Calamity Cait by Xavier Bell
In Calamity Cait, you play as Cait, a somewhat directionless recent high school grad in the Australian state of Victoria. You have a job running whale-watching tours off the coast.
You are kind of into your co-worker, Molly, but have pretty severe anxiety issues, often calamitizing about what could go wrong, maybe what did go wrong, and really having a hard time keeping things together, let alone asking her out.
The Unbearable Lighthouse of Being
When we meet Cait, she’s ridden her bike up to a lighthouse high above the coast and is considering suicide – it would be easy to dive into the rocks from here – because she’s in inner turmoil about her relationship with Molly and basically doesn’t much like her life otherwise.
A kid shows up at the lighthouse with a pad, though, plays a lame shooter game – a minigame which you can also play – and you start telling him the story.
The game is largely in black and white, though the sea and skies have color; in general, the graphics are the weakest part of the game (not because they’re black and white, but because the characters are stiff and not that visually appealing, though the environments are fine).
Where Calamity Cait shines is its writing. Cait’s angst and anxiety are relatable, and when she opens up to Molly, you understand that, while damaged, she’s a decent and potentially loving human being. Molly also talks a lot in the latter part of the game, exposing her own fears and experiences.
It’s worth playing just to explore their relationship.
Don’t Want to Hold Your Hand
The game provides no real hand-holding about how to progress; to do so means finding a hotspot to click to initiate the next sequence, but these are not inherently obvious, nor does any key show where hotspots are.
In the lighthouse sequence, you need to sit down on a bench, but I spent a fair bit of time wandering about until a “Sit” prompt appeared, and okay, oh. Similarly later on, your girflriend sits in a shopping cart, and you can steer her around an abandoned mall parking lot, and it isn’t until you find a ramp and run your cart over it that the game progresses (another mini-game).
Again, no hints; you just have to figure this out. In a larger game, I’d find the lack of hand-holding problematic, but in a short walking sim, OK, it is what it is.
Working your job, you encounter a whale, and you do manage to scrape up the confidence to ask Molly on a date. Which goes well, although the next day you’re filled with your usual anxiety, fearing you’ve screwed things up again (hence the lighthouse suicide thoughts).
Telling your story to the kid cheers you up, though; and by this short game’s end, it seems like Cait and Molly have a future.
The Verdict
Calamity Cait is a short narrative game with angsty but appealing characters, well-written dialog, a touching sapphic romance, and an interesting Australian setting. It won’t change your life, but hey, it’s a free download!
Calamity Cait is available Steam.
Watch the official trailer for Calamity Cait:
