|| REVIEW || Cat Lady (PC)
Developed By : Rose City Games Published By : VIZ Media
Category : Action, Roguelike/lite, Indie, Twin Stick Shooter
Release Date : October 17, 2019
Early in 2019, I attended my first PAX event of PAX East in Boston, and out of the studios that I got to meet and talk with, one of those was the great Rose City Games. At the time, they had just launched their first game, The World Next Door which we then went on to cover (and you can read the review for yourself.) Then, months later, came the announcement of what would be their second title, Cat Lady.
This feline hit tells the story of Ally Marie arriving at her grandmother's mansion for a visit. Only, when she steps inside, some things aren't quite right. She explores deeper to find that many of the houses inanimate objects are now...animated. Stuffed bears are trying to bite her, cabinets are charging at her, and it gets worse the further she goes into the mansion. Luckily, she can call upon the aid of grandma's cats to fight back, hopefully locating her grandmother and cleansing the house of it's evil in the process.
Cat Lady plays like a rogue-like, twin-stick shooter, and it was the mere mention of the genre that told me this game was going to sink it's claws into me. I've grown to love games like Binding of Isaac, so I knew I'd feel right at home once I got control of Ally. Why, you ask? Why was I so sure of all this? Because her way of taking back the mansion is by using the cat's to attack.
You are able to equip two cats at a time, a primary and secondary. Each cat position serves its own purpose, and offers plenty of furry friends to swap in and out. Your primary cat is your direct way of attacking, firing off shots in different patterns and speeds. One will shoot a standard shot at a steady pace, while another cat shoots out "luf" hearts in a shotgun spray, and yet another has a speedy fire rate.
Secondary cats provide a sort of extra back up, to help you get out of sticky situations. Your default one acts as a sort of grenade, lobbing out and dealing some damage in a small area when it hits. Other secondary cats can be sent to a location and shoot out lasers at all enemies, provide a bit of defense by swiping out from under a box, or you just might find grandma's trusty dog that will dart around the room for you, licking your enemies for damage.
All of these cats will be found scattered throughout the different areas of the house. You'll go through places like the basement, boiler room, and garden fighting off all kinds of evils. Each area is broken down into different rooms. The majority of these rooms will be filled with plenty of enemies, and you'll be unable to progress forwards or backwards until they're all destroyed.
At the end of every section of the house, you'll encounter that area's boss. They tend to be thematic with the rest of the level which makes it pretty fun, but these fights themselves can be quite challenging. The boss health bar spans the entire lower side of the screen, and since they deal devastating damage themselves you'll need to wait for those opportune moments to strike, or risk getting laid out yourself.
By the time you reach them, you should be able to deal some devastating damage yourself though. Most of the things you destroy have a chance of dropping one of three things. The first is hearts, replenishing one of yours if it's needed. The other two items are kibbles and little ghost figures. The kibbles act as your currency on a run, letting you pick up a new power at different spots if you have enough. This can do things like increasing the size of your shots, the firing rate or damage, adding an effect to your shots, and a whole slew of other options.
However the kibbles don't carry over, and if you die on a run, you'll start the next with none. The ghost currency though is permanent, and can only be spent in the mansion between runs. This increases the experience of your gameplay in a lot of fun ways, opening up new power ups for you to be able to purchase, adding new cats to the roster that can be discovered, and most importantly extending Ally's health.
Cat Lady was a lot of fun and very, very easy to get hooked into. I was already a fan of the genre and style before I even got my hands on it. Watching it go through the phases of announcement leading up to the Early Access release was nothing short of torture. But, it was a torture that was worth it. This game plays extremely well and I'm excited for whats to come as the game leads up to its full 1.0 release.
The house continues to be extended with further areas to explore (the most recent being the Chilly Cheery Update), as well as more cats, enemies, items, music...everything that is just going to take what's incredible about Cat Lady and amplify it. There is still some time before that, as it's currently slated for "Early 2020" but hey...what's wrong with jumping on the hype a bit early?
Pick up the game HERE on Steam
This feline hit tells the story of Ally Marie arriving at her grandmother's mansion for a visit. Only, when she steps inside, some things aren't quite right. She explores deeper to find that many of the houses inanimate objects are now...animated. Stuffed bears are trying to bite her, cabinets are charging at her, and it gets worse the further she goes into the mansion. Luckily, she can call upon the aid of grandma's cats to fight back, hopefully locating her grandmother and cleansing the house of it's evil in the process.
Cat Lady plays like a rogue-like, twin-stick shooter, and it was the mere mention of the genre that told me this game was going to sink it's claws into me. I've grown to love games like Binding of Isaac, so I knew I'd feel right at home once I got control of Ally. Why, you ask? Why was I so sure of all this? Because her way of taking back the mansion is by using the cat's to attack.
You are able to equip two cats at a time, a primary and secondary. Each cat position serves its own purpose, and offers plenty of furry friends to swap in and out. Your primary cat is your direct way of attacking, firing off shots in different patterns and speeds. One will shoot a standard shot at a steady pace, while another cat shoots out "luf" hearts in a shotgun spray, and yet another has a speedy fire rate.
Secondary cats provide a sort of extra back up, to help you get out of sticky situations. Your default one acts as a sort of grenade, lobbing out and dealing some damage in a small area when it hits. Other secondary cats can be sent to a location and shoot out lasers at all enemies, provide a bit of defense by swiping out from under a box, or you just might find grandma's trusty dog that will dart around the room for you, licking your enemies for damage.
All of these cats will be found scattered throughout the different areas of the house. You'll go through places like the basement, boiler room, and garden fighting off all kinds of evils. Each area is broken down into different rooms. The majority of these rooms will be filled with plenty of enemies, and you'll be unable to progress forwards or backwards until they're all destroyed.
At the end of every section of the house, you'll encounter that area's boss. They tend to be thematic with the rest of the level which makes it pretty fun, but these fights themselves can be quite challenging. The boss health bar spans the entire lower side of the screen, and since they deal devastating damage themselves you'll need to wait for those opportune moments to strike, or risk getting laid out yourself.
By the time you reach them, you should be able to deal some devastating damage yourself though. Most of the things you destroy have a chance of dropping one of three things. The first is hearts, replenishing one of yours if it's needed. The other two items are kibbles and little ghost figures. The kibbles act as your currency on a run, letting you pick up a new power at different spots if you have enough. This can do things like increasing the size of your shots, the firing rate or damage, adding an effect to your shots, and a whole slew of other options.
However the kibbles don't carry over, and if you die on a run, you'll start the next with none. The ghost currency though is permanent, and can only be spent in the mansion between runs. This increases the experience of your gameplay in a lot of fun ways, opening up new power ups for you to be able to purchase, adding new cats to the roster that can be discovered, and most importantly extending Ally's health.
Cat Lady was a lot of fun and very, very easy to get hooked into. I was already a fan of the genre and style before I even got my hands on it. Watching it go through the phases of announcement leading up to the Early Access release was nothing short of torture. But, it was a torture that was worth it. This game plays extremely well and I'm excited for whats to come as the game leads up to its full 1.0 release.
The house continues to be extended with further areas to explore (the most recent being the Chilly Cheery Update), as well as more cats, enemies, items, music...everything that is just going to take what's incredible about Cat Lady and amplify it. There is still some time before that, as it's currently slated for "Early 2020" but hey...what's wrong with jumping on the hype a bit early?
Game Rating : 9/10
Pick up the game HERE on Steam
This game was played and reviewed on PC (Steam)
Thank you Rose City Games for supplying the review code!
