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Copycat is a narrative-focused game about the meaning of home. However, I’d argue that the game taps into a completely different subject and leaves the meaning of home far behind. You can learn more about that in my Copycat review below.

Released on 19th September 2024, Copycat starts out with you controlling Olive, an elderly lady looking to adopt a cat from a shelter. But, not all is as it seems. If you get the cues from the dialogue, you’ll quickly learn that Olive’s reason for being at the shelter isn’t quite as obvious as the shelter attendant may think. Olive is looking for a replacement cat after recently losing her cat, Dawn. A copycat, if you will.

A fair warning to readers: There are a few spoilers in this Copycat review, but that is often the nature of game reviews.

Story – Copycat Will Make You Angry if You’re a Cat Owner

I picked the black cat from the shelter to play into the game’s themes a little more. Black cats are some of the least adopted cats in shelters and cat rescues. It was once said that the reason for this is because black cats are unlucky – which isn’t true at all. In folklore, black cats are actually very lucky. Black cats are said to be protective and be able to ward their home against bad things.

Earlier in 2024, Kent Online reported that The RSPCA says it can take black cats more than three times longer to find homes than other colours. It can take about 29 days for a black cat to find a home, compared to just nine days for grey tabby cats. I’m mentioning this in my Copycat review because, with the game being backed by the Australian Government, it feels like a missed opportunity to spread more awareness about shelter cats – especially in a game where the main character adopts a cat from a shelter and then abandons them later on.

Olive Adopts Dawn for All the Wrong Reasons

The biggest problem I have with this game is the way the humans treat Dawn. That said, it all starts with Olive. She’s a sweet old lady, but you find out early on that she’s very unwell. Olive has Emphysema; a lung disease primarily caused by cigarette smoke.

Olive doesn’t seem to take her health very seriously, based on the phone calls with her daughter, Mae. Prior to adopting Dawn, Olive had another cat. You learn that the original Dawn ran away the last time Olive needed to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance.

Given that there are no flyers up around the neighbourhood, it doesn’t look like Olive tried to find Dawn. That might sound harsh, but one of my cats got out once and I spent every single day looking for her. For six weeks and three days, I looked. I put up flyers, I pushed notes through my neighbours’ letterboxes, I called rescues, I called vets…

Finally, I got a call from an elderly couple who lived two streets away. They had spotted Calypso in their neighbour’s garden.

When Calypso was back, I didn’t even entertain the thought of taking her out into the middle of nowhere and dumping her. As I’m writing this Copycat review, she’s sitting next to me. I could never, ever treat a cat the way that Olive treats Shelter-Dawn.

Olive’s whole reason for adopting Shelter-Dawn is that she looks just like Original-Dawn. She could have picked any other cat, but she picked one that could help her with her “little secret”.

Humans in Copycat Are Just Awful

There is literally one human in the entire Copycat world who treats Shelter-Dawn nicely. A little boy who she meets in the park. He gives her some food, sits with her, and talks to her. Then his mother comes, yells, and stomps near Shelter-Dawn to scare them away. I honestly thought she’d kicked her because of how far away she jumped.

I have never been so angry while playing a game.

This is actually the second time that you come across this mother-and-son duo in Copycat. The first time is right after Shelter-Dawn is kicked out, and the mother is just as horrid then. The thing is, she shouts that Shelter-Dawn might have “rabies”, but this game is Australian and Australia is a rabies-free country. So, she’s being cruel just because she can.

We know from the gameplay that the mother and son have two other cats at home, and I just don’t understand the unnecessary unkindness to Shelter-Dawn. I don’t know a single cat owner who treats stray cats badly. Not that I’m saying those kinds of people don’t exist, just that… My experience is that it’s very unlikely.

The Dreamscape Lets Dawn Run Free… Sometimes

Speaking of other humans in Copycat. There’s an instance near the end of the game – when Shelter-Dawn is deciding what to do – that shows real instances of what cats go through.

A boy who gets a kitten as a Christmas present, but doesn’t want one.

A dad telling his daughter they can’t afford to keep one of the kittens from the box on the street.

A couple saying their dog will get used to their new cat, while watching him scare her.

Other instances of the dreamscape are used to show Shelter-Dawn as the wildcat she wants to be. She slips into these scenes every time she sleeps, and they become increasingly distressing as you play.

When you start playing Copycat, all Shelter-Dawn wants is to be free. She’s already had one bad home experience where she wasn’t wanted. She knows what humans are like, and she doesn’t trust them.

In her dreamscape, she’s a black panther. She roams the wilds, catching rabbits, and re-learning how to hunt.

Her dreams quickly turn into nightmares.

Gameplay – Some People Wake Up and Choose Violence

The gameplay of Copycat is decent. I enjoyed the Quick Time Events, which included sequences of buttons/keys that you had to press before a timer ran out. These took place when Shelter-Dawn was defending herself against other cats. Experiencing a catfight from a cat’s point of view is really interesting, especially because the game does hold back from how violent catfights can get.

You snarl, hiss, and swipe at the other cats trying to fight you. When multiple cats gang up on Shelter-Dawn, it can feel quite stressful. However, the most you’ll see is a cat being pounced on or swiped at.

That said, I know some people really struggle with games where animals are in distress, so I need to mention the scene where Shelter-Dawn sits in the middle of the road on purpose. It’s… strange to see a cat choose to do something so human.

But nothing bad happens. I want to be very clear about that in my Copycat review.

The Mechanics Need Some Work

Copycat doesn’t feel like a finished game to me. It’s beautiful, but there’s some uncanny valley going on with Olive and Mae, and some of the controls are a bit janky.

Jumping, in particular, is all over the place. You can only jump on or over certain things in the game. If you try to jump on an item that isn’t “part of the game”, it doesn’t work. You just slide off of it. For example, I tried to jump on a random car. The cat weirdly perched just above the wheel, and then slid off. I couldn’t jump up onto the car at all.

If you can jump on anything, it’s because it’s part of the story. Certain fences, balconies, railings, trees… It’s quite limiting. When you consider that we’ve recently seen Little Kitty, Big City, which lets you jump on anything in the game, it’s disappointing to be held back in that area.

It’s a Short Game

A full playthrough for Copycat is about three hours. Considering the price, which is £12.79 on Steam, that’s not too bad. But, it’s important for our Copycat review readers to know how much content they’re getting when looking at a new game. If you explore a little more, you can easily bump that time up, but the game is pretty linear unless you decide to stay in the more open areas to mess around. The park, for example.

Achievement-hunting will definitely add to the playtime. There are 22 achievements for the game, and I only hit seven of them when I did my story-driven playthrough. One of those is the Marathoner achievement, which you get for playing the entire game in one go!

There is also a mini-game you can play that involves the toilet paper in the bathroom. There’s an achievement for playing it, too!

Audio and Visuals – You Will Get Attached to Your Cat

You will get attached to the shelter cat you choose. It’s impossible not to when you can spend time knocking over Olive’s belongings, painting rooms with your footprints, and chasing a butterfly in the garden.

The world of the game is very picturesque, but it changes with the events of the game. I think that atmospheric changes that take place are something that makes Copycat incredible. It’s important to steer your players along certain paths in an emotional journey like this. Narrative-driven games always have such unique art styles and designs, which lend themselves well to whatever story is being told at the time.

Audio – Incredible Voice Acting and Music

Speaking of unique features. Copycat tells its narrative in several ways: The human characters speak to Shelter-Dawn in their own unique styles, Shelter-Dawn’s inner thoughts appear on the screen in white text, and a Nature Expert narrates your every move as a supposed “wildcat”.

Alongside all of these different voices, there’s an amazing music score by Daniel Bunting. It threads the scenes of Copycat together so well, making you connect to the events that are occurring even more fervently than you might have otherwise. When things are going well, the world is soft, calm, and melodic. When things go wrong, you hear and see a downpour of rain, the world gets darker, and the music becomes somber.

Simply fantastic.

Visuals – A World That Changes

I’ve mentioned that the world changes a couple of times, but let me show you what I mean, as well. As you can see from the golden images in this Copycat review, there are bright moments during the game. These scenes fill you with good feelings, even though Shelter-Dawn occasionally has darker thoughts.

As the story unfolds, the scenes grow much more intense. The game makes these visual changes very obvious to the player. You might experience a sudden fade in to a scene where there are lots of shadows, or it could be raining very heavily.

BIG SPOILER AHEAD

The abandonment scene starts off bright. She gets into the car, believing Olive has realised it’s all been a big misunderstanding. Shelter-Dawn assumes Olive is simply taking her for a ride, just like their first journey together after the adoption.

But instead, we witness a Fox and the Hound-style abandonment scene. Olive leaves Shelter-Dawn in the middle of nowhere, miles from home, because she messed up and doesn’t want to take care of both cats.

As Shelter-Dawn realises that Olive is leaving without her, she starts trying to chase after the car. The scene gets darker, the sun fades, and it starts raining.

If I hadn’t been so angry, I would have cried during that scene.

Verdict

There’s a lot to love about Copycat, especially when it comes to the art and voice acting. The dreamscape scenes are a really nice touch, showing us plenty of Shelter-Dawn’s inner thoughts and how she feels throughout the journey. The narration from different voices adds to that feeling, weaving everything together beautifully. And while the Quick Time Events can be a bit tense, they keep you engaged at the right moments.

That said, there are definitely areas where Copycat doesn’t quite land. The mechanics, for one, feel a bit clunky. Jumping is awkward and restrictive, and the game’s marketing is a bit off. It’s advertised as a story about the meaning of home, but it barely touches on that, apart from a closing line about home being “where you’re needed most.” I’ve got to say, I don’t agree with that, especially when you see how the humans treat Shelter-Dawn. If anything, the game shows more about how cold people can be than it does about finding comfort in a home.

Copycat has its moments, but it doesn’t quite live up to its potential. It’s got gorgeous visuals and strong emotional beats, but with some clunky gameplay and a story that doesn’t fully deliver on its promise, it’s a 6/10 from me for this Copycat review.

If you’re looking for another game where you get to be a cat without it being the main focus, I talked a little about Magical Delicacy in my piece on the Best Witchy Games to Play in 2024. As Flora, you can gain the power to turn into a cat, and the game is significantly more lighthearted than what you’ve read about here in my Copycat review.

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