Catlateral Damage: Remeowstered

Genre: First-Person Platformer

Players: 1

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Review:

Catlateral Damage is a family-friendly First-Person Platformer released in 2015 on PC with a port to PlayStation 4 in 2016, with a 2021 remake releasing on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch revamping the visuals, improving game mechanics, adding new RPG-style upgrades, and various other improvements. But at its core is the same idea: You are a cat looking to terrorize a location as much as possible before you run out of energy.

While this is a remake, the presentation is far from anything you’d consider impressive. This game uses simple 3D visuals with heavy cel-shaded borders, with a style that’s not especially distinct or memorable. This is backed by lighthearted music that works well enough for the gameplay, but is similarly unmemorable.

On the surface, Catlateral Damage looks like an amateurish game with shallow gameplay. You play as a cat in first-person, and largely you’re just running around a house, apartment, or other location, knocking things down and swiping at destructible objects to damage them, and that’s about it. And yet…

And yet, darned if it isn’t surprisingly compelling. I suppose a part of that is just because it’s fun to go around being a jerk and destroying things. However, there’s more to it than that. Every action you do consumes energy, whether it’s walking around, swiping with your claws, and so on. Jumping takes a sizable chunk of energy. There are ways to refill energy, such as eating or napping in single-use nap spots. But these only refill so much, and eventually your finite energy will run out. And so there’s a bit of a score-chasing element to this game, trying to see how much damage you can cause before tiring yourself out, making strategic choices about how you go about wrecking the place.

Another element that adds depth here are goals within each level, and permanent RPG-style upgrades you can earn as you progress through the game, getting more energy, stronger paw swipes, higher jumps, and so on. This makes it so even if you can’t complete all the goals in a level, you have some prospect of improving on your attempt in a subsequent run after upgrading abilities.

Ultimately, there are still elements of Catlateral Damage that are lacking – platforming isn’t great, hit detection is sketchy, and the game could use better signposting regarding your goals. Plus, the static environments can make things a bit predictable (though procedurally-generated levels you can access help with this).

Overall, despite its amateurish qualities, Catlateral Damage succeeds surprisingly well at what it aims to do – give players the experience of being a destructive cat set loose to wreck a location. There’s still a lot of room for improvement here, but what’s here is surprisingly compelling, and well worth trying out if you’re craving some destructive fun.

tl;dr – Catlateral Damage: Remeowstered is a remake of a family-friendly First-Person Platformer that puts players in the role of a cat looking to knock things down and make a mess. This game is extremely amateurish, yet succeeds despite this thanks to its fun destructive elements and compelling score-chasing elements and RPG-style upgrades. The result is a game that succeeds despite its shortcomings, and is well worth checking out for those wanting to partake in a little destructive fun.

Grade: B-

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