Herdling is a serene and adorable way to unwind

Herdling is a slow game about herding fuzzy animals through a vibrant natural world. That may not sound particularly exciting, but I found it to be a perfect game to unwind with after a stressful day.

In Herdling, you play as a kid who makes friends with and shepherds large fluffy creatures called Calicorns, which kind of look like a mix of a sheep and a woolly mammoth. The Calicorns are adorable, with cute snorts and head shakes that make them feel like real animals. You’ll even get opportunities to play fetch, and yes, you can pet the Calicorns. You can also name your furry friends, and the game even suggests ideas, which is why my flock have charming names like “Dilruba” (in my head, I called him “Dil”), “Fardar,” and “Toe.”

You guide the herd with a magical stick. With the push of a trigger, you’ll see a small bright spot ahead of you that the herd will follow. The Calicorns generally do a good job staying grouped up and following your directions, so much of the game is walking behind them and guiding them through scenic locales like a forest and a mountain range. When you direct the herd to walk over rare spots of colorful flowers, the Calicorns essentially get a boost you can use to activate a stampede, which is useful for running across open landscapes or climbing up slippery slopes.

Most of the time, walking with the herd is quite peaceful. I regularly found my eyes wandering away from the path to take in the game’s scenery as the Calicorns ambled toward where I wanted them to go. The ambient, Breath of the Wild-like soundtrack helps create the calming atmosphere. It all made Herdling great to unwind with after a hectic day in real life.

But there are some more tense moments too, like when you have to avoid the attention of some giant birds or keep your Calicorns from wandering onto thin ice. These moments require patience so that you can thoughtfully get the herd through trouble, and I was always relieved when I got my Calicorns out of stressful spots. (If you don’t want to worry about putting your Calicorns in danger, the game has a setting to make them immortal.)

If reading all of this makes Herdling sound a little bit like the indie classic Journey but with furry animals, well, it kind of is. There are a lot of similar beats between the two games. That’s not a bad thing, though; the varied locations and tones made Journey memorable even though it’s a short game. There are similarly some standout moments in Herdling, and I had really bonded with my Calicorn crew by the end of our three-hour adventure together. I thought that was just the right length, but maybe I’ll boot up my save down the line to go on another nice walk with Dil and flock — or just to play fetch again.

^{Herdling is available now on Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation, and Xbox.}