Catch Me! is a 4 player PvP game of tag. Its a simple premise, well delivered as it launched into Early Access last month. Whilst it definitely needs additional features, the main game mechanics work really well. If you enjoy games like Speedrunners or Toto Temple Deluxe, then Catch Me! should be on your radar.
Each of the four maps in the first release is a single screen but incredibly zoomed out. Your characters, all of which have the same stats and capabilities, are like tiny figures running around in a toy world. The London level features the London Eye rotating platforms on, America has a Subway train that if you jump on can take you across the screen whereas Greece and Germany are more like buildings with stairs and levels to navigate through. Your job is two fold. If you start the round as ‘it’, you’ll need to parkour around the level touching golden statues to gain points. If you are a chaser you need to touch whose it to stop them. Do that and you become it and will be racing to those statues. First to ten points wins.
Its simple but it works because everyone is of the same skill. You run, jump, slide and drop down from platform to platform but there’s a lot of nuance to the parkour. When you jump or wall jump can shorten or extend arcs for speed or length. You can choose to jump up and push a platform door open into someone’s face and then drop down and away again. Better still, electrocute them with special buttons in levels. That’s the level of difficulty involved. Its low but that’s what makes Catch Me! work so well. The foundation is off to a great start.
What Catch Me! needs now is more content. Three more maps are planned, which is great and needed. What’s needed more than that is local multiplayer and fully working bots though. Currently Catch Me! is one player per machine and forced online play first. No one is playing online as its such a niche, indie game. You’ll need to really arrange proper meet ups to make online happen. Bots are available for single player mode but they often just stand there, confused over what to do and so then do nothing. Its a breeze. Catch Me! is pure golden local multiplayer chaos and in order to receive a full recommendation, this mode needs to be added for Catch Me! to really be a worthwhile purchase. Currently daily xp challenges like play 5 games offer a level up system for customisation options. This is fine but you do run out of unlockables after a few hours.
I really enjoy the base gameplay of Catch Me! as it is party casualness distilled into a short, sharp burst of fun. It just needs some addition content and modes to be the fully formed package and then it’ll be a great addition to the multiplayer pantheon. A great palette cleanser.
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