HERDLING REVIEW - A TIGHT AND MEANINGFUL INDIE EXPERIENCE
platform - pc
hours spent in game - 4
The thing I love the most about the spirit of indie games is that they seek novelty in ways that triple-A and even double-A games can find to be too risky. Herdling, a game about herding a group of mystical creatures back to their home in the wild, leans into that indie spirit in really meaningful ways. While it takes inspiration from games like Breath of the Wild for its zen, open-world atmosphere, it distinguishes itself with its unique herding gameplay mechanics, which, despite their sometimes finicky quality, still harbor appreciation for its distinct design ideas. It ditches conventional voice-acted and text bubble dialogue for conveying its themes and narrative beats through environmental storytelling. And despite subpar technical performance, Herdling certainly has its awe-inspiring moments. So, what's the deal with Herdling?
A Touching Journey Told Without Words
To begin your journey, your character wakes up on an old sofa tucked away in the tunnel system of what appears to be an abandoned city. Something then guides your character to an empty lot, where you happen upon a creature known as a calicorn. After you notice it struggling to remove a trash can from its head, you grab a stick to remove it, and in doing so, form a spiritual bond with the creature. From there, you tame and form bonds with a handful of other calicorns before you make your way out of the city into the wild. As you venture through the world, you'll come across even more calicorns to tame and add to your herd. Some that you come across cry out in pain for your help, while others are simply lost and are looking for guidance. When you tame them, you can name them, feed them, and even decorate them, making each calicorn more than just another animal in the group. Further along in the journey, you and your herd will face challenges that not only test your bond but also test your capacity for forgiveness.
During my time with Herdling, I came to really appreciate the thoughtful decisions that were made to convey themes of connection, protection, and forgiveness. Once I named a calicorn, I began to feel a responsibility to keep them safe, happy, and to see them through to the end of the journey. This heightens the stakes significantly when your herd is in danger, especially if and when you lose one to the dangers of the world. It isn't all about the fear of losing your herd, however, as the game balances those moments with moments of joy -- like when you find ornaments to decorate your calicorns with, or playing fetch with them around the campfire. The balance of these moments makes you appreciate your herd on a deeper level than you would have if all you were doing was traversing the land. Speaking of traversing the land, let's talk about how the gameplay feels.
Step By Step
The central mechanic of Herdling's gameplay is... well...herding. To do so, you stand at the back of the herd and direct them using a stick that creates a visual point for the calicorns to follow. Initially, I felt the herding mechanic was quite stiff, as navigating my first calicorn around obstacles and furthermore getting them to move in the direction I wanted to was a bit of a struggle. The herding mechanic is much easier to contend with out in wide open spaces, as the straight line paths mixed with gentle twists and turns allow for the smooth and continuous movement of your herd. That's essentially the dichotomy of Herdling's gameplay design. In wide open spaces, controlling your herd is easy, but in tighter spaces with corners, the herding mechanic turns from satisfying to frustrating and counterintuitive. Sadly, it made arriving at those handful of tightly spaced areas feel tedious and like a break in the flow of the gameplay experience. Despite these issues, I still walked away from Herdling able to appreciate the uniqueness of the herding gameplay design.
In addition to the challenge of traversal, you and your herd will confront a number of environmental puzzles. Typically, these puzzles involve you and your herd working together to connect platforms for crossing or unlocking a spiritual painting that opens a gate to the next area. If there's one type of gamer I am not, it's a puzzle gamer. So while some may find these puzzles frustratingly easy, I appreciated how they preserved the flow of gameplay while still providing a fun level of challenge.
Existing In Herdling's World
Other than the city area you start in and one subsequent smaller city area you find yourself in shortly after the start of the game, Herdling sees you move through various natural environments. From plains to snowcapped mountains, moving through Herdling's host of biomes feels similar to moving through the version of Hyrule that exists in Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Stampeding your herd through an open field with the wind coursing between each calicorn and the vista ahead slowly getting closer and closer invokes the same distinct feeling of zen that only BOTW can create.
Throughout your journey, you'll guide your herd through a host of environments -- some safe and easy to traverse, and others wrought with danger. Moving your stampeding pack through rolling hills invokes a very different feeling than slowly and carefully guiding them through a narrow elevated path, or through an eagle's nest does. The dichotomy of these experiences forces the player to have a certain level of respect for the world, gaining appreciation for the moments of freedom afforded by the plains, and caution for the moments where the environment could thin your herd. The peak of that cautious respect comes as you approach the end of your journey, as the closer you get to your destination, the more it feels like nature is actively working against you to keep you from the finish line.
Technical Performance
Unfortunately, Herdling is held back by shaky technical performance. Thankfully, while there are no bugs or crashes to report, sadly, the game is riddled with frame rate issues. Throughout roughly half of my playthrough, I was experiencing frame drops dipping into sub-30 FPS territory, which would end up negatively impacting what should have been the best moments of the game. For example, stampeding your herd through wide open rolling hills almost reaches a satisfying flow state akin to something like gliding through the sands of the Sword of the Sea, but is cut short when drops in the game's frame rate turn it into a choppy experience. In short, this technical issue can make it difficult to appreciate the feeling that Herdling's art style and environmental design are meant to invoke.
Verdict
I've been on a mission throughout 2025 to step out of my comfort zone and play more indie games, and at the end of my four-hour journey with Herdling, I walked away happy that I took a chance on it. While the game suffers from unfortunate issues with its control scheme and technical performance, I was still able to appreciate the uniqueness of the herding mechanics and the way in which its touching story was told through thoughtful design choices. Whether you're looking for something genuinely unique or looking to take a break from the never-ending cycle of triple-A behemoths, I would recommend checking out Herdling!
