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En 1UP 01/01/2000 Personnel temps en temps, un jeu rare arrive, quelque chose qui a cette qualité extra spéciale à ce sujet, qui atteint à travers les frontières et les frontières, que peut-être même redéfinit l'expérience de jeu. Herdy Gerdy n'est pas un de ces jeux. Mais il pourrait très bien avoir été. Et c'est une honte, parce que ce jeu est si proche d'atteindre de nouveaux sommets grande. Dommage, il tombe si bas en raison d'un essaim de maux techniques et des défauts de conception. Mais
By 1UP Staff
01/01/2000
Now and then, a rare game comes along, something that has this extra special quality about it, that reaches across boundaries and borders, that maybe even redefines the gaming experience.
Herdy Gerdy is not one of those games.
But it very well could have been. And that's a shame, because this game comes so close to reaching great new heights. Too bad it falls so flat due to a swarm of technical woes and design flaws. But before we dig into what went horribly wrong, let's talk about what Herdy Gerdy gets right.
From the beginning, Core set out to create a game that looks like a Disney cartoon, and for the most part it's succeeded. Herdy Gerdy is a visual masterpiece, a cleverly animated, richly detailed adventure populated with whimsical creatures that ramble through sprawling landscapes.
While it's basically a herding game (that is, you push, pull, lead and chase a variety of creatures into their respective pens), it's not nearly as simple or straightforward as it may seem. Every creature acts and reacts differently, and has its own strengths and weaknesses. Gerdy herds the Doops, for example, simply by chasing them, whereas the big, pink Gromps will always chase Gerdy. Other creatures, like the purple, propeller-tailed Bleeps, will only follow Gerdy while he's playing his flute. Beyond these simple techniques are a host of other considerations, like making sure a Gromp doesn't follow you into a herd of Doops or Bleeps, lest it start stomping and chomping away at the helpless critters. Furthermore, Gerdy has an array of tools at his disposal, from a simple herding stick that helps gather scattered creatures to a horn that'll distract any hungry Gromp that wanders too close to a herd of smaller critters.
All these elements combine to provide a unique experience that's part action, part adventure, part puzzle and part strategy. As the levels get more and more complex, you'll need both careful planning and quick reflexes to get by.
But (and here comes the bad stuff) no matter how carefully you plan, no matter how quick your reflexes may be, you'll still suffer countless ignominies at the hands of what may be the worst game camera ever. It skitters about like a nervous kitten, switches perspectives, gets stuck on walls and obstacles, and often defaults to the most unusable setting at the worst possible moments. You might have plotted out a perfect herding sequence, only to to have it completely degenerate into a car wreck of critter carcasses no thanks to that @*$# camera!
And if that's not bad enough, Herdy Gerdy also tortured me with its terrible framerate. We're talking nausea-inducing, folks. Seriously. When a game can literally make you sick, well, that's never a good thing.
Finally, the map system is just plain useless. Herdy Gerdy has enormous, layered levels that practically require a full-size, fold-out atlas. But the in-game map is tiny, unreadable and awkwardly placed. Call it up, and the map sits squatly in the top-right corner, maliciously obscuring the on-screen action while deviously providing absolutely no useful info. And did I mention the gimpy camera already? Well, thanks to it, a good map is even more necessary—and the lack of one is an even greater sin.
I look forward to a sequel to Herdy Gerdy, one that irons out the near-fatal flaws of this valiant effort. I'd be first in line to pick up a copy of that game. And while we're at it, I'd love to play more games that are just as innovative as Herdy Gerdy.
Problem is, I have no desire to play Herdy Gerdy itself.
