Carnivore!

Publisher: CatTrigger

Developer: CatTrigger

Platforms: Microsoft Windows (Reviewed), MacOS, Android, Linux (all via itch.io)

Price: Free

Oh boy, do I have a treat to recommend to you today! A free one, no less! 

This is also going to be one of the quickest reviews you'll read from me this year since this is such a small game. So, let's not waste any time.

Carnivore! is a point-and-click horror game with a unique premise. You play as "The Sheep." The Sheep is...well...a sheep. Anyway, The Sheep works in a hoity-toity restaurant alongside a chicken, a fish, a cow, and a pig. 

But there's a catch. The restaurant caters to wolves, and the workers in this establishment are all on the menu. So, The Sheep and all the other employees must go about their shifts under the constant fear that at any moment a patron could choose them...at which point the unlucky worker will be butchered on the spot and "prepared" in front of their peers. All while the seating area outside the kitchen continues to maintain that hoity-toity atmosphere. 

This is a mostly wordless story where all the important points are conveyed with small illustrations in speech bubbles. Despite this and despite the fact that this might net you an hour of your time if you play it slowly, the cast of characters is fleshed out better than in some AAA projects.

As a result, the emotional notes that the story reaches hit harder than you might expect. 

The sinking feeling when you see one of the wolf patrons pointing to an item on the menu and you recognize the ingredients. 

The emotional devastation in The Sheep's Bambi-but-significantly-worse childhood trauma. 

The warm-and-fuzziness (literally) of our protagonist's romantic relationship with another animal who remains supportive through that trauma. 

It's all legitimately affecting stuff. I didn't cry from playing this, but I did find myself wiping a handful of stray water droplets away by the end. When was the last time you could say that about a free point-and-click horror game on itch.io?

So...under what circumstances should you not play this? Well, obviously the whole plot is centered around consistent violence towards animals. My saying that paints a much, much grimmer picture than is realistic. We're not talking about some kind of horrific, traumatizing Happy Tree Friends situation, after all. This game's horror bread-and-butter is mostly implication, but do still take the violence towards animals warning seriously.  

There's plenty of blood. There's also an obscured on-screen beheading that is more shocking than something obscured ought to be. You'll also see the skinned corpse of an already-dead worker. But really, it's The Sheep trembling as it watches a friend get butchered off screen that'll probably get to you the most. 

With all that in mind, the TL;DR is to give this one a pass if you're especially sensitive about animals or blood. 

Gameplay-wise, there's nothing to discuss. As a point-and-click game, you point and you click to solve puzzles, but the puzzles ultimately amount to fetching a thing and bringing it to a character a couple times. That and the occasional decision you need to make. Nothing to write home about, but it's used to surprisingly impressive effect as a medium to deliver story details. 

Similarly, I have no negative notes on the technical front. This is a game full of hand-drawn animations bursting with expression, and there's no wonkiness of any kind to take away from that. If I absolutely had to come up with a nitpick at gunpoint, I could say that it slightly harms the pacing to have certain animations play literally every time you talk to someone. But that's a nitpick, and I only provided it under theoretical duress. 

In case it isn't obvious yet, I'm telling you to take around an hour out of your day to play Carnivore! unless you have the sensitivities I laid out. It's free, though I'd also recommend doing what I did and sending $5 over to the devs. 

For that potentially $0-$5 price tag and a minuscule time investment, you get a bite-sized (pun not intended) narrative filled with effective horror, memorable characters, affecting emotional moments, and a surprisingly sweet little love story. 

I realize that because of the game's brevity, I run the risk of massively, massively overselling this...but why don't you go to the itch.io page for yourself and find out?

With no negatives to speak of, the final score for Carnivore! is 2026's second...

10/10 - Masterpiece