Developer: Inertia Game Studios
Publisher: Inertia Game Studios
Platform: PC, Xbox One, PS4
Tested on: PS4
Catastronauts – Review
It hasn’t been that long ago since we were having fun with the frantic sequel of the Overcooked series. We were actually quite sad when our journey with the game ended after completing every trial the title had to offer and after a few fun but hectic online sessions. Then again, like every good story, every game has an ending and when it’s a good one, it leaves us wanting more, which can only be solved by poking the developers to bring out another sequel. Nonetheless, with the immense popularity of the Overcooked games there are of course those who wish to take a bit of the formula of said games and use it for their own creative projects. This brought us to Catastronauts, a game that took Overcooked as its inspiration but changed the scenery from a kitchen to a spaceship in which you’ll have to fend off evil aliens and keep your ship in check to make sure you’ll survive another day. Play alone or with friends, repair your space ship and arm the weapons, as this hectic game has some intergalactic battles in store for us.
Story
The story value in this game is very slim, but it does set the mood though. You’ll find yourself on different spaceships that are under attack for one reason or another. In-between missions you’ll get a bit of dialogue and at the beginning of each level you’ll get some one-liners by the enemy vessel. Overall there’s not that much content concerning the story of the game, but you’ll get small bits now and then that set the proper tone of the game.
Graphics
Even in the graphical department of the game it’s clear that the Overcooked series served as an inspiration. The characters all have cute appearances with big heads, very much like the source material. The different levels all happen in a spaceship-like theme, where there are different rooms, different machines to use, intergalactic blasters to be armed, rockets to carry and mines to throw away, all while your ship is slowly but visibly being damaged by the enemy invaders. The overall appearance is quite simple, but it has that Overcooked vibe, which makes it quite loveable. The only remark we have is pretty much about the character models being a bit bland in terms of diversity, as many characters clearly are the same models that are rehashed with different hairdos and skin tones.
Sound
The music in the game isn’t all that spiffy, but it’s upbeat enough to be somewhat amusing. You’ll barely notice the tunes when you’re running around a burning spaceship however. Aside from the somewhat unimpressive soundtrack, there’s the voice acting that’s just a bit of humorous mumbling from the different important characters in the game. It’s very much akin to the Overcooked series once again, but it has a few original touches here and there.
Gameplay
Catastronauts is a hectic party game in which up to four players can run around in different spaceships which are under attack by aliens. From start to finish you’ll be putting out fires, fixing cracks, making sure the gates are closed, charge batteries for the weapons, fire said weapons, make sure the core doesn’t overload and so on. Much like the Overcooked series, every few stages new mechanics will appear to make the game more challenging, in this case, you won’t be making harder dishes, but you’ll have more tools to work with, more enemy barrages to deflect, more weapons to maintain and fire, and sometimes you’ll even have to open the cargo bay, without being sucked in the vacuum of space. Overall we were quite impressed with the different things to do in this intergalactic party game.
Much like the series it’s based on, the gameplay is compromised by you running around with not a clue what to do first. You’ll be under constant attack, which means your spaceship will get damaged all the time. When this happens, you’ll have to communicate with your friends (as this game is best played with a few friends on your couch) as to what has to happen first. Certain things require an extra set of hands, and it’s sometimes best if you decide who does what in a certain order. Sometimes it’s just easy to have one person fix everything, while the other one runs around arming the weapons, or handling the extra mechanics of the level. Your characters can also die, but if your respawn cabin is still working, they can be revived, sometimes automatically, other times with the press of a button which has to be done by one of the other players. You’ll also notice some very clear difficulty spikes, but that’s what makes this game fun and challenging.
Conclusion
Catastronauts is a very amusing spin-off of the Overcooked series that just takes something familiar and molds it into something very original and hectic. We do suggest to play this game with friends as this is where the game truly shines. If you’re looking for an intergalactic adventure with cute graphics, an original theme, great mechanics and a few tough as nails challenges we can only shoot this title in your direction. While our expectations were not that high, seeing as this game is somewhat of a clone, we were actually very pleasantly surprised and we had an amazing time during our review period.
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