Curse of the Sea Rats PS5 Review. Indie Metroidvania efforts are, without sounding too reductive, ten-a-penny these days and are certainly so numerous that there exists a small echelon of offerings that can only be truly considered to be the best that the genre has to offer. Curse of the Sea Rats then is another such offering that leans on Metroidvania mechanics and other characteristics of the genre and does so with a charming, hand-drawn veneer to boot. The thing however, is that aside from its retina-stroking presentation and otherwise solid fundamentals, Curse of the Sea Rats doesn’t really offer anything truly new to drive the genre forwards.
Curse Of The Sea Rats PS5 Review
A Charming If Workmanlike Metroidvania Effort
Unfolding on the Irish Coast during the seafaring era of the British Empire, Curse of the Sea Rats opens with a motley crew of sailors and pirates falling under a curse courtesy of the pirate witch Flora Burn that transforms them into, you guessed it, an assortment of rodents and other such creatures. Keen to reverse the curse, our quartet of wayward seafarers find themselves fighting rodent pirates and taking on monstrous bosses as they seek to track down Flora and reverse the curse.
The first thing that you’ll immediately notice about Curse of the Sea Rats is the quality of the art and animation. Akin to one of those Don Bleuth animated features from the 1980s, the characters in Curse of the Sea Rats are bursting with artistic flair and expression-stuffed design. Quite simply, these are some beautifully animated character models, it’s just a shame that the environments which are comparably low detail and oddly sparse, don’t match up to the calibre of the various personalities traipsing around in them. Equally, the blocky, low res video sequences don’t help and the introductory video in particular takes some of the shine off of the character designs from the get go. Further afield the voice acting, while perfunctory overall, can drift into cringeworthy dramatics at times and can certainly feel like part of a less polished package than it actually is.
Curse of the Sea provides players with four very different rodent warriors to choose from, each with their own stats, skill trees, strengths and weaknesses. Now, while the ability to choose different characters is great from a playstyle point of view, the annoying thing is that you’re not actually told what the differences are between each of the warriors until you actually choose one to play. While you can switch between rodent warriors at the nearest checkpoint, the fact remains that not having this sort of information up front for the player to make an informed decision is a baffling omission to say the least.
Once you’re into the game proper, it’s clear that Curse of the Sea Rats has the fundamentals of the Metroidvania genre pretty much nailed. Platforming is expectedly responsive and satisfying, with our rambunctious rodent leaping from surface to surface with ease. Likewise too the combat is pretty snappy, with our furry hero able to strike furiously with all manner of combinations, parries, magical attacks (that can be replenished by whacking enemies) and more besides. And yep, this being a Metroidvania title, you can fully expect to be doing a whole heap of backtracking as you loot trinkets and power-ups that allow you to reach previously inaccessible places.
Speaking of exploration, Curse of the Sea Rats also embraces many of the design bedrock elements that are common to Metroidvania games such as fast travel points (which you have to pay with experience points to unlock) and map which allows you to see where you’ve been and where you need to go next. Where Curse of the Sea Rats stumbles somewhat is in how the map itself doesn’t give you as much information as you might need. Sure, it shows you the layout of the world, but there’s no legend or key which tells you what the various icons on the map mean. Again, much like the lack of up front detail on the four characters this is a strange omission, not least because it seems so obvious to have it there in the first place.
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As you might rightly also expect too, boss fights pop up with predictable regularity and provide ample challenge to your mastery of Sea Rats reliably decent combination of platforming combat. Though they do follow an established series of attack patterns which can be figured out pretty quickly, they’re nonetheless largely enjoyable encounters that make the most of Curse of the Sea Rats impressive handcrafted visuals.
In terms of progression, each character has their own skill trees where you can pile experience points into various abilities, buffs and skills such as additional damage, critical strike chance, being able to fire off more than one magic spell and so on. It’s not anything especially fresh, but the progression system nonetheless serves to keep you amply incentivised to keep on smashing enemies, looting chests and uncovering secrets.
Though Curse of the Sea Rats is perhaps formulaic to a fault, the presence of co-operative, split-screen multiplayer is a nice little addition, as are the multiple endings that are also available. At a spell over twelve hours long, Curse of the Sea Rats doesn’t have the longest legs in the world for a title of its genre but equally it also doesn’t outstay its welcome either as a budget priced offering.
Curse of the Sea Rats is a perfectly fine Metroidvania effort. The hand-drawn art is gorgeous for the most part and the combat together with the platforming are both well executed and ultimately satisfying. However coupled with the absence of some odd quality of life features, a general lack of polish and a lack of any real ambition, Curse of the Sea Rats arguably struggles to elevate itself in an increasingly competitive genre filled with top-tier efforts.
Curse of the Sea Rats is out now on PS4 and PS5.
Review code kindly provided by PR.