Curiosity Review (PC)

It wasn’t curiosity that killed the cat; it was the imbecile who couldn’t navigate an elevated fence to save their life — all nine of them, apparently. But that was but a small lesson that would’ve garnered poor consequences regardless. I figured, if I had waltzed into Curiosity with the high expectations of it being a copycat of Stray, then I would naturally meet a drastic end. The fact of the matter was that Curiosity wasn’t Stray; it was a rage game with feline infusions. It was a game that, quite frankly, I should’ve prepared myself for and not allowed to pull the wool over my eyes with its adorable coating and oh-so-slinky eyes. Curiosity wasn’t, in fact, cute.

At first glance, I thought that it would be an easygoing platforming game about a versatile house cat. With that, I made the simple mistake of assuming that the game wouldn’t consist of much more than sleeping, purring, and occasionally scratching a few posts to sharpen the claws and broaden the senses. But it wasn’t like that at all. No, Curiosity didn’t want me to enjoy the simple pleasures of feline life; it wanted me to curl up into a ball and slowly slip into a perpetual state of anxious rage. It wasn’t on the same pedestal as Getting Over It — but it might as well have been. The anger was there, and sure enough, the means to throw the entire world into a trash can was almost too inviting to pass up. Yet, annoyingly, I found myself going way beyond those nine lives to subject myself to even more torment. Cats — how on earth do they do it?

Fear of Falling

Curiosity isn’t the type of game that enjoys witnessing you succeed; it instead bathes in the brittle mistakes that you frequently make and the troubles that you subject yourself to in a fit of denial. It’s a bit like a traditional rage game, in that it doesn’t make even the simplest of things easy, but rather, makes it so that each and every obstacle that you encounter either has an underlying issue, or a hidden vice that makes you want to pull your hair out and take a long brisk walk through the woodland to clear your head. Okay, so it isn’t that bad — but a rage game is a rage game, and to call it for what it is, Curiosity is, in spite of its best efforts to appeal to feline enthusiasts, a swinging scythe with matted fur.

The game itself invites you to navigate a collection of areas as a hop-loving kitten—an unlikely protagonist who, unlike your versatile ginger hero à la Stray, is more or less incapable of doing, well, anything. The cat can leap, and sure enough, the cat can fall. It’s figuring out how on earth such a pet can not only survive the harsh reality of a towering obstacle course, but also master parkour, too. And yes, I did say parkour. If that’s something you wasn’t expecting to pop up, then you might want to take a breather before going any further.

Curiosity paints a simple premise: an ordinary cat wants to get home. However, that cat, as flexible and as competent as it proclaims to be, doesn’t have the prowess or instincts to navigate even the smallest of fences or gaps. And of course, this wouldn’t be an issue in any normal situation, but Curiosity makes it one. Honestly, though, I’m not sure whether it’s the cat’s general lack of competence or the game’s janky mechanics that are to blame. Let’s just say that it’s both, for argument’s sake.

Perfectly Incompetent

Over the course of a relatively short (made longer by the amount of times someone struggles to conquer an obstacle, regrettably) campaign, you have the task of weaving through a series of boroughs, each with its own set of parkour challenges, platforms, gaps, walls, and verges. The idea from this is to force players to thread the needle in a way that doesn’t impact their mental health. And by that I mean, learning to understand that, no matter how far you fall, you will always have a second chance to rewrite your wrongs. Or at least, nine extra chances, anyway. After that, well — it’s probably best not to dwell on it.

I’d love to say that the mechanics are buttery smooth and free-flowing, but the truth is, they aren’t. For example, you can only jump in one locked direction, and you can rarely alter your actions after committing to one. Jumping, in general, is a pain in the backside, are are most of the things that you need to achieve in the game. But, again, it’s a rage game, so it’s more or less etched into its bloodstream. I just wish it wasn’t.

If it’s realism that you’re scratching your ears for, then bad news: you won’t find it here. Without going into too much detail, I will say this: Curiosity isn’t winning any favors in the audiovisual department. Don’t get me wrong, it is cute, and it does reignite some of those Tokyo Jungle vibes. That being said, it doesn’t give you much to write home about. Simply, it’s cluttered and it’s a little chaotic. But then, it’s a rage game with illogical design elements, so we’ll leave it at that.

Verdict

If you, too, are feeling awfully curious about what cats get up to after hours, then you might as well watch a documentary about it, for Curiosity won’t give you much more than a headache and an excuse to take a walk to contemplate your actions. To give credit where credit is due, I will say that it is an oddly enjoyable game. Or at least, it can be, when things tend to go right, that is. As for whether or not it’s worth the trouble of subjecting yourself to is another question. If you enjoy rage bait and feline friends, however, then you’ll probably enjoy scratching your head over this unruly sandbox. If it’s a spiritual successor to Stray that you’re itching for, then you might want to divert your course and opt for another litter box.