Mimicry!: the cute prop hunt that amuses for a while but does not reinvent hide-and-seek

Turning into a vase to escape a hunter searching the room is a childlike, timeless pleasure that prop hunt has exploited for years. Mimicry! takes that proven recipe and sprinkles it with cuteness and chaos, and the result is genuinely amusing... for a while. Past the novelty effect, you realise you are playing a game you already know by heart.

The context

Mimicry! is developed and published by Wayward Skies Studio, available on PC via Steam. It is a chaotic multiplayer hide-and-seek game, owned as a homage to Gmod Prop Hunt and Witch It!, where cute Mimics escaped from a laboratory cause mayhem. Two camps clash: the Mimics, who blend into the scenery and swallow objects to survive, and the Exterminators, who burn, electrocute and blow everything up to root out the intruders. The concept does not hide its inspirations, it claims them, which immediately raises the question of its added value.

The gameplay

The heart of the game is the eternal asymmetric pleasure of hide-and-seek. On one side, disguising as an object and holding your breath hoping the hunter passes by; on the other, scrutinising the slightest suspicious detail and striking blindly praying to hit a Mimic rather than a real piece of furniture. This tension works, as it has always worked in the genre: the thrill of hiding under the enemy's eyes and the satisfaction of the hunter who unmasks a hiding spot deliver an immediate pleasure accessible to all. Mimicry! executes these fundamentals correctly, without gross fault.

The game's personal touch lies in its dressing and its small additions. The Mimics' ability to swallow objects brings a fun mechanic that goes beyond simple disguise, and the Exterminators' destructive arsenal, burning and blowing up the scenery, injects joyful chaos into the matches. The cute aesthetic of the creatures and the zany atmosphere of the escaped laboratory give a likeable visual identity that sets the game apart a little from its more austere elders. In a group of motivated friends, the matches trigger the genre's expected laughter.

But the underlying problem quickly becomes obvious: Mimicry! is a very derivative game that does not bring much new to a formula more than fifteen years old. Its additions, likeable, are not enough to mask that you are playing one more prop hunt, with the same strengths and the same limits as its models. Those who have already worn out the genre will not find the reason to abandon their habits here, and the novelty runs out quickly once you have gone through the maps and mechanics.

The other reservation, proper to the genre, is its total dependence on the group and the community. A prop hunt without active, complicit players is an empty shell, and Mimicry! is no exception: half the pleasure comes from the complicity and reactions of the participants, the other from the health of its online population. With a group of friends, it is a good stress-reliever; with silent strangers or deserted servers, the interest quickly fades. It is a game to be consumed in company and as long as the community is alive, two conditions that seriously bound its lifespan.

The tech

Technically, Mimicry! owns a cute, colourful art direction perfectly suited to its light tone. The creatures have character, the environments offer enough hiding spots for the cat-and-mouse game to work, and the Exterminators' destructive chaos is rendered with enough punch to be satisfying. The whole radiates an immediate likeability that adds to its charm.

The technical reservations are minor and on the scale of the project. Online cooperation and confrontation work correctly, an indispensable condition for a game that lives on multiplayer, but a bit more variety in the maps and objects would have been welcome to extend the freshness. Nothing fatal, and the game runs well, but the modesty of the content is felt, and it is that more than the tech that limits the experience over time.

The verdict

Mimicry! is a likeable, chaotic prop hunt, which correctly executes the proven fundamentals of asymmetric hide-and-seek and dresses them in welcome cuteness. In a group of motivated friends, it triggers the genre's expected laughter, and its small additions, like the Mimics swallowing objects, bring a touch of freshness. For prop hunt fans looking for a new variant, there is enough here for some good moments.

But the game suffers from its very derivative nature: it does not bring enough new to an old formula to leave a lasting mark, and its novelty runs out quickly. Add its total dependence on a complicit group and a living community, and you get a pleasant but dispensable game, built for short sessions with friends rather than lasting attachment. A good evening stress-reliever, provided you know you have already played this under other names.

A cute, fun-in-the-moment prop hunt, but too derivative to stand out from a formula you know by heart.

Score: 6/10

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Reviewed on the PC version.