Negative Gamer Review: Wool (Xbox Live Indie Games)

The herding genre has been surprisingly well represented over the years. Herdy Gerdy, Flock and even the ageing Klik and Play hit Space Herdy have in turn tasked players to somehow manoeuvre hapless, barely sentient masses from place to pen. For a handful of loose change, the impressively prolific Milkstone Studios offers the charmingly presented Wool to afford consumers one more option for Border Collie simulation.

Boasting ‘œeasy to learn controls and gameplay’, a plethora of single player and co-operative stages over five difficulties and world score ranking, Wool is surprisingly well endowed. The test is whether the contents of its Rodney Greenblat style, Parappa-flip packaging is proverbial mutton or lamb. Thanks to Milkstone for sending us a review code to find out.

Woolly..

Wool‘s presentation is tight. Simplistic graphics, basically two dimensional and static aside from the odd flourish of animation, drive the title’s herding concept forward and, as promised in promotion, everything is easy to grasp. However, the controls, and thus the function of the game’s central concept, while responsive, still manage to feel ironically woolly.

Without direct control over the sheep themselves,the combination of non-existent collision detection and dog’s loose audio ‘œpush’ as the only method of propelling the sheep forward (in the predictable form of a bark) can frustrate. As time ticks away, each second of bucolic dalliance reducing your score exponentially, sheep have an irritating habit of lodging themselves in a corner almost rubber banding in place. Despite layered shouts and arcing tugs, the sheep are still endlessly free to disobey. Akin to life drawing with a pencil masking-taped to a 14-foot bamboo rod, Wool‘s results are never quite like the sumptuous bosom in the centre of the room.

While of course theoretically conquerable, the freeform nature of the animal’s bounding AI means that, even after drawing a crowd away from a fence, the final shove into the catchment den can feel awkwardly disconnected. As dog passes through sheep, failing to really incite change of direction, the flock’s insistent desire to fall the wrong side of the gate post can somehow feel demoralising past any traditionally cheap death.

..yet with all the trimmings.

It’s impressive that co-op play exists in such a cheap title. In terms of content, the multiplayer certainly extends Wool‘s playtime by several hours. When players co-ordinate tactical runs around groups of sheep the resulting success can feel positively inspired. Like watching the dreadfully confusing One Man and His Dog when a little Welsh upstart from the valleys somehow steers her pup around an obstacle course of livestock like a remote control car, the tandem herding can appear somewhat balletic.

Communication is vital between players looking to score well. Even the slightest indecision can spell instant ovine death and near instant quota failure on later levels as ill-timed, coupled barks steer gangs of potential scarves into ponds. There is certainly satisfaction to be had in scoring big and achieving medals, but after the 17th repeat ferrying fur one-by-one across a bridge, frustration can sometimes outweigh fun.

The world leaderboards are a hugely welcome addition. However, at present, single runs through levels netted me formidable placement within the top five of every stage. While of course not the developer’s fault, the lack of competition leaves the prospect of replaying parts of the come-by-campaign as unnecessary, despite the impressive potential for networked, worldwide challenge. Here’s hoping that Milkstone utilise the peer-to-peer tools for future projects, as Microsoft’s continued lack of support for in-house Xbox Live Indie solutions act as a hindrance for so many score-based titles.

A few other points worth mentioning:

• The music is inoffensive, yet somehow through its jaunty country twang eventually serves only to fuel player harboured irritation as “12 bar blues” morphs to “12 bar swears”.
• In a minor visual glitch, the sheep occasionally hang just outside their pen, despite being marked as caught and herded.
• Placed on the App Store rather than in the buried depths of the 360′s Indie Channel, Wool could have earned itself a formidable, cult, casual following.
• The dogs portrayed, while cute, are hardly the pedigrees required for successful, competitive wrangling.

Despite my miserly whining, Wool is not a bad game. It’s quirky, though hollow and desperate for player affection. Content and form are undeniably present, yet it’s the lack of real presence that leaves Wool languishing alongside hordes of flash games and digitally distributed misfires.

The difficulty with swathes of titles coded for Microsoft’s community channel is their placement, even at reduced rate, alongside bigger, better hitters. That Wool is a throwaway 80 MS Points should attract gamers en masse, but its failure to really engage with the player by offering something interesting outside of its “push those things in this thing” mechanic leaves the game sitting as wafer thin as its animal protagonist.

You should play this game if’¦

…you’re entertaining gaming guests, sitting on spare points and collectively angry that sheepdog trials fail to receive the television exposure that they once enjoyed.

Final Score

Solid, fully fledged, yet without the spark needed to lift it away from aggravation and towards independent innovation.

(What does this score mean?)