Sheeper is an easy to play arcade game that should not only delight players but also challenge their skills too. Learning how to play is fairly easy as the game suggests, as the controls are a mix of taps to herd the sheep into the barn before nightfall and some panning and zooming to manipulate the camera so you can see different parts of the map. It might seem easy at first, but getting the sheep into the barn won’t be the hard part, it’ll be doing it while not losing any of your score. With a couple of current chapters and quite the handful of levels for each chapter and more coming soon in future updates, there is plenty to play here and could be great for casual gamers.
Before you can get started on your sheep herding journey you’ll need to head to the Play Store and download the game.
Once you open the game you’ll notice the interface and graphics are simple and understated, which helps to keep the focus off of pretty visuals and instead on the gameplay. You’ll start with the first chapter and have to do well enough to unlock the following levels in succession to the first if you want to keep going.
The goal is to herd the sheep into the barn, and doing this is a pretty simple task as all you have to do is tap your finger to scare the sheep into moving in the direction you want. Mastering this is the challenge here as they don’t go the entire way and you’ll have to continue tapping.
Levels start off easy with a small map, but the higher the levels the bigger they get and the more sheep you’ll have to direct. If you take too long you’ll encounter nightfall. This doesn’t stop the level, but you will end up losing points off your score the longer it takes you to herd the sheep into the barn after it gets dark, so the goal is to get it done as quickly as you can.
Herding the sheep in a specific amount of time is not your only challenge though. There will be levels with dangers to avoid, like pits, bee hives and random wildlife. There will also be hidden bonuses for you to find on certain levels to help you boost your score. Finding all the bonuses will win you two bells.
The bells can be important tools to help you because after using a bell, you can simply tap on a point on the map to lure the sheep to this location instead of tapping behind them to scare them in a certain direction.
There will be other tools and friends to help you herd sheep as well, like dogs which assist you in rounding the sheep up. These act just like bells in that they are a one time use. There are also different sized dogs which remember different numbers of waypoints.
There are also achievements in game to collect for those who enjoy this level of completion, and there are social aspects to the game as well allowing you to share screenshots you take with your Facebook friends, as well as see the scores of your Facebook friends who play. There are also multiple difficulty levels to increase the challenge if things become too easy for you.
Gameplay for Sheeper may be simple, but there are a decent number of elements to make things more challenging and add a layer of complexity to it. With multiple tools to help you get the sheep where you want them and dangers to avoid, things begin to get a little more interesting.
Ratings
- Speed (4/5) – Gameplay was pretty fluid and didn’t feel stuttery at all.
- Features (4/5) – With a decent amount of levels and different challenges and tools to alter the experience, there is a good amount to make the game interesting.
- Theme (3.5/5) – The visuals are decent and everything in the UI feels unobtrusive and out of the way.
- Overall (4/5) – Decent casual game that is fun for pick up and play moments.
Pros
- Dangers to make the game more challenging
- Tools to help you herd the sheep
- Multiple levels for each chapter so there’s lots to play through
- Achievements to collect
- Promise of more chapters
Cons
- Map manipulation (zoom out, panning the map) felt somewhat difficult. A simple tap on the display in swipe motion could be easier for some gamers.
Conclusion
For a casual game Sheeper can be quite fun and you might find yourself striving to collect as many achievements as you can. This type of game is not my personal taste, but it was fun and is easy enough for anyone to learn how to pick up and play. It’s also kid-friendly which is a nice touch, and since there is no story line to follow it’s easy to play for just a few minutes at a time if that’s all the time you have. The game is also free which is nice.