Recent reviews by B0N3D

*SPOILER WARNING: Because I want to be fair and HAVE to address the terrible writing/message*

I want to start by saying, I love a genre grounded in tragedy-- Hurt without comfort, even. However, I do not appreciate storytelling that pushes a harmful narrative based in tragedy while also refusing to explain or show as to why a cruel act is even being committed. I've played many games and read many stories where the narrative has a sad or bad end. But this story delivers unreasonable gut-punch after gut-punch, starting off as you being a shelter cat who was abused in their previous home now being the replacement of a cat who was "lost" while under the care of a sick old woman. This sounds as though there would be a chance for there to be some happiness or good plot points sprinkled in-between the obvious sadness that the old lady is so sick she will likely die, and the formerly abused cat who grew to love her now has no home all over again and must be re-homed... But that is NOT what happens. (And the writing has plot holes I definitely can't ignore with an annoying, tone-deaf narrator I will touch upon soon.)

As the story goes, right when you bond with the old woman, she gets hospitalized and you are left alone in the house for a while(You don't starve because you make a mess of the house until you find bagged cat food). When she comes back, her daughter does too, yelling at you for returning(thinking you're the original cat she initially kicked out) and cursing you for being around and finally throwing you out of the house. The old cat - which you have seen here and there outside windows peeking in before - who you replaced then takes that chance to replace /you/, and that's all well and normal so far in writing. But then you, the cat, tries to get back to sweet granny by hunting and getting her "food" in hopes she will be happy to see you. You give her the gift of a bird when she's outside and instead of recognizing you as either yourself or her old cat, she just says to you she can't adopt strays or keep 2 cats and goes back inside... When it's obvious writing-wise that whether this was you OR the old cat, she would at least put together that you're her cat and she could make an exception to that? That she'd be overjoyed that it'd be either of you??? That made no sense at all to me(Granny has her mind about her, as sick as she physically is). And to add to that, even if her daughter was wicked to /you/, she considers smothering her mother who she's unreasonably protective over with a pillow??? Like I know terminal illness causes thoughts of wanting loved ones to stop suffering by any means when watching over them, but it was written so disproportionately... The daughter wasn't ever her caretaker, so why resort to that so suddenly???

Anyways, this is where I had to take a step away from the game after playing for over an hour. The writing and that plot hole had irked me, but the "Animal Geographic" narrator who was way too lighthearted in this dark story ESPECIALLY irked me. He clashed way too much with the serious themes being pushed our way, never dialing it back. At the very least I wish he would have turned less goofy as the narrative went onto something darker to add depth to what was going on to you. It would have felt much more serious and impactful(which I know people will say he represents the cat's perspective, but the cat knew how serious things were getting. You weren't ignorant to everything.)

What sealed the deal for me to return the game for a refund was accidentally coming upon the ending in a Tiktok. I already warned about spoilers but basically, granny finds out about you being you, not her original cat, and she... abandons you. She doesn't give you back to the shelter, where she signed a promise to always love and house and protect you-- NOPE, she drops you off in the middle of nowhere explaining how she has her original cat and she STILL INSISTS she can't have 2 cats, so like a used tissue, she leaves you there to fend for yourself, all alone... Even the quote at the start of the game basically says "home is where you are needed"- Like NO?! To imply that pets are there to fulfill a need for you until there's no use anymore and now it's okay to abandon them is AWFUL. There's no narrative recognition that this is wrong at all either and with that quote at the beginning, it REALLY sets up that ending as having a horrible message. Even if the quote was directed at human beings, it's a terrible quote, but for this game with this story? Even worse.

TL;DR Friends, do not buy this game. There are other cat-based stories out there with emotional depth and well-written tragedy I've played that'd I'd better recommend. We need more narratively rich and cohesive games like Stray, not Copycat.

This game is more than a personality test. The questions it asks you are much more different than one would expect, even from any sort of survey you might have taken in the past. My end result made me genuinely cry as it was something I had never considered before about myself, but was able to finally see because of it. It can see into the deepest parts of you, of which it slowly pulls out to show you for yourself. It's surprisingly beautiful in that way and wonder for myself just how many results they made possible to have. I'm happy with the single playthrough I did, however, and don't find a burning need to figure that answer for myself.

I am not sure if me posting my result matters as I know the creators have already made a couple sequels, but if it helps them at all...

My word: Blessing

I didn't play this game with VR but I didn't need to 10/10 would squanch again

Team Fortress 2: It's not a game, it's a lifestyle.