Choice of the Cat

I shall express my enjoyment of this game by inexplicably running up and down the stairs a few times. Like all these "Choice of Games games", whether you will enjoy it depends upon being interested in the subject matter and writing style of the author (as well as a general willingness to play these sorts of games). Making use of the demo is always recommended, and covers a decent amount of gameplay, but since this one is so large and long, it's actually a relatively smaller percentage of the game than some other CoG games. In this case, the subject matter is obviously just being a mundane cat in a British couple made up of a teacher that wants to be a rock star in spite of a total lack of talent, and a Member of Parliament from a small animal-rights party. The writing style, meanwhile, is basically every cat-centric story, where the cat talks about themselves as though they are an evil genius, even when they're tricked into thinking a piece of string is attacking them. You have a pretty wide range of latitude for what you're allowed to do, compared to most CoG games. Much of it involves which family members you snuggle up to and push towards your ends, creating whole chunks of story you won't see, depending on who you're with at the time. So far as game elements go, it can be fairly confusing in some places. There are a ton of stats, and it's not really obvious which one will be used when you try to do things. I find myself failing skill checks frequently just because I didn't realize it would check a skill or made the wrong assumption about which would be checked. Fun-Loving is (maybe?) the one that I fail the most, which is your "make a big mess and cause distractions" stat. Demanding is the stat you need to raise to yowl really well along to music. Sometimes, I'm not even sure if I failed at a stat at all, or if it's impossible to succeed no matter what. This would be hugely frustrating in some of the more "formal" and "RPG-like" CoG games, but fortunately, there seems to be little price for failure in most cases, so long as you understand what stat will unlock the general chunk of story you want. (I.E. if you want to yowl to music and get on YouTube like the screenshots show, you need lots of Demanding, and to get friendly with Andre.) There's also some oddball elements to the story, such as your character narrating about how cats have legends about the old days from decades before, but whenever you encounter other cats, thay have no actual means of communication besides body language. (They must be excellent charades players!) Basically, it's a story where you play a cat who tries to "encourage" different behaviors, such as "encouraging a politician to tear into her opponents" by demonstrating attacks on the bath mat, or "encouraging them to keep feline suffering in mind" by knocking over hot coffee on yourself. If that sounds funny, buy this game. If that sounds like the same tired cat memes you're sick of, keep moving on.

A very well written CYOA game and definitely one of the funnier stories in the Choice of Games lineup. The story ended sooner than I expected or would have liked (3 hours if you're quick), but there is definitely room for multiple playthroughs, and from looking at the screenshots I missed quite a few scenes. The game mechanics are very Choice of Games. If you're familiar with the format you should know what to expect. The stat-system can be a little erratic and annoying at times, especially once the stat-checks start kicking in towards the end, and the story seems to be somewhat hamstrung by the Choice of Games format. Regardless, I really enjoyed this one and look forward to doing another playthrough. Unfortunately, though, you cannot conquer the world in this one, but you can get a nice statue

I enjoyed this game far more than I expected. It was funny, of a good length and gave you lots of options of the personality of cat you want to play.

[h1] 薄纱Stray的猫咪模拟器 ，轻松好读[/h1] 就这样标题党，其实没看完，但先趁还有精力就来写个好评，有雷点会更新。 [h3]此游戏为女作者创作，已是一胜 作者个人主页可以搜Jordan Reyne，或者搜 choice of the cat credits，除了游戏作者外她好像还是歌手，属实多才多艺了 choice of the cat 可选母猫 ，两胜 choice of the cat两胜，stray 零胜，此乃三胜 总结：大获全胜[/h3] 缺点 -主角无法选择饲养者，饲养者家是有四岁女儿的一家三口家庭，日常里无法避免和男饲养员的互动 -邻居里有厌猫男，之后可能会有剧情描写。 -主角的饲养者家里养了公狗 优点 +你是猫 +在非养宠人看来已经写得很猫了，不少选项都挺搞笑的，不过可能会有些刻板印象 如果养猫的话可能读起来更有代入感，随便摘录一些（可能会有记错的地方） [quote=choice of the cat] “当你来到衣帽间，你可以选择 1.把Claire（女饲养员）的假皮毛大衣扯下来 2. 咬鞋带 3.把鞋子从鞋柜里弄倒，钻到鞋盒子里（I squash myself into a shoe box. I take priority over shoes.）” “觉得水槽的水看起来很美味” 晚上睡觉时候可以选择和饲养者一起睡，也可以远离这些愚蠢的人类（Away from these fools. Sleeping near humans is both hazardous and soppy.） 可以假扮可怜操控人类“Act hurt. Making humans squirm with guilt is both fun and potentially useful.” “for example, that humans trapped in radios like to spread their suffering to listeners by regularly talking about weather, violent crime, disasters, or pointless games for creatures with two legs.被困在收音机里的人类总是在聊天气，暴力犯罪，灾祸或是面向两脚兽的毫无意义的游戏，向她们的听众倾泻自己的苦楚，" [h3]甚至还有针对某姓名缩略JB男歌手的口水歌的diss，大爆笑了，这段剧情在知道作者其实也是创作型歌手后好笑指数直线上升[/h3] "Your thrill at the wonder of broadcasting lasts right up until a song comes on. It's sadly un-bedazzling. The odd bit is the chorus: "Ooh, ooh, ooh. Yes, you. Baby, yeah." You sit through it wondering if the singer forgot all his lines." 你为广播节目感到心潮澎湃，直到里面开始播放一首歌。很遗憾这首歌没那么让人眼前一亮，曲调奇怪“"Ooh, ooh, ooh. Yes, you. Baby, yeah”，你开始怀疑男歌手是否忘了歌词。 [/quote] [h1]喜欢猫且不介意纯英文文字互动游戏的话，推荐从这部入门choice of game[/h1]

This did pretty much exactly what I expected it to do, and exactly what I wanted it to do. It's cute. It's silly. It's entertaining. It's a text-only interactive fiction in which you play as a cat.

A stupendously well-written interactive fiction novel with a vast array of choice. I also got to strike a blow against The Patriarchy (TM) with my decision to not let my cat be identified by mere gender constructs. Take that, White Male Oppression! A very amusing and entertaining game, recommended to virtually anyone with a sense of humour and a penchant for reading. Oh, and to anyone who's thinking of doing an interactive novel themselves: THIS is the bar you should be measuring yourself against. Barely-readable pidgin English might be acceptable in the notes we find in low-budget horror games, but when words is all you have, you'd best up your game. Just sayin'... My only criticisms? The ending is a bit on the abrupt side, despite the overall product being a tad long for its own good. But these are minor complaints, at best. A top-notch interactive novel by almost every conceivable standard. Verdict: 9.5/10. (PS If you enjoyed this review, feel free to check out my two Curator pages: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/9284586-ReviewsJustfortheHELLofit/​ http://store.steampowered.com/curator/10868048-Truly-Horrible-Horror-Games/?appid=398210​ Cheers!)

Really good writing was sad when it ended and it left me wanting more worth buying and is one of the best choice games i've played

One of the better Choice Of games in their lineup, but not without its flaws. Definitely no Choice of Robots or Heroes Rise, but definitely worth a read through if you're a fan of these types of games. Being a fan of cats helps a lot too. The good is in the writing's humor. I found myself laughing out loud a few times from delivery alone. The author does a great job at weaving complex stories and monologues into everyday feline antics, providing a different perspective into human way of life that gets you feeling like you're actually in the head of a freshly introduced housecat. However, the story does end up dragging on in the later chapters, straight up to its sudden ending. There wasn't any sort of conclusion to be had save for an awkward recapping of your statistics and choices, which left me disappointed. There are different paths, scenes, and achievements to find in replays, but ugh... the lack of closure hurts me. As for the stat-based gameplay aspect, I've found to be... not great. There were far too many to keep track of and the way they affect choices and how the choices affect them were unclear. Does sitting still check your comfort/fun-loving, feral/domestication, or audacity/caution? Perhaps obeying makes it check loyalty instead? What about your jumping ability? For better or worse, the writing does weave failure and success of the stat-checks quite well into the narrative and it's difficult to tell sometimes if there had even been one at all or if it had even mattered. I'd chalk that up to good storytelling, but it may irk some readers. My advice is to just play through the story (at least once) without worrying too much about the inner workings. Or if you insist on min-maxing, choose the options that portray the cat that you want to be, as they tend to be fairly consistent: how active you are, how selfish, or how loving, etc. Whatever you choose to do, the story won't fault you for it. And hey, even if you're all over the board, you'll be all the more cat-like in your unpredictability. Not bad. Solid pick, but not the best.

Sadly, I had really hoped for more out of this. The story just seemed to drag on and repeat what was already happening before. I have a long amount of playtime logged, simply because I would get distracted in the middle of it and walk away. One of very few Choice of Games titles that I kind of regret buying. 3/10, wouldn't buy it again.

I rate the game, Choice of the Cat, 3.5/5. Pretty good. This entirely text-based interactive fiction 'choose your own adventure' styled game has some truly touching moments. You make decisions as a cat who has been recently rescued from a shelter and has been thrust into a multi-pet household. How cuddly (domesticated) or feral you act is up to you though I found acting feral to be much less fun than being cute and cuddly. Being a mean cat can lead to some fairly tragic results (the moral of this game being fairly clear that being a mean creature will similarly help lead to tragedy, not just for oneself but for those around you). Some plot lines may be harder to view as they involve being sociable to characters who are intrinsically unlikable. Also, while not essential to understanding the plot, having at least a passing knowledge of the British political system can be beneficial in understanding the game's greater context. While this game contains a great deal of silly anthropomorphized cat behavior and inaccurate psychological descriptions, much of that text can be easily skimmed over and the actual, physical cat behaviors you can choose to exhibit seem realistic enough. The absolute worst aspect of this game is the same weakness which plagues every other 'choice of' styled game; it is impossible to simply go back a page to a previous decision and make an alternate choice without starting the entire game over from the beginning. If you can look past that major flaw, this can be a fun and occasionally touching game to skim through once in a while (the game can be particularly touching during your interactions with the old, beat up cat named Maddox). The game's ending feels a bit abrupt but the game is also wide-open for a potential sequel. +Lots of good choices and freedom to change the plot with several different endings and lots of replayability as a direct result. Tragically, this is something most big-budget adventure games (like Skyrim) still don't come remotely close to achieving. -No 'back' button or way to simply turn back the pages to a previous decision. An obvious and glaring oversight which reoccurs throughout this entire 'choice of' franchise.