Mothergamer Plays Herdling

 When I saw the trailer for Herdling I was already in love with how cute the creatures were and the artwork. I knew I was going to try it out for myself. I did make a point to check the accessibility settings and I saw one that greatly pleased me and I highly recommend it. You can turn on immortality for the creatures known as Calicorns so they don't die. They can still get injured, but this prevents animal death which I was grateful for.  From the start, the artwork for Herdling is beautiful looking like a picturesque story book come to life. The game starts by introducing us to a young child who is homeless sleeping under a bridge in a nameless city. The city itself looks practically abandoned and foreboding with the only light source being dumpsters lit on fire and there are empty cars everywhere. We don't get to know what happened in this world because that's not what the story is about. In a few moments the child runs into a creature that looks like a combination of yak and goat with its face stuck in a bucket. 

This is where Herdling truly begins. The child can pick up a nearby stick and get the bucket off and we discover the creature is called a Calicorn. There is then a prompt to not only tame the Calicorn, but we can name it as well. I was fascinated by how adorable the Calicorn was and was delighted that we could also pet it. Then there is a minor tutorial showing that the child must guide the Calicorn with the stick towards the exit out of the city. It took me a minute to figure out how to move the glowing white marker in the direction of where I wanted the Calicorn to go. Once I figured it out, it wasn't terribly difficult and I guided it and discovered two more Calicorns that I tamed with the help of the first Calicorn and named them and then continued guiding them out of the city. 

Taming my first Calicorn. 

There is a very lovely and interesting moment where as we got closer to the exit, there was a painting on a building wall that the Calicorns stopped and looked at. It was a painting of Calicorns in the mountains. Suddenly, the painting glowed a brilliant gold and the fur on the Calicorns glowed the same brilliant hue. I realized because there's no voice acting, the story is told through the actions and art so this was the Calicorns telling the child that this is where they need to go, the mountains were home. It's such a lovely detail and showing that there's a touch of magic to the Calicorns themselves. 

Finally, we made it out of the city and onto a vista of a plains with farms in the background and a train going by. The sunlight was dazzling and the sky lighter and the Calicorns fur also seemed to brighten as if saying that yes, outside of the city in the open with grasses and trees is better. I agreed and ran with my Calicorns discovering you can make them stampede to run faster and their fur changed to the most beautiful primary colors, like a lovely rainbow. Sometimes the Calicorns would get sticks in their fur and I would have to clean them out and then I would pet them all. There's a nice subtle touch that shows when the Calicorns are happy that they're cared for that involves their horns glowing for a moment in those same bright colors. 

Taking a break with the Calicorns.

There are environmental puzzles as you go on your journey such as having to push open a gate to make a ramp for the Calicorns to climb up. You don't have to do this alone however, as many of the puzzles are designed to get the Calicorns to help you. One gate was huge and as I pushed, all the Calicorns lined up beside me and helped to push it open so we could go up the ramp and camp for the night. There's so many cute games throughout Herdling with the child and the Calicorns. You have to find sticks of firewood when you're at a camp site and some of the Calicorns will point them out to you. At some of them, there's a colorful yarn ball and you can throw it and a few of the Calicorns will play Fetch with you. I really enjoyed this and just cuddling with all of them. If a Calicorn is hurt, there are little bushes with bright blue berries on them. You can feed these to the Calicorns to heal them and the berries also build up the stampede gauge as well as strengthening your bond with them. You can also hang cute and colorful ornaments on their horns. I loved all these little details that added to the storytelling.

Petting a little Calicorn on a boat ride.

Crumbling cliffs or narrow paths were not the only dangers my Calicorns faced. Sometimes we would run into some pretty scary predators and the only thing I could do was get them to stampede so we could run quickly to a canopy of trees to hide or through a cave tunnel to escape. Luckily, there were always blue berries nearby so I could heal any of the Calicorns who were injured. There were moments at the campfire where a spirit that looked like a Calicorn would appear in what seemed like dreams, guiding the Calicorns up the mountain. Other times the spirit would appear in front of us on a path and I would find a Calicorn that was hurt nearby. I would help them, tame, name, and the other Calicorns in our herd would joyfully greet them. I started to realize that this spirit was of a Calicorn that had died and it was trying to help and guide them on their journey home to the mountains. It's such a nice and bittersweet element to the story itself.

The spirit in a dream. 

I loved traveling through the different vistas with the Calicorns. Going from the plains to a verdant forest and then through a dangerous, yet beautiful snowy mountain pass was interesting. There are of course puzzles throughout each area that the Calicorns can help with, but I was glad that the puzzles weren't overly complicated and not frustrating. Many were very much open a gate here, figure out where a key stone is for a door, or hiding behind boulders to brace against strong mountain winds. 

I was able to find all 12 Calicorns and as the group gets bigger it definitely adds a layer of challenge with having to keep them all together. I would have to stop often just to do a head count and make sure none were missing. These were also moments I could stop and clean the sticks out of their fur, give them a little rest break, and pet all of them. Any time one of them fell or got hurt, I would be very worried about them and rush around looking for the blue berries to heal them. It was so easy to become attached to the Calicorns because of their cuteness and their varying personalities. One of my favorite ones, their personality was affectionate and every time we stopped to camp they always wanted to play Fetch and have lots of cuddles. 

The music in the game is fantastic matching the mood and vibe of each area perfectly. With each new area the bond between the child and the Calicorns grew to the point by the time we were nearing the end of our journey there was a deep love and trust between them and the story shows this in how much they look out for one another and help each other. Herdling shows that bond in such a wonderfully thoughtful way highlighted through the artwork and music creating a perfectly told story. The game itself is not terribly long, I finished it in seven hours and I loved every moment of it. Herdling is truly an indie gem that is worth checking out because of how well all these elements blend together and I know I will be playing through it again because that's how great the game is.  

Gathered together around a campfire.

*Herdling is available now on the following platforms: Steam, Epic Games Store, Playstation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch

*Join our community on Twitch as we play games and discuss mental health: https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer

Death Stranding 2: On The Beach Review

  *Note: There will be some spoilers in the review, so if you haven't started the game or haven't finished it, just a heads up. 

I had been counting down to the day Death Stranding 2: On The Beach released. I absolutely loved the first game and I couldn't wait to see what the second game had in store. Death Stranding 2 is set eleven months after the events of the first game. The UCA is fully connected to the chiral network and we find Sam living a peaceful life in Mexico with his daughter Lou. It was so nice seeing Sam and Lou again and getting a little tutorial on how the controls work as they walk home together. Of course the scenery in the game is beautiful and naturally I was as clumsy as ever tripping over some rocks and my own two feet. I was also able to tweak the accessibility settings in the game to add subtitles, change the difficulty setting to easy so I could just enjoy the story, and more. Accessibility is important and I'm always pleased when a game has those accessibility options right from the start. 

Sam and Lou. 

That peace doesn't last very long as Sam's old friend Fragile shows up asking for Sam's help connecting all of Mexico to the chiral network via her new company Drawbridge. Fragile explains that if Sam does this both he and Lou will be pardoned by the UCA and they can continue living their peaceful life. Sam agrees and leaves Lou in the care of Fragile and heads out. 

The BTS are still around and bigger and badder than ever. Some of them can now see Sam immediately and are a little more aware. It definitely added to the heightened sense of danger as Sam makes his deliveries and connects the chiral network. Combat is pretty much the same, but there are some new weapons and gadgets for fighting BTS including automated grenade launchers. Sometimes I didn't have any choice when it came to fighting the BTS especially the giant scary ones, so the grenade launcher definitely became one of my favorites for quickly taking them out. 

A giant BT appears. 

Mexico is basically a good tutorial chapter area refreshing our memory on how the game controls work, how Sam has to connect everything, as well as make deliveries. There's also the sub orders which are basically side quests and as odd as it sounds, I loved doing those. Sam gets some pretty sweet rewards from those in the form of items that help on his journey with upgrades to weapons, vehicles, his backpack, and more. The vehicles in the form of a tri cruiser and a buggy are pretty neat. I liked the buggy more and you can add the sticky gun to it which picks up lost packages. 

Traveling on the tri cruiser. 

Just like in the first game, you can interact indirectly with other players by building a bridge, a safehouse, leaving items they can use in a shared locker, or leaving ladders to climb up steep cliffs. You can also help by adding materials to various structures to help them be built.  It's a nice nod and connection to the first game. I always liked that mechanic in the first game and it's nice to see it here in the second one. 

Building a bridge. 

Sam does successfully connect all of Mexico, but tragedy strikes when Sam returns home to find his home attacked by an unknown group finding Fragile severely injured and Lou dead. This is devastating to say the least and we jump in time to a month later with Sam in a very bad way with his depression and grief over Lou's death. Fragile visits Sam asking him to come with her on the ship the DHV Magellan which can sail through tar currents. Fragile tells Sam they're going through a plate gate that leads to Australia and the goal is to connect all of Australia to the chiral network in order to open other plate gates to the rest of the world so that everyone can be connected.

This is where the majority of Death Stranding 2 takes place as Sam meets new people like Tarman, Dollman, Rainy, and many others. Australia in the game is huge and it's full of beautiful new areas ranging from desert, to beautiful trees, and new threats in the form of variations of BTS. There are bandits too and the game does introduce new ways to deal with them. Honestly for me, many times it was more satisfying to just punch the bandits, take all their stuff, and call it a day. 

Sam shows a bandit his punching skills. 

Sam is a man of few words, so Dollman is a welcome companion coming along with him on his journey. Dollman isn't an idle sidekick however. One fun trick that was very helpful was throwing Dollman high into the air so he could act as a scout for various dangers in the area. Need to know how many bandits are there? Toss Dollman into the air and he totally helped with that. He had a wide range of view so it helped a lot with knowing how many enemies I was dealing with. Dollman also has an interesting and sad backstory that gets revealed later on. He quickly became a trusted friend for me. I loved all the characters in Sam's group and the people he met in Australia were pretty cool too. 

The introduction of fast travel early in the game with the Magellan is brilliant. It made things a lot easier especially with deliveries that were breakable. There is also a neat fast travel system in the form of hot springs that Sam finds. My one complaint about the fast travel system with the Magellan was how every time it was a main story chapter fast travel would get locked and not be available. That got old very quickly and was a source of constant frustration because Australia isn't easy to walk with all the mountain terrain. 

I was grateful for the vehicles especially the buggy because it go offroad and once I had upgraded the tires and some of the accessories on it, that made things a lot easier. There are also cool side quests here like rescuing a kangaroo from a wildfire and returning it to an animal sanctuary. That's not the only animal you can rescue either. I found wild Emus, Wombats, and even a cute Quokka. There's photo mode in the game and I spent so much time taking lots of lovely photos on my adventure. 

The story in Death Stranding 2 is beautiful, perhaps even more beautiful than the first game with some of the introspection that happens with each character, especially Sam. Sam having to face some truths he didn't want to think about are shown in a way that is poetic and thoughtful in a way only Kojima can do. I found myself sympathizing with him so often especially in regards to grieving the loss of his child and wanting Sam to have that healing and happiness that he needed and deserved. 

Of course a familiar villain is back in the form of Higgs and if Sam is the light and hope, Higgs is fully darkness and despair and definitely the foil to Sam. Troy Baker is incredible as Higgs and quite the showman in every scene he's in. Higgs challenges Sam's world view every step of the way and he's exhausting, frustrating, and even more unhinged which of course makes him an excellent villain here. 

The main takeaway from the story for me personally was the importance of those connections to people we love, to people we helped along the way, to not regret those connections we made because they're important not just to us, but to them, and to the whole community. Death Stranding 2 does a beautiful job of highlighting this through Sam, his friends, and the vast amount of people he helps in Mexico and Australia. It's done in such an exciting and creative way that showed how beautiful all of those connections really are. There are of course some moments of beautifully and delightfully weird that only Kojima can do and some of it is flat out hilarious as well. The story made me cry, smile, laugh, cry some more, and then smile again. Death Stranding 2: On The Beach truly delivers something wonderful and special, that is even better than the first game and I'm so glad I got to experience it. 

Sam and Dollman admire beautiful plants. 

*Death Stranding 2: On The Beach is now available on Plastyation 5

*Join our community on Twitch while we play games and discuss mental health: https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer