Copycat Review – A Touching, Heartbreaking Game About the Meaning of Home

As a licensed and certified Cat Lady, I’m always on the lookout for games that feature our feline friends in some form. Usually that involves my character adopting or caring for a cat, like in The Sims or Stardew Valley. Copycat is the first game I have played in which my character was a cat. It’s a game that will draw inevitable comparisons to Stray, which released about two years earlier and also features a cat protagonist. From what I can tell, that’s about the extent of their similarities.

Copycat is a narrative-driven game, and the story is one of the most emotionally brutal that I’ve ever experienced, especially in a video game. You play as a shelter cat who is adopted by an elderly woman named Olive. She gives you the name Dawn and takes you home, where you gradually become familiar and acclimated with the house, along with your new companion. Just when you are most comfortable, everything gets turned upside down and you find yourself out on the street, alone.

The way this progresses may not be quite what you expect based on the game’s trailer. The humans in the game are flawed and struggling with their own problems, and you’re “just” a cat. Prepare to be frustrated and even angry with some of the characters. One person in particular will have you fuming at your monitor. There’s no physical abuse, thankfully, but the game does not shy away from the neglect and even casual cruelty that some people show to pets when they are no longer convenient to have around.

It’s not all gloom and doom, though. Copycat captures the small joys of being a cat, inviting you to get into all sorts of mischief and narrating all of it as if you’re in a nature documentary. Think Stanley Parable meets National Geographic. You’ll knock items off of tables and steal any scrap of food you can find, all while a cheeky David Attenborough type describes a panther taking down an antelope.

What impressed me most about Copycat was how well the gameplay elements contributed to immersing me in the story. Something as simple as holding Y to purr in a moment of quiet comfort felt so meaningful. Throughout the game, Dawn expresses her thoughts through floating text. “I didn’t know I could still purr” appeared on the screen as my controller vibrated gently in my hands. This moment and others brought genuine tears to my eyes as they reminded me of similar moments I’ve shared with my furry friends in the real world.

Exploring the house and later the neighborhood was a big part of the game, and that felt right. Seeing everything from a cat’s eye view made it innately more interesting than it would have been otherwise, and the floating text that conveyed Dawn’s thoughts made the exploration rewarding even when there was little else to interact with. Jumping into a cardboard box and peeking out at the house from within made me smile as I thought of all the hours my cats have spent doing exactly that. I also got to observe the other humans in the neighborhood, each engrossed in their own personal dramas, which added flavor and depth to the heaviest points of the story.

Copycat makes use of dream sequences to break up the exploration and enhance the atmosphere during important narrative beats. When Dawn is feeling confident in her new home she dreams of being a giant panther chasing rabbits through the tall grass of the Savannah. Later her dreams are more troubled, offering insight into her fear and heartache.

The game has fantastic pacing, and utilizes its mini-games to drive the plot and action forward. You’ll use the arrow buttons to try to catch a feather toy, and later on you’ll perform the same actions as Dawn hunts for her dinner, evoking the memory of a happier time. There are a couple of chase sequences where you must dodge obstacles as Dawn runs, and some quicktime events where you have to press the right buttons to fend off some hostile alley cats.

None of these activities are particularly challenging since you seem to have unlimited attempts, but they do feel urgent, which helps to build tension. There is one stealth sequence in particular that you can actually fail, and I’m curious to go back and try it again to see what it changes. The variety kept the game from getting too boring or repetitive, even if the mini-games themselves were very simple.

On the downside, the choices I made in the game did not seem to be significant in the long run, with only small changes to the way things played out in the short term. The ending didn’t feel very satisfying either. As I’ve sat with it, I think I appreciate it more, but I’m still wrapping my head around what the developers were trying to say. I kind of like that I’m still mulling it over, though. A good story is often one that stays with you and makes you think.

Copycat is the debut game from Spoonful of Wonder, a two-person team who happen to be a couple. Knowing that, I’m all the more impressed with what they managed to achieve. Every area of the game felt polished and well thought-out: music, voice acting, writing, level design. It all works together flawlessly. Most of all, the game has heart. It offers a profound lesson in empathy, both for our animal companions and for our fellow humans, none of whom are perfect, but all of whom have the same need for family and belonging.

Copycat took me about 3 hours to complete. The game releases on Steam today, September 19th, with versions planned for PS5, Xbox S/X, and Nintendo Switch at a later date.

You can check out the game’s trailer below.