Herdling Review - Big Ideas, Small Atmosphere
5Atmospheric adventures and platformers are similar to a house of cards. Everything revolves around building the atmosphere, which is at the very top. This is the one element can’t be crafted on its own, but is instead the sum of its parts. Storytelling, art direction, environment, soundtrack, characters, gameplay mechanics, and even technical performance play a pivotal role in creating atmosphere.
Some genres have the benefit of being able to hide deficiencies in certain areas, but in atmospheric adventures, when the immersion gets broken, the atmosphere fades away and in this particular analogy, the house of cards collapses. In the case of Herdling, although there were some highs throughout the journey, there were too many elements that robbed the game of the necessary immersion required for the proper atmosphere. As a result, the experience lacked emotional impact that the best in the genre have.