Another month, another hidden cat game from our pals at Silesia Games, subdeveloped by the excellently named Sleepwalking Potatoes from Rzeszów in southeast Poland. This time the setting is the Wild West and the game is Hidden Cat Outlaws. Something of a departure from the other hidden cat games we’ve reviewed recently, with actual animated scenes with colour as well as the feline miscreants.
Unlike the last hidden cat game we reviewed, the ancillary areas are unlocked by finding keys in open view. Also, the cats are all hidden in plain sight and you’ll often miss them on your first pass. Even if you think you’re being thorough, you’ll miss them. We even recorded our gameplay to make sure cats weren’t revealed as you progressed, sure enough there they were and we missed them altogether.
Another departure is boss encounters, though they’re simple d-pad QTEs and it only reveals a hidden treasure that you’ll potentially have already uncovered. As we mentioned, there’s a hidden treasure item per level, which feels a bit shoehorned into the Wild West setting, especially when it’s something daft like an Egyptian pharaoh mask.
Across its fifteen levels, Hidden Cat Outlaws has over five hundred cats to find as well as three extra items per level. These are a bigger challenge than the cats in some cases, as you can find the cats with a little help from the hint function. Notso the extra objects.
The game can be torn through in no short order if you’re wanting a quick and easy platinum trophy, but we’d recommend eking it out a little as all the levels are a bit samey if we’re honest. Though our squinting wasn’t quite as acute as in the other installments so that helped a bit. The zoom function was also a big help.
In conclusion, Hidden Cat Outlaws is more of the same, but different. That’s no bad thing though as a little variety is like adding a bit of hot sauce to your baked beans before you put them on your grilled cheese toast.
+ Slight changes to mechanics are welcome
- The hidden treasures feel out of place