Schrodinger's Cat Burglar review

Cute and quirky feline quantum adventure should scratch the itch of any puzzle-platformer fan

In his famous thought experiment, Schrödinger's cat was simultaneously dead and alive, which just goes to show both how weird the quantum world is and why Schrödinger should never have been allowed to adopt one. But what if, instead of one poor moggy being dead, both cats were alive and independently causing mischief in the lab? That's the premise behind Australian studio Abandoned Sheep's puzzle-platforming debut, Schrödinger's Cat Burglar. Starting out as a one-man passion project way back in 2018, it's taken a long road to get here, but thankfully its charm and energy have arrived intact. Billed as "Portal with cats," it has a sprawling underground facility packed with test chambers and weird science to explore, a snarky AI to outwit, and the inevitable world domination plan to thwart. It's cute and colourful, and the increasingly wacky quantum mechanics make for some satisfyingly twisted puzzle solutions without breaking your brain too much.

Mittens is an unusually literal sort of cat burglar. Except calling her that might be doing her a bit of a disservice, because tonight she's breaking into a secret laboratory not to steal but to investigate an anonymous insider tip-off. So it's probably fairer to call her an investigative journalist with flexible morals and a feline penchant for mischief. She's ably assisted by Susan, a hedgehog with a headset back at base who has a knack for hacking and figuring out advanced physics on the fly. She's somehow picked up the title "Lazy," but I have to assume that's ironic. The company in question is the result of an unlikely merger between Flagranté Plumbing Solutions and Johan Data Processing, which has spawned an enormous, super-secret facility full of both insanely advanced technology and an excessive amount of pipework. What does a company like that specialise in? As it turns out: quantum toilets, espionage, and international blackmail. Naturally.

Mittens starts out, as cats tend to do, with the ability to jump up on platforms, wriggle into air ducts and (of course) knock things onto the floor. So far, so Stray. But before long, following a shadowy purple cat leads her into a room with a giant glowing machine called the Dual Event Synthesizer. Scary, but Susan thinks it's probably safe, and the only way out is through, so how bad can it be? After a spectacular lightshow and a whole lot of getting zapped, it turns out that the answer is not so much bad as really confusing. Because Mittens can now split herself in two, at will, into what I'll call Schrödinger's kittens. They're both still Mittens, but now they're semi-transparent and glow blue and orange.

Unsurprisingly, the next few labs are packed with test chambers designed to probe the limits of these new abilities. Here, Mittens quickly learns that she won't make it far just by standing on two pressure pads or pulling two levers at once. Anything either kitten picks up appears in both their mouths, letting her effectively teleport items like 3D-printed batteries or keycards. It wouldn't do to let all this weirdness out too early, though, so the researchers have thoughtfully included quantum barriers that allow only one kitten through or force them both to recombine into the original kitty first. Thankfully, they didn't reckon on the burglar’s innate feline cunning, so these restrictions can't contain her for long!

Since it's the middle of the night and everyone's gone home, Mittens pretty much has the place to herself. She does, however, still have to reckon with the AI security system, whose smiley face keeps popping up on giant prehensile screens. He's fixated on stopping you, but lacks GLaDOS's cunning and is wholly unprepared for the general awesomeness of cats. And, thanks to Susan, he's eminently hackable, with comically unforeseen consequences.

Everything in Schrödinger's Cat Burglar is presented in isometric 3D, with a clean cartoon-realistic aesthetic. Portal-esque matte grey test chambers are mixed in with corporate offices, storerooms, ductwork, and the occasional rough-hewn cavern. There's a nice contrast between the obsessively clean laboratories and the grimy, more lived-in areas that weave through them. To add to the drama, there are starkly backlit fans, ominously glowing machines under the walkways, and a cat-sized pneumatic tube system. Mittens herself is just adorable, and the animation is full of lovely details. Before jumping down from a desk, for example, she plants her front feet at the edge, cocks her head to spot the landing, and wiggles her butt before leaping. Pick up a few collectibles, and you can customise her with a range of collars, hats, and fur patterns too. There's even a variety of meowing and pawing emotes if you really want her to express herself.

The music is a feast of gloriously groovy synth pop that sounds like the composer took a few days off from writing a heist thriller score to let their hair down. It's bouncy, playful, and chill, ratcheting up the tension just enough where it needs to and blending into an ambient background when you have to concentrate. Mittens and Susan naturally converse in meows and squeaks, but with helpful subtitles so the rest of us can follow along. The facility is also hugely atmospheric, echoing with the sound of machinery, whooshing fans, and Mittens' own paws as she gallops down metal walkways.

Keyboard and mouse controls are available, but the game warns you up front that it's best played with a controller, and I'd have to agree. You split Mittens by pushing the thumbsticks in opposite directions, controlling one kitten with each stick. Likewise, you pick up objects, tug on hatches, and pull levers with the left and right triggers. Early on, I'd often lose track of which stick controlled which kitten, but once that clicked it was surprisingly intuitive. For the rare occasions when you need both kittens to do different things simultaneously, there's an option to slow things down as much as necessary, just one of an impressive array of accessibility options.

Schrodinger's Cat Burglar

Genre:	Science Fiction
Presentation:	Realtime 3D
Theme:	Escape, Team-up, Technology, Animal
Perspective:	Third-Person
Gameplay:	Environmental puzzler, Puzzle-platformer
Control:	Direct Control
Game Length:	Long (more than 10 hours)
Action:	Platforming
Difficulty:	Medium
Graphic Style:	Simulated realism

Platforming is usually pretty simple: just running up to an edge and watching Mittens leap gracefully across. It does get a little trickier when there's more than one place to jump to, as you need to stop, pick a direction from the visible markers available, and then jump. You can't miss a landing, but positioning yourself to bring up the option you want can be finicky. Letting the kittens wander too far from each other can also force the camera to zoom out to an uncomfortable degree, but this is rarely an issue.

Schrödinger's Cat Burglar may be a puzzle-platformer, but the emphasis is very much on "puzzle" rather than "platformer." There are occasional moving platforms and timers that run out, but they're pretty slow by default, and can be adjusted further in the settings. If your plan hinges on perfectly timed execution, you've missed something. Mittens has to hack a few terminals by tapping out a code, rhythm-game style, but this doesn't need a cat's reflexes either and can be skipped entirely if desired.

Navigating the facility initially felt daunting without a map, since it's huge and riddled with sneaky shortcuts. But between helpful guidelines on the floor, nudges from Susan, and a liberal dose of yellow paint, it rapidly became as natural as following my nose for trouble. Different departments are separated by airlocks (presumably for security), and you soon run into a lift system that can take you pretty much anywhere. Its buttons even have handy icons showing how many collectibles are in the area. Things did get a bit more confusing when I started doubling back to pick up the last few of these (I may just be a tad obsessive on that front), but thankfully you can enable a collectible tracker that pings when you're nearby.

Saving happens via checkpoints, either manually at in-game terminals or automatically after some of the more challenging puzzles. If you get frustrated in the middle of a puzzle chamber and quit, you'll have to restart that chamber, but otherwise it's difficult to lose much progress. The puzzles are designed so that you shouldn't be able to get irretrievably stuck, just create a bit more work for yourself if you make a mistake, but there is a chamber reset function if you need it, as well as a hint system.

One last feature that I didn't test, but could be fun to try, is the local co-op mode, where each person takes charge of one of Schrödinger's kittens. It does mean one player has to take a back seat when Mittens has pulled herself together, but that's rarely required for long.

The puzzles ramp up to medium difficulty, with a few harder challenges for diehard collectible hunters to find, and a steady drip of new mechanics and obstacles keeps things fresh. My favourite feature was the security cameras that can observe one kitten and turn the other "theoretical," letting her walk straight through doors and other movable objects, but an honourable mention has to go to the robotic guard dogs. These can suck Mittens in and send her to a kitty holding pen, making it deeply satisfying when you find sneaky ways to blow them up later!

Every new twist is introduced by snarky, passive-aggressive office memos explaining some new safety feature, lab accident, or financial opportunity, fleshing out the backstory nicely. Some ideas, such as Mittens' ability to supercharge herself and power through obstacles, are played with for a bit and then promptly forgotten, but otherwise the game does a solid job of finding new and interesting ways to take advantage of Mittens' powers. That said, there are only so many ways to skin a cat (sorry, Mittens!), and by around the halfway point you've pretty much seen the core bag of tricks. Later abilities are neat to play with, but the puzzle solutions start to seem like variations on a theme. Personally, I was having too good a time to care, with the brisk pace just adding to the game's bouncy energy.

Completists will be glad to know that there are plenty of collectibles to shoot for, from extra terminals to hack and robotic mice to pounce on, to Flagranté bucks and quantum shards you can trade in for cosmetics. You can smash piggy banks, fry ATMs with your quantum powers, and unlock chests. These often push you to find ways into hard-to-reach places, smuggle items past security doors, and mess with the cleaning robots. (It's amazing what you can do with some spilled paint and a few carefully placed pawprints!) There are whole new areas you might miss entirely in a casual playthrough.

Mittens starts out simply trying to escape, but as she explores and puts the pieces together, it becomes impossible to slink away, especially with the mysterious shadow cat watching. Stretched across ten to fifteen hours of playtime (depending on how obsessive you are), the plot is spread a little thin at times, especially during the middle act, but when it does ramp up for the action-packed finale, it unexpectedly hits you in the feels. The company's dastardly plan is equal parts wonderfully silly and moustache-twirlingly sinister, but there's a warmly human (and feline) layer underneath whose quiet melancholy grounds things a little. You can also sense the bond between Mittens and Susan growing as time goes on, making you feel for them even as they're discussing the relative merits of catnip and worms. When the ending teased a possible sequel, I found myself looking forward to spending more time with Mittens and company.

Final Verdict

Schrödinger's Cat Burglar is just as charming and oddly adorable as its title suggests. The cartoon graphics are polished and vibrant, the music is playful, and the world is delightfully quirky. Despite the quantum mechanics, the puzzles won't break your brain, tickling it just enough without bogging down the frenetic crime caper pace. The puzzles may be starting to feel a bit too familiar by the end of its substantial runtime, and the backtracking might get a bit much in the search for collectibles, but it's hard to mind when the furry protagonists are this endearing. If you're a fan of cats, interfering with unethical research, or just messing with the nature of reality, this will leave you purring with pleasure.

Peter played Schrödinger's Cat Burglar on PC using a review code provided by the game's publisher.

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