Crypt Custodian sounds just like the identify of a troublesome man ARPG, but it surely’s really a captivating metroidvania starring my favorite videogame cat of 2024. It is an actual disgrace he needed to die.
Pluto has fallen off a ledge and snuffed it. It is an abrupt and unwelcome loss of life however there is a silver lining: since he is spent his life being a pleasant puss to some loving homeowners, he should have no drawback entering into The Palace, which is the place good useless pets go once they die.
Must know
What’s it? A top-down exploration journey set in purrgatory, starring a cat.
Count on to pay £15 / $20
Developer Kyle Thompson
Writer Prime Hat Studios
Reviewed on RTX 3060 (laptop computer), Ryzen 5 5600H, 16GB RAM
Multiplayer? No
Steam Deck Sure
Hyperlink Steam
Alas, Pluto breaks some stuff throughout what’s successfully an afterlife job interview, so capricious Palace Guardian Kendra decides he is not allowed in in any case. As a substitute of an eternity of idyll, Pluto is made a Palace door janitor. It isn’t an amazing consequence, clearly. Nevertheless it seems different animals have fallen unfairly afoul of Kendra too, and it is not lengthy earlier than a plot emerges to interrupt out of the Palace’s partitions and escape to… the place?
Crypt Custodian is a sport by Kyle Thompson, whose earlier work contains Islets and Sheepo. Each are breezy motion metroidvanias starring animals, and all share a particular artwork fashion. Creature designs borrow closely from Thirties and Forties cartoons, however Thompson does not appear thinking about rote nostalgia. Animations have a contemporary fluidity that makes them really feel much less like a interval piece in comparison with, say, Cuphead. Like Thompson’s earlier video games, Crypt Custodian is a beautiful factor in motion. The crisp unfussiness of its artwork is an ideal match for its precision-oriented motion.
Whereas Islets and Sheepo have been sidescrollers, Crypt Custodian opts for a top-down view, bringing it nearer to one thing like Hyper Gentle Drifter or Dying’s Door (it shares the latter’s frivolously mordant sense of humour, too). It is significantly simpler than both of these, or no less than, its issue curve has a a lot smoother gradient.
Pluto wields a humble broom which features like a sword. Fight stays uncomplicated all through all the sport, however the issue lies in its bullet hell trappings. Fights are much less about fancy assaults and extra about balletic manoeuvring between usually erratic projectiles, whether or not with the brisk i-frame laden dodge or cautious weaving by the fray. Within the vein of Hole Knight, the controls are tuned tightly sufficient that, easy although they’re, broom fights remained punchy and enjoyable for greater than 20 hours.
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Selection comes from the array of powers Pluto accumulates throughout the journey, and there is not only one tier of improve right here, however three. There’s the standard metroidvania progress talents, together with a ghost double of Pluto for puzzle fixing and a brush projectile (dubbed the “broomerang”) which may set off distant switches. Ultimately there’s an improve that lets Pluto warp to wherever he can throw his broomerang, and one other that lets him burrow tunnels within the floor.
There are additionally much less consequential upgrades tied to some extent system, which means the extra improve factors you acquire all through the world, the extra upgrades you need to use without delay. These embrace easy buffs to well being and assault, but additionally extra inventive choices like one which makes enemies explode upon loss of life. Additionally within the combine are particular assaults, which may solely be activated one by one and are topic to cooldowns. I tended to stay to the transient second of invincibility afforded by the Spirit’s Defend, however there are a selection of offensive assaults like land mines and homing projectiles.
This two-tier system, unnecessarily complicated although it might appear, feels particularly essential for boss battles. Whereas I discovered Crypt Custodian principally low stress, some bosses required me to fastidiously optimise my “construct,’ although I usually did not should suppose a lot throughout regular moment-to-moment world traversal. Bosses fall again on the previous sample recognition, with their mechanical familiarity offset by whimsical spectacle.
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Allure is, in the long run, one thing Crypt Custodian leans on very closely. Whereas the map is large, most areas are simply flat pathways strewn with obstacles, with solely a colour scheme and wispy vague skybox to differentiate them. It will definitely makes the hard-fought discovery of a brand new space really feel much less thrilling than it often is in these kinds of video games.
Sure, it does sometimes really feel monotonous, particularly once I realized that I may simply run previous most enemies slightly than struggle them.
Alternatively, I beloved Crypt Custodian’s modesty, which is a bizarre factor to like a few videogame. Let me clarify: for a very long time I stored anticipating Crypt Custodian to shock me with some unbelievable new energy, or loopy hidden depth. This by no means materialised. I ultimately understood that, other than being a mechanically impeccable videogame, that is additionally a cool factor a single particular person made with the assistance of their brother (Eric Thompson contributes the Boards of Canada-esque soundtrack). Although it fails to intrigue on the identical stage, it shares the intimacy of fellow sole-developed indie Animal Effectively. It has a selected imaginative and prescient that may solely have been smudged had different arms been concerned.
Throughout a yr that has felt near-apocalyptic for the business, it is productive to be reminded {that a} videogame can simply be a bizarre factor one particular person made as a lot for enjoyable as for revenue.