Mewgenics is a fascinating, intricate, strategic roguelite, and I'll likely never, ever finish it

Strange as it is to say, Mewgenics is exactly what the name suggests. It’s a game about cats. And it’s a game about selectively breeding those cats together to ensure they get the strongest pieces of both of their parents — you know, like eugenics. Mewgenics.

Along with the whole breeding-an-abomination thing — where you essentially breed up an army of strong cat warriors while you toss the old and the mutated aside — Mewgenics offers a deep strategy game loaded with options, abilities, gear, and engagements. It’s like a whimsical, cat infested Into the Breach, with a little bit of the base management from XCOM, and a healthy dose of The Binding of Isaac’s look, tone, and humor.

Mewgenics is the kind of game where it feels like anything could happen, where there are a million interactions that will reward in-depth knowledge and experience, but still surprise you. It’s also the newest game from Edmund McMillen of Binding of Isaac and Super Meat Boy fame, as well as Tyler Glaiel (who worked with McMillen on The End is Nigh), so it has the pedigree to ensure dozens of hours where you may never see the same thing twice.

And, about 12 hours in and squarely through Act 1, I find it a bit too tedious for my taste.

Every in-game day — which plays out like a turn in something like Civilization, so it only changes when you’re ready to move on — a new stray will show up outside your door. You can then take the cat and its random stats in and plant it in your house with your other cats. After shopping around at a few stores that sell items like furniture or food, you end the day to see what happens. Maybe your cats have a fight, and one dies. Or, ideally, two cats get busy and make a kitten. In the morning, you lose a bit of food based on how many cats you have, your cats age a year, and you can continue the breeding process or go on an adventure.

Going on an adventure involves chucking four cats into the adventure box. You’ll then tag each of them with a variety of fantasy classes, like thief, archer, cleric, mage … you get it. This will give the cats one of many possible abilities from each class, as well as a unique perk. It also changes their color, so they’re easily identifiable both on the battlefield and back at home. You can then equip any items you may have in your inventory — which let cats do things like fly over enemies or spawn an unkillable fly assistant — before heading out on your “run.” It’s a lot.

Each act in Mewgenics starts in a new area, like the back alley of your neighborhood or the desert. You and your cats will claw (heh) their way through a variety of enemy encounters, randomized events, and stores. Sometimes you’re given a choice along the path to decide where you’d like to go next — kind of like a game board — but it’s mostly linear until you’ve played enough to unlock the “hard” track, which will offer more items and XP in exchange for a tougher challenge.

Each battle plays out on a battle grid, which looks a bit like a chess board. When your cats spawn in, they’ll be greeted with a number of enemies and obstacles, like cactuses or errant piles of poop. Some enemies will be neutral, like random chickens or flies, none of which need to die in order for you to finish the battle. But most enemies will be actively hostile, and use their turn to attack your felines.

Each round of combat consists of one turn for each of your cats and at least one turn for the enemies. On their turn, your cats can move, cast spells, and use their basic attack in whatever order you see fit. Outside of special conditions, movement and basic attacks have only one charge per round, but you can cast as many spells as you have mana for. 

This allows for some very interesting cat builds, like an archer cat I had that could spawn maggots onto the field for a very small amount of mana. And since that cat had a high mana regeneration stat, I was able to spawn two or three per turn. As that cat leveled up between battles, I eventually picked up a perk specifically designed to aid familiars — which my maggots were. Suddenly, my archer became a poisonous, maggot-stacking, pet summoner class that could shoot foes with their bow from afar. It was incredible.