It’s not hard to imagine that many ideas added to a project during early development end up nixed, either breaking things in some way or failing to suit the overall tone. The best example I can think of is how so few fantasy games with dragons let you harness the ability to fly, as this would allow players to skip large sections, removing most of the challenge. Solo developed indie Ship’s Cat tries to prove that not only can you have your dragon, but you can eat it too.
Taking inspiration from the runaway hit Stray, you’re cast into the role of a highly trained rodent exterminator – aka an everyday tabby cat – and presented with the task of catching mice on a luxury cruise ship. The captain welcomes you in as the newest addition to their valuable team, before letting you loose on the main deck to commence the rodent cull. During this playful opening scene you’re able to leap around on pool inflatables, go headfirst down the water slide, and catch a few mice in return for compliments from grateful guests.
My impressions at this early point were generally favourable, more in less in line with what to expect from a low budget solo project. The cat isn’t particularly well animated, yet the controls are responsive enough, leaping to the nearest surface at the push of a button. It looks okay too, especially the shopping mall with its shiny marble floors and stores filled with various individual items. Look around, and you’ll find some surprisingly intricate details, going someway to preventing this from feeling cheap and hastily cobbled together.
From the main deck onwards, every new location presents a mission only you and your cat-like abilities can solve. You may have to crawl through airducts into the ship’s underbelly to re-activate power generators, or turn on the water sprinklers to stop a raging fire in the engine room. All the while, there are plenty of things to interact with – including a mini golf course with physics-based balls to bat around. There’s plenty to stop and listen to as well, with each NPC having a few lines of dialogue that they spew continuously. Initially, much of this is typical chit-chat with the occasional random musing – such as a customer in the nail bar mentioning that she uses her serrated nails to slice bread.
Eventually, this tour of the ship brings our fearless feline to the dining hall, where they’re instructed to catch a very large mouse. It’s at this point that the façade well and truly drops; Ship’s Cat isn’t about catching mice or even preventing a catastrophic engine failure – it’s about delivering an experience that becomes increasingly unhinged, going from one warped and unlikely situation to the next. This includes gaining a few very far-fetched abilities to battle the raging army of mice…some of which can be humorously observed scurrying out the ship’s tech store, clutching the latest cell phones.
I can’t deny that Ship’s Cat is amusing, especially during its more deranged second half, but this absurdity comes at a cost. Certain later introduced attacks essentially break the game; at best obscuring the action for a few seconds, at worst making the cat fall through the floor of the ship and into the void below. This happens often, and I’m pretty sure I missed out on a scene or two as a result. Later areas are also too hectic for their own good: a mixture of explosions, laser beams, fluorescently glowing mice, particle effects, and reflective surfaces that mirror the busy world around them.
I went into Ship’s Cat expecting a condensed take on Stray (the 1-2 hour playtime is used as a selling point), but what I ended with was an alternative feline take on Goat Simulator, complete with absurd humour and glitches that make it feel unstable. It never crashed, but I didnt have to reload saves often. Like Goat Simulator though, Ship’s Cat does have the capacity to surprise and entertain, telling a comical story. Let your kids loose on this for an evening, and I’m sure you’ll hear a giggle or two. I’m glad I was able to experience its dubious delights, but had it lasted any longer, all of its problems would have amounted, becoming untenable. Like the saying goes, “comedy is about timing” – and Ship’s Cat has that purr-fected, if nothing else.
Caddy Computing’s Ship’s Cat is out now on PS5. It first launched on PC in 2024.