Known Mechanics

It’s known that Ratcatcher would have had character creation and customization. The player could customize their character’s appearance, starting stat load-out, and pick a starting item. Upon leveling up, the player would be able to allocate the level to a stat of their choice to create a build of their choice.

There seems to have been a fairly decent selection of weapons, accessories, and armor that the player could purchase from shop npcs or find in the world to further customize their character.

I have also heard that there were mechanics in place for creative map traversal. The player could use certain weapons or items to, for example, knock down certain obstacles in their path, or to travel over or around them. The developers seemed to have wanted to encourage the players to find unique ways to explore the world, and a player’s favorite weapon load-out might change the way they tend to travel.

The player was also meant to keep in mind such things as sound (there appears to have been the ability to sneak around or up to enemies by moving slowly and thus quietly), sight lines, and seemingly smell. By “smell” the player would have to look at the direction of the wind in game, or notice certain environmental details that would indicate their character’s smell would be masked (for example, a midden or corpse heap would smell very strongly and help hide the player character’s scent).

The focus on using all senses (sight, sound, smell) was also used to heighten the experience of dealing with Ratcatcher’s stalker type enemy. Not much is known about this enemy, other than it was meant to be able to hear the player if they made too much noise close by, and also to “smell” the player if in close proximity. The developers seemed very proud of their use of multiple senses for hunting and hiding, and sources say it was frequently brought up to highlight the play between the playing hunting lesser enemies while being hunted themselves. In one interview, a developer demonstrated how using different weapons had advantages and disadvantages by using a firearm to easily parry an enemy from a distance, but attracting nearby enemies with the sound of the gunshot. Next, they demonstrated using a dagger to parry, which required more precise timing and being very close to the enemy. Using the dagger, however, was quiet and did not attract enemy attention.

Ratcatcher also has something only known so far as “Open Eyes.” It looks like this was a consumable item or even currency obtained by finding areas, secrets, and defeating bosses. The amount of Open Eyes a player had would affect the appearance of zones as well as enemy abilities and spawning.

Weapon Core and Weapon Body