The term "Metroidvania" has grown to an almost sacred status. This is of course mainly due to several really impressive games, and it is also a genre where indie games have flourished quite a bit. Curse of the Sea Rats, is the latest adventure to fall into this category, and puts you into the role of a rat, to make your way through a large map in the quest to break the curse that has turned you into, well, a rat. While it takes it's time to get going, I was still pleasantly surprised at how entertaining this game was in the end, because even though the game suffers from some problems that knock it down a few tiers, it is still overall fun to play.
You can buy various items that will make your adventure much easier.
You have become a rat, a pirate rat to be more specific, and this is the overriding theme that I find brilliant, as the mix here is perfect, and allows for a lot of great design. To break the curse you must rescue the captain's kidnapped daughter, and so begins the journey through a myriad of rooms where the map quickly becomes your best friend in helping you navigate forward through a level, and of course sometimes backwards. Because if there's one thing a Metroidvania is known for, it's that you can't get past certain passages you've already seen until further into the game.
The same applies here, where especially the possibility to double jump allows you to reach rooms you couldn't reach before. Overall, I think the map and navigation is well designed, but not quite perfect. Some unnecessary back-tracking when you die is mainly the game's big problem, it becomes quite frustrating to have to run back through rooms to make another attempt at a boss or a passage. There is also a balance problem in the game that is clearly noticeable after a couple of hours. The hero, or rather each selectable hero because there are four, has a skill tree and before you fill this, both enemies and bosses are a much bigger challenge than they are later in the game. Once you have some skills under your belt, the difficulty level in the game drops radically. Most of the game's bosses are child's play, and the only way for the game to create some challenge is through classic scenarios where a failed jump will kill you instantly.
The frustration of having to make your way back through a bunch of rooms becomes increasingly apparent. Moreover, the same goes for reaching the game's shop where you can buy items, as these places are scattered at fairly long intervals and even if you can buy a handy whistle to teleport back there, there's no way of returning to where you originally teleported from.
The variety of environments is brilliant.
The environments that you move through are very nice and I am impressed with the variety offered. It's a great environment both in terms of design and visuals and much of the reason I made it all the way to the credits was because of the environments on offer. Because even though the map is one big interconnected maze, it is varied in a good way. Even the music manages to enhance the atmosphere but a small negative finger must be pointed at the annoying sound effects when the rats are forced to scream at every jump or blow. I must also unfortunately point out that the game crashed quite frequently, and since I already made it clear that it was frustrating to make your way back through a level, this was of course even more annoying when crashes happened.
The hand-drawn graphics are stunningly beautiful.
Besides some platform jumping, there is a lot of action here. The screens are filled with enemies and there are also a lot of boss fights. Like much of the game's content, everything is well done, but lacks that real finesse. The enemies have good variety, but are often more of an annoyance to get rid of than fun challenges to take on. Similarly, the controls are not quite precise enough, to the point that platform jumping can be a nuisance. A lot of the game's boss fights are perfectly fine, but the game's greatest satisfaction lies in the exploration thanks to the many exciting and beautifully designed environments that are visited.
Curse of the Sea Rats has many fine qualities that make it a good game and if only some of its shortcomings had been cleaned up, it could definitely be to a game that should not be missed. There are a few too many moments that hold it back for it to really stand on its own, but since I've been playing this quite a lot over the past few days, it is also clear that it has been a very entertaining adventure in many ways. A little more polish and Petoons Studio would be onto a winner here.