Copycat Review (PC)

Picture this: you’re a feline friend with severe trust issues and a general lack of empathy for those with a collar, laser pen, and any form of sensory doohickies. But, you’re also a troubled cat with a history of trauma and all-round abandonment. You don’t want to let anyone in, and even Olive—an elderly Aussie with a natural tendency for shedding tender love and care for furry fluff balls—has little power over you and the way you view the human race and its relationship with wild animals or household creatures. The confines of a suburban home aren’t for you. You yearn for the wild, and for the faraway quarters of a world that bears no leash or cage. For the most part, this is Copycat, in a nutshell: a love letter to companionship, and the inner workings of a kitten who longs for a sense of belonging.

To put you in the picture, Copycat is an introductory passage to the world of independent gaming, and not to mention developer Spoonful of Wonder’s debut IP, for which the creators have clearly poured heart and soul into fulfilling the needs of the genre. And as for the genre, well, let’s just say it’s essentially Stray meets I Am Fish, but without the bowl of water and the nauseating nature of a world chocked with moving structures and vomiting drunkards. That is, in essence, what this game brings to the table: a short but surprisingly insightful look into the fateful moments of a cat in search of acceptance amid something of a traumatic experience. And it just works. But let’s not beat around the bush any more. Copycat has just launched on Steam, so if you are looking to dig your claws into it, then read on.

Home Is Where You Lay Your Claws

Copycat tells the story of Dawn, a cat who, after being rescued and returned to the shelter for a future adoption, finds herself in the care of Olive, an elderly caretaker who, like Dawn, has also suffered from the effects of abandonment due to a former pet going missing. Without trust, and without the urge to latch onto someone else, Dawn immediately finds herself tugging away at the boundaries of her new relationship, somewhat reluctant to bond and almost eager to escape to live a carefree lifestyle out in the wild. That is, however, until the bond between the two comes together to form a pretty ribbon of sorts, at which point both Dawn and Olive establish a picture-perfect pet-and-owner friendship. How sweet.

Of course, it all sounds rather sweet on paper — and it is, for the most part. However, after the first portion of the game whittles away, Copycat eventually maneuvers into another dimension—an area that sees in the arrival of Olive’s former cat, who ultimately pushes Dawn out of the cozy quarters of Olive’s arms and into the back alleys of a lonely borough. After that, the story becomes more of a tale about a throwaway kitten, a vacant home, and an undying desire to plant claws in a world that’s far more forgiving and trustworthy. That, really, is where you begin your true journey: away from Olive, and in search of a new beginning.

Putting Paws to Paper

The gameplay in Copycat is made up of various nodes—mini-games, exploration-based challenges, and other QTE-like running missions, being the three primary features. In a typical session, you’ll find yourself somewhat free to explore the closed quarters of a suburban world—a map that consists mostly of playground-like obstacles in a backyard setting, and sandbox-type buildings in the outer areas of Olive’s household. And, for the record, I’ll just say it for how it is: these “mini-games” aren’t anything particularly extraordinary; in fact, it’s merely the case of clawing away at generic objects, or indulging in some form of stereotypical feline behavior. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of these extracurricular activities are fun in short bursts, but eh, there’s really only so much you can do before the simple act of being a cat is, well, the act of just being a cat for the sake of it.

Thankfully, Copycat does come through with some pretty invigorating sequences—fleeing from the local hounds in a high-octane QTE-based chase, for example. Aside from that, there are also several “boss” battles, few of which require a little more skill and effort to whittle down and shovel through. Granted, none of these trials are particularly challenging, but they do make what would otherwise be a textbook case a little more, shall we say, unique and compelling. But that isn’t what Copycat is all about; on the contrary, the game makes it abundantly clear right from the get-go that its gameplay isn’t exactly the bread and butter of the experience, but rather, its ability to spin a compelling yarn for a story. Does it manage to execute one? Yes. Is it enough to extract a few well-earned tears? The jury’s out on that one.

Bugs in the Garden

I’m not going to say that Copycat is flush with perfect mechanics and prime time graphical complexity, because it’s still missing a few key ingredients to make the experience strike those particular boxes. For starters, the environment, eh — it’s a little patchy, and not to mention riddled with several game-breaking tiles and other technical issues, to boot. Case in point, the garden area itself is frequently marred by a lack of polish and unfinished details, thus making several obstacles somewhat difficult to navigate and overcome. More or less, if you aren’t traveling in the direction that the game wants you to go, then chances are you’ll wind up between a rock and a hard place. And by that, I mean, in some form of limbo and in search of a previous saved file.

The controls in Copycat are borderline mediocre, I’ll say that much. On one hand, the transitions are smooth, as are the physics and the overall chemistry between your four paws and the various set pieces around you. But on the other, it seems that, where it has tried so desperately hard to replicate the core mechanics of Stray—a feline-centric masterpiece that, quite frankly, needs no formal introduction—it has failed to pull itself out of its somewhat gimmicky state. It works, but only to a certain extent, and it doesn’t take all that long to come to terms with the fact that Copycat is, in spite of its charming qualities and heartfelt build-up, nothing short of an average experience. But again, as I said earlier, it isn’t the gameplay that elevates its appeal; it’s the themes that it touches base on, and the connections that it aims to establish.

Verdict

On paper, Copycat could quite easily be mistaken for one of several, well, digital copycats that also exist on the storefront. And that’s something that we can’t really ignore, for it does borrow quite a lot of assets from its adversaries—the QTEs, thematic set designs, and goofy side activities, to round off just a few. With that said, for the most part, it wasn’t the generic quest lines or extracurricular objectives that enticed me; it was the heartwarming moments that made sure to bring countless waves of emotions to the table from the moment I clawed into my first roll of toilet paper, to the moment I parted ways with Olive in search of a new waypoint in life. That, to me, was something I didn’t need an excuse to pursue — and that’s deserving of a few bonus points in itself, for sure.

For an independent tale that often falls short in several areas, it’s almost hard to believe that, if you were to remove the wooden mechanics and predictable effects from the mix, then you’d actually have something of a genuinely heartfelt story in your hands. Sure, it isn’t perfect in the traditional sense, but the fact that it does enough to extract a few tears and tug on all the right heartstrings for a few short hours is precisely why I’m so inclined to give it the benefit of the doubt and give credit where it’s due. The truth is, while other kitten-based adventures will likely surpass this in terms of gameplay and design, it is highly unlikely that anything will come quite as close to what Copycat achieves in the short time it has to present itself. I’m giving it an A for effort, either way.