Perhaps older people remember an old game developed by Monolith Productions, dating back to the late 90s and called Captain Claw. The player used a pirate cat, Claw, in a hostile environment full of anthropomorphic dogs in search of the Amulet of Nine Lives. An old-fashioned 2D platform game whose strong point was undoubtedly the charisma of the protagonist. Curse of the sea rats He is not Captain Claw, but several times during the hours spent between the coasts or the green hills of this metroidvania, we expected that from one moment to the next our beloved Claw would come to revive the fortunes of this crew of anthropomorphic mice, much more. more fascinating than fun to play. We tell you why in ours Curse of the Sea Rats Review.
Beautiful and bright
Curse of the sea rats It is a project that at the time of the campaign Kickstarter had surprised with its peculiar style, especially for the artistic direction, the care of the backgrounds and the characterization of its strange anthropomorphic animals. But unfortunately for the pirates who are the protagonists of the adventure, not everything that glitters is gold, and only some of these premises have been maintained.
Curse of the Sea Rats puts users in the shoes of one of the four prisoners on an English ship returning from the American colonies. However, during the trip, due to the pirate witch Flora Burns, the ship sinks on the coast of Ireland and you, now free prisoners, find yourself transformed into anthropomorphic mice. Without too many spoilers, you will have to save the admiral's son, discover the secret of the Snake Eye Amulet, hunt down Flora Burns and try to regain your original form. On paper, the premises are all there, and the game manages to make an excellent first impression, between rugged coastlines, green hills, dark caves and a refined characterization of characters and enemies. Even the bosses, with their typical entrances, are never lacking in character. Just think of the Panzo family, made up of a son, a daughter and a mother who are viscerally linked to food and appear so grotesque in every way that they are endearing (if it weren't for the explicit Spanish stereotype). Don't expect much from the writing: the narrative is very flat and monotonous, with no surprises until the final lines of the game. For much of the adventure you'll be searching for Flora and the young man to save and you'll be inundated with unattractive humor, also thanks to location hiccups.
So a beautiful world to explore, but essentially not very complex. The metroidvania structure at the base of this platformer is evident, but the map design is never clever and exploring the stages never forces you to use gray matter. The lack of variety in the secondary missions we receive from the different characters does not help, and with one lucky exception, everything develops in a way that is too linear and predictable. Of course, it's harder to get lost and not know where to go, but the experience is decidedly flat.
A handsome man who doesn't dance.
The game's pleasant presentation quickly gives way to a bland experience filled with issues that largely relate to the combat system. The battle setup is classic and is based on three attacks, a defense/dodge button, jumping and the ability to use consumables. In addition, there is a system of skills and improvements that develops the gameplay differently for each of the heroes. The result is a soup that tries to mix elements taken from Dark Souls and Hollow Knight with some vague inspiration from Castlevania. Where The Curse of the Sea Rats goes wrong, however, is not in theory or intentions, but in practice.
In fact, the gameplay falls disastrously in the feel of the combat and in the balance of difficulty. The first is quite varied (between heroes specialized in short and long range) but is completely monotonous and unsatisfactory in the feedback of the blows delivered. The second... is a big problem. Unfortunately the title has a very steep difficulty curve in the initial phases, with the first boss being so difficult that it forces you to go back and train a lot. However, once you get past the family of Spanish mice, the game will collapse in on itself, losing all that sense of challenge. From that moment on the adventure becomes so simple that it becomes banal.
The developer's decision to give Buffalo Calf, one of the four heroes, infinite bullets for his ranged weapons doesn't help. So just use that character to destroy any enemy from a distance, thinking only about dodging during the phases against the bosses. If that's not enough for you and you're in trouble, you can always use his electrical energy capable of stunning your opponents long enough to disintegrate them. The character progression system adds variety between the different heroes, but Buffalo Calf is so much stronger than the others that it makes you wonder why use anyone else when playing alone.
Conclusions
Tested version PC with Windows digital delivery Steam, playstation store, Xbox Store, Nintendo eShop Price 17.99 € Holygamerz.com 6.0 Readers (6) 8.2 your voteThe pirates of Curse of the Sea Rats sail on a splendid ship that, however, sinks due to a thousand leaks. The title is nice to look at but the experience is flat, unbalanced and uninspiring to play. A shame, given the variety of abilities, the customization possibilities, and the whole host of great options included between powers, abilities, and upgrades. We hoped that Petoons Studio's anthropomorphic mice would make us fall in love again with other non-human pirates and instead once again, as in the most classic of clichés, first love is never forgotten, dear Captain Claw.
PRO
- aesthetically pleasing
- artistic inspiration
AGAINST
- Unbalanced
- Narratively flat
- Some notable flashes
