Developer: Sagitta Studios
Publisher: EastAsiaSoft
Platform: Switch (2), Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC
Tested on: Switch 2
Secret Paws: Cozy Apartments – Review
Switch owners who are fans of cozy puzzle games are eating well lately. Publishers RedDeer.Games and EastAsiaSoft are dropping cheap new titles on a nearly weekly basis. Being fans of these ‘palate cleanser’ games, we say the more the merrier, although not all of them are created equally, of course. A specific puzzle type that we haven’t seen a lot of in this constant stream of releases is the humble hidden object game. These games may not tickle your brain in the same way as a Sokoban puzzle does, but they’re enjoyable in their own right. Sometimes, they even warrant a sequel. The subject of today’s review, Secret Paws: Cozy Apartments is such a sequel, coming on the heels of last year’s Secret Paws: Cozy Offices. Is Cozy Apartments a gem hiding in plain sight?
Story
Stepping into a video game series with a sequel as the entry point can be tricky, especially from a narrative standpoint. We hadn’t played Cozy Offices, so we went into Cozy Apartments without any knowledge of prior events. Would there be a recap? Would there be any important bits of lore or references to that first game we’d miss? Well, not quite. Our initial fears of not being able to follow the story were quickly quelled when we found out that Cozy Apartments simply doesn’t feature a narrative at all. The premise of the game is purely that of a casual hidden object hunt, where you search for an abundance of adorable cats hiding across various rooms. We do feel like the game misses the mark when it comes to environmental storytelling. Games like Unbox the Room or Urban Jungle have proven to us that even uninhabited rooms can have lots of personality and provide clues to the identity of the people who live in them. That unfortunately isn’t the case here, and the titular apartments come across as generic instead.
Graphics
Granted, it’s not because the apartments are devoid of personality that they look bad. Quite the opposite: We’d go as far as to call the minimalist, isometric 3D aesthetic charming. The biggest issue with Cozy Apartments’ visuals is a general lack of variety. The game features 3 apartments containing a total of 14 rooms, including living rooms, bedrooms, kitchens, and bathrooms. In theory, there is ample opportunity to make everything feel distinct, with plenty of room for small details and sight gags. We’d even argue that this would make the gameplay even better, given that this is still a hidden object game. In practice, rooms of the same kind feel interchangeable, not in the least because of Cozy Apartments’ tendency to reuse assets wherever they can. We wouldn’t be surprised if most of these assets already made an appearance in Cozy Offices too. At least the cats you’re tasked with finding are adorable.
Sound
The soundscape of Cozy Apartments is perhaps even more devoid of personality than the game’s visuals. We’d be surprised if the soundtrack was composed specifically for the game, because we can only describe it as elevator music. Ambience is practically non-existent, and sound effects are minimal. Once again, the cats themselves are the only redeeming factor here, as they make pleasing purring sounds when you click on them.
Gameplay
Being a hidden object game, Cozy Apartments’ core loop is about as simple as it gets. You scan an isometric room and search for a ridiculous amount of hidden cats, ranging from around 70 to 80 per room. Found cats turn purple and glow, decreasing a level counter. Rooms can be rotated in 90-degree increments, and you can zoom in and out. Many cats are only visible from certain angles, and others require interacting with objects, like opening drawers or lifting picture frames, to reveal hidden cats. The most involved interactivity comes from rooms being locked. These rooms require you to find the key to unlock them. While this type of simple puzzle breaks monotony, they are too few and far between to prevent Cozy Apartments from becoming a repetitive affair.
Given the sheer number of cats in any given room, it’s not unlikely that you’ll find it challenging to spot the remaining handful when you’re nearly done with one. Cozy Apartments does include a hint function, where a cat you haven’t found yet is highlighted. This function operates on a 90-second cooldown timer, although we found that moving from one room to another resets it instantly. This is a very welcome feature, because it helps with alleviating a major design flaw. Cats you’ve found turn purple to indicate they’ve already been discovered. However, some of the cats are already a slightly different hue of purple by themselves, and the differences are very difficult to spot. The hint feature actually aided us in spotting these deceptive stray cats, although we’re not sure that this was intentional.
Regardless of perceived difficulty, Cozy Apartments isn’t a long game by any stretch. It takes approximately 10 minutes to clear each room, adding up to around 2,5 hours of total gameplay to find every single kitty. This is reflected in the game’s RRP, which sits at a mere €4.99, though it warrants mentioning that the game does not have any replay value. If you’re picking this one up, we’d recommend opting for the Switch version over any other platform, because surprisingly enough, Cozy Apartments actually sports touchscreen controls. This is the kind of game that you cozy up with on a rainy Sunday afternoon on a comfy couch, rather than play with a mouse and keyboard. It’s just a shame that it doesn’t linger after the credits roll.
Conclusion
We’ve been reviewing a lot of small puzzle games lately, and although Cozy Apartments isn’t comparable to the likes of 1 Catline or Pick & Place in terms of gameplay, it does fit that palate cleanser mold. It’s cheap, it’s short and ultimately… it’s forgettable.
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