When Copycat was first demoed on Steam, being able to play an adorable cat made it look like the title was something akin to a feline-focused mystery adventure. According to the demo, life for the cat that players were controlling was pretty good until a doppelganger feline switched places with them. It seemed from that like the goal of Copycat was to outwit the imposter and return home. But there are much darker reasons behind what is going on in Copycat, and while the tale is told extremely well, it’s also quite heart-wrenching to the point that some of it is difficult to play and push through emotionally.
The developers even warn about this when starting out, suggesting that it’s best for players to take things slowly and at their own pace. Those looking for a fun, cat-focused adventure will not find it with Copycat and are much better off with a more cheerful game like Little Kitty, Big City, which is a real joy to play. Even a somewhat serious adventure like Stray is more lighthearted.
That is not to say that Copycat is a bad game. The story is told quite well through the eyes of a cat, which is quite an achievement. It’s just that despite the happy-looking interface, Copycat is extremely serious in its themes and presentation.
Copycat begins lightheartedly, with an older woman visiting an animal shelter and picking out a new cat to adopt. Players briefly play that woman, named Olive, and get to pick one of six cats to take home. Even in that prologue, there are hints at trouble, but given the cheery mood of the title at that point, most people will probably ignore them. I remember thinking at the time that the hardest part of the game is probably going to be choosing one of those cats. Whatever cat is chosen becomes the character that players will become from that point onward in Copycat.
There is a cute scene of the ride home where Olive and her new cat sing together, and everything seems pretty good. She names the cat Dawn, and for the first few days, players are treated to seeing the world through the eyes of the cat, which is a pretty funny experience. They are even given very cat-like choices, like deciding whether to scratch or bite Olive when she sticks her hand into the carrier before properly letting Dawn settle in. Cats are going to be cats after all. As you walk around the house, you see Dawn’s thoughts too. For example, when you see sunlight streaming in through a window, Dawn thinks about how this is the perfect place to nap.
In one very funny early scene, Dawn is able to stalk a bird in the window while a nature documentary about big cats plays in the background. It’s clear that Dawn dreams of being a fierce large cat like a leopard. There are even dream sequences where Dawn imagines herself as a panther in the wild hunting or doing other activities. And throughout the adventure, the narrator from the animal documentary talks in Dawn’s head, offering somewhat sketchy advice from a cat’s point of view about what to do next, or simply talking about Dawn’s actions as the player performs them.
The gameplay consists mostly of walking around and making choices, although many of those choices are forced upon players. No, I did not want to knock Olive’s soup onto the floor, but being a cat I suppose I had no choice. And yes, Copycat gives you no choice. There are also some mini-games and quicktime events to conquer. Later on in Copycat, some of those can be quite stressful and seem almost like life or death decisions, although the title does a pretty good job of giving players lots of chances to get things correct in those circumstances. There is also some very light platforming which is not very difficult and takes place mostly in dream sequences where there are no consequences for missing a jump other than having to start over. Even here, it generally only moves you back a few jumps, so you never have to redo a lot of progress on a failed jump, which is very nice of the developers.
At this point, it’s difficult to keep reviewing Copycat without revealing some of the many spoilers that give the game its punch. I will try to resist doing that, but some spoilers will definitely slip in. The launch trailer reveals a few things, so I will try to stick to just what is revealed there. But there might be light spoilers ahead.
So, it’s clear that Olive is not well. She is physically sick, probably even dying, but her mental faculties are also getting severely tested. She also has a daughter who seems to resent having to take care of her mother (she lives far away at the beginning of the title). The daughter also seems to hate cats and illogically blames Dawn for part of her mother’s condition. It’s a perfect storm for Dawn getting kicked out of the house and becoming a stray. There is a mystery when the old woman takes in a new cat that looks exactly like Dawn and then even calls her Dawn. That situation is eventually explained, but Dawn (the cat the player is controlling) is still abandoned and has to learn to survive in the big, cruel world.
Surviving as a stray is tough. Dawn is constantly hungry, and the people in Copycat players meet while playing as the cat are almost all either indifferent or outright mean. While all this is happening, Dawn laments being abandoned by Olive, who she admits she loved. You also see Dawn’s checkered history with humans in dreams, and it’s not a pretty picture. And you run into all kinds of hazards. As Dawn, you are chased by huge dogs down alleys, get into fights with a gang of tough street cats and have hunger and loneliness as constant companions. At one point, Dawn even contemplates suicide by sitting out in the road while waiting for a car to approach. It’s incredibly hard to play Copycat at that point.
I will say that if you push through everything, you can obtain a kind of bittersweet, almost happy ending that involves Dawn, the copycat who looks like Dawn and Olive. It’s kind of a happy ending that I did not think was going to happen in this game. The ending in no way washed away my sad feelings I had while I was playing, but it was a nice little reward at the very end.
Copycat is a good title, and it tells its story masterfully well. But it’s not something that everyone would enjoy. I am glad that I played and experienced Copycat, but I have no desire to ever go back and play it again. I just couldn’t pick out a new cat in that opening scene at the shelter knowing what lies ahead for them. Copycat offers a deeply sad narrative adventure that will probably stick with players long after they reach the end, despite the possibility of a somewhat happy ending.
Developers: Spoonful Of Wonder
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Steam, Xbox One