Review | Schrodinger’s Cat Burglar

There’s a lot to love about Schrodinger’s Cat Burglar at first glance. It’s quirky, clever, and built around a genuinely inventive core idea. What if you could control a cat that exists in two places at once?

That’s not just flavour text either. The entire game is built around that concept, turning a classic quantum physics thought experiment into a fully playable puzzle system. You play as Mittens, a “literal” cat burglar caught in a scientific mishap, now navigating a mysterious facility using her newfound powers.

And for the first few hours, it works brilliantly.

But while the game starts strong with creativity and charm, it slowly trades innovation for repetition, and by the end, that initial excitement begins to collapse. But let’s dig deeper into what publisher and developer Abandoned Sheep have to offer.

Things I liked!

• Story and Tone | Despite the name, Schrodinger’s Cat Burglar doesn’t quite deliver on the “burglar” fantasy you might expect. There’s an opening comic-style cutscene that sets the tone really well, playful, stylish, and full of personality. But strangely, it’s also the only one of its kind. After that, the game shifts entirely into 3D-rendered storytelling, losing a bit of that initial identity.
  
  The premise itself is solid, though. A heist gone wrong leads to a quantum accident, giving Mittens the ability to exist in two places at once. From there, the story unfolds inside a lab full of secrets, security systems, and strange experiments. Most of the narrative is tucked away in optional lore terminals throughout the game, and since I was always looking to expand my understanding of the game, this encouraged me to seek these terminals out.

• Gameplay Mechanics | This is where Schrodinger’s Cat Burglar truly shines. The core mechanic of splitting into two cats is genuinely brilliant. At the press of a button, Mittens can exist in two positions at once, allowing you to control both simultaneously to solve puzzles.
  
  What makes it even better is how it’s implemented. One controller, two cats! The left stick controls one, right stick controls the other. You can split it into full co-op with a second player as well. It’s a fantastic system that feels intuitive almost immediately, but still opens up plenty of room for clever puzzle design. The idea of effectively turning a single-player game into a co-op experience is one of the most innovative aspects here, and honestly? Controlling two cats at once never stops being fun.
  
  
• Collectibles and Customisation | One area where the game absolutely delivers is personality. There’s a huge amount of customisation available, hats, colours, accessories, and more. You can even customise your quantum states, making it easier to distinguish between cats in co-op. The game also leans heavily into cat humour, and it works. From emotes to animations, it embraces every cat meme and stereotype you can think of. Watching your character casually lick themselves mid-level never really stops being funny. It’s these little touches that keep the game charming, even when the gameplay starts to wear thin.
  
  
• Level Design | The level design is well thought out when it comes to introducing and utilising the game’s core mechanics, with each new area gradually building on what the player has learned. Puzzle rooms are structured in a way that makes their objectives clear without needing excessive guidance, allowing players to quickly understand what’s required. The use of space works particularly well with the dual-cat mechanic, encouraging players to think about positioning and timing in a natural way. While there are some bad level-design elements mentioned below, it usually works well overall.
  
  
• Music and Audio | The music in Schrodinger’s Cat Burglar does a fantastic job of setting the tone, blending light, quirky melodies with a subtle sci-fi edge that fits the game’s quantum theme perfectly. It never feels overwhelming, instead sitting comfortably in the background while enhancing the atmosphere of each puzzle room and corridor. Sound design is equally strong, with satisfying audio cues for switches, doors, and abilities that help reinforce player actions and make puzzles feel more tactile. Even the small details, like the cats’ movements, cute meows, and environmental hums, add to the immersion, creating a cohesive and polished audio experience.
  
  
• Remote Play Together | I mentioned above that you can control two cats at once, but the Remote Play Together feature is great if you have a friend who can play with you as well. Using Remote Play Together was a genuinely fun way to experience the game, turning the already clever dual-control system into a proper co-op experience. Having another player take control of the second cat made coordination feel more natural and often led to some hilarious moments when things didn’t quite go to plan. It’s easily one of the best ways to play, adding an extra layer of enjoyment to the puzzles without changing the core mechanics.

Mixed & disliked!

• Puzzle Design | The puzzles themselves are frequent, fast, and accessible. Most revolve around activating switches simultaneously while navigating doors and barriers. Some puzzles require you to avoid detection from security systems, using your “quantum state” to bypass obstacles. There’s a real charm in figuring out which cat does what, watching one hold a switch while the other slips through a door, or coordinating movements to move objects across space.
  
  The problem is… they’re almost too straightforward. Nearly every puzzle has a single obvious solution, and most are solved within minutes. There’s very little escalation in difficulty, and even as new mechanics are introduced, they don’t significantly deepen the challenge. By the halfway point, you’ve essentially seen everything the game has to offer, and as I mention below, the game just ends up repeating itself.

• Exploration | While the game occasionally gives the illusion of multiple paths, it’s largely linear. Side routes usually just lead to collectibles rather than meaningful gameplay differences, and unfortunately, a lot of your time is spent simply walking between puzzle areas. The environments themselves are fine. They’re clean, functional, and thematically consistent with the lab setting, but they lack variety. Most areas boil down to corridors and test chambers, with very little in the way of memorable landmarks or visual payoff. There are small moments of humour and detail, the kind that make you stop and smile, but they’re not enough to offset the overall repetition of the spaces you’re moving through.
  
  
• Pacing and Repetition | Around the two to three hour mark, the balance shifts heavily toward puzzles, with fewer meaningful story moments in between. At the same time, the puzzles themselves don’t evolve enough to justify their increasing frequency. Instead of building complexity, the game leans into repetition. There’s also a noticeable increase in walking, backtracking, and padding between objectives. Even when new mechanics are introduced, they often feel inconsistent. Some abilities seem to break established rules, like bypassing certain barriers but not others, making the logic feel selective rather than systemic. What started as clever begins to feel stretched.
  
  
• Endgame Frustrations | The final stretch is unfortunately the weakest part of the game. Level design becomes more restrictive and less logical. Paths that feel like they should be traversable are blocked off, forcing you into repetitive routes that drag out playtime unnecessarily.
  
  Worse still, there are moments where the game can be unintentionally broken, for example skipping sections entirely or clipping through areas, which leads to accidentally bypassing puzzles, and in some cases, these skips can cut out large portions of gameplay, including sections that feel like they were meant to be important. After hours of repetition and build-up, it feels rushed and underwhelming, leaning into a sequel hook that doesn’t feel earned given how little the narrative has progressed.
  
  

How long did I play the review before publishing? 13.5 hours
How long to beat the story? 13.5 hours
How long to Complete the game 100%? 20 hours
How many Achievements did I earn before publishing? 15/29
You’ll love this game if you like these | Kerbal Space Program, Stray, Split Fiction

CONCLUSION

Score: 71/100

Schrodinger’s Cat Burglar is a creative and charming quantum puzzler with a brilliant core mechanic, but it’s held back by its pacing issues and a disappointing endgame scenario, which will no doubt leave many players feeling disappointed by its overuse of repetitive design and lack of focus.