april 2022 edit: 30 new levels as paid dlc and the base game's price got increased as well.

september 2021 edit: unlimited undo and better movement got patched in, so I flipped the review to a recommendation.

sokoban is not something I ever look forward to, but dark sheep has animals that aren't cats and commodore 64 aesthetics (the best home computer ever), plus some horror vibes, so I had to take a closer look. the game starts innocent enough, just trapping some random sheep, though the cloak is definitely something to be suspicious about, as is the ritual for which you're gathering the sheep.

there are 60 levels in 5 chapters (20 got added after release), unlocked one by one, and each chapter introduces some new mechanics, but it's mostly the standard sokoban fare. white sheep can only move on fresh grass and they have to eat all of it, while black ones don't eat grass, only whatever the red thing is. later there are bridges that disappear after stepping on them once, etc. the aftermath levels only unlock after finishing the original campaign, of course, and 30 additional levels are available in the form of a $1 dlc.

each level has a par but you can go over without repercussions and level skip is an option too. initially you couldn't skip two in a row, but now all of them can be skipped if you want, except the last one. and I love that you can interact with some of the things, like the house on level 3 or a guy later.

while the mouse works in menus, it can't be used for movement, so it's basically keyboard-only, but everything is rebindable. arrows or whatever you set up work fine for movement and backspace is the default for unlimited undo. used to be just the one move to take back, not anymore, and the same patch introduced the ability to hold movement keys and move faster, both hugely improving the experience.

really good presentation if you've ever owned a c64 or like retro stuff, and we have separate volume settings, windowed mode, resolutions, in-game representation of achievements, scoreboard for the best attempts, toggles for crt mode, particles and text display sounds, and hud customization to show/hide various buttons, the move counter and the level number. settings are available while playing as well.

with the latest quality of life improvements it's easily recommendable for sokoban enthusiasts and people bent on killing sheep for the greater good (or bad).

[b]april 2022 edit:[/b] 30 new levels as paid dlc and the base game's price got increased as well. [b]september 2021 edit:[/b] unlimited undo and better movement got patched in, so I flipped the review to a recommendation. sokoban is not something I ever look forward to, but [b]dark sheep[/b] has animals that aren't cats and commodore 64 aesthetics (the best home computer ever), plus some horror vibes, so I had to take a closer look. the game starts innocent enough, just trapping some random sheep, though the cloak is definitely something to be suspicious about, as is the ritual for which you're gathering the sheep. there are [b]60 levels[/b] in 5 chapters (20 got added after release), unlocked one by one, and each chapter introduces some new mechanics, but it's mostly the standard sokoban fare. white sheep can only move on fresh grass and they have to eat all of it, while black ones don't eat grass, only whatever the red thing is. later there are bridges that disappear after stepping on them once, etc. the [b]aftermath[/b] levels only unlock after finishing the original campaign, of course, and [b]30 additional levels are available in the form of a $1 dlc[/b]. each level has a par but you can go over without repercussions and [b]level skip is an option[/b] too. initially you couldn't skip two in a row, but now all of them can be skipped if you want, except the last one. and I love that [b]you can interact with some of the things[/b], like the house on level 3 or a guy later. while the mouse works in menus, it can't be used for movement, so it's basically [b]keyboard-only[/b], but everything is rebindable. arrows or whatever you set up work fine for movement and backspace is the default for [b]unlimited undo[/b]. used to be just the one move to take back, not anymore, and the same patch introduced the ability to hold movement keys and move faster, both hugely improving the experience. really good presentation if you've ever owned a c64 or like retro stuff, and we have separate volume settings, windowed mode, resolutions, in-game representation of achievements, scoreboard for the best attempts, toggles for crt mode, particles and text display sounds, and hud customization to show/hide various buttons, the move counter and the level number. settings are available while playing as well. with the latest quality of life improvements it's [b]easily recommendable for sokoban enthusiasts and people bent on killing sheep for the greater good[/b] (or bad).