Catmaze

I went into Catmaze expecting a mid-tier indie curiosity and came out genuinely charmed, which does not happen as often as I would like. The setup pulls directly from Slavic mythology: young sorceress Alesta heads into the realm of the dead, Nav, to rescue her mother after the spirit Mara drags her away in the night. That premise could have been pure window dressing, but the writing earns it. Side characters carry real weight, each one woven into a personal tragedy rather than dropped in as fetch-quest filler. The translation from Russian is occasionally bumpy, but the awkward word choices have an authenticity that actually adds to the folktale feel rather than undermining it. The core mechanic that sets Catmaze apart from the genre crowd is the familiar system. Alesta fights entirely through a rotating loadout of small animals, each one filling a different combat role. You can whip enemies with a snake, lob a bat as a ranged attack, or use a hedgehog for short-range stabbing. That last sentence is as delightful in play as it sounds. With 12 creature types available, there is genuine variety in how you approach encounters, and swapping your loadout to suit a new area feels like an actual tactical decision rather than a cosmetic one. Mobility abilities are also tied to the creature system, so what you bring with you shapes how freely you move through the map as well. The metroidvania structure is competent and occasionally inventive. Caves, marshes, villages, and dark forests each carry a distinct visual identity, and mid-exploration surprises like riding a wolf or flying a broomstick break up the standard left-right-jump rhythm nicely. Boss encounters draw from the Slavic bestiary, with kikimora and anchutkas among the highlights, and they demand pattern memorization rather than raw stat checks. The flip side is that some bosses lean into bullet-sponge territory a little longer than they should, and the early hours before your familiar collection expands feel notably constrained. The map also offers very little explicit objective guidance, which suits explorers but may frustrate players who prefer a nudge. The RPG layer is light but present. You can tune Alesta's stats to suit your preferred approach, and collecting health and magic upgrades across the map gradually turns a somewhat fragile witch into someone the monsters should fear. Save points come in the form of fountains that restore health and mana, and the game does not hold your hand about when to use them, so manual discipline matters. Multiple endings are in play, and some sidequest completions actually lock you out of certain outcomes, which is exactly the kind of structural choice that rewards a second playthrough. The pixel art is charming if modest, and the soundtrack, while competent, occasionally loops too quickly in longer exploration stretches. Catmaze is a solo-developed game and it shows in the polish ceiling, not in the ambition. The writing rewards attention, the familiar combat system is genuinely original, and the Slavic setting is refreshing in a genre dominated by gothic European aesthetics. For fans of accessible, story-forward metroidvanias with real folklore roots, this one is worth clearing your afternoon for.

Monika · Scout Team

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