Herdling is a surprisingly well-rounded atmospheric adventure that contradicts her tiny game time-and is at home on Switch 2

Although this is one of the oldest competitions, shepherds are not often represented in video game format, but after playing Okomotive’s Internal, I try to understand why. Sure, if you asked me to come up with my dream game tomorrow, I would probably not start with “breeding cattle”, but Insult He takes the idea and expands it into a mystical, amazing world full of fantastic beasts and terrifying enemies.

Your role is elementary: finding, taming, caring and running a herd of a huge beast called Calicorns and introducing them to the top of the mountain. Along the way, you will meet various puzzles, obstacles and enemies.

From the painting style of art to opulent, emotional music, the world Introduction is Living and extensive and delightful to discover thanks to the decent variety of mechanics at every level and lots of discovery and discovery.

You will traverse green fields, discover abandoned artificial constructions, both state-of-the-art and mystical, as well as cross treacherous forests and mountain climbing to reach the top. Although it is not terribly long, offering 4-6 hours of gameplay, Insult It is littered with collections and content that can be discovered, which ensures a great possibility of playback.

Seen, but not a herd

The game opens in a seemingly abandoned city, when the hero wakes up on the streets with a seemingly unique goal: find and herd. This somewhat claustrophobic urban landscape acts like your tutorial, although there is no instructions.

However, it seems that things are not as they seem; The presence of human life is physical everywhere at the early stages of the game, regardless of whether it is trains passing by open fields, lights flashing in buildings, or cars exceeding open highways. Despite this, the produced world seems to be contrary to your novel companions, so you vacuum concrete and go out to open plains in the pursuit of the top of the mountain, gathering more fluffy friends along the way.

It is not clear why, the ban on Kalikorn, you seem to be the same in this somewhat amazing world; Insult he doesn’t ask why, but How You will move around the treacherous path to the top. And that “how” is largely dictated by your herd.

While traveling, you’ll find a lot of calikorn, which you can tame with good elderly -fashioned scratches and surname. Standing behind them and heading in the direction where you want to travel and waving a shepherd’s fraudster, you can direct your calicor and persuade them to stop, go or release.

You can also activate Stampede mode to escalate the speed that is refueling by running a herd through blue flowers and increases, the more calikorn you tame. Performance drops are quite common in stampeded mode and, as you might expect, leading the herd at high speed becomes more challenging.

In the narrower parts of the map, navigation can be frustrating, especially when you collect more calikorn, and there were more than a few moments when I was afraid that I would never negotiate a herd of slightly corners. On the one hand, it can be a project, but I’m never a fan of a chance.

You found inventing all kinds of methods to keep your compact and controlled herd, but sometimes even stopping their movement can not stop their paws from moving to the pavements. After all, they are wild animals.

Until you find your dream

The game is largely linear, but this does not make your journey easier; You will have to decide on the best paths to which you can do, navigate and get out of tight places with your growing, sometimes mischievous herd, and take care of them to make sure that they will survive their passage – and yes, it means that they can die.

After damage to the lively calicor coat, often vacuumed with flakes from running among flower fields and storing the power of the stamp, it will become skillful with blood, a wound, which can only be treated by looking for a map level in search of berries to eat friends. There is also a immortal mode for people with a delicate heart; Fortunately, I didn’t need it in my first game.

Nobody I want Rupe of the perfect run with the departure of a herd member, but it is double painful when you take into account how charming and charming these creatures are. Everyone has a unique design with different shapes of horns, sizes and centuries, expressed by their questioning and expressive wide red eyes.

Some even have personality traits that play when resting in the camp between levels. Needy Calicorns will follow you after the camp until they receive feelings while the witty will try to engage you in the game. He is incredibly charming and generally raises the stake in the game.

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As the game progresses, the world is expanding to include greater mysticism. Ancient monuments and huge structures become the background for your mission, and the further you climb, the more charming the world becomes; The further you feel vaguely post -apocalyptic vibrations at earlier levels of the game, when your hero becomes more and more covered by a herd.

There are environmental threats at various levels, including spiky surfaces, and even ice calming under Kalikorna (or hoofs? You can’t see them …), but the real factor of fear comes from giant owls in the style of cryptids, which seem to have a real taste for calicorn.

These are the main antagonists in Internal, But their threat takes various forms. From high rates to navigation after the bird’s nest to quick chases, when they put you out of the air, these great beasts pose a really terrifying threat to your herd.

However, you can really appreciate the calmer moments in the game as opposed to terror. Great, extensive landscapes are wonderful, and the cushioned sound of the sound wonderfully reflects emotions every moment. Activation of Stampeded mode introduces a huge explosion of sound and color gallop, in which more composed moments have little more than the sounds of nature and sprinkling the keys.

Of course how Insult is an independent title, there is no Polish in areas; The animations are sometimes a bit awkward, especially when the calicarian slopes descend, and tight or closed spaces can be challenging to navigate. This is especially true as the herd increases, which can be according to the design, but if you play with the controller, just like me on my switch 2, you can be in danger (or simply play with positioning the herd) more often than you want, which can affect the pace of the game.

Still, I really liked my time as a calikorn shepherd. The game points to the topics of Homeship, Nature, Found Family, Death and Rebirth, giving the player many perspectives, thanks to which you can enjoy it without a word. Insult He cleverly implements his key herding mechanics, but offers enough ways to play and discover that players of all ages and skills can enjoy this minimalist, but deep Odyssey to find a novel home.

Should I play my head?

Play it if …

Don’t play if …

Availability functions

Insult Has a handful of dedicated availability settings. You can switch the vibrations of the controller, sprint, automatic handling, HUD display, breeding direction indicator, calicorn immortality and buttons. There are no dialog lines, but there are different menu and tutorial settings.

How did I review Herdling

I had fun Insult Twice (10 hours) on Nintendo Switch 2 using both the Pro, Joy-Con 2 and Handheld controller.

During my stay in the game, I compared my experience with other independent titles, especially those that were introduced to the Switch 2 market, making sure that I noticed all problems with the performance or quality of the game.

August 2025 was reviewed for the first time