[i]I am recommending this, because it has a solid foundation and is in early access, with what looks like a reasonable roadmap. So i'd like the project to advance and eventually succeed. However, i'm definetly not recommending it, because it feels ready for a full release, or even "great as is", there still are a couple design issues that should be addressed before the 1.0 release and i'll most likely revisit this review at that point.[/i]
[h2]Short review:[/h2]
Ahh, yes, cats - the internet overlords - in a super cute design, as a roguelite co-op adventuring party. Why shouldn't this be the best thing there is?! Well, because expectation and scale definetly make a difference here. At its current state, expecting an exciting adventure with a satisfying conclusion, or high replay value, the experience will probably fall a bit flat. However, if the expectation is drifting more towards a light hearted co-op game, which is pretty beginner friendly and even more so, if you're able to practice reasonable task or role division, but at the same time includes scaling challenges for higher scores as well - which actually reminded me of something like "Overcooked" in that regard, especially working in a more confined area, rather than an open world, but with more adventure and hack&slash action - then this works pretty well and shows good room to grow.
[h2]Thorough review:[/h2]
First, getting through [h3]the "easy" parts:[/h3]
The [b]visuals[/b] are super cute, obviously. There were moments in the game, where i was thinking, "might be nice to appreciate the models from more varied angles... or if they had a bit clearer design for the top down view you're playing in... but well, it works as is and supports the rest of the game and especially co-op design a lot better.
The [b]audio[/b] is also nice, the score feels thematic and supports the ebb and flow of action and more relaxed moments and the sound effects feel well fitting too, though it also doesn't have anything which makes me go, "oh yeah, this is genius sound design/ hypes me up like nothing else".
Now [h3]to the gameplay loop![/h3]
The [b]funademtals[/b] are clear and well designed. You're on a journey and you need to protect your wagon. For that, you'll spend a lot of the time collecting resources along the way, or clearing obstacles, intersperced with combat sections where you have to fend off other woodland critters and the possibility to enter camp phases to exchange your resources for upgrades, which are supposed to give you an advantage for further encounters. Repeat that cycle a couple times, throw in a boss encounter, get to the next stage, which will include a little further complications, do that until you finish or fail your journey - solid stuff.
[h3]What i like about this:[/h3]
If you're [b]playing in a group[/b], you can practice task division, trying to [b]play towards everyones strength[/b]. This is also enhanced by the role system, which as far as i got it some of the current development focuses is on. Someone can coordinate, pay attention to upcoming path obstacles, or special reward "puzzles", someone can focus on resourse gathering, or providing support during fights, while others may excell at fighting and this can be enough and is well facilitated by the game, at least for most parts. What also plays into this well in my mind, is the [b]voting for branching paths[/b], which not only lets you choose between upcoming events, but also introduces challenge modifiers, which you can stack for higher rewards, or cash in and reset frequently, if you want less escalation in the difficulty curve. If you (want to) play solo, of course you'll have to do all of this yourself, which at least worked fine for me as well.
[h3]What i feel mixed or critical about:[/h3]
- Most glaringly, as is, the [b]gameplay loop feels too short[/b], lacking a good conclusion [b]and has little to no replay value[/b]. Part of this is due to the fact, that the development is still building on it. Further levels are supposed to be included, as well as meta-progression to increase replay value. How well this will work, we'll see in the future.
- I do [b]not like the control scheme[/b], mostly because it works off the same four buttons with a lot of overlap, which frequently results in conflicting actions. If you want to pick up resourses lying next to each other, but are too fast with your input, you will throw the things you just picked up into all kinds of directions, or if you want to unload resources into your wagon, but walk too close to the pot that's for healing when you might have the smallest slither of health missing, you will heal instead, because all of this works off the same button and currently there's no way to remap that.
- And another major thing is... [b]the boss battles[/b]. And i do understand, that designing varying and interesting bosses can be very challenging. With that in mind, currently having 3 bosses, and those deviding into "the one that mostly drags out because it's constantly spawning adds", "the one without adds, that's spamming the same area attack over and over again, whenever you're getting near it" and "the one with prolonged invulnerability phases and the possibility of helpful items, that spawn randomly though, so it's your fault if you want to rely on those", just isn't a good mix. And what certainly irks me about this is, that while during the travel sections, you can include different people by dividing up tasks and playing into different strengths, there's little to no room for that during the boss fights, because there you either pull your weight by pummeling the boss as much as possible, or you're more of a liability. Mechanically, during travel, the wagon plays a major role and you can build around that, but during boss fights, the wagon either just sits on the side, or even completely outside of the arena (also making most wagon upgrades just useless during boss fights) and plays little to no role, which makes me wonder hard, why it's not included more, why there isn't a possibility for example for people who may thrive in a more supportive role during travel to be able to interact with the wagon or other environmental objects more during boss fights? So far, that just feels like a lost opportunity.
- And lastly, while the game is definetly in a well playable state, during the couple hours of play, i nonetheless encountered a [b]couple of bugs[/b] and got into a softlocked state at some point as well. Though, to my knowledge, for this the developers have good communications with their community and try to address those issues in time.
[h2]Recommendation[/h2]
So, summed up i'd say, feel free to already jump in on the action, if you don't have issues with a game still in development and are either super excited for a beginner friendly co-op game, or a bug hunter/ development supporter. Otherwise, it might be a safer bet to still sit back a bit longer and see how further development treats this game.
