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i think these kind of games should be what they aimed for the first time. with stygian they obviously bit more than they can chew, but they got the right heart. i will give them a chance
A death in the family reveals a dark secret to solve for the player.
But the player... controls the family cat, Aspen. The fat bastard with extra-sensory perception gets to lick, paw, sleep, observe humans do their private business, hunt vermin and generally lounge about the place.
It's a walking simulator at its heart... but the heart is cat-shaped.
Played the demo for this. First of all it was a long ass demo so you really did get a feel for the game and its characters. They're all very well written, very human. To the point where I feel you could tell them apart just by reading random bits of dialogue.
Watching this mystery unfold from the vantage point of a cat is a novel concept (far as im aware) and more importantly they use it well. The narrative can effortlessly switch between super tense drama to absurd comedic situations like the hide and seek poo puzzle because of the cat framing device.
The gameplay is very simplistic but that tiny layer of abstraction caused by having the commands be cat-like makes the puzzles actually require a little bit of thought. Plus all the cat interactions are super cute in general.
Overall I was really impressed by it. I've never played anything from Cultic games before but I checked this out because of the Steam festival and I'm gonna pick it up when it comes out. Seems like a unique idea executed very well.
Watched a let's play of the demo, and if you're into walking sims where you do cat things while people drone on and on about mundane topics, this is the thing for you. I'm disappointed.
I tried the Demo of this. You play as a fat old orange cat that overhears conversations and apparently has heightened senses and can recall past memories. A Catventure... if you will. There doesn't seem to be much Gameplay aside from following the prescribed path and listening to exposition while moving from room to room. There are a few prescribed tasks that you have to do to move the story along and the cat seems to be really good at listening. After doing that for a while I decided that I don't particularly care about the Mason family problems, whether that's the daughter Addy's speech impediment and issues with her mother, Liam's acting career, self-esteem issues and drinking problem, Shannon's domineering attitude and her husband (who is a "Dr."), Grandma Lorraine's issues with dementia or the troubled marriage of some elder couple. The Laser pointer scene was funny though. Also apparently cats are scared of Cucumbers and you can explore this phenomenon on YouTube, so it's not like I didn't learn anything.
Ran through this game. It's short and ~80% narrative-driven, so the only reason to return to it to possibly catch a 'good' ending, which might be there. There are a few choices one must make throughout which could impact the story.
(I can foresee many will compare this game to Stray. Since I haven't played that game I won't make the comparison, but they probably have a ton of things in common.)
Even though only 20% of the game is gameplay, it's quite interesting gameplay. You're basically doing Cat Things throughout. Bothering people while they're taking a shit, being super-focused on some trinket someone was using, getting people to open doors for you, picking on the one guy around who is allergic to cats, trying to lose the annoying kid, and then there are a few HOLD EVERYTHING, I HAVE TO HUNT THIS CRITTER!-moments which interrupt the story. Most of the gameplay though is about finding where the next part of the story will be told, and getting there. Many detours will be taken, because Mason Manor is full of a cat's greatest enemy - closed doors. There will also come times when you know exactly what to do, but you need to solve the game's moon-logic to get the deed done. Fortunately the game contains an in-built hint system. There are also a few arcade sequences, but Aspen has infinite lives for these, so you just have to keep trying until you succeed. Aspen's 'abilities' as a cat are also factored in - her senses allow her to detect hidden things, but she also has night-vision - though strangely it's only ever used in one part of the game, even though there are plenty of dark rooms later on.
Graphics-wise CotOL goes all in on pixelated graphics - for stationary objects they look very nice and fit the bill. But the moment you're dealing with animated things, the detail level drops. Aspen is the perfect example of this, she's literally a cat-shaped orange blob. Save for her eyes, there are no details visible in her fur.
The people are worse. Though one quickly learns to tell them all apart by their clothing, they all lack vital facial elements - the eyes and mouth, most notably. For a game trying to tell a story full of subtle nuances, skipping on rendering facial expressions is borderline heresy. Fortunately the writing manages to cover most of that up. In a weird twist, almost all the animations are really good - Aspen moves precisely like a cat, despite her blob-like appearance. The humans though have this weird idling animation like a third party is forcing them to breathe. Finally, most close-up shots are horribly pixelated, in a way that graphics artists of the 1980s successfully circumvented decades ago. It's a weird thing to see.
The game's weakest side is the audio. The music is there but unremarkable, SFX are there and mostly centered on Aspen and her cat-like antics, and voice acting is done in this weird budget-saving way that only important parts of the conversation are voiced - one character has a stammer, and you can hear that whenever it kicks in, but nothing else.
Now as to the story - I don't want to spoil anything, but there are still some things that need to be told.
Aspen won't be alive at the end of the game. I just had a feeling that's how it ends.
Something to keep in mind for later.
The story takes place in November 2010 in Connecticut. Bernard Mason, the head of the prestigious Mason-family, passes away in the night, with no one present but the old tabby queen Aspen. As the family arrives for the funeral, a decision must be made; keep the dilapidated mansion, or sell it off?
By far the game's highest point is the cast of characters present at the manor. Lorraine is Bernard's widow who went crazy decades ago, after their eldest son Thomas went missing. She also doubles as a Crazy Cat Lady, who often tries to snatch Aspen. Shannon is the oldest surviving child of Bernard and Lorraine, she is a bitchy busybody who's married to a doctor (who may be giving up on the marriage) and has two children who play key roles in the story. Liam is Shannon's brother who's struggling with an artistic career (and alcoholism), and has brought along his recent (trophy) wife Farah and their 1-year old baby. Finally there's Dawn, the adopted technogeek daughter of Bernard and Lorraine... but mostly Bernard. The manor has two on staff: Nunez the maid and Murray the carpenter. Both have their respective backgrounds which are revealed mostly by happenstance. Finally there's the sleazy lawyer who's trying to sell the house, and an old friend of Bernard's, Professor Karl Henninger.
And BOY, do the Masons have issues. Playing this game is like watching family therapy. I think I did a good job of catching all the conversations in the game, but there were still a few lingering questions regarding the plot and story. For example the game literally opens on Bernard's dying words about how something missing/lost was in the house the whole time, hinting at a bigger mystery. I never found an explanation for that one. There are also a few conversations which are only partially revealed at the start, only for them to be repeated in full later in the game, and then proper context is revealed. The biggest example of these is the flashback with young Nunez.
The problem is... there's not really any big mystery here. It's mostly a retelling of Bernard's life. The story purposefully hints at bigger, mysterious things, but they just aren't there. There's plenty of people drama and skeletons in the closet, though. Misleading players like that is not cool for a video game to do, especially one as story-centric as this one. It does go into strange places, so it's not dull or uninteresting.
Only read the spoiler below if you read the spoiler above.
and I've realized I've saved several lives as Aspen, and then the game pulls an out-of-the-blue event which threatens Aspen's life. While the cat survives the event, it's the aftermath where things get ambiguous. The endgame is Aspen walking around the house, seeing how things worked out for everyone. But at the same time you can see the signs... something's not right with her. The game ends on Aspen going to sleep in her basket, for what may be the last time. But I couldn't say for sure, it's up for interpretation.
This cat-walking simulator is purposefully designed to trigger a certain emotional response from players, while masquerading as something else. I tend not to like those games and to avoid them. Other people probably feel the same. That's the reason I'm writing this mini-review, to warn people: If you're a cat-lover like me, if you have an old cat around you like I do, you may want to skip this one, it may not be worth it.
EDIT: Added a point I forgot to mention, makes this a bit more professional in the process.
Still playing it, I like it because we've had cats all my life and they are like this.
Thought when I started I thought the dialogs sounded really really stilted (do hoo-mans really talk like this?) but it kind of gets better later on.
Fairly relaxing and also creepy here and there, not sure if the "action sequences" really needed to be there though.
At the same time I don't feel tricked. None of the false leads were red herrings, just required a wholly new interpretation as the story progresses. Best example may be the "anchuent prophecy" on the stone tablet. As you admire your handiwork during the epilog, the on screen text demonstrates that it was all true, every word of it, just probably not in ways you might have expected.
Also does a good job showing how a cat or maybe pets in general can really help the family cohesion. Who could keep arguing with one another when suddenly the beloved kitty is sick? Only truly bad people, that's who.
Also I thought I knew what the thing hidden in the house that Bernard mentioned with his dying breath could have been.
It's probably the hidden deed to his plot of land in the cryptically named Death Valley. If I understand right, that's where he planned to build a community for the poor and the downtrodden. His own personal promised land from his vision, his Aaru. Apparently it all fell apart between his son Thomas disappearing while looking for him, and finding out about and adopting illegitimate daughter Dawn whose mother died from aggressive cancer. Therefore his lifelong dream never became a reality, and as he lies dying he laments the wasted potential of the barren land that he still owned.
Steam shows playtime 6.5 hours, although I have to admit that I really took my time so I wouldn't miss anything.
Game takes place over three days (chapters basically) and at first I somehow assumed it would be only one.
Also I thought I knew what the thing hidden in the house that Bernard mentioned with his dying breath could have been.
It's probably the hidden deed to his plot of land in the cryptically named Death Valley. If I understand right, that's where he planned to build a community for the poor and the downtrodden. His own personal promised land from his vision, his Aaru. Apparently it all fell apart between his son Thomas disappearing while looking for him, and finding out about and adopting illegitimate daughter Dawn whose mother died from aggressive cancer. Therefore his lifelong dream never became a reality, and as he lies dying he laments the wasted potential of the barren land that he still owned.
No, that's not it, but you may have hit close to the real answer.
He hid the deed himself in the casket that is found after Aspen is pulled out of the floor. Why he hid it there is a mystery in and of itself, but it doesn't justify his end-life outburst.
BUT... what it may possibly tell us, is that the heart and soul of 'Aaru', the place that he planned to build out in Death Valley - that was always in the Mason Manor the whole time. That the commune only ever worked under that roof, and falls apart the moment people leave its shelter. The ending supports this, see how the place is full of life after Aspen has helped everyone in the family (and screwed over the outsiders). It may not be precisely what Bernard was hoping for, but it's a damn sight better than what it was before.
Are they making fun of McComb?
