Catherine is a puzzle-platformer/adventure/horror-survival game, released on July 26, 2011 in North America (February 17 for Japan) for X-Box 360 and Playstation 3. Developed by Atlus Persona Team and published by Atlus, this game is described as "adult-oriented" by Shigenori Soejima, the game's designer. One would have no problem figuring that out after a few moments playing this game (or by viewing X-Box's and PlayStation's differing cover arts, respectively).Right off the bat-
We want to discuss how great of a job the Atlus Persona Team did of mixing the 3 factors of this game. They took Puzzle-Platforming and Decision Making (which, arguably, makes as much of an impact on this story-line as that of some Fable titles), and amalgamated them with a grand dose or horror and shock. The result is a sadistic game of Tetris where your mind is constantly twisted and prodded, just like the blocks that make up each level. If your not convinced about how intense this game is, this a picture of a boss in one of the levels.
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Vincent's nightmares contain bosses reflecting that which stress him out most in life. |
(We're not about to spoil the entire game for you out loud. Even if we wanted to, we couldn't - this game has around 1,000,000 endings (to 'spoil' yourself, click here))
You, Vincent (main character of the game), end up waking up with Catherine, a sweet blonde hussy that you met the night before at your local bar named Stray Sheep. She is just your type and always DTF. Sounds awesome right? Wrong. Or right. It all depends on your preference.
You go on to make choices that seemingly influence whether or not you will continue to be with her, or Katherine (that's right, same-name-game), your long-time girlfriend of 5 years who's got her shit together and has been pressuring you to marry her. While all this is going on, it just so happens that lately a lot of men have been having strange dreams, waking up exhausted and strung out. Some of them have even been turning up dead. Vincent, as we find out has strange dreams himself, but he can't seem to remember them (These dreams are where the puzzle part of the game, as well as a good portion of decision making, takes place) Like I said, we're not about to spoil anything out loud, but look how cool this screenshot is.
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The 'horror' aspect of this game is much more subtle and creeping, as opposed to the in-your-face surprise scares made popular by games like the F.E.A.R titles. |
Another thing we thought was pretty cool is that when you make a choice in-game for the first time, you will be shown the percentage of other first-time answers made by other players (in pie-chart form). You can also separate results based on sex (of course). Many of the results are very interesting; We found that on Thursday, December 08, 12:40 a.m, when asked the question:
"Would you risk everything to get your lover back?"
More women said 'No' than men did (Confirming what most already know - women are fickle and cruel).
Aside from the in-depth choice-system and cinematic/anime cut-scenes, the actual puzzle solving aspect of this title is great. While pulling blocks every which-way to create steps for climbing, you must avoid obstacles such as spike traps, slippery ice, and blocks that appear to be Gibbering Mouthers. As if that wasn't crazy enough, the level begins to fall out from under your feet if you take too long to climb, and other 'lambs' on the level will interfere with your ascension if given the chance. Even for someone like me who doesn't usually care for 'race against the clock' puzzle games will find Catherine engaging and not too difficult, as you can retry about 100 times without being penalized (One may also turn the difficultly down if they find them selves too often being violated by a literal Ass-to-Mouth demon).So what's the catch?
- Just like you might expect from a Japanese game, Catherine takes some weird turns. Most of them are for the better, but at one point in this game, it gets a bit too supernatural, moving from 'psycho thriller' to a more cliché 'ancient evil' feel. That, of course, is just the consensus here at TDWB, but others may enjoy it.
In the end...
- The camera can be difficult to control at times, making it even more difficult to escape the puzzles in Vincent's nightmares. Sometimes, a block you have to move will be out of immediate view leaving you confused and, most likely, with a few less 'Retries' available than you started with. Also, during boss stages, the camera will shift outwards, making the stage itself harder to see. While there's no way around these flaws, they don't occur too often, and definitely not enough to really upset gamers, but we couldn't just write an all-perfect review (especially after what we did to Skyrim)
The ending of our first play-through (which TDWB's Aaron captained as a man 'committed' to Katherine), was completely surprising and gratifying; Even in the last moments of the games, it felt like we were on a dramatic roller-coaster. Aaron then went on to be confronted with the true nature of his decisions in the end-game review, where his character's moral standards where examined and explained in a detailed and understandable way. Obviously, if you play this game and answer the questions honestly, the review of your in-game character can be interpreted as an actual review of your inner self. Catherine gets +1 for making us soul-search.
TDWB Rating: 9/10
- written by Nick
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