Cat Me If You Can is a hidden object game at its heart, but it’s so much more!! Beautiful settings, great quality of life features and lots of cats! Fantastic!
The Look and Feel of Cat Me If You Can
The game opened with a nice tutorial where mechanics were introduced as needed, so I did not feel overwhelmed. I played as a cat and quickly learned to jump, sprint and crouch. The game is black and white, which is interesting, and all the graphics are handcrafted and beautifully detailed. As I discovered cats and took their pictures with my camera, they became colorful. It was fun to watch that happen.
Cat Me If You Can is a 3D open-world game with various levels. In the demo, I played the tutorial level and then I time-travelled to Tabbyshire in the year 1374. I was stunned by the level of detail in both areas I played, particularly in Tabbyshire. I felt like I was back in the Middle Ages!
The full game will have 3 different themed regions: the Middle Ages, ancient Egypt and Japan. Each themed region will have 3 different levels, meaning the full game has a total of 9 different levels. But a level in Cat Me If You Can is quite large!! For example, I played just a portion of one middle-aged-themed level in the demo. That portion of a level was so huge, it was subdivided into 3 other sections!! They were the “center” section, the “ranger” section and the “smith ” section.
In the center section alone, there were 12 cats, 2 fish and 1 key for me to find. In the top left corner of my screen, the total number of cats to be found in the entire region was displayed. The full version of Cat Me If You Can is going to be huge and yet manageable.
Each section of a level had a large board like the one in the screenshot above. It told me how many cats were hidden there and what objects I needed to find. It was updated as I progressed, which I found very helpful. Also helpful to me were the icons for the game mechanics, which were always visible on the bottom left of the screen. Those reminded me how to use the camera function, the journal and my radar. Like the board above, the journal was also updated when I completed quests.
The Gameplay of Cat Me If You Can
The main objective of the game was to find and photograph hidden cats. There were also side quests of objects to collect and things to do. One wonderful tool in Cat Me If You Can was the radar capabilities, which gave a hint of where a cat or an object was located.
I have to admit I utilized the radar quite liberally! I loved being immersed in the world of Cat Me If You Can, but I found that while some of the cats and objects were not too difficult to find, others were really hard. I’m sure that’s a ME thing!! So I used the radar often to help me, which really made the game much more enjoyable for me. I was able to explore the areas, and yet I didn’t have to stress about finding every single item by myself.
Even with a radar clue, I sometimes had difficulty finding an item! The devs cleverly designed the radar so I could change the cooldown times in the settings. An icon displays where the item is hidden and is shown for as long as the cooldown period selected. One time I was working on a particularly difficult-to-find item, so I made the cooldown period over a minute so the icon would display longer for me. When I found that item, I changed the cooldown to a much shorter time for easier-to-find items. Genius to give players that option!!
There are a variety of fast travel mechanics in Cat Me If You Can. I did not use many of them in the demo because it really wasn’t necessary, but I can see how they would be a wonderful option to use in the full game.
The game also had many wonderful sound effects. When I got close to the rushing waters, I could hear them clearly. The bird songs made me feel I was outdoors, and the quiet soundtrack varied; sometimes it was calm and very relaxing, while at other times it was peppy and jazzy. I liked all of it! There’s a lot of attention to detail in this game. At one point, I even tipped over a cup with my paw because I’m a cat and I just felt like doing that! When I had to “Eat Da Fish” as one of my quests, I ate it with 2 bites. The first bite caused the fish skeleton to be seen on half the fish, and the 2nd bite made the whole fish a skeleton. Plus it had a great chewing sound, which I thought was really fun!
I had some questions about the game so I reached out to the devs on Discord. I received a helpful reply really quickly. I’m always impressed with game devs who are very responsive to players. To me it indicates that they are committed to developing an excellent game and want to make sure the players have the best possible experience with it. So Bravo to Cosmic Stag Games, the game devs for Cat Me If You Can!
Final Thoughts
I thoroughly enjoyed myself playing the demo of Cat Me If You Can; it’s very chill. There are no timers, no danger, no need to sleep or eat. Just exploring really fantastic places and finding really neat things.
Even with my liberal use of hints, I still spent almost 3 hours playing, so the full game should offer lots of play time. This is a hidden object game, but so much more!! The graphics are superb and have little jokes hidden in them too! For example, in the demo, every door that looks like the screenshot below is an area that will be open for exploration in the full game. Look how the kitty is wearing a hard hat, because the area is under construction! Ha.
I hope you’ll try out the demo for Cat Me If You Can; it’s available on Steam now. The full game is slated to release in the 3rd quarter of 2026. I am looking forward to playing it!
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