Cat Named Mojave Review — Lost In The Desert

It’s not every day I get to review a game like Cat Named Mojave.

That is because Cat Named Mojave is not quite like your typical horror game. Like indie film titles such as Future Racer 2000, it feels much less like a member of its genre and more like an art piece. While you would be correct to point out that all video games are art, titles like Cat Named Mojave feel far less like you are actually playing a game and more like you are part of an interactive exhibit, where conventional video game design is intentionally ignored in favor of a direct injection of the creator’s personal kind of madness, using the format purely as a medium for delivery.

That being said, how does one review art? In my line of work, critical analysis often comes by means of comparison. How does a game actually play on a mechanical level? What does it offer to a player? How well is it written? These questions are usually answered through comparison to universally acclaimed titles that set the standard for what we play and how much we are willing to spend to do it. It’s easy to tell you that the map in Skyrim is bigger than the map in Oblivion, or that Red Dead Redemption II has far fewer online features than Grand Theft Auto V.

I can’t really make these sorts of criticisms about Cat Named Mojave, because it wouldn’t be fair to. The game is not intentionally designed to overload your dopamine receptors with an engaging and addictive gameplay loop. It’s not something that will hold your attention for thousands of hours, and it does not have the biggest playable map of the year. Mechanically speaking, the game never really asks you to do more than press the W key to move forward, click to interact with objects, and solve a few puzzles.

“Okay, Erik, enough with the pretentious monologuing. Cat Named Mojave is a horror game, so surely it’s designed to scare you or lead you through an interesting narrative, just like every other horror game.” To that, I also disagree. While I could certainly see areas in the game that might freak out some players, I never felt like Cat Named Mojave was necessarily trying to scare me either.

What I got from Cat Named Mojave was a game that wanted me to feel something. From start to finish, I did not feel like the narrative was intentionally deep or gripping, like the mechanics were particularly interesting, or like the game was designed with the explicit intention of scaring me. And yet, it was one of the most gripping games I have played all year.

To reiterate, Cat Named Mojave was phenomenally effective at grabbing my attention and making me feel things. From its absurdist world and humor to its downright striking visuals, haunting score, and eerie dialogue, from the moment I stepped toward the home of the titular cat, Mojave, there was always something happening that piqued my interest and kept me locked in, but in ways that even my favorite horror games did not manage to achieve.

Most horror games I have played, if they are good, manage to make me a little scared. They make me nervous to walk down a hallway or around a dark corner, knowing something is going to jump out at me. While fun and effective, this is usually a fleeting kind of excitement that does not carry through to the end of the game. While Cat Named Mojave certainly had a few of these moments, I never felt the same way playing it as I do in those other games. Rather, I felt like I was living through a dream, with a constant uneasiness as I entered each new room. Not a fear that I would die, but a sensation that I did not belong, like a specter moving through an alien world that is not hostile toward you, but one that will never be welcoming.

I realize, as I write this review, that I am putting some seriously poetic words to the page about a game starring a man-cat that wants you to hunt his neighbors with a shotgun. I understand that, as far as reviews go, this one probably feels a little esoteric, hard to follow, and needlessly purple in its prose. I also realize that I am making the game sound intentionally designed as some kind of arthouse project or grand exploration of the self, and it’s not that either.

But as I consider erasing what I have written so far and starting over, I find myself pressing on, because this review is, if nothing else, honest, and I think Cat Named Mojave is too. While it does not have the best gameplay or the most cohesive and enthralling narrative, every moment in the game feels like an honest expression of what goes on in the minds of its incredibly small team of developers. Like I said earlier, the game feels like a dream, one pulled straight out of its creator’s mind.

To turn this rambling into something more like an objective review, I have to say that Cat Named Mojave is not a game that is going to appeal to everyone. It does not do much to reinvent its gameplay, its story is not the most coherent, and I did not find it particularly scary in the traditional sense. All that being said, I do believe everyone should give it a chance. The title is full of striking visuals, surrealist expression, and a gorgeous soundtrack that further reinforces its psychedelic, daydream-like atmosphere. Despite lacking in many areas where I would expect my favorite video games to excel, Cat Named Mojave completely captivated me from start to finish, and I am genuinely glad that I got the chance to play it.

If I had one complaint to make about the game, it would be that the illusion of choice permeates throughout its dialogue options. The game gives you a lot of moments where you’re left with questions you want answered, with the hint that you might have answered them if only you played a bit differently. While I’ve yet to attempt a third or fourth run of the game, I did find that many of the dialogue options seemed to just be for flavor, and that you can’t actually affect the outcome of the game nor chase those answers through decision-making alone. At least, not at the points of the game where the decisions felt like the most important ones to make.

Try Hard Guides was provided a Steam code for this PC review of Cat Named Mojave. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles on our Game Reviews page! Cat Named Mojave is available on Steam.