The Flock [official site] is one of the oddest game in development. It’s an online FPS with the art style of a horror adventure and set far in the future, in which you play as a member of the titular pack and fight against others to find a light artifact that transforms you into a slow-moving and vulnerable creature but acts as a deadly weapon. If you reach it and transform, your opponents have to sneak up on you, use their ability to turn to stone when standing still to become immune to the artifact’s power, and try to take it from you. In other words, other players become jump-scares in the dark maps.

There’s a new trailer below and we now know the release date is August 21st.

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We’ve nodded approvingly a few times over the years at The Flock [official site], a multiplayer FPS where monsters yearn to hold a glowing artifact that transforms them and gives them the power to kill their misshapen former brethern. The version I played back in 2013 was fun, but I wondered how much longevity it’d have. Turns out, a limited amount – by design. As people play the game, they will contribute to it being taken permanently offline.

Every time someone dies, the game’s death will tick nearer. When the death counter hits its target, first the game will be pulled from sale then, following a “climactic finale”, it will turn off. Huh!

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Remember The Flock? It’s that asymmetric multiplayer thriller based around shining light on monsters – and now it’s got a closed alpha and a new trailer.

As per the new trailer the game starts with three to five players roaming the map as monstrous zombie creatures. The first person to reach the light source lantern thing (the technical term is Light Artifact) becomes the Carrier.

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The Flock has one of those trailers that contains almost no information about the game but I forgive it for two reasons: the artwork is evocative and strange, and the extended version of the video includes a section at the end in which the lead designer explains all. The Flock are beasties that look a bit like broken skellingtons with u-bends as necks, as seen in the picture above. Rather than running around and shooting at the creepy blighters, players will actually be them. The first little flocker to find the solar capsule, which casts a beacon of light into the darkness, will transform into The Carrier. At this point The Flock work together to murderise the poor sod but the light from the capsule kills them. Intriguing.

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