Steam praise rate first but free masterpiece, players are embarrassed to whore?
Today I happened to open the website that counts Steam’s positive feedback rate to see which game launched this year is the number one in positive feedback, will it be Joker Tag? Will it be Joker? Or will it be Phantom Palu?
It turned out that Joker’s Cards was only ranked second, and the number one in positive reviews was a name I’d never heard of before - Pilgrim’s Progress for Little Sheep.
With over 5,700 reviews and over 99% positive feedback, could it be a hidden masterpiece that I missed?
But when I saw “Free” written prominently on the price, I immediately “got it”. Oh, it must be one of those games that was only 70 or 80 per cent at best, but the developer was kind enough to put it on the shelves for free, so gamers were extra forgiving.
This kind of game is not uncommon in Steam in the past two years, even a small game like “Let’s find the problem” can be released for free and then rushed to the top ten praise list, purely free games with a high rate of positive feedback is not unusual, after all, the developer does not mind me poor, I also do not mind his small workshop.
But an hour later, I just want to smack myself an hour ago two mouths, because this game is really too awesome!
Before I start the encore, I highly recommend that anyone who likes pixel graphics and can take a sideways jumping game to give this game a go, it’s completely free on Steam, can be cleared in an hour, and is definitely worth the 99% positive rating.
Because while there’s not much to spoil about the game’s plot, the gameplay and level design that I’m going to talk about next is the kind of surprise that you can only experience if you play it for yourself, and once you’ve read the details, it’ll more or less diminish your enjoyment of the game, so turn off this article now and then go download the game!
Well since you chose to keep reading, let me tell you why Pilgrimage of the Sheep is a masterpiece.
The character we operate in the game is this little black and white sheep.
At first we only have the ability to jump, that’s right, no attacking, no sprinting, and certainly no cool manoeuvres like sliding and rolling.
All you can do in the beginning is to explore the level and complete some simple platform jumps. The scenery looks like a factory or experimental facility, empty and dilapidated, the echoing sound of stepping on iron plates and the sometimes slightly eerie BGM all hint at something terrible having happened here.
As you explore deeper, you’ll see items and notes that seem to have been left behind by someone who seemed to be trying to explore the place. However the signs will make you worry about the fate of these people, as the items look more like relics anyhow.
The images that follow confirm our fears - a set of white bones appear.
The BGM becomes depressing and eerie, signalling that something bad is about to happen. After travelling through a narrow passage, the first boss battle begins.
Up to this point, you still have no means of attack, and my attempts to stomp on the boss’s head like Mario resulted in a fleeting moment of my own. It’s also an interesting detail to then realise that when restarting a boss fight, you can fast-forward the animation by long-pressing the Y button.
I soon discovered the spikes on both sides of the scene, just hook the boss to the edge of the version, then jump up to avoid it while it’s charging, the boss will hit the spikes by itself, after repeating this three times, the boss is defeated.
It may seem like there’s nothing special about Pilgrimage of the Sheep so far, but don’t worry, the game doesn’t officially begin until here.
After defeating the boss, we unlock the ability to double jump, and that’s the core objective later in the game, to explore the level and then unlock new abilities.
Right after we unlocked the double jump, there was an amazingly well-acted chase, which is one of the game’s biggest highlights, not just a step-by-step, fixed-perspective exploration of the level, but a creative and exciting performance that constantly blows the player away. There are many more surprises to come later in the game.
Although it’s only a pixel game, there are a lot of layered, stunning scenes, like the detailed ruins in the vista during the lift ride:
And this scene with a dead body through the glass, with the flickering lights as the camera pulls away for an eerie atmosphere:
But these are just appetisers, in later levels you’ll unlock the ability to sprint quickly:
The next scene, where you’ve just unlocked this ability, features one of the most creative designs in the entire game.
The camera zooms out and the scene is flat, and as you subconsciously start sprinting, a dynamic electronic music track starts to play along with the high speed forward movement.
If you stop sprinting, the music stops and you start running subconsciously. Along with the high-speed sprinting, the smooth picture, rhythmic music blend together, you seem to become a progress bar on the player, this wonderful experience is difficult to describe in words, we suggest that you put on the headphones, click on this video below, and feel this amazing experience for yourself.
After the next boss battle, we unlocked a flying ability that is very rare in platform jumping games, you can easily jump onto much higher platforms, and you can even freely control the direction while flying.
This ability is unlocked to set up one of the most gorgeous sequences in the game.
After climbing ever upwards and bumping into a ball of energy, we took to the skies like a rocket, and the moment we burst out of the ground, the startling glimpse of the city only appeared for a split second, but after a depressing, spooky subterranean adventure, the beauty of the moment was reminiscent of the lift ride in BioShock: Infinite when you first see the sky city through the window of “ Columbia” from the window of a lift in “BioShock: Infinite”.
Combined with a powerful, blockbuster-like soundtrack, the performance made me forget this was a pixelated game for a moment.
The flight ends at a mysterious place in the sky where you can see the Aurora Borealis.
The design of the final boss battle is even more creative.
In a temple, there’s a shimmering portal in the centre, and four high platforms stand to the left and right.
When we touched the base of one of the platforms, a bright light shot up into the sky and we lit up one of them.
After lighting one of the platforms, the “boss” we had faced three times appeared again, defending us from a deadly cloud of “dark energy”. It was only then that we realised he wasn’t really our enemy.
Next, we had to face a series of attacks from the dark energy, and the former boss was injured to help us block the dark energy that was shot at us again and again.
The goal of this “boss battle” is not to fight the dark energy, but to light up all four platforms.
The best part is that for each platform we light, we have to sacrifice one of our previously acquired abilities. Flying, sprinting, two-step jumping, one by one, these abilities were stripped away. On the way to lighting the last high platform, we’re back to the beginning, with only basic jumps and no special abilities, you’re left with the skill to jump over narrow platforms and run to the final goal.
Once everything was done, the portal was activated and we, in turn, dragged our former foes into it.
This is where the current version of the game all ends, but the question mark after The End on the ending screen seems to signal that there may be more to this journey in the future, perhaps DLC or a new entry, but we don’t know yet.
Pilgrim’s Progress is a game that’s hard to pin down with words, I’ve tried my best to describe its highlights, but words and pictures alone are limited in the information they can convey, as the experience is only complete when accompanied by music and sound effects.
The game’s music and sound effects are not at all like a free indie game. It’s no exaggeration to say that the game’s soundtrack is comparable to that of a 3A game or even a Hollywood blockbuster, not only is it melodic, but the texture is excellent, and the pixelated graphics, which originally had limited expressive power, are extremely impressive when set off by the music. After passing the game, it’s as if you’ve watched a film, an experience that’s extremely rare in platform jumping games.
It’s not just the parts mentioned above that are impressive, but even the opening of the game blew me away, and you can click on the video below to join me in experiencing the game’s extremely high level opening track.
There’s a reason why the game’s music is so high that it doesn’t fit its size. The game’s author, MrSuicideSheep, runs an electronica channel on YouTube with more than 10 million followers, and his team’s previous work has been of extremely high quality, so it can be said that music is his old profession.
What really surprised me was how well Pilgrimage of the Sheep was finished as a game, the whole game is extremely well polished from the graphics, the operation feel, the gameplay design, if not for the process is really too short, it can be said that it is a top platform jumping game, even if it is not compared to similar games that are currently on the top of the list on Steam, and it’s a completely free! game, it’s unbelievable.
If you really want to look for the bones, in addition to the short process, the game places more emphasis on creativity and performance effects, more like a “work of art” direction, the part of the gameplay is relatively weak, and the overall difficulty is on the low side, if you pay more attention to the experience of the gameplay, you may find it not challenging enough. However, for a free-to-play game, these are all acceptable issues, and although there are shortcomings, the longcomings are really long enough to be recommended.
As a work that the author spent three years building, it does get recognition from players, there are a lot of free-to-play games with good reviews, but there really aren’t many that make players feel embarrassed to play for free and want to chase the author to pay for it, and Pilgrim’s Progress for the Little Sheep really deserves that kind of review from players.
“I should pay for this game, something this good shouldn’t be free”
Game name: Sheepy:A Short Adventure
