Bright Paw Review

As a lover of indie games and cats, Bright Paw caught my interest right away. Admittedly, I’m not good at puzzle games, yet I still enjoy one or another challenge, and thus, I gave this game a try. It helps that the graphics are utterly adorable as well and you’re playing as a cat, after all, so what more reasons do I need? Anyway, after going through the game I found that the gameplay is indeed entertaining through and through, which makes me want to try out more games from that genre in the future.

Bright Paw revolves around Theo, who is a cat. One day, there are gunshots to be heard and the owners of Theo are found dead. Not knowing what’s going on, Theo tries to find out what happened and, along with that, who the culprit is. Luckily, he isn’t alone as there is a narrator who is guiding him, although we don’t know what the deal with him is. However, to find out the truth, there is a lot of hurdles Theo has to overcome and everything isn’t as simple as it seems at first glance.

During each level, the narrator’s comments might be helpful at times. However, I didn’t care much about his commentary as he states the obvious at times. That being said, I was constantly curious about what happened to Theo’s family as the game doesn’t introduce their story, but just throws the player right into the happenings after the short tutorial. Everything seemed confusing, and I wasn’t sure what to think at first besides that playing as a cat is quite cool.

Gameplay-wise, Bright Paw is quite interesting. There are cards available the player can select. You see, the turns of Theo are displayed on the cards and I could move with the help of them. Besides that, there is a green spot the player has to reach to complete the level. That sounds quite simple for now, right? However, the game gets much more complicated later on, although the start is quite easy. Being careful is the key here, and I had to pay attention to my turns and each step I took.

Later in the game, special abilities are getting introduced. With these abilities, Theo can leap through objects, or move items. All in all, there are a lot of small abilities implemented which made the levels more challenging and I had to be more on guard. Besides that, even enemies are available for some levels. While some of them are just shooting out deadly attacks, others are following the player until Theo gets killed. This game is turn-based, and thus, every step might be critical.

Luckily, there is the option to rewind the actions or restart the whole level. I found that feature very helpful, as messing up is easy here. Additionally, there are collectibles available through each level the player can collect. They implement small descriptions and give the player a better insight into the story. I found some items were hard to spot, although others were very visible as they glow up. In case the player missed a collectible, they can easily check in the menu which one is still locked and go back to the level.

A minor issue I occurred is that the game sometimes was buggy and I couldn’t use the rewind function anymore. Restarting the game solved that issue, however, it was still a hassle having to play the level from the beginning again. On the other hand, each level is quite short, so I didn’t have to repeat a lot.

The graphics of Bright Paw are lovely and colourful. It was a delight to go through each level and while some of them give off a cheerful vibe, others are quite dark. I got slightly annoyed at a level where the whole screen is shaking as it made me feel uncomfortable. It didn’t happen too often, yet it greatly disturbed my immersion. Other than that, I absolutely loved the presentation of this game and each level was unique in its mechanics, as well as appearance.

Bright Paw is an adorable puzzle game where the player slips into a cat’s role. I loved the execution of this game and it was a joy to go through each level. While I preferred some levels over others, each of them was still unique and none of them felt repetitive. Besides playing as a cat, the abilities kept the game refreshing for me and I truly wish there more games like that. That being said, Bright Paw is a must-play for fans of puzzle games, and everyone who simply adores cats.

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary PC code was provided to Bonus Stage for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to press@4gn.co.uk.