Another solid addition to the Travellin Cats hidden object game series, but this time with more levels and more cats than all the previous games combined. It offers by far the most bang for your buck, and this combined with the low difficulty and a few small quality-of-life features make it a great pick for new players.

Cats Hidden Around the World is the latest addition to the Travellin Cats series of hidden object games, each one sharing the same premise: find all 100 cats hidden inside a big piece of line art representing a famous location. The reason why this is more expensive than previous games is because instead of being given just one level, you now have a whopping 15 levels for a total of 1500 cats to find. I will say that the maps here are smaller than they've been in the more recent games (e.g. Cats Hidden in China, Georgia) and are closer in size to older ones like Paris and Italy, so returning players might find it to be a little easier than they'd expect.

If you've never played a Travellin Cats game before, however, this is probably the best place to start. Each level is just big enough to make finding cats still take effort without being so big that you feel like you're looking for a needle in a haystack. If you find yourself struggling to find those last few well-hidden cats, there's a hint tool you can use that will automatically move your camera to put one of the missing cats somewhere in frame. Zooming the camera in or out lets you control how strong of a hint you're given, and using it doesn't prevent you from earning achievements; but the downside is that it doesn't unlock in a level until you've found at least 95 cats there, so if you happen to get stuck before meeting that requirement, you're on your own.

Quick side note, if you're a chronic dark mode user like me and you're afraid the bright white visuals you're seeing in the screenshots are going to be harsh on the eyes, you'll be happy to know that this game is also the first in the series to finally introduce a dark mode. If that's not enough, you also have the option to change both the line art and background colors to almost anything you'd like (I couldn't get the color picker to give me a proper gray).

Mild spoilers from here on out. "Wait," you might be asking, "this game has spoilers?" Surprisingly, it kinda does.

Remember when I said there were 15 levels? Well, I lied—completing those unlocks another set of 5 bonus levels, resulting in a real total of 20 levels and 2000 cats to find. A prompt when unlocking these bonus levels cites them as "the original prototypes" that were initially scrapped for being too easy, and it states that they were added in for both younger audiences and fans just looking for more stuff to do. The art style in these levels is dramatically different to the rest of the series, using cat designs that are less consistent but much more expressive; though this is ultimately the reason why they're easier than the rest. It's kind of a shame that they went unused for this long, because they have the most personality of any Travellin Cats maps by a long shot; but at least they've finally found their place here.

If you're an achievement hunter, you won't have to go too far out of your way for 100% completion. Previous games gave you a unique achievement for every cat you found, but since there's literally 20x the number of cats now, they made the smart move to just give you one for each location instead. There's only one optional achievement, and that's for clicking on Easter eggs hidden in the main 15 levels, which telegraph themselves by turning your cursor into a hand when hovering over them and making a sound when clicking on them. These aren't too hard to find, but note that if you find all the cats in a level before the Easter egg, the congratulatory fanfare locks the camera into a fully zoomed-out position and can make it harder to go back and look for it. Clicking the trash can icon to reset the level will give you camera control again, but I'm not sure if this also impacts your progress towards the "2000 Cats" achievement.

Overall, I'd say you're looking at roughly 2-3 hours of playtime on average. Again, it's certainly on the easier side, but it still maintains the charm of its predecessors in some ways while outright surpassing them in others. Cats Hidden Around the World is a simple, cute, and fun hidden object game packed with content; and it might just be the best game in the Travellin Cats series.

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[h3][b][u]Short Answer:[/u][/b][/h3] Another solid addition to the Travellin Cats hidden object game series, but this time with more levels and more cats than all the previous games combined. It offers by far the most bang for your buck, and this combined with the low difficulty and a few small quality-of-life features make it a great pick for new players. [h3][b][u]Long Answer:[/u][/b][/h3] [i]Cats Hidden Around the World[/i] is the latest addition to the Travellin Cats series of hidden object games, each one sharing the same premise: find all 100 cats hidden inside a big piece of line art representing a famous location. The reason why this is more expensive than previous games is because instead of being given just one level, you now have a whopping 15 levels for a total of 1500 cats to find. I will say that the maps here are smaller than they've been in the more recent games (e.g. Cats Hidden in China, Georgia) and are closer in size to older ones like Paris and Italy, so returning players might find it to be a little easier than they'd expect. If you've never played a Travellin Cats game before, however, this is probably the best place to start. Each level is just big enough to make finding cats still take effort without being so big that you feel like you're looking for a needle in a haystack. If you find yourself struggling to find those last few well-hidden cats, there's a hint tool you can use that will automatically move your camera to put one of the missing cats somewhere in frame. Zooming the camera in or out lets you control how strong of a hint you're given, and using it doesn't prevent you from earning achievements; but the downside is that it doesn't unlock in a level until you've found at least 95 cats there, so if you happen to get stuck before meeting that requirement, you're on your own. Quick side note, if you're a chronic dark mode user like me and you're afraid the bright white visuals you're seeing in the screenshots are going to be harsh on the eyes, you'll be happy to know that this game is also the first in the series to finally introduce a dark mode. If that's not enough, you also have the option to change both the line art and background colors to [i]almost[/i] anything you'd like (I couldn't get the color picker to give me a proper gray). [b][u]Mild spoilers from here on out. "Wait," you might be asking, "[i]this game[/i] has spoilers?" Surprisingly, it kinda does.[/u][/b] Remember when I said there were 15 levels? Well, I lied—completing those unlocks another set of 5 bonus levels, resulting in a real total of 20 levels and 2000 cats to find. A prompt when unlocking these bonus levels cites them as "the original prototypes" that were initially scrapped for being too easy, and it states that they were added in for both younger audiences and fans just looking for more stuff to do. The art style in these levels is dramatically different to the rest of the series, using cat designs that are less consistent but much more expressive; though this is ultimately the reason why they're easier than the rest. It's kind of a shame that they went unused for this long, because they have the most personality of any Travellin Cats maps by a long shot; but at least they've finally found their place here. If you're an achievement hunter, you won't have to go too far out of your way for 100% completion. Previous games gave you a unique achievement for every cat you found, but since there's literally 20x the number of cats now, they made the smart move to just give you one for each location instead. There's only one optional achievement, and that's for clicking on Easter eggs hidden in the main 15 levels, which telegraph themselves by turning your cursor into a hand when hovering over them and making a sound when clicking on them. These aren't too hard to find, but note that if you find all the cats in a level before the Easter egg, the congratulatory fanfare locks the camera into a fully zoomed-out position and can make it harder to go back and look for it. Clicking the trash can icon to reset the level will give you camera control again, but I'm not sure if this also impacts your progress towards the "2000 Cats" achievement. Overall, I'd say you're looking at roughly 2-3 hours of playtime on average. Again, it's certainly on the easier side, but it still maintains the charm of its predecessors in some ways while outright surpassing them in others. [b][u][i]Cats Hidden Around the World[/i] is a simple, cute, and fun hidden object game packed with content; and it might just be the best game in the Travellin Cats series.[/u][/b] [quote]For more game reviews, check out my [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/42524563/]Curator page[/url]![/quote]