Catastronauts | Xbox One | Review

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Cooperation is a powerful thing; playing a game with other people can turn just about any experience into something ultimately more memorable and entertaining. As such, Catastronauts’ endearing brand of chaos is immediately gripping with even just a single fellow interstellar adventurer in tow.

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by
James
Michael
Parry

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@James_Parry

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Developer: Inertia Game Studios
Publisher: Inertia Game Studios
Platforms: Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch, Steam
Players: 1 - 4

The game sees you taking care of a spaceship in an increasingly disastrous situation. After your inspiring captain/father figure/token moustache-wearer is abducted by aliens, you have the bright idea of taking on the culprits with some of the most unlucky vessels in the galaxy.

You’ll almost immediately find yourself under attack from laser cannons, which ignite fires all over the place, leaving you to juggle patching up the ship and returning fire quicksharp.

If you’re thinking this game has an Overcooked vibe, welcome to the most common comparison it has to contend with. Now on its second iteration, which added online multiplayer and lashings of new levels, Overcooked is the standard to match, having honed the “winning formula”, as Liam put it in our review, to give Catastronauts stiff competition right out of the gate.

Inertia Game Studios have avoided being put completely on the back foot, however, injecting plenty of energy into its world and characters with a simple, cheesily self-aware and endearing setup for the conceit of the game overall.

Points should be awarded for getting the community involved as well, engaging them to design characters for the game well in advance of its release, while also repeatedly putting the game front and centre in new, interesting and natural ways, particularly on social media.

The gameplay experience boils down to a series of quick, exciting bursts of panic, stress and terror in the best possible way.

Of course, a game can sound or look as good as you like (and in fact the soundtrack is suitably otherworldly too), but at the end of the day it’s still how it plays that really matters. Here the gameplay experience boils down to a series of quick, exciting bursts of panic, stress and terror in the best possible way.

Fighting game-style life bars at the top of the screen cause a creeping anxiety as they deplete in conjunction with the escalating action down below. With each level the stakes are further raised as new mechanics are introduced - giving you new ways to power up your weapons and unleash pain on your adversaries - as well as placing new obstacles in the way of keeping your spaceship in working order.

Catastronauts’ difficulty curve is steep, with an awful lot to keep on top of even in the earliest stages, to the extent that it could be a bit much for new players the first time around. The presentation is so playful and accepting though, even a total failure is met with a smile and urges to suit up again for another go.

Motivation to press on is, unfortunately, a little harder to come by when going at it alone. Solo you’re pushed for time twice as much (or more), needing to swap between two characters to be able to access all of the tools to keep the ship running. Much like Overcooked there’s no AI support here, so you can’t set a character off doing something and then swap between them to save time, which can shift the mood from excited, restless panic to something more aggravating.

If you have a group of four friends together, this is where the magic happens, bringing back nostalgic memories, for those of a more distinguished lifespan, of the golden age of couch co-op starring the likes of Mario Party and Goldeneye. Without your friends on hand though, there’s little else to turn to as there’s no online matchmaking here.

With the busy, end-of-year festive period creeping closer than we’d like to admit, Catastronauts feels like a perfect game to bring people together at a host of seasonal gatherings, nestled comfortably between some Mario Kart 8 Duluxe and Quiplash.

There’s plenty of good natured fun on offer here, and while the difficulty might prove too much for soloists, or even those in a pair, as a group of four the balance feels much more natural and lets everyone contribute.

For a fledgling indie outfit, the production quality and attention to detail Inertia have achieved here is almost staggering, with nary an illusion-breaking bug in sight, whilst everything has been thought through to give an overall rich and enjoyable experience.

Pros

• Character & fun factor shine through with ease
• Straightforward controls drive a well-executed, simple premise
• Captures the energy & excitement that makes couch co-op so great

Cons

• Experience suffers hugely when going solo
• ​Difficulty could make the experience inaccessible to some
• Doesn’t quite shake off its Overcooked comparisons

8/10