What happens when you set about trying to make a simple math based puzzle game about sheep? Well, if you are Victor Solodivov and Denis Novikov you take that little idea and infuse it with enough madness to make the Mad Hatter think twice about inviting you over for tea. Divide by Sheep is the most refreshing puzzle game that I’ve had the chance to play in sometime, and there is a good chance this one will show up again on some end of the year lists.
What makes Divide by Sheep special is in how the team went about creating a math based puzzle game by infusing enough gore and insanity to make any old-school FPS think twice about hanging out with this game. The game has a story, a rarity in itself, that sees the Grim Reaper trying to make friends with some cute and cuddly sheep. As you can imagine, things don’t quite go as planned as our depressed Reaper can only make friends with those that have died. This leads him to flooding the land to kill, err.. make some sheepy friends.
This does a pretty great job of setting up the gameplay and gives you some incentive to do what you are doing. Hell, it does a better job at fleshing out (ha!) a story than some AAA games have in recent memory. As the world is flooded, your job is to rescue the sheep that have now made their way onto a number of islands. These islands are set to grids and you click and drag to have each island of sheep jump to another island until you reach the rescue boat.
Divide by Sheep is incredibly simple to pick up and play and can lead one to wonder what all the fuss is all about. Don’t worry though, as things quickly ramp up as the game throws a number of obstacles to keep your sheep from making their escape to safety. You won’t be able to just toss sheep willy nilly onto your boat, as the game gives you three target numbers to rescue per stage in a certain order. You may have to get three sheep, followed by a single sheep, and finish with five sheep onto the boat in said order to advance.
This is where the math really comes into play. Since two sheep can’t occupy the same grid space, you will have to plan out your moves by using some basic math skills. As opposed to being a logic based puzzle game, Divide by Sheep is all about math, but you won’t ever feel like it’s forced upon you. The game is all about modifying numbers on the fly and you’ll be pulling your hair out a lot of the time, but it isn’t frustrating like other puzzle games because you know there is a solution right there in front of you. Divide by Sheep is a lot of fun, but also a game that makes me feel a bit smarter every time I finish playing.
The obstacles that the game throws at you also serve to keep the game from getting stale at any point. Once you figure out the basics with moving sheep around and practicing basic math skills, the game will add wolves to the mix that you will also have to move around. As you can imagine these two groups don’t get along and the wolves will eat sheep that they come across. Once fattened up these wolves won’t be able to move and will become obstacles themselves, or can help by thinning numbers for rescue. Add in laser gates that will literally divide your sheep in twain, TNT islands that explode when there is no weight on them, fences that block your path, pigs that slip and slide around, and so much more, Divide by Sheep has enough content to keep you going for a very long time.
Not only that, but it looks like more worlds are coming soon to the already dense 120 puzzles across for worlds. The graphics are cute and charming with lots on fun little animations all over the place. This obscures the dark nature of the game and there are even parental controls in the options menus for the kiddies out there. You’ll be hard pressed to not to fall in love with this marvelously macabre math based puzzle game. For less than five-bucks you can’t go wrong with Divide by Sheep.
*A copy was provided for this review*
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