Kicking around in the lower reaches of the Xbox indie market is a little publisher intent on filling the world with cat games – hidden object cat games at that.
That team is Silesia Games and through partnerships with Devcats Games (A Building Full of Cats, A Castle Full of Cats) and Nukearts Studio (the Hidden Cats In… series), they have provided players with a number of games in which the sole goal is to uncover some hidden little kitties.
For the most part they are extremely relaxing affairs, games that you can kick back with for an evening or two at most, clicking at screens, listening for a little meow, as some feline friends come to the fore. They may not be games you are familiar with, and they aren’t going to be anywhere near the Game of the Year lists, but what they do, they do really well. So much so that we’ve become slightly addicted to them over recent months.
This time around though Silesia Games have teamed up with another dev, Gray Boss Game Studio (previously behind SokoWinter and Primal Survivors). We think that this will be the start of another run of games to continue Silesia’s hidden cat world domination plans. But if it is, we just hope and pray that any future games are better – miles better – than what is on offer in Purrfect Rescue.
It’s hard to knock Purrfect Rescue too much. Priced at just a couple of quid, there really aren’t that many Xbox games that come in with a cheaper purchase price. And for those measly pennies, we probably shouldn’t expect too much either. Vampire Survivors aside, rarely do these super cheap games make big waves in the gaming scene.
But we’re going to knock Purrfect Rescue anyway, because this is by far the worst of all the hidden cat games that Silesia Games have pushed out to the Xbox market. See it as the complete opposite to the well crafted, uber relaxing Hidden Cats In… games, and you’ll be in about the right ballpark.
The premise is similar though. In Purrfect Rescue you are left to trawl your way through five puzzle scenes, zooming in, zooming out, taking in what the Beach, Downtown, Park, Residential Area and Amusement Park have to offer. Fully coloured, it’s these scenes that play host to 101 hidden cats. The little kitties could be hiding anywhere; in plain sight, under a car, in a tree, swimming in the sea, or just peeking out from behind some random object. If you see a cat, you click on it, it disappears from view and you move on to the next.
That shouldn’t be too bad, but unlike Hidden Cats In… which fills the world with colour as you tick off the cats, this one just sees them disappear into the ether, like they were never there in the first place. That’s fine as a mechanic, but hunting those cats is an absolute ballache.
First up, rarely do any of the hidden cats in Purrfect Rescue look like cats. You may spot an ear (or what looks like an ear) and click on it, getting lucky. You may see a little guy spread out lengthways, stretching like there is no tomorrow, or you may find them curled up. Hell, you might even see the faintest outline of a cat’s head. Surely that can’t be a cat? Surely it’s not worth a click. Well maybe not, but you’ll find yourself clicking frantically at any and all scribbles, hoping, praying, crossing fingers that you may stumble upon a kitty. When you’ve got 101 of the buggers to find, even with a time-limited hint system, it’s easy to see how Purrfect Rescue will annoy.
Things aren’t helped when you discover the scenarios themselves. These are rough as, scruffily created bits of randomness with little in the way of what we would call ‘art’. Again, developmental decisions have deemed this to be the angle Gray Boss have decided upon, and that’s cool and everything, but when certain levels are 80% messy thick lines, and the cats themselves merge in with that heft, any hope or opportunity of this being a relaxing game fast goes out of the window. Believe me, there’s no fun in randomly moving across a level, hopelessly jabbing at the A button. Purrfect Rescue doesn’t help itself with simple, but still clunky, menus. Or saves that don’t save as we’ve lost progress in a level for seemingly no reason. Purrfect Rescue may not be full of bugs, but it is infuriating.
What we do like though is that there has been some attempt at adding in a narrative, a real-world offering to Purrfect Rescue. A single ‘Rescue Cat’ is hidden in each level, each with their own backstory, whilst further hidden ‘items’ add to the search if you want to bring those rescue cats home. Just don’t talk to me about the randomness of those extra items.
The question is, will you be arsed? If you haven’t guessed yet, you probably shouldn’t bother playing Purrfect Rescue. We’ve come to this with high hopes, intrigued to see where a new Silesia Games partnership could go. We’ve subsequently walked away with nothing but frustration and annoyance. It may be cheap, and you may be tempted to drop the cash on the back of some publisher acclaim and previous Hidden Cats addiction, but you’ll be best off skipping Purrfect Rescue and hoping that the other series continues to lead the genre.
