SCOTT WHISKERS – the Search for the Golden Cat

Scott Whiskers' first adventure, Search for Mr. Fumbleclaw, was a very enjoyable adventure that included almost all the (good and bad) ingredients of a solo production. It didn't do anything really wrong, but it didn't manage to impress in any particular area either, nevertheless composing a pleasant adventure for adventure fans, thanks to its "feel-good" mood. Creator Axel Friedrich had already promised that the adventures of cat lover Scott would continue, but we didn't expect it to happen so soon. Just a year and a half after the release of the first game, its sequel, Scott Whiskers: The Search for the Golden Cat, is now a reality.

The truth is that the short time between the two games made me a bit unsure about the final result. Developing an adventure game is a time-consuming task, especially when it is (largely) a one-man project, and combined with the merely above-average result of Search for Mr. Fumbleclaw, I expected something rushed and clearly inferior to the first game. However, Mr. Friedrich proved me wrong, as The Search for the Golden Cat not only corrects most of the problems of the first game, but is also a decent adventure game that is worth playing, even if you have already completed the (top) adventure games released this year.

However, despite all the improvements we will mention below, the Achilles heel of Search for the Golden Cat is its script. Certainly, the game strives for a "family-friendly" and "feel-good" mood, as we mentioned above, but my feeling is that the game's plot is written more as a support mechanism for a series of puzzles than as the central protagonist of the adventure. The story begins very simply, with Scott winning a trip to a village in Central America, which he takes advantage of to spend a few carefree days on vacation. Obviously, his vacation will not be so carefree, as the village has been almost deserted by both locals and tourists.

The remaining residents attribute this to the disappearance of the Golden Cat, a sacred relic which, according to their traditions, ensured prosperity in the area. At first, Scott is skeptical of the residents' superstitions, but his curiosity (and his love of cats, of course) about what has happened leads him to investigate the case and find a definitive solution to the problem. That's pretty much it, with the game offering no particular surprises in its plot, which unfolds without any tension. We would say that it is reminiscent of some old adventure films, where we knew the outcome in advance and watched them simply to see how they would unfold. This is also the case with Search for the Golden Cat.

Where the sequel shows a clear improvement is in the puzzles. Those of you who played the first game will have noticed the low level of difficulty and the relative ease with which one could reach the finale. Here, things are completely different. The puzzles have been more carefully designed and require more thought and patience, especially since most of them are interconnected, while the fairly "open" structure of the game raises the difficulty level. The fact that the game allows us to collect many different, seemingly unrelated items before we even know why we will need them further complicates the situation, with the inventory filling up quite quickly and our possible choices increasing.

However, the game attempts to bring some order to all this by recording our goals in a journal, which quickly fills up with information. Therefore, in order to meet the challenge, we must be quite focused and know in advance that it is not possible to complete all the objectives in the order in which they are recorded. That is, some objectives may be added in the first chapter (of the three available) and the solution may be achieved in the last. In general, however, it is not as chaotic as it sounds. Search for the Golden Cat is quite accessible for the most part, but at the same time, it can cause us to get stuck if we focus on a puzzle that the conditions are not yet right for solving.

As for the implementation of the puzzles themselves, most of them fall within the realm of (adventure-style) logic, with considerable variety, consisting mainly of inventory-based challenges (although there is also a musical puzzle), with two or three cases requiring a little more imagination to solve. Fortunately, these are in the minority and in no way detract from its quality as an adventure game, but they can cause slight irritation with the "try everything with everything" tactic, in the absence of a built-in hint system.

The second element that shows a dramatic change is his dialogues. The first Scott Whiskers was characterized by inexplicable chatter, in an attempt to fit in as many jokes as possible, but also to sketch (in a way) the characters we encountered. In Search for the Golden Cat, much better work has been done to optimize them, without losing the sense of humor, while there is a mechanism that highlights the responses in the dialogues that are "necessary" for the plot of the game, leaving the rest to the discretion of the player. I don't agree with this tactic (we saw it in the recent remake of Syberia, but also in the patched version of 3 Minutes to Midnight – although there was a much more serious reason for including it!), the relative brevity of the dialogues led me to read them all without getting tired, even if the character in question was not the most interesting person I could have met.

In terms of controls, Search for the Golden Cat includes most of the quality of life features one would expect in a modern adventure game, such as an (optional) hot-spot indicator, quick transition from one screen to another with a double click, a map for instant travel, and so on. The only strange thing is still the achievement system, where in order to earn them all, you just need to take a photo of the characters you meet, thus filling your inventory with unnecessary entries—fortunately, this time they are not so annoying, because they are sorted after the items that have some use.

In terms of technical aspects, the game is not state-of-the-art, but it presents a much better image than its predecessor. This is particularly true of the locations we visit, which are quite detailed and vividly colored, as well as the character rendering (perhaps beyond the portraits). However, it suffers a little in the area of animation, which is limited to showing the absolute basics, probably due to the relatively low budget, which, however, did not affect the voice acting, with the voice-over being of a very decent standard. On the other hand, the soundtrack is reminiscent of older times, being a remarkable accompanying musical "companion", which under other circumstances (if it had been released in the 90s, that is) would have been reminiscent of MIDI melodies!

The conclusion that emerges from my engagement with Scott Whiskers: The Search for the Golden Cat is that it is an improved adventure game, compared to first one, which, again, is not going to thrill (it had a very difficult task this year anyway), but at the same time, no one will feel that they wasted their time playing it. Therefore, we would not say no to a third adventure with Scott Whiskers, perhaps this time with a more "intriguing" scenario.