Sights & Sounds
- Sheepo's art design looks like a dressed-up 00s flash game. By that, I mean that everything looks somewhat like a paper cutout with shading added. Not necessarily a bad thing, but maybe not my preference
- The character designs are highly stylized creatures based on real-world animals. The protagonist and player character, Sheepo, for example, looks like a shorn bipedal sheep
- The music was a great surprise; I was not expecting the soundtrack to be this good. Although there's only one boss theme, I liked the drum machine/xylophone/piccolo/strings combination. The rest of the music is an interesting selection of tracks that alternate in and out of low BPM trance and trip-hop
Story & Vibes
- Sheepo's on his very first interplanetary mission to help preserve all life across the universe. He needs to (preferably as non-violently as possible) collect eggs on the lush planet he lands on and return them to the ship for documentation
- That's about it for the story, and there's not much by way of lore or subplots. Sure, you'll run into a few NPCs here and there, but their commentary is mostly there for flavor rather than information. In fact, the only NPC that exists to move the thin narrative along is your mission control, who will radio in from time to time with silly messages
- The vibes are definitely chill. The music, the dark color palette, the fairly low difficulty, and the lack of combat all contribute to a subdued, relaxing experience of the Metroidvania milieu
Playability & Replayability
- You read that correctly: Sheepo is a combat-free Metroidvania. Yes, there's stuff like tumbling rocks and spike traps that can do damage, but there's not exactly anything to fight against until you reach a boss fight. Even then, your goal is to dodge the boss until you can get it to knock itself out or incapacitate it by other means
- Movement feels pretty good in this game, and I found myself quite pleased with Sheepo's run speed while traversing each area (a definite boon when backtracking). If I had to register any complaint, it would be in regards to the floaty fall speed. It took a little adjustment initially, but I got used to it after 20 minutes or so
- The level design felt fairly boilerplate for the genre; lots of interconnected rooms with occasional paths that you can't access until you find the correct ability
- Abilities in Sheepo are exclusively earned after boss fights. They allow you to transform into other animals, which can help you do things like fly, dig, or fast travel. There aren't very many of them, but Sheepo isn't a very long game anyway. I'm just happy that you get a double jump immediately rather than having to wait until the end of the game to find it
Overall Impressions & Performance
- While Sheepo doesn't have any egregious problems and has good "game feel", I wasn't really wowed by anything it showed me. It just combines a bunch of systems that work fairly well into a slightly above-average indie Metroidvania
- I was impressed that the lack of combat didn't drag the experience down much. It kinda felt like a blend of puzzle platformer and Metroidvania. I absolutely love both those genres, which maybe explains why I was a little disappointed by Sheepo. I feel like I'd really enjoy a game like this that had a more interesting story, greater mechanical depth, and more challenging platforming
- Played perfectly on the Steam Deck, and given that the game didn't really appeal to me visually, I didn't mind using a smaller screen
Final Verdict
- 6.5/10. Sheepo has some interesting gameplay ideas that it unfortunately doesn't fully realize due to the casual audience it appears to target. Still, though, it's a solid game and worth picking up at a discount if you like either puzzle platformers or Metroidvanias
- Sheepo's art design looks like a dressed-up 00s flash game. By that, I mean that everything looks somewhat like a paper cutout with shading added. Not necessarily a bad thing, but maybe not my preference
- The character designs are highly stylized creatures based on real-world animals. The protagonist and player character, Sheepo, for example, looks like a shorn bipedal sheep
- The music was a great surprise; I was not expecting the soundtrack to be this good. Although there's only one boss theme, I liked the drum machine/xylophone/piccolo/strings combination. The rest of the music is an interesting selection of tracks that alternate in and out of low BPM trance and trip-hop
Story & Vibes
- Sheepo's on his very first interplanetary mission to help preserve all life across the universe. He needs to (preferably as non-violently as possible) collect eggs on the lush planet he lands on and return them to the ship for documentation
- That's about it for the story, and there's not much by way of lore or subplots. Sure, you'll run into a few NPCs here and there, but their commentary is mostly there for flavor rather than information. In fact, the only NPC that exists to move the thin narrative along is your mission control, who will radio in from time to time with silly messages
- The vibes are definitely chill. The music, the dark color palette, the fairly low difficulty, and the lack of combat all contribute to a subdued, relaxing experience of the Metroidvania milieu
Playability & Replayability
- You read that correctly: Sheepo is a combat-free Metroidvania. Yes, there's stuff like tumbling rocks and spike traps that can do damage, but there's not exactly anything to fight against until you reach a boss fight. Even then, your goal is to dodge the boss until you can get it to knock itself out or incapacitate it by other means
- Movement feels pretty good in this game, and I found myself quite pleased with Sheepo's run speed while traversing each area (a definite boon when backtracking). If I had to register any complaint, it would be in regards to the floaty fall speed. It took a little adjustment initially, but I got used to it after 20 minutes or so
- The level design felt fairly boilerplate for the genre; lots of interconnected rooms with occasional paths that you can't access until you find the correct ability
- Abilities in Sheepo are exclusively earned after boss fights. They allow you to transform into other animals, which can help you do things like fly, dig, or fast travel. There aren't very many of them, but Sheepo isn't a very long game anyway. I'm just happy that you get a double jump immediately rather than having to wait until the end of the game to find it
Overall Impressions & Performance
- While Sheepo doesn't have any egregious problems and has good "game feel", I wasn't really wowed by anything it showed me. It just combines a bunch of systems that work fairly well into a slightly above-average indie Metroidvania
- I was impressed that the lack of combat didn't drag the experience down much. It kinda felt like a blend of puzzle platformer and Metroidvania. I absolutely love both those genres, which maybe explains why I was a little disappointed by Sheepo. I feel like I'd really enjoy a game like this that had a more interesting story, greater mechanical depth, and more challenging platforming
- Played perfectly on the Steam Deck, and given that the game didn't really appeal to me visually, I didn't mind using a smaller screen
Final Verdict
- 6.5/10. Sheepo has some interesting gameplay ideas that it unfortunately doesn't fully realize due to the casual audience it appears to target. Still, though, it's a solid game and worth picking up at a discount if you like either puzzle platformers or Metroidvanias