Flock shows us a gentler (and smarter) approach to creature collecting

polygon.com:

As a child, I owned a little encyclopedia of Pokémon. Each page of this handbook contained an entry for one of the many fictional creatures and shared information about its personality, type, and unique characteristics. I pored over its many factoids and scribbled them on lined binder paper with my number two pencil. In the early days, I gravitated to Pokémon games not just because of the combat, but because I liked to learn about the series’ many creatures. Now, by playing Flock, I’ve found a game that really scratches that itch.

The premise of Flock is relatively simple: I play as a person who rides a giant bird. This colorful, bulbous bird allows me to glide around a floating sky island, and use its chirping to charm the local critters. There’s just one problem: The whistles that train the bird to learn the calls of each creature — and unlock my bird’s ability to recruit them — were stolen. Now it’s up to me to explore each biome and find the whistles that will allow me to befriend the local fauna and collect more information on the critters.

Developers Hollow Ponds and Richard Hogg bring to life a vibrant, almost cartoony world; the art style pairs brightly-colored, low-poly character models with environments illustrated in patterned brush strokes. The graphics lend a sense of levity and whimsicality to the world, creating the perfect setting for Flock’s many creatures and curiosities. As I dart around the biomes, I see floating creatures that take inspiration from all ends of the animal kingdom like adorable bug-eyed fireflies, creatures that look like porpoises without dorsal fins and tails, and others that resemble glorified larvae.

Becoming an expert naturalist of all these silly guys has been surprisingly fun. When I see a critter for the first time, I can identify which family it belongs to based on short, in-game descriptions — unless it’s the first time I’m observing a creature in a particular family. In that situation, I need to figure out which