Cats vs Zombies II

A weird hybrid again, but honestly? Still as fun as the first one!

Thank you Sons of Welder for the curator key!
But rest assured, this is still an impartial review written as if I had bought the game myself. 😊

Hidden Cats vs Zombies 2 is back with its wonderfully strange “cozy-but-also-a-bit-gunny” energy, and once again the devs prove they listen. I’m writing this 9 days before release with no idea of the final price (It's free! Good news!), so I'm focusing on the pre-release version I received, which is tiny. You get a single map with 50 cats, 50 zombies, and 10 bottles of milk to spot (or shoot), and that’s it. I finished the whole thing in 4 minutes and then let the game idle just to get enough playtime for this review.

That said, Sons of Welder clearly keeps improving their hybrids. Compared to their earlier game, this version feels cleaner: bullets are now smaller so the screen isn’t 25% ammo, zombies and cats are visually distinct enough that you won’t accidentally send a kitty to the afterlife, and the devs remain impressively responsive to feedback. The placements are solid, the mix of finds keeps things varied, and there are no penalties for misclicks, which keeps it breezy.

But the same quirks from the last mash-up haven’t vanished. This is still a bizarre-but-charming midpoint between cozy HOG and light FPS, which I personally enjoy, but if you’re chasing actual cozy vibes, the inability to mute gun sounds specifically is a killer. Hard to feel warm and snuggly when your speakers keep yelling bang-bang-pew-pew. And yes, it’s extremely short, so short that it’s basically a micro game. But since the it's free, that becomes less of a drawback and more of a “why not” situation.

As a quick distraction for hidden-object fans looking for something quirky, or an easy introduction to “cozy games” for your action-loving friends, it does the job with personality to spare. And for veterans, it's just more of the same as Hidden Cats vs Zombies but for free, so enjoy!

For more reviews like this one, please check out Ele's Little Recommendation Corner!

A step backwards? :o

Introduction

Hidden Cats vs Zombies 2 is a cat-themed, hidden object game developed and published by Sons of Welder and FM Simple Games Studio. It serves as a sort of spiritual successor to the first game, but it isn't necessary to have played the first one before diving into this one. Again, zombies have run amok due to an epidemic breaking out at a military base. The cats are in danger, and your mission is to find all the kitties while shooting down the zombies.

The gameplay is still the same as in the first game. However, there's only one scene this time with the one difficulty option. Still, you can zoom in and out of the scene by scrolling the mouse wheel, and you click on the cats and milk bottles with the left mouse button. With zombies, you have to click on ammunition boxes and then left click on the zombies. When you run out of bullets, you have to find another ammunition box before you can turn your attention back to the zombies. You can choose between full screen and windowed modes as well as adjust the music and sound volumes. Lots of Steam achievements are present, but they won't count towards a user's global total until the game is out of "Steam is learning about this game".

Review

Having played the previous game (please check out my review of it here), I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the developers made a sequel. Still, I was curious to check it out. ^^

The story itself is basically the same, but of course, it's the gameplay that's the main focus. It feels very much the same as in the previous game. That's not a negative to me since the controls work fine and all, but I wouldn't hope for anything new. There's still the issue of having no multiple options for windowed mode, so you're forced to manually resize the game screen to your liking. All of the achievements are obtainable, but even for a novice of HOGs, it won't take very much time to find all of cats, zombies, and milk bottles.

As for the art, it retains the same style as in previous games, which I like. Hand drawn is definitely the way to go, so I hope that the developer will continue to keep the artist(s) who help out with these games. If there's an issue that I have, it's that, unlike the first game, there's only one scene, which accounts for the game being on the very short side. I would have liked for there to have been multiple scenes, but the background and sprites are drawn and colored well.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3609510790

With the music, the tracks are the same as in the previous game. Still, they fit well with the whole zombie apocalypse theme going on. The music can sound blaring upon initially opening the game (I tend to keep my computer's sound settings pretty low), so you may need to adjust the music volume in the game's settings.

Conclusion

Would I recommend Hidden Cats vs Zombies 2? If you're looking for a very short cat-themed, hidden object game set in a zombie apocalypse, you especially enjoyed the first game, and/or you want to get all those Steam achievements, then it's worth a look. As I just cautioned, the game is very short, so you'll most likely finish it quickly. However, it is free-to-play.

Finally, I'd like to thank Sons of Welder and FM Simple Games Studio for the review copy. I hope that there will be many more of these fun cat-themed HOGs in the future. XD

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

I occasionally check out the HOGs released by Sons of Welder. They started last year when they released a Cthulhu-based game where (instead of cats) we needed to find fish. I really like the graphics-style they use and in this latest game not only do we need to find cats but also zombies.

The latter group becomes clickable only when you first obtain ammunition. There are some boxes around with dozens of bullets in them. Essentially, you don't just find but shoot the living dead. Is it a brand new, fresh take that will likely alter the genre? Of course not! But it is fun, nonetheless. I think the team's strongest asset remains in the hand-drawn style.