‘Curiosity: A Cat Climbing Game’ Brings High Risks and Even Higher Rewards
Curiosity: A Cat Climbing Game is a challenging 3D platforming indie game that was developed by DarkBear Studios and iNightGaming LLC, with it being published by DarkBear Studios. As you make your way through Curiosity, you will be greeted by a slew of platforms, moving objects, and other obstacles that will require precision and patience as you make your vertical journey to the top.
I discovered Curiosity when I visited David “GrandPOOBear” Hunt’s streaming channel hosted on Twitch. I mention GrandPOOBear’s involvement as he is one of the co-founders of DarkBear Studios while also producing and voicing one of the cats you’ll encounter on your perilous journey.
To play Curiosity, you will only have the option of getting it on PC, and it can be purchased through Steam. Players have described Curiosity as a “ragebait” or “ragelike” game due to the game being unforgiving and how it might trigger anger in the player when it comes to the platforming aspects that this game is built on.
Players will have limited lives, checkpoints, and very few save points, meaning if you fall, you may have to start again from the very beginning or, at minimum, from your last primary save point. There are six stages, each with their own defining themes and mechanics.
With the exception of the first and final stages, the stages are broken up into four individual sections. The stages vary in length, and personally it took me several hours to complete. While it may be easy to just give up when playing a game like this, it is incredibly rewarding when clearing a stage and being able to save your game.
Curiosity is a difficult but rewarding experience
When you begin on the daunting epic that is Curiosity, you’ll start as an adorable little cat, also named Curiosity, in a forest leading to a small city filled with outdoor cafés, scaffolding, ramps, and other platforming objects. You’ll come upon scratching posts that work as tutorial hint points that will help you understand the controls and movement. They’ll also give a little bit of flavor to what it feels like to control this cat.
When I first heard about this game, I immediately had to purchase it even though I knew very little about it other than it featured a cat and climbing. What I discovered was an entirely different game, one filled with arduous movement and platforming. Curiosity may present a formidable challenge, but with every twist and turn, I discovered that the game was straightforward with the one thing needed for success: finesse.
Every time I had a misstep, it was either due to lack of patience or overcorrection when making a move. While I had many failed attempts, when I did land perfectly on a seemingly difficult placement, I would be filled with pride in myself.
After clearing the first stage, you will continue through an ascent that will take you higher into the world, running into floating tables, chairs, condiment bottles, and even a giant pretzel that all showcase the creativity of the designers and artists. If you think everything is going to remain stationary or even rock back and forth in movement, you will be surprised by the variety the platforming in Curiosity has to offer.
After I completed one of the four subsections in a stage, I would become overconfident in my skills only to be humbled by the new and somewhat unwelcoming challenges in the next part of the same stage. I knew that each challenge that came after the previous ones would get increasingly more difficult, but I was constantly humored and surprised at what the game would throw at me next. There is more than just the platforming in Curiosity that will trip you up. There are other obstacles, such as hands that can grab and throw you off the stage, while another stage has cannons firing artillery that can and will knock you back and away off course.
All of these things might sound scary, but there hasn’t been a game like Curiosity that has given me this much satisfaction and joy out of completing an area.
The game is even less intimidating, in part due to a creative way of handling your nine lives and semi-permanent checkpoints that come in the form of cat beds. I use semi-permanent because you can place checkpoints wherever you want, as long as you have some cat beds remaining in your inventory. Once you place down a bed, you’ll be able to quickly fast travel back to that point no matter where you are as long as you’re currently not in motion.
However, be careful of where you place your checkpoints and use your lives because if you run out of beds and your nine lives, you’ll be forced to go to the veterinarian’s office. Any time this happened to me, I would just reload my saved game because I know of multiple endings this game has, and I wanted to ensure I got the best ending I could get.
Thankfully, if you can make it to or make it back to a Cat Café, you can freely replace any lost cat beds and restore up to nine lives per café location. Even though I lost numerous lives, once I reached the final stage and made my way back home, I was very proud of myself for being tenacious and making it to the end.
Anything is pawsible in this fun cat-inspired game
Throughout your adventure of Curiosity, you’ll come across other cats, memory spots that are narrated by the owner of what I presume is the lost cat you’re playing as, and coins that work as currency in the shops. You can unlock various things in the shops, from hats to other fur colors and even cat translators that will turn the fun pseudo cat meowing into English. It was pretty funny hearing GrandPOOBear and other individuals doing their best “cat” voices, and I really appreciated how it was done, even if it was a little cheesy.
There are also special challenges that can unlock various cosmetics depending on if you’ve completed a stage fast enough or completed a stage without jumping and/or sprinting.
I’ll admit that there were many times I would no longer make progress on a particular segment of a stage. I would end up making the same mistake 50 or 60 times, but turning the game off and coming back to the same points later in another playthrough would usually result in success. I’m really glad I stuck with Curiosity because all in all it was a joyous yet sometimes punishing experience, but wow, it was all worth it!
My rating for this game: 4/5
I understand and acknowledge that Curiosity isn’t for everyone, but if you’re daring enough and want an intense challenge that offers huge risks and even better rewards, then this game is definitely for you.
I really want to recommend this game to more people, but it also runs into the problem of someone getting this game and they don’t really vibe well with the challenges the game has to offer. That being said, I’ve played a lot of indie games this year, and out of all of them, this is probably the most rewarding.
I sometimes have doubts in my abilities, and getting to the end is one of my greatest gaming achievements of the year. I will never forget my time with Curiosity. With all that being said, if this game sounds like it’d be right up your alley, find it on Steam and give it a try!
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