A Very Fine Cat, Indeed.
Leah Looks at: Another Sight
RELEASE DATE:
Sep 6, 2018
DEVELOPER:
Lunar Great Wall Studios
PUBLISHER:
Fish Eagle
Our main character is visually impaired, but she is able to navigate safely with the cooperation of a very unusual cat.
This game begins with an otherworldly introduction, which appears to be a nebula from outer space that has become pinned between interstellar boulders. Crying for her father, and cradling an injured arm, our character stumbles toward what she hopes is an escape.
After she suffers another fall, a cat with heterochromia iridis (each eye a different color) conducts her onwards. A subway tunnel leads to an underground empire. A Tesla-like tower is activated, and soon our character sets sail upon a subterranean sea which delivers the pair to a sunken mechanical maze.
This game is a lovely Victorian/Edwardian turn-of-the-century action/adventure/puzzler. A little further along, things take a turn as you emerge from the sewers and a small town with no visible inhabitants is discovered.
This village is reminiscent of Innsmouth. The alien-like structures may be more than their ‘inventor’ intended. A depth to this story is introduced and it seems to be much more than implied at first.
From here you are tasked with crossing a garden to find the workshop of none other than Nikola Tesla, by Claude Monet, who has given you a new dress. Your previous one had become rather disshevelled and filthy. You had just emerged from the previously mentioned mechanical maze and sewers beneath London, after all.
(This lovingly crafted game is not without its drawbacks. Partially through a verdant level, the game froze. I started once more. I found myself at an impasse. I wanted to absolutely love this game but found it so hard to love during those moments.)
I chose to try, try, try again. The stage that gave me difficulty led to a study, presumably Tesla’s lab. A crystal ball was consulted, with disastrous results that made me want to lump the entire story under the label of Fever Dream.
And now we learn that our friend Hodge really does have run of the place.
A recognizable landmark was eventually found, and we were back in Paris with a seer/medium that also wanted the item I will not mention here. There are questionable physics on some of these levels, and I found them delightful, as long as they continued to work in my favor.
That being said, this videogame has been thoughtful in its production. Each of the major characters are unique historical figures that, if you are unfamiliar with, you may want to read up on and about after encountering them each in Kit’s tale as the fantasy unfolds. There are even unlockable vignettes regarding their place in this missive and backgrounds of environments encountered during the course of gameplay.
Again, almost all of the non-protagonist figures in this game hold some type of historical importance. When the voice acting is peppered onto this recipe, an immersive experience is had, despite the occasional temporal shift in game physics.
Another Sight has inspired me to learn about things that I otherwise would not have taken the time to want to learn or know about, like how Hodge was an actual cat that was owned by an author in London and a bronze sculpture of said cat exists. The monument was designed to rest at the shoulder height of an average adult so the visitor can drape an arm around the bronze Hodge should they choose.
Some information about the history of this Hodge and his memorial statue can be found HERE and HERE.
There is a similarity in the game’s illustrations to actual cats that exist in the world. Upon discovering the selection of Hodge “costumes” available from the main menu, I chose an option that served as a strong reminder of a popular series whose detective movie I also enjoyed.
With such care placed in the creation of the rich story and levels provided, I found this game very entertaining. Judging from the overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam, I am relieved to find that I’m far from the only one that holds this opinion.