There has been an advent of games where you play a cat and and explore a particular setting. Stray being the best game to fit that title and then Little Kitty, Big City right after. Copycat starts off as an ambitious and promising game but with gameplay that doesn’t feel polished enough to match it to the previous titles - it just leaves scratches on the sofa rather than purring in your lap after playing with it.
Story
The game centers around Olive, an elderly woman looking to get a adopt a new cat to her home and after a brief prologue, you play as the new feline a house who is intent on escaping at the earliest opportunity, however, as you spend more time with Olive, the desire to escape leaves and thats where a bigger plot reveals itself - You are the cat she replaced with another cat that looks the same, and later returns in the game.
The story is sincere and is told really well, despite being an indie effort. It also sends a clear message about adopting a cat and the love it deserves in a new home, which really does a great job and sometimes tugs on your heart strings.
Gameplay
Unfortunately, this is where the game does not meet the mark. The camera frequently clips through the house, and the gameplay as the cat you play is also okay at best. There are a lot of tedious segments and I can forgive the animation due to the studio being indie, but otherwise this is one of those cases where a good game is hidden behind gameplay where you have to tolerate a lot of hinderances for a good experience.
You will participate in various cat antics such as knocking stuff off counters or tables, scratching up a sofa and traveling around the house, but the gameplay loop you do feels monotonous and tedious which is what drags the gameplay down further.
There are some good moments where the gameplay shines, like when you are hiding under the sofa and have to decide whether to stay under or comfort Olivia, but these moments are few in number.
Conclusion
Copycat is a promising that has a genuine message behind it and the intentions of the devs are visible throughout the whole experience. However, a lot of gameplay and performance issues made my 3-4 hour journey through the game really difficult to pull through. The price tag is set just right and if you enjoyed Stray and Little Kitty, Big City, and are willing to accept a fe wrough edges around the product, this is a game where you can find a good story, if you power through some of the more challenging segments of it.
