cjmelendez_
The multiplayer survival horror game The Flock now has a release date and price point. The game is set to release on Steam, the Humble store and developer Vogelsap’s own website on August 21, 2015 and sell for $16.99.
If you haven’t heard, The Flock is a peculiar multiplayer game because it contains a finite player population. Once enough players have died in-game to reach the preset population count of 215,358,979, the titular alien race goes extinct. The game also no longer becomes available for purchase. Those who own the game prior to the population count reaching 0 will be able to take part in a “climactic finale”. Then the game is dead. Vogelsap expects this to happen in about a year.
“We’ve asked ourselves what kind of experience people would be getting from The Flock years after release. Hardly anyone would be online and those still playing would be either great at the game or brand new. That’s not a fun player-experience.” said Jeroen van Hasselt, creative director at Vogelsap. “So we think it’s worth sacrificing that possibility in order to try and improve the experience for most players when they are actually playing the game.”
The Flock takes place on Earth in the year 3,000 after a species called the Flock took over the planet. With a world shrouded by a cloud of pollution, mankind created a device called the Light Artifact to combat the light-sensitive alien race and restore light to the planet. The artifact resurfaces long after mankind is gone and affect the flock by turning those exposed to it into a humanoid species. Each match in the game poses 3-5 players as the Flock against one of their light-converted members, Carriers. Carriers win the game by surviving and completing objectives and the Flock win by preventing them doing so.
As a game, The Flock sounds pretty interesting, but a $16.99 price tag for a game that’s going to eventually expire and no longer function is a bit iffy. Granted, it may take quite a while for the population count to reach 0. Each pre-order purchase of the game from all three stores will also net two copies. Post-release DLC will be free of charge as well. Whether this experiment will work or not hinges on just how good the game is. Hopefully it’s worth the price of admission.
