This is the two hundred twenty-seventh entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,149,829.66 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.
Our two hundred twenty-seventh random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality has set out on a pilgrimage. It’s Quench, by mightyyell, and its tagline in the bundle reads:
Change the environment to guide herds of animals and restore their home i…
Move over, Herdling, we’ve got another herd-based contender here!
Quench is set in the Serengeti, and surrounding environs. The opening introduces Shaman, the young leader of the elephant tribe, who must lead the annual pilgrimage from the Western Elder Tree to the Eastern Elder Tree, picking up other animal herds along the way. But this year, something is different. The Western Elder Tree doesn’t bear any fruit, instead spawning a single offspring in the form of a spirit bird the elephants name Shepherd. Players control Shepherd from on high, looking down upon the landscape and guiding the animal herds by using magical weather powers to change the landscape. The herds desperately need Shepherd’s help, because mysterious smokebeasts have appeared, along with a strange corruption of the land itself. And it’s getting worse the farther east the animals go.
All of this is presented in a lovely art style inspired by papercraft. Stylized, 2D story scenes summarize events, while playable sections feature low poly 3D art that imitates old flat-shaded styles. The undulating terrain is stretched over a very low poly mesh, such that looks like a paper diorama. It is actually a hex grid, but that’s well hidden in favor of an aesthetically pleasing look. Animals also look like papercraft models as they trundle along. Players must oversee all the herds from their literal bird’s-eye view, intervening when needed with a bit of weather magic. Rain can nourish dry or rocky terrain so animals can graze, restoring their stamina. Wind can blow sand aside, uncovering an easier path for the animals and sometimes a secret or two. Lightning can burn down thorny thickets to let animals through, and quakes can break up rocks to clear — or block — paths as needed.
A typical level follows a simple pattern. One or more herds need to get across the map, by moving to various waypoints via different pre-set, selectable paths. They’ll only move when the player directs them to, but they may take a while in transit. Meanwhile, players must use their weather powers to clear the way and keep the herds safe as they head to their destination. Within this framework, however, mightyyell manage a surprising variety of levels. Some are differentiated by their setting: a river crossing is a different challenge to a smokebeast-infested grassland, or a dark and claustrophobic jungle. But there are alternate objectives too. Sometimes the herds are searching for clues rather than simply traveling. Other times they are just trying to hold out against hazards while waiting for help to arrive. All of these levels are intertwined with a surprisingly compelling story, full of characters from the six animal tribes as they learn more about the smokebeasts and the corruption that’s afflicted the land.
The problem is that, in any given level, Shepherd only has a handful of weather powers to use. Players might start a level with a single use of rain, three of wind, one quake, and zero lightning. Use them in the wrong place, and players will find themselves stuck, since certain obstacles must be negated in order to pass. So I found myself scouring the map, looking for groves that let me trade one power for some others: rain on the patch of land there and I’ll get three lightning casts, then I can burn that thicket with lightning to give me a few more rain casts… it’s a matter of working out the correct order to use powers so I’ll have what I need to solve the level. I found this type of pure optimization boring and frustrating, especially for more complex levels where I need to work out how to guide multiple herds to their destinations, all with the same limited set of weather magic.
It’s a shame, because there are a bunch of surprising uses for weather powers that should have made levels much more interesting. But with so few casts available, I felt I was actively punished for experimentation. This is especially true when dealing with the various smokebeasts. Many can be distracted, stunned, or otherwise incapacitated with the right weather powers, but only temporarily. So if I use rain to stop a smokebeast from attacking, but don’t time it just when my wildebeests are marching past, then I’ve wasted an extremely valuable power and may even need to start the whole level over. Sometimes, levels introduce a new, second objective halfway through, and then I bungled something like this and had to do the entire two-part level over again. I did not relish it.
Quench is a game I found myself wanting to like more than I did. It’s surprisingly lengthy, with a couple dozen levels to tackle, and it tells a nice tale. Each herd is a bit different to the others as well, especially the lions and baboons who have a limited ability to fight back against certain smokebeasts. Levels often have cool features, like springs that can be unblocked (with a well-placed quake) to restore streams that hydrate other parts of the map, letting players use their valuable rain magic elsewhere. The pilgrimage theme and landscape-altering gameplay brought to mind From Dust, but Quench has none of that game’s freeform reshaping of terrain. Limited instead to a small set of powers that can only be used in specific spots, I was quickly irritated, especially after waiting patiently for herds to slowly trundle across the map only to discover I’d wasted some magical wind ten minutes ago that I need to finish the level.
Judging from the itch.io page, however, Quench has found some fans, including many who contributed to its funding campaign on Kickstarter. For players with more patience for sussing out optimal solutions for levels, there will be less friction clouding the lovely story about coming together to combat environmental damage. If that sounds like you, and you missed it in the bundle, Quench is sold for a minimum price of $19.99.
That’s 227 down, and only 1514 to go!
thekelvingreen
Your description makes me think of Lemmings, with a hint of Populous.
Waltorious
In the times when herds are moving and you have to protect them, Quench does feel a bit like Lemmings, yes. A lot of time is spent setting things up before telling the animals to move, however, which makes it feel much less frantic than Lemmings.
Somehow, I’ve never actually played Populous! I does seem a bit similar though. I think From Dust was also inspired by Populous.