Herdy Gerdy

"Herdy Gerdy aims high and delivers little, easily placing it on the list of the PS2's worst games."

General
Usually I try to compose my thoughts in an eloquent fashion. However, I bought a game that made me feel so cheated that I just need to get this out. That game is Eidos and Core's Herdy Gerdy for the PS2. At the same time that I bought Herdy Gerdy, I also picked up a copy of Giants Citizen Kabuto. Both Herdy Gerdy and Giants have one thing in common: poor graphical presentation. However, whereas Giants is a brilliant game whose graphic problems don't subtract from its gameplay, Herdy Gerdy is not.

Like many other gamers, I have been anxiously awaiting Herdy Gerdy's release. The promise of a game with cinematic, cartoon-like quality was entirely endearing. But once I began playing the game, no amount of marketing or advertising hype could make up for its shortfalls. Herdy Gerdy is a dull, hazy looking game with horrendous camera, frame rate, and design problems. This game doesn't begin to make the grade as a PS2 game. Worse yet, because of these problems, Herdy Gerdy is entirely frustrating to play. If Herdy Gerdy were a PS1 game (which is what it looks like), I'd still recommend that potential buyers avoid it.

After a full weekend of attempting to glean a single ounce of fun from Herdy Gerdy, I returned the game and got my money back. I suggest to all who are thinking about buying this game that you think twice. Eidos and Core pulled a fast one with Herdy Gerdy. They obviously do not understand how to program the PS2 and their incompetence shows in every frame of screen time. The box copy says that Herdy Gerdy is a beautiful game with lush environments that are alive and with animation that sets new standards for the PS2. This is just plain B.S. Herdy Gerdy looks bad, plays poorly, and earns my first stinker of 2002 award.

Gameplay
Herdy Gerdy's gameplay sounds promising. Like Sheep and Lemmings, you must herd various creatures into pens while avoiding Grumps (monsters who will eat your creatures) and obstacles (such as water, cliffs, etc. that will kill your creatures) Each type of creature requires different herding skills and reacts to obstacles in unpredictable ways. To progress in the game, you must herd a specified number of creatures into their various pens. While you are accomplishing this, there is also a story/adventure going on whereby you must talk to various people, obtain equipment, and solve puzzles.

What we have here is a great recipe for a hybrid Platform/Adventure/RPG game. Unfortunately, it is in the execution that Herdy Gerdy falls flat on its face.

Objectives are unclear and misleading. When you talk to other characters, their names are not shown. Thus, when you're told to ''go and see so-and-so'' (which often happens) you have no idea who to go and see. Gerdy often responds differently to the same environmental conditions when encountered in different levels. Fall into one stream and Gerdy dies. Fall into another and its a secret area where Gerdy can collect bell tokens. It doesn't matter how low or how high the drop, the result is always a crap shoot. Oddly enough, this ''crap shoot'' approach caries forward to just about every other object encountered. For example, you can jump over one fence, but not another in a different location (even though it has the same look and height). Sometimes non-player characters ask you to do things you cannot do. For example, early on in the game a girl on a swing wishes ''someone would give her a push''. You can try for hours, but there is no way to help her.

The game's map (which you must use frequently) is difficult to read and cannot be scrolled or rotated. (You can move and rotate Gerdy, but not the map.) Both Gerdy and non-player characters are shown on the map as yellow dots. If you zoom in far enough, you can tell that Gerdy's dot is a star while other's are circles. When zoomed at normal viewing distance, it is impossible to tell which dot is Gerdy's and therefore difficult to place your location. Talking to characters and accomplishing tasks does not highlight associated areas on the map so you have no idea who you've talked to or what tasks still need to be done.

Herdy Gerdy's marketing material stresses the freedom players are given to interact with the game's environment. While this may have been Core's design goal, the resulting product certainly doesn't show it. There is no in-game save feature and each level re-sets when you leave it. Furthering this problem is that the game is designed so that you must leave and re-enter levels. The end result is a game world that feels entirely contrived and that forces you to re-do your actions. Likewise, collecting items and herding creatures only to re-do all your work because one creature falls in a stream, is a frustrating experience.

Upping the frustration factor is the game's extremely poor camera and controls. Gerdy just won't go where you want him to go and regardless of where he ends up, the camera never follows. Controls are loose and sloppy. Jumping is a chore because Gerdy never seems to jump quite high enough for the task at hand. Stopping is problematic because Gerdy always comes to a skidding halt. (This is supposed to make Gerdy more cartoon like, but instead it just makes him harder to control.) Move even a single footstep in any direction and Gerdy skids. The sheer effort required to control Gerdy is unnecessary and strips away most of the game's fun.

The camera is so awful that it deserves special mention. Herdy Gerdy has the worst camera I've ever seen in a video game. The camera locks up continuously on background objects, on foreground objects, and seemingly for no reason at all. Stand too close to a tree, the camera locks up. Move near a rock, the camera locks up. Walk down a path or stream, the camera locks up. Stand in the middle of a field with nothing around you and the camera locks up. When you combine this with the fact that the camera can be moved left and right, but not up and down, you have an exasperating chore on your hands.

For some unknown reason, the camera turns and zooms of its own accord (even when Gerdy is standing still). Likewise, every so often the camera can't decide where it wants to go and thus begins an epileptic seizure shaking wildly. This always seems to happen at the most importune of moments. Try walking down a narrow path or jumping from platform to platform and the camera will most certainly throw you off a cliff or into the water. It is almost impossible to walk a straight line in Herdy Gerdy. While playing, I spent the majority of my time re-adjusting the camera to avoid cheap, camera-inflicted deaths.

Graphics
If the control and camera issues weren't enough to ruin Herdy Gerdy, the graphics finish the job. This game is butt ugly. More than one buyer has been lulled by the game's glowing praise of itself on the box cover as evidenced by the following:

''For the record, the critical praise found on the back of the game box is spot on. It is unfortunate that many past reviewers on VideoGameReview.com have been so harsh in this area, but the game is honestly a technical achievement and a sight to behold.''

Say what? This isn't the Herdy Gerdy game that I bought.

Let's deal with the positives first. The levels are huge. Uh. Um. Uh. Um.... The levels are huge. That's it. From here it's all downhill baby.

For starters, while the levels may be huge, they look awful and take forever to load. (And by forever, I do mean forever.) When the game first loaded, I thought it had crashed my PS2. The load meter stuttered and stopped, stuttered and stopped, and then it just stopped. I waited a long while and almost re-booted the PS2 when suddenly the meter started going again. When the level finally appeared, I was greeted by dull, hazy colors, incredibly blurry, low resolution textures, fogging, aliasing (jagged edges), and popup (scenery and background items that suddenly appear out of nowhere as you get close to them). Honestly, my first reaction was ''I waited for this?'' Then I started to actually play the game and things got worse.

The frame rate in Herdy Gerdy never gets above 15 to 20 frames per second. The only consistent thing about it is that it is consistently inconsistent. Because of this, the animation looks terrible. Even the simple act of panning the camera causes the game to stutter.

Just why the frame rate is so bad is beyond anything I can reason. There is nothing presented in Herdy Gerdy that merits the frame rate problems. The backgrounds are entirely static. There are no lighting, shading, or other real-time effects. The only things that move are Gerdy (whose movements are very simple) and the odd group of creatures that Gerdy runs into. There are occasional wildlife (rabbits, butterflies, and cows), but these are so few and far between that they should pose no great load to the CPU. There are many games on the PS2 (Ico, for example) that have an insanely greater level of graphic detail, real-time lighting and effects, and animation and that are not plagued by the frame rate issues that Herdy Gerdy has. The simple fact of the matter is that it appears Core does not understand how to optimize a game on the PS2.

If the frame rate didn't affect game play, I could overlook it, but it does affect Herdy Gerdy's gameplay in a big way. It is impossible to obtain fluid motion and animation when the frame rate fluctuates as continuously as Herdy Gerdy's does. When you combine the frame rate with the game's poor camera, Herdy Gerdy becomes a laborious task to play. It is difficult to gage jumps, turn around, or do anything that requires instant responses.

If the game looked good, one could understand the performance trade-offs, but Herdy Gerdy doesn't look good. In fact, there is a good case to be made that Herdy Gerdy is one of the worst looking games on the PS2. If I didn't know better, I would have thought that Herdy Gerdy was a PS1 game - and a bad looking one at that. Textures are few and of very poor quality. The color palette has very few colors. The entire game has a dull look with very little contrast. There are no shading, particle, or other affects. Even stand-out items such as speech bubbles and bell tokens appear non-descript and are somewhat pixilated. I love Disney, Pixar, and Claymation, but Herdy Gerdy doesn't come remotely close to any of these cartoon styles.

With the exception of Gerdy, characters are animated very poorly. Body movements are stiff and there are almost no facial movements at all. Even Gerdy's animations are very simplistic. Gerdy is both primitive and immediately dislikeable. That's because instead of animating a little boy, Core gave Gerdy the body motions of a chimpanzee. Yup. Gerdy bumbles around like an ape. If he actually were an ape, this would be fine, but he isn't, he's a little boy. While running, things get a little better. Still, to debunk another quote from the box cover ''the best animation yet seen on the PlayStation 2'' isn't in Herdy Gerdy (It's in Ico) and what is in Herdy Gerdy is barely passable at its best.

Topping off the list of graphical faults are occasional seams. They don't occur too frequently, but when they do, they are a rather abrupt stain on an already soiled package.

This game has every graphic flaw in the book. I don't understand how Eidos and Core thought they'd get away with publishing this game as it is. Overstating the truth is one thing, but out-and-out lying is another. The marketing material for Herdy Gerdy crosses way over this line. I don't just feel as though I bought a bad game, I feel that Eidos lied. This makes me not want to buy Eidos games ever again.

Sound
One of the only saving graces in Herdy Gerdy is the music - it's actually quite good. With a mixture of symphonic and orchestral music, the style nails the cartoon feel of old Warner Brothers cartoons dead on. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the character voices. Gerdy sounds like a whiny six year old when he appears to be about twelve to fourteen. Other voices are hit and miss. Some are well matched while others are misplaced (such as the little girl who says ''maybe I'll see you around sometime'' - the delivery is sophisticated and sexy rather than that of a young girl). The quality of the voice recording is also questionable, featuring occasional background sampling noise. Due to the ample space available on DVD media, you'd expect the voices to be pristine, but they aren't and this is yet another quality assurance mystery. Lastly, the environmental sounds are well done. Cows moo. Water trickles. Other background sounds (such as windmills, birds, etc.) are well represented. It's a shame that this same level of quality was not applied to the rest of the game.

Summary
There is an expression that says ''the Devil is in the details''. This is certainly the case with Herdy Gerdy. While a wonderful concept in principle, Herdy Gerdy is marred by extremely poor execution. The game simply fails to meet even the minimal standards of quality expected of a PS2 game. If Eidos and Core hadn't promised so much, Herdy Gerdy's shortcomings would make for a mediocre game at best. But because Herdy Gerdy aims high and delivers nothing, it easily makes it onto the list of the PS2's worst games. Add to this a marketing campaign that is so misleading as to seem fraudulent and you have a game that many gamers are going to despise. I returned my copy. I'd advise other gamers to stay well clear of this awful game.

If you are looking for a game that is a fairy tale with storytelling, gameplay, animation, and artistic presentation like no other, try Ico. On PS2, Ico has no peers. It is the game that sets the standard for the system. If you are looking for a game with more of a cartoon style, try the outstanding Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil. Finally, if you like games with adult humor and varied gameplay, try Giants Citizen Kabuto. While Giants doesn't have the flashiest graphics on the PS2, its humor will have you in stitches and its varied gameplay is an unexpected treat.

Afterthoughts
Undoubtedly, Herdy Gerdy is going to create quite a division amongst gamers. It is certainly not pleasant to knock a game that attempts such originality and innovation. Views are therefore going to be strongly polarized between those willing to look Herdy's pitfalls and those (like myself) that think the game contains too many quality defects to be worth playing.

Herdy Gerdy has wonderfully innovative ideas that are very poorly realized. While the levels are gigantic and very artistic, things like the frame rate are so poor that it's hard to appreciate these merits. Throw in the myriad of other problems encountered (such as the atrocious camera, poor design decisions, and low resolution graphics) and you have a game that is far from a joy to play. Indeed, the developers failed to deliver on many advertised features and thus in addition to the quality problems, I also feel cheated. This most definitely knocks Herdy Gerdy down several more notches in my book.

I did play Herdy Gerdy for approximately ten hours. This seems a reasonable time to get into the game. If a game doesn't start playing well until after the ten hour mark, then I would say this is yet another serious quality problem and one that is likely to turn off many gamers.

I rated Herdy Gerdy poorly because the game makes the PlayStation 2 look and play badly. I simply can't get past the frame rate, camera, and graphical issues that were left in the game. Ultimately, these problems take most of the game's potential fun away. While I would agree that Herdy Gerdy is an original and innovative title, it still fails horribly in execution. Thus, I stand by my recommendation that Herdy Gerdy should be avoided. In light of the fact that there are at least two outstandingly innovative PS2 titles well above Herdy in execution (Ico and Res), and that there are a number of other fine games (Final Fantasy X, Metal Gear Solid 2, Klonoa 2, Balder's Gate, Draken The Ancients, Red Faction), I would recommend that people buy these games long before purchasing Herdy Gerdy. After that, sure, take a chance and buy a used copy. (Don't pay full retail as there are likely to be many returned copies of Herdy Gerdy laying about). If what you get is lesser in quality than much of the PlayStation 2's software library, you can't say that you weren't warned.

Reviewer's Score: 1/10, Originally Posted: 03/13/02, Updated 03/13/02