calico was a lackluster letdown. where i hoped for a soothing experience with cozy cats in a comfy cafe, i found an unfinished game brimming with bugs and repugnant design choices. each and every aspect of calico suggested that nobody from the development team had even tried the game before putting it up for sale. the physics, the pervasive clipping through objects, and even the character customization screen at the beginning: each and every component of calico was either hilarious or gruesome.

hate aside, i also think that, albeit rarely, calico sometimes conveyed a conflicting sentiment. when i went behind a waterfall, there was an easter egg waiting for me. the character customization screen, although detestable, had a plethora of available options, each of them designed and progammed by a human. the cooking minigame was tedious, but also exceedingly complex in a way that reminded me more of the ramblings of a playful child, than of a mere shovelware developer prolonging their game.
i want to think that somewhere in the peachy keen games studio, there were people, or even a single person among many disinterested others, pouring their heart and soul into calico. i want to believe that this flawed game is a product of incompetence rather than negligence.

in the end, regrettably, the only kind of enjoyment i got out of this game was the one of ridiculing it with a friend for an hour or two.