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Price: $9.99 on Steam
Blurb: “Catmaze is a fairy metroidvania inspired by Slavic myths. Age-old tales will come to life in the unforgettable adventure of Alesta, a sorceress whose courage guides her through mysterious paths and dark forests in search of the lost road to Nav, the world of the dead.”
Story
Your mom has the black lung, antibiotic-resistant TB, or she just smokes wacky weed when you are not looking. Be that as it may, you opt to not get medicine and instead go on a mission to lure a Domovoi to your house, with grass. As with many platformers, the story is sparse, but I suspect it will pan out as you go along. There is a bit of an intro sequence where your mom moves into an abandoned house with a baby, but waits 3 years to bring her household goods in. Moving right along…
Gameplay
You have the standard arrow-key movement, with jump at the spacebar and the a-key will unleash your one-eyed-monster… a bat named Lad. There is a lot of movement on the screen, so it never feels static. Trees randomly bounce, like the characters, butterflies flit, etc. The background parallax scrolling is nice and sometimes leaves fall from the sky. Randomly you will spot cats on the screen, but when you move, they run away. I am not sure if this is the Domovoi we are hunting as Domovoi can manifest as cats. Turns out you can teach an old dog, erm, bat, new tricks, and you can skill up your ‘familiar’ to make different attacks. Everything feels familiar because of the very standard gameplay, and you should soon be on your way. There are still flaws in the game: I saved and when I went right, I saw the dialogue indicator. Activating it, it waffled about putting down a mushroom that I wasn’t carrying. Levels reload, so if you kill the monster, and exit the screen, and then go back, the monster is alive and kicking. You collect ‘familiars’ as you go on, each with its own quirks. Don’t let them run off, as you will lose them if you do.
Graphics and Sound
This is another game that was made for 640 x 480 displays , even though nobody uses them any more. Backgrounds and tilesets are of a high standard. The characters, however, are not. Single-color clothing, and no shading, etc. I suspect there was someone who did the graphics, who then left the project and someone else less skilled filled in. On one side, you have pixel perfect tiles that would have been proud to be on your Amiga, and the other you have bad anime-ripoff characters and enemies. Every so often, the pixel trees may be replaced with lovely painted versions.
As for the music, you can expect soothing tunes. It does repeat a bit, and is similar throughout. Luckily there are different tunes for different areas, so it does not feel repetitive. Also with the SFX, there seems to be a bit of a mix-and-match. When mushrooms spit their tobacco wads at you, it sounds more like wet farts. Mostly the SFX is on point though.
Conclusion
I really wanted to try this game as it promised Slavic myths. Initially the author promised Slovak myths, and though these overlap, I am on the fence. Especially when they cannot decide on a spelling and you will see Domovoi and Domovoy used interchangeably. Having read up on many Slavic myths as a kid, I expected something completely different. This feels like a studio Ghibli retelling, and some of the graphics are sooo studio Ghibli. See cat statues. Anyway, the game seems to be a standard platformer, with story elements, and feels huge. It really is a maze.
Is it worth the asking price? Sure, it is entertaining and not overly difficult.