There’s no point trying to make pigeons cute. They’re rats with wings. Vermin. That’s what I was always told growing up, and Valiant, Spies in Disguise, and a plethora of bird crap and scavenging coos won’t win me over. Nope. So, why am I entertaining Pigeon: A Love Story? What a silly title. Who cares about pigeons, right? Right…?
In all seriousness, I’m neutral on the bird. I’ve never had an issue with them, and truth be told, I find them quite fascinating. Not enough to enjoy the above-mentioned movies, but to spend my time observing them when waiting for a bus or train in the past, or while sobering up after a night out (the not-so-distant past). In this game from Wristwork, you need to find love in the air through your coos. The accompanying docs say there are millions of pigeons to find, and only 10 minutes in, I’d managed to find over 4,000.
Pigeon: A Love Story is an evolved clicker. Bear with me. There are no launches from a bin or jumping off of Canary Wharf, as when you join the demo, you’re already flying. In this example, you get to fly over a full-scale London, which is quite the treat itself, as it’s easy to get sidetracked in finding locations you know, but also because there are 50 landmarks to find. This isn’t Google Earth, but an interesting, literal, birds-eye view of the city.
So, back to the meat and potatoes, and you’re controlling your lovebird with WASD, with up and down altering the altitude, though this doesn’t allow you to poo on Johnny Public or do a fly-by of the shard. The whole altitude thing is to slow everything down and decipher what it is your fellow pigeon is saying back. All the birds are silhouettes – including yourself, and you fly through an absolute swarm of pigeons flying in all sorts of directions. How are you gonna find your soulmate? Pressing the spacebar or the middle mouse button, you send out a coo radius, and everything in that diameter will turn red and reject you. That’s not negative: they’re all busy washing their hair.
However, the reason for slowing down in Pigeon: A Love Story is to read the dialogue, as amongst the rejections that are simply, “No, thank you”, some of the birds are giving hints on where you should look. Taking this on board, I flew west as they suggested, and despite a red-covered sky, my beau was nowhere in sight. West… I was east. Thank you to the British education system for making me so smart. Flying back where I was supposed to be, I then started to slow down to soak in the views and to register the known landmarks as part of the counter, before sniffing out some skirt.
The reason I say it’s like a clicker is not because of the actual reason a game would be a clicker for clicking (though you repeatedly press space to coo and reach the local birds), but for the increasing goals. I’d connected with a few birds, then, looking at the counter, it was way in the thousands, and the percentages weren’t changing much. On the flipside, it was somewhat relaxing. The stripped-down silhouettes and cityscape are decent, though it’s the Boards of Canada-like soundtrack that really wooed me.
I would like to say the flying, the core part of gameplay, is very free, though it does feel a little rigid as you remain at one height and naturally move at a bird’s pace. The other thing for me was how unreasonable it is to read the comments from the birds. It’s absolutely heaving, and the only way is to slow right down and be quick on the mouse. Fortunately, a lot of the words are repeated, so it’s not like you could get lost and be in the east when told to fly west.
With the above comments taken into consideration, I think this will be one you’ll want to add to your wishlist if you’re up for a chill vibe. The store page does say about leaving as your screensaver. While the music is great, and the flapping of wings is elegant, to be inundated by birds in this manner isn’t as relaxing as one might think. It’s not stressful in the slightest, I must add. With other cities coming up, such as everybody’s favourite, Tokyo, though it’s not quite love just yet, I’m somewhat attracted to Pigeon: A Love Story.
