Hidden Cats in London Review

Game: Hidden Cats in London
Genre: Hidden Object, Puzzle, Casual, Cats
System: Steam (Windows)
Developer | Publisher: Nukearts Studio
Controller Support: None
Price: US $1.59 | UK £1.35 | EU € 1.59
Release Date: December 15th, 2022

Review code used, with many thanks to Nukearts Studio.

Hidden Cats in London is a hidden object game with cats hidden in every nook and cranny. This game is the second in the Hidden Cats series that brings players to European cities to find kittens.

The Gameplay

Like most hidden object games, Hidden Cats in London is a point-and-click game. Players can zoom in and out of the main picture, looking for hidden kitties and in the harder levels, special cats and unique people. There are also several unlockable bonus levels.

In the base game, whether players choose the “easy” or the “advanced” puzzle, they start with a monochromatic view of London. As players find all the cats in, on, and around each section of the city, the color begins to come back into the city.

Hidden Cats in London

This is an extremely helpful addition to the game; with all the moving objects and the absolutely massive picture, it really helps to narrow down where to look without giving too much away. In the base game, players have 100 cats to find hidden across all the buildings, and the advanced version has 150 cats, several special cats, and several unique people to find as well.

In the advanced version, the positions of the cats, humans, and special cats are all randomized. When a player clicks one of the special cats, a card with their photo and name on it pops up, then it lets the player know that they have unlocked a bonus stage.

Both the easy and advanced versions have help buttons that point out the location of one of the many hidden cats. These hints can’t be used for humans or for special cats.

Other than that, Hidden Cats in London is a fairly standard hidden object puzzle game. Players need to keep looking in every corner for another feline friend, but some are very easy to miss. Once the main map is complete, there are no other standard levels, just the bonuses, which all are inside and a lot more limited than the main map.

The Hidden Cats in London Are Very Well Hidden

Thankfully, Hidden Cats in London has a very good hinting system because some of these kittens are nearly impossible to find. If you look closely at the windows in some of the trains, there are tiny kitten faces hanging from the tops of the windows, and these can be impossible to spot without help. It doesn’t help that the train moves all the time either, only stopping occasionally in front of the station. The same goes for boats and cars, but they are slower moving and a lot more clear.

Some of the cats are incredibly small, even when zoomed in, and it can be quite a challenge just to see them at all. I don’t need glasses; my vision is pretty good without them. But I think I might need to get glasses to play Hidden Cats in London without any hints.

The Cons of Hidden Cats in London

Phew, where to start with this game. Just to be clear, I love this title. It’s got great art, cats, is a good hidden object game, has cats, has a little bit of a sense of humor, and also contains cats. Some of my favorite things in video games. However, it has a lot of issues.

Niggles

Here are some of the problems I noticed in the 63 minutes I have played Hidden Cats in London.

• Some of the cats are impossible to see without a hint.
• Hidden Cats in London has some places that you can’t zoom in as far on as others for no reason, I can see. It just auto-zooms you out when you pass over that spot, and I’m not sure what the deal is.
• The advanced version was impossible for me to finish; all the sections of London were colored in, and I looked over every single inch, and the final human I was looking for was not anywhere in the puzzle. Hints can’t be used on humans, but I did scour the board. If I hadn’t found her yet, the city should have had a section that wasn’t filled in with color yet.
• The sound design is a huge issue for me. The sound gets quiet in certain sections of the map for no reason, then goes up to full volume when you move off of that spot.
• There are constant sounds of kitties crying in the background, and it was tearing away at my nerves; some of the cries sounded like how my cat sounded when she was sad, and it was painful to hear.
• I muted all the sounds in the game after just a few minutes, which removed the music and sound effects from the level, but didn’t remove the sound from the level finish screen. So Hidden Cats in London went from no sound to a sudden burst of sound and jumped that scared me while blowing out my eardrums. Don’t play this game with headphones on ever.

Conclusion

I love Hidden Cats in London for the cats and the art, but it has a lot of problems. For less than $2 USD, it’s fine. But I would pay a little more for a game that the developers actually play-tested and perfected.

Final Verdict: I’m Not Sure.