Hidden Cats in Istanbul

Another wonderful HOG released by Nukearts Studio! After completing Christmas I decided to take a look at this one. The approach is the usual: find dozens of cats in a vibrant city with lots of famous places and pedestrians (and traffic at the bottom of the screen that is animated) while relaxing music is being played. As you complete smaller sections they become fully coloured so you know you can move on and deal with the rest of the monochrome areas. Your reward in the end will always be fireworks!

Finding special cats (that give you a photo of a real-life pet) is a bonus but what makes the game interesting is the citizens you need to find. They are not hidden but they have to be clicked on in a specific order. The top of the screen shows you the cards (always 5) that you can interact with. Here, we do not need to find all of them just a couple of dozen.

Past games wanted you to complete the city twice - there was an easier mode with fewer cats and citizens. What we have now is what was considered an advanced or harder mode back then. There is also an achievement that we can only obtain if no hints are used for finding everything. The hinting system, by the way, is interesting as it is a radar showing you the direction where you need to go first. You do not get an object highlighted immediately.

Once the city is done, there are 6 more locations unlocked (most are indoors). These are smaller with fewer cats and people to click on. Some cats on these stages are truly hidden - clicking on certain objects make them suddenly appear (for example on the zipper of a purse or on a slightly worn-down roof tile). The aid feature is available but with limited numbers only. It's worth completing these stages in order to see the increased difficulty as there are more objects to find all the time.

Eventually, a huge map (a market) becomes available with the most people to find. This is the last stage where zooming is truly an asset and perhaps this is the one you'll spend most of your time with.

Istanbul is a great game and on par with the rest of the HOG released by this studio. In the latest game there is an achievement for not requesting assistance - this is available for each stage, here it was only added to the city level. This makes this game much easier but I liked that the stages menu uses a special icon to indicate if you completed a level without any help.

Another cute game by Nukearts.
- find all the cats, which is easy cause they say "meow" when you get close
and the background becomes coloured once you've discovered every one in that area
also you can zoom in
- find the special cats to unlock bonus levels
- find people

All in all a charming pastime, nice music too

Note: A copy of this game was gifted to me by a wonderful friend. ^^

Cats in Istanbul XD

Introduction

Hidden Cats in Istanbul is a cat-themed, cozy hidden object game, the newest release developed and published by Nukearts Studio. This time, our mischievous felines find themselves in Istanbul, and as usual, we have to find all of them hidden in the main city and other notable places as well as find certain people.

As for the gameplay, there's only one difficulty mode, but you can take your time finding all of the cats and people since no timer is present. You start off in the main city of Istanbul, and as you find "special" cats, you'll unlock other places.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3568580696

6 places can be unlocked, but a 7th one can be playable after you complete the main city and the other places. With gameplay mechanics, you click on a cat or person with the left mouse button and zoom in and out of a scene with the mouse wheel. There are a limited number of hints available in case you get stuck on finding a cat, but a bit of a heads up. For the main city, if you use a hint at any point, you won't be able to obtain the achievement that requires you to complete the level without using any hints. Speaking of which, yes, lots of Steam achievements are available, but they won't count towards a user's global total until the game is out of "Steam is learning about this game".

Review

I've played all of Nukearts Studio's games at this point and reviewed most of them. After hearing news about this latest installment, I knew that I had to get around to trying out this game and giving my thoughts as soon as I could. Thanks to an awesome friend, I'm able to do so. ^^

First, I like how these cute kitties are in the most exotic location yet. I've heard stories about Istanbul and Turkey from a very special someone, and although I have yet to visit, I guess this game is the next best thing. XD Of course, the story is pretty basic. The cats are running amok all over Istanbul, and we have to find them.

It goes without saying that it's the gameplay that's the central focus. I didn't run into any technical issues, and I was able to find most of the cats and people pretty easily. With the zoom in function, I'd say that only a few cats appeared to be very tiny, but I took my time to find all of them. As with the previous games, when you're near a cat, there's a cute meowing sound, so you know that you're close to finding one. In addition, with the main city, an area becomes colored after you find all of the cats and/or people there. All of the achievements are obtainable in one playthrough if you take your time and don't use the hint function. If you run into any problems finding certain items, there's a wonderful Steam user guide that can help out.

With the art, the backgrounds and sprites are drawn well. I like that the style remains the same as in the previous games. The kitties are especially cute, and the special cats totally stand out. Also, the colors are chosen well, and I love how the scenes come to life when colors are added, either by completing a certain area or completing the entire scene after finding all the cats and people.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3568580182

In regards to the music, I enjoyed listening to all the new, original tracks. They give off that exotic theme, making you feel like you're in Istanbul and experiencing the culture. It's lots of fun to tap your feet to the music as you're taking your time in various areas to find all the cats and people. XD

Conclusion

Would I recommend Hidden Cats in Istanbul? If you're looking for a cute, cozy, fun cat-themed HOG but want one that will take a bit of time to 100% complete, you're especially a fan of the games by Nukearts Studio, and/or you're looking to get all those Steam achievements, then this is definitely worth checking out. I'm happy that the developer has continued this series, and I hope to see more future games. Where will these adorable cats end up next time? ^^

For more detailed, fully complete, high quality reviews like this, please follow The Introverted Gamer, prioritizing heart and soul always. ^^