It’s a well rehearsed line from cat people that you don’t own a cat – instead they own you. Unlike a dog’s unending loyalty and affection, cats occupy your house and stereotypically seem to barely tolerate your presence, unless they’re after food of course. A pseudo-psychological reading could easily be made about what kind of relationship you prefer based on your choice of pet, but that’s outside the scope of this review. Copycat takes the idea of the feline/human dynamic and flips the script to see it through the cat’s eyes and ends up being a touching tale of belonging and rejection.
You begin the game by choosing the appearance of your cat, Dawn. I chose the black and white as it most closely resembled my own little murder goblin, Tash. This choice takes place in the context of an animal rescue centre as your prospective owner selects you. The elderly human has just lost their own cat, and it soon becomes apparent that you are a dead ringer for the misplaced feline. This offers an interesting perspective on the relative replaceability of pets in our lives, but there is more at play here than the fickle affections of a cat owner. It turns out that Olive is experiencing the effects of old age and the inevitable diminishing of her mental capacity.
While Dawn is initially unwilling to be domesticated and longs to be out in the wild – even dreaming about being a majestic big cat hunting on the savannah – the slow process of accepting her place by Olive’s side is a touching part of the game. You get to play out the settling in period in which Dawn hides beneath the furniture and even lashes out in misplaced anger. This all makes the moment when Dawn bonds with Olive all the more emotionally resonant.
Mechanic-wise, Dawn has all the abilities you’d expect from a cat. You can run, climb, jump and swipe to your heart’s content and there are plenty of achievements/trophies to unlock through breaking things or causing chaos in Olive’s house. Once you venture out into the wider world there are rudimentary stealth and combat sections but the key thing here is the narrative with the game mechanics largely being employed to push the story along.
Just as Dawn begins to feel safe in her new home tragedy strikes as Olive is hospitalised and your twin nemeses appear. First there is Olive’s daughter who doesn’t feel that her mother has the capacity to care for a pet so tries to evict you, and later on, the titular Copycat – an exact replica of you who infiltrates the home and leaves you on the outside. While never fully revealed, it seems that this is actually the original Dawn and leaves you questioning ideas of who really belongs with Olive.
As the game progresses towards its emotional conclusion it takes in some surprisingly dark themes through Dawn’s reactions to her shifting circumstances. At one point there is even a harrowing scene where you have to control Dawn’s choice between crossing a road or giving up in front of a moving car. Your adventures in the dark alleys of the real world feel suitably hellish and are in stark contrast to both the comfort of Olive’s home and the vivid dreamworld of Dawn’s escapist fantasies.
Graphically, Copycat is decent but far from groundbreaking. The human characters have a real uncanny valley appearance that makes them pretty disturbing – an effect that actually plays into the game’s perspective so could certainly be deliberate. The juxtaposition between the bland real life environments and the bright dreamscapes is effective, though. The voice acting is good too, although the Australian suburban setting was far too reminiscent of classic Neighbours for this eighties kid.