Beat Paws Odyssey

I don’t see reason enough to downvote it, but I also can’t say I’m over the top in love with it, so yes, it’s one of those why don’t we get a neutral button in the voting system? After all, gaming, especially since our tastes, feelings and opinions differ, isn’t always just as simple as black or white. But I digress, onwards with the little review.

In general, I’m a fan of desktop buddies and idle games. And this one is very cute art-wise with the cute little characters and the colourful colours. And the core loop is simple, as long as you type or click around with it open somewhere, your little buddies will run for their lives.
But that is exactly where my issue lies a bit. I’m not always here, and even if I am, I’m not always typing. So, I’m a bit bummed out that there’s nothing to keep them active when open and being (semi-)afk.

Another little pet peeve is that not everyone is social and wants to MP. It’s a shame there isn’t an NPC room for those who would rather be just on their own, but if you’re an achievement or 100% collector, you’ll have to find someone to team up with to get those. And I can’t vouch for MP since I haven’t found anyone to jump in with. But it seems like just running together and having some emojis to communicate, there’s not much to it.

And a little more instruction would’ve been welcome too. When do the other cities open, and why is there an empty spot in my wardrobe? Am I missing a character? Is it a future dlc of some sort? Or do I need to reach a certain distance to unlock that one? The same when the little gift box drops a music note rather than a cosmetic. I have zero idea what benefit, if any, it has.

Finally, every time I shut down, there is no point in leaving the game open when you’re gone. You’ll have to resize it every single time. And it starts out very, very tiny. I nearly had to poke my eyeball against the screen to find the resize option.

So, even if it all sounds a bit negative, I still think it’s a nice game on the side, but maybe not just for me, not right now. And perhaps I’ll revisit when there are updates, since I do believe it was made with the right intentions: to be a fun desktop/background buddy. So yeah, all in all, I still don’t see a reason for a downvote, more so, like I said, for a neutral vote. It’s functioning, it's colourful. It could just use some work, imo, to become clearer and less about not doing anything when you don’t do anything or don’t want to MP. Or something like that.


Normally, I have some screenshots here to show thingies, but the game said nope, not happening.

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I would be super grateful if you could consider following me over at the following places for more first looks, reviews, recommendations, etc:

• | My first looks | ~My YouTube channel.
• | My short first looks | ~My TikTok channel.
• | Tchii made ya look | ~My curator
• | IICAC | ~Secondary curator for everything Incremental, Idle, Clicker, and Chill!
• | IICACGames | ~ Youtube channel for everything Incremental, Idle, Clicker, and Chill!
• | Calm | ~Curator for the Dutch-speaking folks out here.
• | Calm's first looks | ~Calm's YouTube channel.
• | IndieGems | ~Wonderful Indie curator
• | IndieGems Gameplay | ~IndieGem's YouTube channel.

Thank you!

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They use AI generated art on their twitter which makes me think they definitely used some in the game as well. Ofc they don't disclose it on the steam page but if you look you can see it's not all man made. Shame

Although you can call this title a game, it feels more like an app running quietly in the background while you take care of more important things, or even play something else entirely. When you first start it, the screen is very small. The option to expand it is hidden in the settings, which are displayed in extremely tiny screen, so you will likely have to lean in close to the screen to find it. On top of that, there are no tooltips, so you have to rely solely on the icons themselves to understand what they do.

Once you manage to enlarge the screen, you can finally see what the title has to offer. Its main purpose is to track your keyboard and mouse activity, including button presses. Every action counts, and this is represented by a running animal in the center of the screen that moves faster depending on how active you are. After some time, a few additional companions will join you and run alongside you.

If you stop doing anything, the animals will come to a halt. However, if you type a lot or perform many key presses in quick succession, you will fill up a bar that triggers a speed mode. During this mode, the animals keep running on their own for a short while, or until the bar is depleted. If most of your work involves typing, you can expect the animals to be running almost constantly. Unfortunately, if you quit the game before the bar depletes to zero, you will lose all that extra meters.

To add some motivation, the game rewards you with presents over time. Your total running distance is displayed at the top of the screen, but it does not seem directly tied to how often you receive presents. Sometimes the rewards feel random, while other times they appear to be linked to specific milestones, such as reaching 2,500 meters.

Presents unlock cosmetic items that fall into four categories: hats, eyewear, shirts, and shoes. You can receive duplicates, so not every present gives you a unique item. These clothes are purely cosmetic and have no effect beyond changing the appearance of your animals.

You can also unlock new backgrounds representing four different countries. You start in France, followed by Greece, Japan, and Morocco. These unlock in a fixed order, but since there is no indication of when this happens, the only way forward is to keep running.

The final feature is multiplayer, which allows you to invite a friend to run with you or join someone else’s room. The experience is identical to playing solo, except the animals are replaced by your friends, and you can send a few emojis. Unfortunately, you can only play with people on your Steam friends list, not with random players. If your friends do not own the game, this feature feels largely unnecessary.

Distance is tracked separately for solo and multiplayer modes, but your overall progress is always saved, so nothing is ever lost. This matters if you are aiming to unlock all achievements, since both modes require you to reach one million meters. As a result, you will need to complete the distance twice, but this will take you hundreds of hours.