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I’m drawn to the ocean, whether it’s watching programmes about the big blue mystery that covers most of our world to spending days swimming in the sea when on vacation or listening to crashing waves to relax. Something about the ocean is deeply soothing to me. So when I saw there was a Steam Next Fest demo for Cat Clean Ocean, I dove at the chance to give it a shot to try and find a few moments of calm among the stress and chaos of everyday life – and I was not disappointed.
Before we get into it, I know what you’re thinking: this looks a lot like the zen cousin of last year’s Loddlenaut from developer Moon Lagoon. There are a lot of similarities between the two games – not least the whole cleaning up the ocean part of it. But there are also some key differences that set the two apart (and with Loddlenaut also available as a demo right now, you can also judge for yourself and see which one you prefer). For me, this mostly comes down to tone and vibes. Whereas Loddlenaut feels more involved and guided as clean-up experience, offering up more objective markers and reminders about where to go next, Cat Clean Ocean is more freeform, making it an even more relaxing experience in my books. Don’t get me wrong. Loddlenaut does have its own distinct charm – something that Cat Clean Ocean doesn’t quite achieve by the end of its demo, but I’m hopeful that the full game could rectify this.
Still, in the Steam Next Fest demo for Cat Clean Ocean, you get to almost fully explore Brightwater Bay, a small lagoon that’s one of six regions on the map that’s been hit with litter and pollution. As Tom the cat (guided by Dr Garfield, of course), your job is to clear up the ocean with your net and vacuum to make it a more habitable place for marine life.
Now, I’m saying this as someone who deplores the noise of a real-world vacuum cleaner and will shove headphones on to drown out the noise of the inevitable household chore – but vacuuming the purple pods of pollution I found here was deeply satisfying. Watching the ooze being sucked away to reveal a rejuvenated piece of coral was like peeling the plastic film off of a new phone, the gentle rumble of my controller contributing all the more to the experience.
Your vacuum isn’t the only tool at your disposal. There’s also a net that can collect pieces of trash floating in the water, which you can then take to a recycling machine and turn them into useful materials. ‘Make the ocean clean’ – check. ‘Get materials to get cooler cleaning items’ – check. ‘Feel good about it’ – double check.
However, you can’t get too carried away with your cleaning or you might drown your feline hero – his oxygen level slowly dwindle the more you clean and more active you are, so you’ll need to periodically replenish it at oxygen stations dotted across the area. It’s a good idea to make a mental note of where they are, though the compass does tell you when you’re near one. Even so, I might have gotten carried away vacuuming pollution and, well, you know what they say about cats and curiosity.
There are also research stations where you can unlock new tools or upgrade the ones you’ve got, and an area radar that shows you the current pollution/trash levels of the area you’re in. These aren’t the only machines you’ll find, though, and the more you discover, the further your efforts go towards helping you make the ocean a better place.
Ocean pollution is, of course, a very real issue, and playing this demo did make me think a lot about the damage being done to our marine environments. Cat Clean Ocean isn’t too heavy-handed in its messaging around this, mind – when you first deposit a particular piece of trash, you’ll get a small bit of information that tells you what it is and how it’s impacting the area – but I think it does enough to give you the space to reflect on these issues from your own personal point of view. It could always do more, for sure, and I hope the full game doesn’t disappoint on this front. For now, though, its demo is still a deeply relaxing experience and one that’s on my list for moments where I need something to calm down and escape from the stress of life above sea level.