A Wild West Kitty Hunt or a Flimsy Frontier?
Hidden Cat Outlaws attempts to blend the charm of those delightful hidden cat games that Silesia Games have become known for, with a Wild West aesthetic. Ultimately, it falls short of delivering a truly engaging or memorable experience, seen instead as a little tease to sit alongside the bigger, better ‘Hidden Cats In…’ franchise.
Granted, it offers a few moments of fun, but at the end of the day the game struggles with a lack of level variety, uninspired audio, and a general feeling of being less polished than its genre counterparts. And if we’re honest, those hidden cats are rarely ever ‘hidden’ either.
Dusty Deserts and Deflating Duels
As you may suspect, the core gameplay loop involves finding a set number of cats (and the odd item) across 15 levels. Each stage presents a new Wild West scene, featuring a lone town with various buildings like saloons, stores, and sheds. The cats are mostly found sitting around outdoors, lazying in the desert sun, soaking up the rays, but some require a key to unlock doors to specific buildings, further revealing their indoor hiding spots. This mechanic, while a decent attempt to add complexity and the search for a small key (small keys that are harder to find than the actual cats), doesn’t particularly enhance the challenge.
There is also a boss battle that gets introduced in each level, but rather disappointingly acts as nothing but a swift, easy to complete quick-time event. You’ll be left to merely press a required direction on the D-pad a few times to win, earning a treasure map as a reward. That map? It points to some unearthed treasure and the achievement attached to each piece of shiny joy.
The Problem with Meows
I’ll be honest. I’m a big fan of the Hidden Cats In… series of games, mostly as the cool meows that play out as you search for kitties becomes addictive. But one of the most jarring aspects of Hidden Cat Outlaws is its audio design and the fact that the meows rarely sound authentic. Instead, they are just plain weird; more cries for help that detract from the immersion. We’re not sure how these ‘meows’ came about, but we just hope that they weren’t taken from a real-world cat direct, and if they were, a vet visit may well be needed.
On a more positive note, the background music consists of some delightful little Wild West ditties. These tunes are a pleasant addition and whilst they aren’t particularly earwormy, and you may well decide to turn the music down a tad as you reach the end of the 15 stages, it’s decent enough to complement the setting.
A Lack of Level Variety
Visually, Hidden Cat Outlaws is all fine, and just about detailed enough. The graphics are functional, presenting clear enough environments to facilitate the hidden cat hunt that plays out. And those level maps are reasonably sized too, complete with the ability to zoom in and out with a pull on the triggers. It’s all very much as you would expect from a game of this type.
However, the game suffers from a severe lack of variety in its level design. Each level is very similar to the one previous to it, and that which follows; once you’ve seen one Wild West town, you’ve seen them all. This repetitive scenery quickly leads to a bit of visual fatigue and makes the later levels feel like a bit of a rehash of earlier ones.
Decoy Animals and Easy Gamerscore
To help with your hunting, Hidden Cat Outlaws offers unlimited hints, which refresh on a 30-second timer. If you feel you need it, especially in the latter stages of a level as single cats are left unfound, this provides a generous safety net, ensuring that progress is rarely halted for long. However, a minor annoyance is that these can only be used to uncover cats, not the other hidden items. We’ve found ourselves left stumped by a single item on a couple of the stages, only eventually picking them up further down the line.
What we do like though is that upon finding a cat, it transforms into a cat carrier; a small visual flourish that adds a touch of charm to the whole discovery process. And we also like the decoy animals that are found wandering the plains – dogs, rabbits, cows all up the ante in terms of finding those cats.
But as always for a Silesia Games game, if you see yourself as a bit of an achievement hunter, Hidden Cat Outlaws is able to offer up an easy 1000 Gamerscore, gathered over the course of a couple of hours. Consider the low asking price, and that could well tempt you in to this one.
A Shadow in the Hidden Cats Universe
As a time waster to work alongside the Hidden Cats In… franchise, Hidden Cat Outlaws is fine. But it never really excels, struck with poor audio and repetitive stage design to leave it residing in the shadow of its more accomplished peers. On the plus side, it’s stupidly cheap and complete with some of the easiest Gamerscore you will ever unlock.
Important Links
Wanted: Over 600 Hidden Cats – Can You Wrangle Them in Hidden Cat Outlaws? – https://www.thexboxhub.com/wanted-over-600-hidden-cats-can-you-wrangle-them-in-hidden-cat-outlaws/
Buy Hidden Cat Outlaws on Xbox – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/hidden-cat-outlaws/9PF4X2FKQ57Q/0010
