Copycat – An Atmospheric and Emotional Feline Adventure

“Stay true to yourself. An original is worth more than a copy.” – Suzy Kassemv

Overview

Copycat is a narrative-focused adventure game about the meaning of home. It follows the story of a newly adopted cat who quickly finds herself replaced.

Narrative

Copycat begins with an elderly lady named Olive, who is clearly in poor health, visiting a cat shelter to adopt a new companion after her previous cat escaped and went missing. Olive names the new cat Dawn, after her predecessor, and tries to encourage her to settle into her new environment. Not long after Dawn begins to find her feet in her new home and grows to care for Olive, the first cat returns and Dawn is left out on the streets. The game follows Dawn as she attempts to find her way back home, and takes several dark and emotional turns along the way. Dawn’s backstory also becomes loosely apparent to the player as the game progresses, which subtly exacerbates the emotive nature of the experience.

The story is delivered through dialogue between human characters, and their remarks to Dawn, as well as through a nature documentary-esque commentary, as well as Dawn’s actual thoughts that are displayed in text on the screen. The mixture of different of narrative exposition gives good insight into the thoughts and feelings of both Olive and Dawn, successfully presenting a variety of perspectives to the player. The overarching narrative focuses on a number of themes, primarily the meaning of home, but also rejection, belonging, and family.

Gameplay

Copycat is mostly linear with some scope to explore within designated areas. The player takes control of Dawn and can cause mischief around the house, choose how to interact with Olive and other creatures and humans, and hunt birds and other critters amongst other things. The latter half of the game and sections of gameplay that occur within Dawn’s dreams expand the genres and mechanics that are utilised. The player will find themselves completing stealth missions, platforming, endless runner-type sections, and QTE-like events. These are limited and mixed so do not feel over-used or repetitive.

The camera view and movement can sometimes feel a little janky but due to the nature of the gameplay and tasks this does not prove to be much of a hindrance. Copycat is primarily a narrative experience but allows the player to experience the story in a highly interactive way that is very satisfying and a lot of fun.

Styling

Copycat has a vibrant 3D art style that falls somewhere between cartoon and realism. It has moderately detailed textures, warm atmospheric lighting, and adorable cat models. There are a number of dream sequences that are depicted with more surreal, low-poly visuals, making them stand out from the real events in the game.

The soundtrack is varied but predominantly features tribal sounds such as drums and wooden instruments that tie into the nature documentary-style narration and commentary. The music is generally quite upbeat and relaxing but does change to adequately reflect the darker and more emotional moments in the game. There is a good range of sound effects which are also well implemented, the highlight being the cute cat noises.

Summary

Copycat is a wonderful narrative adventure, expanding the ever-growing plethora of available cat games in an original and engaging way. It offers varied and satisfying gameplay, an emotional and occasionally shocking storyline, convincing and rounded characters, colourful visuals with adorable cats and stylised dream sequences, all accompanied by a unique and relaxing soundtrack. It will take around 3-4 hours to play and boasts little replayability besides missable achievements but the quality is sufficient to justify the price tag. I thoroughly enjoyed this game and would happily recommend it to fans of story-rich adventure games and cat lovers alike!

Looking for more games about cats? You may also like these reviews:
Cats and the Other Lives – A Fly on the Wall look at Family Drama! – Cat Museum – A Brilliantly Bizarre and Surprisingly Moving Puzzler – Calico – A Wonderfully Wholesome Community Sim with lots of Cats!

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