Edmund McMillen has stolen weeks of my life, and I have let him. From the PC to my ill fated times on 3DS and iOS, and now my almost daily driver of the Switch, I have continued to play The Binding of Isaac for more than a decade, and I’m no closer to being finished than I was the first time I defeated Hush. For all the critique you can levy against the crass nature of the art and the perpetual nerfing that occurs (though Glass Cannon was really well rebalanced), the game has a nearly perfect loop that keeps you coming back for more. So when I realized that Mewgenics was going to be an isometric strategy game, I was…nervous. Could I really afford to dump my life into a game made by an addictive madman in a genre that famously eats up even more time than most?

Alright, fair enough, let’s give it a shot.

There’s a plot, because of course there is, but it will quickly dissolve in the face of trying to perpetuate the gameplay loop, so try not to worry too much about it. You’ve been hired (abducted?) by a mad scientist looking to create some kind of perfect cat, be it immortal or powerful or whatever. As a result, you’ve been charged with helping in this endeavor by creating the strongest kitties that you can through adventuring. You’ll set your feline friends loose in the world, following a map of adventure that brings them to all sorts of wild, urban encounters, and eventually make their way back home with foraged food and other items, because you’re running a house full of cats: supplies are necessary.

A few things to note about Mewgenics before you really dive in and consider your own interest in the game. First, this is going to take a long, long time to finish. As of this article, I have several hours of play time and am still in the single digits in terms of completion percentage. Like The Binding of Isaac, Mewgenics has a smorgasbord of unlockable and discoverable things to see in the game, from different traits and abilities that the cats gain to various items and upgrades that are found and accessed over the course of play. If you’re someone who is looking for completionism, this is one that has a long tail to it, so be forewarned before setting down and beginning the journey.

Somehow, this horrifying cat collar ended up being an MVP for me in several runs.

At the heart of things, Mewgenics is three titles in one. It’s a turn based strategy game, a simulation game, and a collect-a-thon. The third prong is already mentioned above and has a difficult regulation to it in order to succeed. Whereas some things can be obtained through normal gameplay (expanded storage, upgraded living conditions), a lot of it is pure chaos. You rely on what you pick up during a run in order to improve your notebook of equippable and expendable items, and different cat abilities and traits are equal parts breeding and random strays showing up at your house. You never know if, at the end of a day, the cats are going to make love, make war (and literally kill each other) or just do nothing. And if you’re playing with your kids in the room, be sure to turn off the cat humping animations. Whoops.

The simulation is pretty fun and detailed with all the places and areas to figure out where to send your cat. NPCs across the map want cats in different conditions: former fighters, kittens, and, yes, dead cats for whatever reasons I do not care to learn. You need to have at least one piece of food per cat in your stores in order to move onto the next day. If you don’t, Mewgenics interestingly makes sure you can’t simply lose. No matter what, if you have no food and no viable cats for adventuring (as a cat can only go on an adventure once), then a host of strays will arrive to keep the game going. It’s convenient and prevents a “from zero” reset, but the random elements sometimes means the cats won’t be up to snuff.

That’s the spirit?

Which brings us to the meat and potatoes of it all, the combat. You have to guide your cats through several zones with random encounters throughout. Sometimes you’ll find treasures, sometimes you’ll fight, and sometimes you’ll need to do a skill check to activate an event. If a cat is strong enough, maybe they can shred open an object and discover new treasure. I had a cat who was intelligent enough to enter a dark cave and befriend a giant bear who was my companion until his untimely death in the very next fight. Your party of four cats (sometimes less) has to make due to all manner of other wildlife on their quest to either get home or venture onward to the next area, like the sewers and beyond.

Each fight is a rather complex ordeal which is presented in a simple way. It breaks down to four key components: move, fight, spell and item. You can do these in any order you wish, and there aren’t as many limitations as you might think. For example, if your cat casts a single spell at the beginning of their turn and then amasses more MP through the act of moving around, you can then add an additional spell (or even two) as long as you’ve got the MP. Multiple times I ended up with cats that had the item break ability (an item always hits for its maximum damage but then breaks) and also a spell to summon sticks, resulting in quite a thrashing as long as it was fortuitous. When the abilities and items align, the combat is incredibly brutal.

Not to mention that Mewgenics incorporates a ton of otherworldly chance into things. Besides what enemies and treasures you might encounter, there’s also the passive weather traits that can affect each fight. If it’s windy, all units might get blown around the map, leading to collision damage with inanimate objects or other units (friendly and hostile). Bad raid gives all the cats the “wet” debuff and there’s a chance of lightning striking you at all times. Oh, and there can be zombies. You know, that dreary forecast of “zombies?” Having undead cats arise each turn, attacking everything and devouring corpses can really spoil what was otherwise a fun outing. It’s a massive roll of the dice every time you set out, even with very powerful stock cats at your command.

Seriously, what am I supposed to do with this information??

Here’s the thing: Mewgenics might be the most polished title I’ve seen from McMillen on first blush. There is such a feast of incredible elements on display that underlines what has made the titles he’s worked on a massive success. The art direction has a crude but cute appeal to it, and the cats all feel unique and different, from their bizarre names (who names a cat “Want Woman??”) to their different levels of grooming and mange. All the humanoid beings are oddballs unto themselves with distinct personalities and ambitions, primarily cat related. The animation that takes place is janky and floppy, but it’s clearly done on purpose. It’s like when we used to watch Potter Puppet Pals and the characters were flailing constantly: it adds to the degree of havoc and  madness that’s already omnipresent in a game where I’m breeding cats for destruction and God knows what ends.

Additionally, the soundtrack has no right to be as good as it is. The musical score has a sweeping degree of nuance and texture as you move between different zones and areas, but there’s also a lot of vocal tracks to give things an even stranger, stronger feeling. The first few boss fights all seemed to have their own bespoke anthems that brings you right into the absurdity of it all. It’s not enough that there’s a rat that can hurl bombs almost anywhere on screen and then hide under a pocket trash can to absorb all the damage. He also has a swinging, jazzy track that highlights his qualities and power, and that sort of detail helps bring a game that was already engrossing even further into the forefront of activity and attention.

This kind of combat works best with mouse and keyboard, and I refuse to hear otherwise.

However, and it pains me to say this, Mewgenics is not necessarily the right outlet for all the ideas and concepts present within the game. With all these items and classes to unlock, with all the different secrets to discover as cats – young, old and dead – are invested in other people’s homes, with all the plates to keep spinning at once, having then to dive into isometric, turn-based combat is an odd choice. It takes a lot of time to get through a round of fighting, even from the beginning where you might end up with a bunch of maggots and mice to contend with; not really strong foes, but a lot of them. By the time you get through the alley and into the sewer, there’s a real chance you’ve invested close to twenty minutes, which is a significant chunk of time that could be destroyed at any moment.

The roguelike nature is at war with the risk/reward system of the game itself, which might be appealing to some but honestly was frustrating for me. Finishing a biome means deciding whether to stop there and go home with your bounty or push forward and risk getting more but also dying. The cats gain levels after each fight, but, as stated above, a cat who returns home from foraging will not go out to fight again, so you need to enjoy the powered up persona while you can. Having a quartet of felines go the distance, make it back home, and then have their progeny get nuked the second they step out the door is rough, and you need to accept that it’s probably going to happen. That zombie condition is no joke and can total an unprepared group of cats.

Nothing quite like feeling guilty every time you fail at a game!

Which I guess means, at the center of it all, Mewgenics has created another title where people may either bounce off it immediately or become deeply engrossed. At the time of this writing, it’s clear there’s so much to enjoy and understand about its world if you’re willing to sink your teeth in. There’s probably going to be weeks, if not months, of fans running numbers, dissecting builds and figuring out the best way to succeed, and that will be exciting to unpack…once it’s done. In the meantime, dedicated players who really enjoy SRPG combat with a massive dose of oddball aesthetic will find something truly unique and engaging with Mewgenics. It’s got plenty to experience, so don’t dismiss it right away. But please note that it is a learning process, and, if you don’t get it immediately, it might take all nine of your lives.

Mewgenics is available now on PC.

Reviewed on PC.

A copy of Mewgenics was provided by the publisher.