Have you ever longed to manage your own post office/parcel service? Does organization scratch that brain itch that you’re always trying to scritch? Might I recommend a recent title that we at Gamer Social Club got our “paws” on: Cat Mail Co.

Cat Mail Co., which comes to us from the minds at Maracas Studio (The Witch’s Cookbook, Fish Stick Protocol) and published by Gamersky Games, is a cozy management game in which you, a cat (just run with me, here) are in charge of a post office.

I was able to take a spin in Cat Mail Co. just a short while before the game’s launch. So, without further ado, let’s step into a world of package delivery and organizational skills.

The World & The Story

The World

Well, while we never actually leave the post office in Cat Mail Co., we do know that our post office is situated on Cat Island. Where, you guessed it, everyone is a cat! Cat Island itself is situated in the “center” of the region, with various other locales like Port Windy, Sunny Shores, and Crescent Bay. Not that you will see them, but you will definitely be sending and receiving countless deliveries from these locations.

Outside of that, we do have quite the expansive office. Not that we have full access to it right away though (I’ll get into that later).

The Story

So, the story. Yeah, I’ll be honest – there isn’t much of one. All we know at the start of the game is that the prior postmaster has since retired and left the care of all mail coming and going from Cat Island to us. However…they were not one for cleanliness. Or order. Or…much of anything.

Yeah, that is pure, unadulterated chaos. Which it now falls to us to make some order of. And boy howdy, that is the challenge. That challenge, unfortunately, only gets worse and worse as the game progresses.

Here is the unfortunate thing. Cat Mail Co.’s Steam page heavily hints at there being a story that is told through the packages during the evening shifts. However…that story never became apparent to me.

The Gameplay

Shipping

To boil Cat Mail Co.’s gameplay to a single sentence, it would be this. Cat Mail Co. is a stress-free organizational game that requires paying attention to details of each of your packages.

What do I mean by that? Well, a lot of things!

• Where is your package going?
• Is it heavy? How heavy?
• Would it be crushed if it was placed under other packages?
• Does it require temperature stabilization?
• What about light stabilization?

Yes – all of these must be factored into your management of the post office! As you can imagine, the game itself starts simple. Only one location for packages and the only piece of information that you have to account for is package weight, which will obviously dictate the amount of postage.

As you progress, you’ll also need to stamp your packages with warning labels that they’re excessively heavy, as well as fragile. And even further along from there, you’ll need to account for temperature factors (i.e., packages that require cold or hot storage), as well as exposure to light. What cats are mailing that require dark storage is beyond my mere brain to determine.

If you make a mistake, no worries! Your package will get sent back and you’ll have another chance to correct what was wrong!

Package Pick-Up

You’ll also need to fetch packages for the local inhabitants for Cat Island. Now, here’s the caveat. They are OFTEN not going to tell you all of the details around the package that they are requesting. Sometimes you might get a last name. Maybe a marking on the package itself. But NEVER the full details of what you are looking for. Which, if I am being honest, gets slightly frustrating as you amass more and more packages.

Now you do have the option to decline someone’s request for their package. And as this is a stress-free game, there are no consequences for rejecting someone’s pick-up request. You best believe that I began to hit that reject button on several occasions when I spent 20 minutes looking around for their non-descript deliveries.

Boat Loading & Unloading

At the end of each shift, the local delivery boat will come in with a shipment of packages and letters from various locations scattered around the vicinity of Cat Island. Your goal here – unload and organize as best you can, then load up the ship with everything that is going out. Here’s the catch though. The further along you get, the less likely it will be that the captain will head to every location. So you may have shifts where you ship…one letter, but receive about twelve packages. Yes, yes – you might be seeing the problem that is starting to snowball.

Repairing Packages

Along the way, you’ll encounter damaged packages that you can repair. That being said though, the game does not do an amazing job of pushing you to do this and there really…aren’t consequences for handing over damaged parcels.

There are also, strangely, items that appear damaged but that cannot be repaired by you as the postmaster. It’s the age-old question: feature or bug?

Co-Op Gameplay

I’ll be completely transparent – I didn’t touch the co-op mode that the game promised. That being said, while I can imagine that it might be fun to tackle this project with another three furry friends, I cannot imagine the logistical nightmare of everyone trying to organize in their own specific way.

So…unless you’re all on the same page, it may devolve into the organization of resources in your standard Minecraft server. Three chests – each of which hold 20 Blocks of Wood.

The Good

Cute Design & Aesthetics

Cat Mail Co. is cute – no two ways about it. It’s simple, yet warming at the same time and really makes you feel like you’re at home in your little post office. Which is convenient – because you never leave it.

As you explore the building, you’ll find little trinkets, mainly in the form of cat toys that look like they have been batted under shelves and tables.

Relaxing Gameplay Loop

If you enjoy organization and task loops, then I cannot recommend Cat Mail Co. enough. I did find it, at times, easy to fall into the loop of looking for packages, running parcels through the scanner, and loading/unloading the boat with each shift’s deliveries. And given that there are no consequences or time constraints, the gameplay is at your leisure to complete.

The Bad

Boxes and Boxes and Boxes and Boxes…

So, you know how I mentioned earlier that there definitely doesn’t seem to be a great balance between packages in, packages? Yeah. It’s rough later in the game. Like, to the point where I just had stacks of boxes all over the warehouse because I had simply run out of shelf space. There definitely needs to be some re-working around this, as there simply aren’t enough packages doing out at the end of each shift.

Customers Who Don’t Know How to Ask for Their Package

Seriously. Everyone on Cat Island just sends their child down to the post office for their packages. Heck, some of the adults can’t provide a clear picture of what you’re actually looking for. “My mom’s last name is Whiskerleaf.” Kiddo, there are twenty plus packages back here that have the last name of W (because of course they don’t provide the last names on the packages).

It’s the main reason why there were some instances where I just started rejecting requests to move on to the next one. This gets especially exacerbated by my prior point of lack of package movement.

Lack of Clear Thresholds for Progression

So, you earn points for each properly stamped and delivered package and each successful return of a parcel to their rightful recipient. However, there is no indication of when these points make you hit a threshold that unlocks more of the post office. It almost seemed…arbitrary and random. That being said, a more structured progression path would be nice to see.

The Overall

Cat Mail Co., while being entertaining for a few hours of gameplay, definitely lost its luster the more hours I sunk into it. Could this have been due to poor initial planning and organization at the early phases of the game? Maybe. But that being said, the further along you get, the harder it becomes to do any kind of overhaul of your organizational processes. Unless you enjoy throwing all the packages into one corner of the warehouse and starting from scratch. If organization and low-risk gameplay is your jam, however, then Cat Mail Co. will be right up your alley!

Gamer Social Club was provided an early access copy of this game for the purposes of this review. This review was played on PC (Steam).