When I heard that Edmund McMillen is releasing a new game, I was excited. When I heard that it’s about cats, I got even more excited. However, my excitement could not prepare me for what I would encounter once I started playing Mewgenics. I was lucky enough to receive a review code from the developers, and I am lucky enough to be able to write about the newest project, about 7 years in the making from Edmund McMillen (The Binding of Isaac, Super Meat Boy) and Tyler Glaiel (Closure, The End Is Nigh).

Mewgenics is a turn-based tactical roguelite (if this does not make sense to you yet, it will). In the game, you breed cats, manipulate their genetic lines, and send them on adventures. Because it is a roguelite, the game is procedurally generated: every run is wildly different from the last, featuring new enemies, items, and branching paths each time you embark on an adventure.

The Gameplay Loop

Mewgenics took existing core ideas and managed to make them novel. The adventuring and combat could be compared to the Darkest Dungeon titles, however, it still differs.

You play as someone who was brought back to life by a mad scientist. This scientist realized the scientific potential of cats and their genetic properties. I will not spoil much of the story, this is all you need to know.

You keep your cats in a house, which you can expand using the resources (or even cats) gathered during your adventures. Each time you start a new run, you select four cats from the house. Their individual stats matter, as they determine the RPG roles the cats will take on once the adventure begins—tanks, mages, archers, healers, and more. After choosing your team and their roles, the adventure begins.

You will traverse barren locations like the sewers, the boneyard, or the desert. Your cats will encounter enemies and loot along these paths. After every location you beat, you have a choice: either continue the adventure into even more treacherous places, or return home with the loot you have gathered.

An important mechanic is that you can only take a specific cat on one adventure during its life. After returning from an adventure, the cat becomes retired. This means it can still be used for breeding at home, but it cannot embark on new adventures anymore. If, for some reason, one or more of your cats does not return from an adventure, they are gone forever.

This mechanic accelerates the rougelite parts of the game. As in RPG’s you would send your characters out, level them up, make them stronger, and keep repeating this pattern. In Mewgenics, once you use a cat, they are done (mostly), and you have to find new suitable ones through breeding, or by adopting strays into your house.

You keep items and gold from successful runs—these can accelerate your next run as well.

The Combat

If you’re a fan of turn-based combat, Mewgenics was made for you. If you’re not, it still might have been. While the combat mechanic itself is simple (there’s a turn order, the more speed your characters have the sooner they move in that order), there are tons of details you have to watch out for during a fight. Once it’s one of your cat’s turns, you have several actions. You can move on the battlefield, use an attack, use an item and use a spell. You can do all of these actions during the round (you don’t have to decide between attacking or using a spell). Another interesting mechanic is that you can cast as many spells as you want during a turn, as long as you have the mana (the resource used for spellcasting) to do so.

The details matter, however. You have to keep in mind where your characters end their turn, as some enemies can capitalize on wrong positioning. Some have resistances or mechanics that can ruin your run if you do not pay attention to it from the start. There are over 1000 unique abilities and 900 items in the game, making every run and combat encounter feel truly different from the previous one.

Overall, combat is hard but rewarding once you get the hang of it. I wouldn’t expect anything less from McMillen, as The Binding of Isaac had the hardest encounters of my childhood.

The Characters

Other than the mad scientist and your cats, you will meet different NPCs throughout your journey. Each of them is more colourful and shocking than the previous one. You will aim to build a good relationship with all of them by sending them some of your cats. The amount and types of cats you have are tied to your overall meta progression. The merchant will unlock more items for sale the more cats you send them, the one who builds your house will help you expand it, and so on. Each NPC requires different types of cats—some are locked by age, some by combat experience, and some even by mutations. There is also a constantly returning evil character, but you will have to encounter it for yourself.

The Soundtrack

One part I did not expect was how great the soundtrack is during the entirety of the game. While you’re at home with your cats, the radio plays relatively standard songs; however, the more you fight and the more bosses you encounter, you unlock their specific boss-songs to play on the radio. I recommend turning up the music setting during your playthrough, and I hope the soundtrack will be accessible for download or purchase later.

The Conclusion

Wow. I expected greatness, and I received greatness. I would love to nit-pick details to tone down the review, but I cannot. For an indie game to have this much content and depth is unprecedented in the current market. To be honest, it offers more content than most AAA games released nowadays—often at double the price.

Mewgenics has over 200 hours of playtime in the main campaign, over 10 character classes with 75 unique abilities each, over 900 items, over 200 enemies and bosses, and choices at every turn that will define your progression.

I was quickly humbled by the difficulty of the game, immersed by the story, location and characters, and majorly impressed by the depth and complexity. That being said, I’ve only played about 30 hours of Mewgenics, and I feel that I have not even scratched the surface yet. I am looking forward to completing it in the coming weeks, months, or perhaps even year…

I could put my experience in so many words, but I believe there’s one that will describe it perfectly: it’s a meowsterpiece.

The game releases on 10 February 2026 on Steam, with a reasonable price-tag of 29.99 dollars. If you are interested in seeing more, the creator, Edmund McMillen streams the game every day until release on his YouTube channel.

All photos are screenshots from my playtrough.

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