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Here kitty kitty...

  • Liberty
  • 11/02/2014 02:31 AM
  • 1640 views
All that seems to be missing is the cat...


Stray Cat Crossing



Skip to the 30:00 mark for my rundown (or watch the whole thing... :D )


Stray Cat Crossing is very much what I like to see when I play a demo - it's very polished, very interesting and stays with you after playing. It made me interested in playing the full game and left an impression on me. This is what a good demo should do.

Granted, there are some things that required a little... more. The demo itself is rather short, clocking in at about half an hour, and it's pretty shallow when it comes to gameplay. The whole game is, essentially, a bunch of fetch quests with a few small puzzles thrown in to distract you. Not necessarily a bad thing, considering this is basically just a taste-test.

There are a few little bugs which will need to be killed off - being able to walk on one of the walls, being able to trigger the heart-retrieval again and clipping through some of the jumps in the ending - but overall gameplay is pretty good.

That's not to say it can't get better. There were items that weren't of real use (that I could find) and some bits that seemed to be puzzles were just flavour which led to a little confusion. That said, it was fun to play which is really what a game should aim for, and the confusion didn't last long enough to frustrate which is always a good thing for both player and developer!

The story, while well-written, also comes across as a little shallow. Now, it's not necessarily a bad thing. Indeed, I enjoyed the freshness of the story and characters and of course a demo isn't going to show everything the full game has to offer. The story, as it stands, works well for a demo - it gives you a good taste of what to expect in the full game without divulging everything about it.

The graphics are wonderful. All are pixel-based (bar the movies) and all are lovingly crafted. You can tell a lot of work went into them. Everything fit perfectly together - which is understandable as it's all custom. I quite enjoyed that aspect of the game, especially the portraits for the characters.

The use of sound was well done, though some were a bit soft. Music was great in helping to create the atmosphere and while it's not going to stick in your head after the game is over, it fits very well with the game itself.

Atmosphere is a mixed bag - the game is described as a Horror/Puzzle/Adventure and while there are aspects of Horror within the game, it didn't come off as scary. Creepy, however, it does do well and as I say in the video above, creepily cute (or cupily creet) really fits the game as a description. You won't be hugging your pillow in terror because you'll be too busy daaaw-ing over the cuteness of everything in the game. Which is definitely NOT a bad thing.

All told, this was a really enjoyable demo to try and it will stick in my memory as a game I want to play when the full game is released. And that is what a demo should do.

Rated: Cupily Creet
Well worth the play, if only to meet the camera boy (who I thought was a girl... >.< )

Posts

Pages: 1
jurlo
560
11/02/2014 05:58 PM
wow! a review from liberty? we're honored haha
we loved watching your let's play! we'll definitely keep your criticisms in mind for the full game.
and thanks for finding the bugs! the demo was a bit rushed, so we never got any beta testers... we'll try to push out a fixed version as soon as possible :>
Pages: 1