Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
Today we have a treat for all you folks. We
get to talk about Ship’s Cat, a game about playing as a cat on a ship trying to
get rid of the rodent infestation. This one is a bit of an experience, so
buckle up and let’s get exploring.
The basic premise of Ship’s Cat is exactly
what it says on the tin: you’re a cat on a ship. You’ve been brought on board
to take care of the rodents, and for some reason all the crewmates treat you
like a moderately functional human who can understand them and can freely open
doors and interact with things. Luckily you actually can. You can bap the mice on the head, pick them up and throw them in the pool, listen to some
vacationers talk about some really funny stuff, put out fires (literally and
figuratively), do some golf, try on hats, get distracted by lasers, all great
cat things!
Alright, I have to admit that the game
gets…silly, I suppose is the best way to describe it. If you’re anticipating a
chill, relaxed game with not much going on, you’d be somewhat right for only
the first half the game at best. There have only been three times in my life
where I had to pause a game to just think for five minutes about what just
happened, and one of those times was the ending sequence for Ship’s Cat. I
won’t spoil it if you’re interested in discovering it, but hoh boy I was not
expecting that.
In terms of gameplay, I’m going to have to
say it’s a combination of slapping and throwing mice, trying to maneuver your
cat to face the right way to jump up or down a ledge, and trying really hard
not to hit a glitch. Good lord the amount of times I tried jumping on a shelf
only to end up outside the ship and falling into the void below. Or getting
stuck in the environment. Or using a special attack on the mice and being
slingshot outside bounds, or dying and reloading only to have my cat
constantly drift in one direction even if it’s through walls. Yeah, there’s a
lot of issues that need some fixing here.
So, the main idea is that you explore the
ship, taking out mice and dealing with problems as they occur. Some of this is
hitting buttons, some is finding the path you need to take to proceed to the
next area. All of it has something to do with the mice and their boss. Then it
gets weird. Very weird. And suddenly you have special moves. And so do the mice. Most of the time though a good whack or two will solve your problems,
unless your problems are figuring out what you’re supposed to do in areas where
you aren’t given much direction. Pro tip, usually fighting isn’t actually the
answer.
I’m really torn with Ship’s Cat, because on
the one hand, it’s cooky and I loved it. On the other hand, it’s so full of
glitches I can’t rightly call it a well put together game. The only saving
grace is that the autosave makes plenty of backups when you need them.
Unfortunately, loading a save may have the unfortunate side effect of making
you drift in one direction constantly and through walls. Even while trying to
open a door. Good news is, if you close the game and boot it back up it’ll be
back to working normally. Also be wary of how you jump up to things, because
sometimes you get pushed through the walls and then need to reload then as
well.
On a more positive note, the game is weirdly fun despite all this, and the dialogue between passengers in the background can be pretty funny. Between a lady explaining what she uses her extra long nails for, and a guy in the kitchen inappropriately trying to cook eggs, it had some really hilarious dialogue. Just be prepared for everything voiced to be AI voicechat style, although I honestly found this to be more amusing than having actual real voices, since it's "ye olde" robotic voice that's clearly fake, and not any of the newer "sounds human" fake. Really this is something you play for the laughs, not something you're serious about, which we really need to see more of.
Overall, I have to say I really liked Ship's Cat, despite being riddled with issues. If we ignore the clipping through walls and objects, the occasional weird drift while trying to open a door after dying, and some weird attack animations slingshotting you into the nether, Ship's Cat is really enjoyable, and for a good price. Honestly, for a one man dev I think this is a really fun project and I gotta hand it to them for making such an entertaining piece. It might not be perfect, but it's fun to laugh about in a good way. Definitely take a look into this if you're interested in a short but weird and funny romp through a ship and some mutant mice.
Score: 7 / 10
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