Review written by Michael Walker

Buy Counter Sheep from Clickgamer

Imagine this: the words "We Want You!" in bright bold letters, right above the picture of a sheep pointing at you, à la Uncle Sam. No, the U.S. Army hasn't started recruiting farmyard animals; it's merely the ad campaign for Counter Sheep, Oz Creations' latest Pocket PC title. A turn-based strategy game, Counter Sheep (CS for short) sets you in the shoes of a sheep flock and pits you against your rival flock. The result? A standard shoot-the-other-team strategy game with the added twist of three dimensions. Is it fun? Oh yeah!

Counter Sheep is simple to understand, even though it may take a while to get the hang of the aiming system. The main premise of the game is that there are two warring sheep flocks, The Woolies and The Flock. You play as one of the teams and try to blow up the other team using whatever weapons you can collect on the battlefield. Now you might be noticing that this game sounds a lot like Snails or Worms, two other strategy games that present similar scenarios, but featuring - instead of sheep - snails and worms, respectively. However, what sets CS apart from the pack is the added difficulty of aiming in three dimensions, not two.

Unlike the side view featured in titles such as Snails, Counter Sheep has an overhead view of sorts. And to throw another variable into the mix, CS has you aiming in three, count 'em, three dimensions. Unfortunately, since the game is viewed from a ¾ view this makes things a bit tough. Aiming your weapons towards the other sheep is no problem (tap and drag a little line in the appropriate direction, making it longer or shorter for the desired power), but it gets a little more difficult once you have to determine height. You have a "Vertical Power Bar" (power meter) that you can adjust to fire higher up in the air. Next to that is the angle meter which shows you the overall angle you will be shooting your projectile at. Then, after everything is set right, you simply press the "F" button ("F" stands for "Fire", not surprisingly). It isn't that difficult, it just has a steep learning curve. Once you get the hang of aiming weapons, though, you still have to learn to move your sheep.

Unlike similar games where you simply have your team's members walk (crawl, etc) where they want to go, Counter Sheep has your sheep cannonballing and parachuting all over the battlefield. I think that this is one of the more unique ideas I've seem lately in a turn-based strategy game. Not being able to move in for the kill, fire away at the enemy and then retreat to safety adds another level of strategy to the game. Or to be more specific, it merely returns the long-lost element of tactical location. Do I want to risk being in open territory for a clear shot of the enemy? Or should I play it safe and probably miss my target sheep.

After you've mastered the basics of weapon firing, it takes almost no time to get the hang of moving around. If you want to move, you simply aim as if you were going to fire a weapon (what took me offhand at first is the fact that the sheep actually do weigh more than your ammo, so keep this in mind as you decide how much power to put into your shot), but then press the "M" button (for "move") instead of "F". If moving is the first thing you do during your turn, you still have the chance to fire.

However, the most amazing part of this feature has not been discussed yet. Besides being a great way to make the game more fun and getting rid of a "move, kill, retreat" tactic, being able to move was added entirely based on user input. So along with being a good addition to the game, the "M" button also stands as a testament to Oz Creations' commitment to its user base. A bunch of people complained that everyone remained stationary in CS and BAM! A couple of days later an update was released allowing movement. And on top of that, Counter Sheep's updates have been weekly, if not more frequent. If that's not dedication, then I don't know what is!

Like most strategy games, Counter Sheep has lots of options to choose from before you start a game. You can have anywhere from one to ten sheep per team, depending on how long you want the game to last (the default is five; I’ve found that to be a nice number). After you’ve picked that, there are ten levels to choose from, or you can play a custom level. There is a tutorial on the web site for making your own levels, and a custom level web site is in the works. For now you can only have one extra level installed, but I was assured by Brendan (the developer) that this will change in future updates. There are also toggles for the wind and “extras”. Disabling “extras” means that you won’t be able to get any new weapons or health restorers during the game. Finally, there is the option to turn on (or off) the AI. If you choose to play against the computer instead of a friend by selecting the “CPU” option, you then get to pick your difficulty level out of four. I found that AI level one gets really easy after a while and four is incredibly hard, with two and three smoothly transitioning between them.

Now we come to the graphics: does CS make the mark? In short: yes! Though there are a few minor annoyances, Counter Sheep does not disappoint visually. The 3D terrains look great and the 16-bit color scheme combined with high-resolution images make things look much better, providing sharp, vibrant colors. Unfortunately, despite the hi-res levels, the weapons and sheep themselves could be a bit more detailed. Though it’s obvious that the developer put a lot of effort into the graphics, it’s just minor details (like watching cannonballs get more and more pixelated as they gain altitude) that bug me. But as far as Pocket PC games go, Counter Sheep looks amazing.

There isn’t really much to say about the sound. The upbeat, almost Gameboy-esque (in style only, not sound quality) tunes are catchy, but after listening to them over and over during the course of a particularly long game they started to annoy me. The sound effects, however, are magnificent. From the sound of a weapon firing to the little “Ooh!” noise a sheep makes when it’s hit, the sound effects are excellent. If you ever want to disable the music or the sound effects, the in-game menu (accessed by tapping on the little TV screen in the bottom-right hand corner of the screen) just has the general option of enabling or disabling sound, and the options screen that you can get to from the main menu lets you individually turn on or off the music and the sound effects.

To give my honest opinion, Counter Sheep is a great game. And it’s quite a steal, too, at only $10. It requires 5 MB of storage space (it will work off of a storage card) and 7 MB of program memory, which is pretty good, especially considering that the game originally required 16 MB of storage. It’s now less than half that! If you have ever enjoyed a turn-based strategy game (or any strategy game at all, for that matter), I would not hesitate to recommend that you try the CS demo.

Pros:

• Impressive 3D graphics

• Amazing developer response and frequent updates

• Surprisingly addictive

• Involves lots of strategy without being overly complex

• Nice transition between the difficulty levels

• Affordable price

Cons:

• Music gets annoying after listening to it during a long game

• The weapons you fire look a little too pixelated

• Relatively steep learning curve

Overall Score: 9/10

Many thanks to Oz Creations for providing us with our review copy.

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