notice that the sheep will split off and scatter when you dash at them, making it tricky to control where they go. Barking seems to startle them and make them stop when they wander off on their own. It sounds like it could be tricky, but just you wait — colours are coming.

The game does an excellent job of showing what you need to do in each stage. For example, one level has you leading coloured sheep into water to clean them, and opening gates by barking at all the birds sitting on top. Once they fly away, the gate will open, letting your sheep pass through. Once you finish the main challenge, you can replay the stage to try completing the bonus quests for extra rewards, or instead you can try to complete from the get-go but you can’t move the next stage until the main task is completed. It’s not required to beat all these extras, but it adds a level of challenge and earns you new items.
Your grandma requests different colours of wool for her crafting. To do this, you’ll use the various coloured blooms around the level. Lead your sheep through the different clusters of flowers placed around the stage and have them walk through them, which will change the sheep’s wool colour. There are red, yellow, and blue flowers that will magically change their coats. Every time a sheep walks through a cluster of flowers, their colour swaps, which can be frustrating, but it’s easy enough to switch them back.

There are many stages in Sheepherds! to tackle, each with different mechanics you’ll need to adapt to. Some stages feature snow with piles you need to break apart to let the sheep pass through, while another takes place at the beach, where the camera scrolls slowly in one direction and you have the ability to rewind time if needed. Once the camera moves, you can’t go back, which makes it difficult to catch any stragglers who’ve wandered off-screen. One of the craziest things is the Teleportation Circle, you’ll howl to activate it, and the ring will transport anything inside it to the other portal on the stage. This makes it much easier to move the herd from one side of the level to the other.

Most of the stages take place during the day, but there’s even a nighttime level where the flowers give the passing sheep glowing hues that, when mixed, create secondary colours like purple. Once they’re purple, they can’t change their colouration again until they go into water to get clean. The challenge here is a very difficult one to complete, since you need to have only blue, red, and some purple, but as you try to lead the sheep there, they’re guaranteed to wander into some other flowers and swap to a secondary colour or go into the water again. I was getting so annoyed with these sheep!

Sheepherds! is a super cute game full of sheep and adorable doggos, but I have to admit that it’s a lot more challenging than I expected. Corralling sheep to get them into a barn seems easy enough, that is, until colours are factored in, or if you happen to be playing solo. Fortunately, other players can jump in whenever you visit the customisation area. This is the spot where you also spawn whenever you complete a stage, making it easy to swap outfits and try out all the dogs you’ve unlocked, or add additional players. It was much more manageable working together with others to lead the sheep around the stage the way you want them to go. Herding sheep on your own is a very challenging thing to do!