Find Matt's Cats

Cats live in peaceful, thriving utopias, while dogs live in industrial hellscapes and act as violent invaders.

What did Matt Roszak mean by this?

It took Matt 17 years, but he finally made another game where I can genocide cats.

My Playtime: 42.8h (100% achievement, finished the game 3 times)

• Hard difficulty (+ all collectibles): 27:09:52
• Normal difficulty: 10:42:54
• Easy difficulty: 4:24:05

Grindy Achievement(s): No.
Optional Achievement(s): Yes (~83 achievements).
Difficult Achievement(s): No.

Intro

Find Matt's Cats is a hidden object game with some spot the difference levels in it. It has 252 levels spread between 12 levels and 3 difficulties. Each difficulty has 84 levels, but the levels have their own set of objects to find, making them effectively become a different level with similar maps.

Pros:
- 84*3 levels
- Plenty of collectibles to find
- Hints in case you are stuck
- A lot of customization options, some allowing you to play the game easier

Cons:
- Performance issues when you open too many levels in one session
- Location hint tends not to be helpful on large maps
- Some objects are hidden too much in the hard difficulty, to the point you can barely recognize the object

Specs
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, 16GB RAM, AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT

Should you buy this game?

If you enjoy hidden object games, you definitely have to buy this game. It's a high-quality one with so much content.

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In-Depth Review

Story

The story set in an alternate universe of Epic Battle Fantasy, starring the characters from that game, where they make a video game. Yes, this game is the game that they made, and you're acting as their beta tester. Dialogues cover various topics: level design, characters' personalities, their relationship, piracy stance, and many others. It feels as if these characters represent the actual developers, and you are reading their commentary.

The dialogues that you get near the end of the game will vary based on your previous interaction with the characters. The game has no story, and dialogues are mostly constrained within one cutscene, although some secrets are hidden behind these dialogues. Since this is a hidden object game, I don't feel like there is any reason for leaving that information out just because you chose the wrong choice.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3686560464

The Game

Hidden Object
Despite the game's name, this is a hidden object game, not a hidden cats game. There might be a lot of cats in each level, but they are not the only ones that you need to find. The objects that you need to find will be listed at the bottom of the screen. The number will increase on harder difficulties, and in all difficulties except easy, some objects will only be visible if you either click on other objects or use key items on another object to unlock them.

The extra interactions included in the harder difficulty encourage you to click everything. It wasn't obvious which objects are clickable—some of them will wiggle slightly from time to time, but others will stand still. Moreover, the harder difficulty also has objects hidden in ridiculous spots. There was even one occasion where I had to find an animal, and I could only see a small portion of its neck. Furthermore, the numerous objects that you need to find also make it time-consuming to find them one by one, especially when the map becomes too large on later levels. That being said, all objects are interactable, giving you another reason to click on everything. The animals, in particular, give strange noises when you click on them.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3693695368

Honestly, I prefer smaller maps. The maps in the first half are large enough for me to find everything in one go, although I would prefer to find fewer objects in a level, so I don't have to process too much information at the same time. That being said, some of the latter levels are creative enough by displaying a large map with smaller sections in it. This makes the level feel like a collection of several levels at once, although this also has its own issues with the hints system.

The in-game hints are very helpful. There are three kinds of hints: the first one will give you the rough location, the second one will let you know if the object is behind other objects, and the last one will let you know of its location. Each hint requires a hint currency that will be recharged as time passes. However, the first hint can be useless on a large map. The game only tells whether the object is in the north, east, west, south, or center, which can be vague on a large map. Moreover, hints that say an object is in the center of the map are useless since most levels are not round.

Spot-the-Difference
There are 1-2 spot-the-difference levels in each world. I found these levels to be very enjoyable when I played them in hard difficulty, especially since these levels are usually smaller than the hidden object levels. The difficulty only affects the difficulty of finding the differences; easy difficulty has most differences in large sizes, while hard difficulty can be trickier; some even require you to check the pattern of a certain object.

I prefer if the levels are not too wide, though. These levels divide the screen into two halves, and sometimes, it can be confusing when the game has wide levels. Luckily, these kinds of levels are becoming taller later on.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3695616535

Customization
The game has so many customizations. It has accessibility options, and you can change anything in the game: cursor, your cat mascot, the UI—you can even add some filters to make the game more challenging. Moreover, some cursors give a certain effect that can make the game easier, although not to the point where it's game-breaking.

Length and Difficulty
I finished the game on hard difficulty in 27h. I then played the whole levels in normal and easy difficulty afterward. The difficulties match their name: the hard difficulty is hard, and the easy difficulty is easy. In fact, it is so easy that you can basically guess where each object's general location is. Most objects that you need to find are large, and you can zoom out to the max to find them. The hard difficulty, on the other hand, requires you to zoom in to the max since most of the objects are very small and hidden very well. Although I enjoy the easy difficulty, it can be too easy at times. The normal difficulty gives the right balance between easy and hard.

That being said, you can abuse the hints if you are stuck, and the game also has accessibility options where you can skip levels or make hints recharge faster. I didn't use any of these during my playthrough, so the playtime can be shorter if you do that, especially since there are times when I had to wait for the hint to recharge, since I couldn't seem to find what I was looking for.

Conclusion

Find Matt's Cat is a hidden object game with tons of content. Most games in this genre usually last below 10h, but this game can go over 40h. You can finish it faster if you rush it, of course, but I believe the playtime will still be more than 10h even with that. It caters to all kinds of hidden object enthusiasts with its various difficulties, and those same difficulty also means that you can play the same level three times in different difficulties with a fresh experience. Moreover, it has a lot of customization options that can help to cater to your various needs. If you enjoy hidden object games, this should be a perfect game for you.

This game was reviewed with a key provided by the developer for free.

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