▲ Recommended
2 hrs
Tiny Cats is AGE Zero and Purrfect's first foray into the hidden object genre and they didn't do a bad job at all. The game feels very whimsical with themes of magic and mystery and there is some unusual story driven game play which has its ups and downs.
The story is quite nice and revolves around your late Auntie's mansion which you are exploring. As you go through the many rooms you start to discover some unusual inhabitants and along the way you also uncover some secrets about your Auntie. The stories attached to hidden object games like this tend to be very basic, and this was no exception, but there was a nice atmosphere and the story was interactive in the sense that you had to locate objects in the scene to complete the narrative. This was a nice touch but it also caused some issues with my play-through.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3374581499
For a start, you don't need to find the special object in the scene to continue. You just need to find the cats and you can move on to the next room and the next scene. Some of these objects give you special powers though, like the ability to see hidden cats or the ability to ask for a hint every thirty seconds. On my first run I didn't find any of these objects so I was left wondering why I had not completed some of the achievements after I thought I had completed the game. Without those two objects you will miss some of the cats. Therefore, you need to pay attention to the story because it will hint at an object you need to locate. It turned out that one of these objects was hidden by the cauldron icon on the game screen and I could not move the picture around enough to actually select it without the cauldron getting in the way. I tried changing resolution and toggling full screen on and off and in the end after a lot of gradual movements I was able to select it without accidentally hitting the cauldron! Another icon actually hid a cat too, so watch out for that.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3374579129
The scenes are nicely drawn and the cats all look like cats so there are no surprises there. Without the hint button some of them are actually quite challenging. They come in all shapes and sizes and are hidden well within the scenery. The most difficult ones to find are the hidden cats. They are either hidden behind things like curtains or in chests and drawers, or magically appear as you hover over a section. The trouble is that not everything you would expect to open actually does, so there is a lot of random clicking to see if an object will react. You can zoom in and out of the scene and most scenes are just a page long and wide apart from one or two scenes.
Curator Info:
The story is quite nice and revolves around your late Auntie's mansion which you are exploring. As you go through the many rooms you start to discover some unusual inhabitants and along the way you also uncover some secrets about your Auntie. The stories attached to hidden object games like this tend to be very basic, and this was no exception, but there was a nice atmosphere and the story was interactive in the sense that you had to locate objects in the scene to complete the narrative. This was a nice touch but it also caused some issues with my play-through.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3374581499
For a start, you don't need to find the special object in the scene to continue. You just need to find the cats and you can move on to the next room and the next scene. Some of these objects give you special powers though, like the ability to see hidden cats or the ability to ask for a hint every thirty seconds. On my first run I didn't find any of these objects so I was left wondering why I had not completed some of the achievements after I thought I had completed the game. Without those two objects you will miss some of the cats. Therefore, you need to pay attention to the story because it will hint at an object you need to locate. It turned out that one of these objects was hidden by the cauldron icon on the game screen and I could not move the picture around enough to actually select it without the cauldron getting in the way. I tried changing resolution and toggling full screen on and off and in the end after a lot of gradual movements I was able to select it without accidentally hitting the cauldron! Another icon actually hid a cat too, so watch out for that.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3374579129
The scenes are nicely drawn and the cats all look like cats so there are no surprises there. Without the hint button some of them are actually quite challenging. They come in all shapes and sizes and are hidden well within the scenery. The most difficult ones to find are the hidden cats. They are either hidden behind things like curtains or in chests and drawers, or magically appear as you hover over a section. The trouble is that not everything you would expect to open actually does, so there is a lot of random clicking to see if an object will react. You can zoom in and out of the scene and most scenes are just a page long and wide apart from one or two scenes.
🍳Conclusion🍳
Tiny Cats was a mixed experience mainly due to the confusion over the objects needed in the story elements which are crucial to the game yet let you continue without them. Once I had realised my mistake I played through again but it would have been so much nicer if I had played with them the first time.
There seems to be issues with screen sizes as my ultra wide monitor hid a couple of important objects because game icons, which are static on the screen, were in the way.
Apart from these issues, the actual game is very nice though with some attractive scenes and drawings, some relaxing music, and a sweet story. I would still recommend it as I am sure these issues will get sorted out as the devs have already corrected issues quickly.
Curator Info:
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