Herdy Gerdy Hands-On

At a recent press event held by Eidos, Core Design--the creator of the popular Tomb Raider series--was on hand, touting a handful of its current PS2 development projects. Foremost on the agenda was Herdy Gerdy, Core's ambitious adventure game.

The game stars Gerdy, a young ragamuffin, as a Core representative put it, who's on a quest to break a magic spell cast upon his father. To do so, Gerdy must win a herding competition held in his homeland, a magical island created--by means of a divine acorn--by seven benevolent elders. Gerdy's society highly values its herders--the island's best herder, as a matter of fact, serves as its presiding citizen. Every four years, a herding competition is held to determine who will rule, and it's this very competition that Gerdy is determined to win. As his father was widely believed to be the island's best herder, there's no doubt that enemies are responsible for his being magically put to sleep. As Gerdy, you'll have to traverse the island, honing your herding skills and enlisting the aid of its many kind inhabitants. Only then can you hope to wrest the acorn of power--the herding competition's prize and the island's magical symbol of leadership--from the hands of the wicked.

Herdy Gerdy's gameplay revolves around the herding of various types of creatures. Though there are 200 types of creatures populating the game's world, only 12 types are fit for herding. The game's depth is in the interaction between the various types of herding species; each type of creature has its own set of likes, dislikes, and fears, and to properly herd the creatures, you have to keep all these factors in mind. If creature A fears creature B, for example, and a herd of B is occupying a large plain that you must cross to get your herd of A into a pen, you'll have to find a way to drive off the herd of B or dupe the herd of A into proceeding. Considering that there are 12 types of herding creatures and more than 30 huge locations in the game, it's easy to imagine this type of action/reaction gameplay getting pretty deep.

The game's most immediately noticeable achievement, though, is its visual splendor. While everything in the game is polygonal in composition, the end result looks as soft, emotive, and fluid as traditional cel animation. Every element in the game--from the largest hill to the smallest individual flower--is individually modeled, and the attention to detail is exquisite. The textures are very seldom repeated, resulting in a world that's varied, organic, and alive. Though what Core had on display was only a ghost of what the game will ultimately look like, it alone was enough to make a strong impression on the crowd present.

The build we played was a bit barren in terms of gameplay. None of the creatures were present, so we were merely able to prance around the lush environments as Gerdy, doing the occasional flip in the air. Core promises, though, that fully playable versions of the game will be made available soon, so we'll keep you posted.

Judging from the games it's shown off recently, Core seems to have an impressively firm grasp on PS2 development. We're very excited to see more of this game, because it is, without a doubt, one of the more interesting PS2 games in the pipes at this point. Herdy Gerdy is scheduled for release this fall.