Game Reviews Volume 2

Catherine (PS3, Xbox 360)

I'll let you in on a little well known secret. I haven't played agame properly in around 6 months. I got to sit down over Christmasand play a couple of games for a few hours but the last time Iactually sat down with the intention of trying to finish something Istart was around September, University has been tough on me in mythird and final year, putting me in situations I never thought Iwould be in both for my degree and socially.

After having it sat on my shelf for several years but never actuallygetting round to playing it I stumbled across Catherine, a puzzlegame from Atlus' Persona team. Considering my recent fling with animeand Japanese games I thought I would give it a shot over the courseof a week...what a week it's been.

In Catherine you play as a man named Vincent Brooks. In his early30's Vincent works at a tech company, spends time at the local barwith his friends and has a girlfriend named Katherine. Katherine isgiving Vincent subtle pushes to wanting something more than just asimple relationship, with marriage on the cards as well as theannouncement of her pregnancy with his child.

However one night when Vincent stays late at the bar he meets a younggirl named Catherine. After a few drinks and some flirting the twowake up together in Vincent's apartment, having done the dirty deedand inadvertently starting a new relationship together.

In the week that follows Vincent suffers from increasingly terrifyingnightmares that several men in the town appear to be having, climbingtowers of blocks whilst being chased by some horrid deformedcreatures. News reports are also saying that men experiencing thesedreams have been dying in their sleep.

It's up to you as Vincent to set his love life back on track,deciding which woman he should ultimately end up with whilst alsofiguring out why he is having these awful dreams and why people aredying from them.

Catherine is something extremely special in the video game world. Itpresents a topic that many developers would be scared to tackle in anextremely mature manner, whilst also presenting a genre in a way ithas never been seen before. It pays off amazingly well, mixing a deepintriguing narrative that explores some pretty taboo subjects withsome complex puzzle platform gameplay.

The core gameplay takes place in Vincent's nightmares. In these youmust move different types of blocks around a 3D space to be able toclimb to the top of the tower and pass through the door to safety.You must do this whilst the tower collapses around you and in thefinal stages of each night whilst being chased by some creature thathas some connection to the events surrounding Vincent's relationshiptroubles.

These puzzles are not an easy feat to beat. Even on the lowestdifficulty setting the game is punishingly difficult, a string oftrial and error attempts that will lead to frustration in manygamers. But the satisfaction of beating a puzzle is one of thegreatest things about the game as it allows you to take in some moreof it's juicy story.

The majority of Catherine's story is told during the daytime inVincent's favourite bar, the Stray Sheep. Here he can talk with theother patrons about the nightmares they have been experiencing,trying to solve the mystery, and he can also interact with his loversvia text messages. You can also take part in an arcade game to helphone your skills at shifting blocks and you can get drunk, whichlet's face it, is awesome.

Though when reading an overview like that the gameplay sounds prettyminimal, there is a hell of a lot to do in Catherine. Managing yourrelationships, ensuring you are able to solve the mystery andshifting blocks actually provides a pretty diverse amount of gameplayand one that rarely grows tiresome over it's 10 hour run time.

That being said, the ending does seem to go on for quite some time.Just as you think you are finished it throws a spanner in the worksand increases the games length for another 2-3 hours, by which pointit does begin to overstay it's welcome. Though this is a smallproblem in an otherwise superb game.

Catherine is presented in both 2D and 3D anime styles. The charactermodels and environments are presented in 3D with detail being drawnon in 2D. Cutscenes also switch between traditional anime and 3D CGstyles. It tends to swing more towards 3D CG for the most part, whichis a shame as the 2D anime cutscenes are absolutely stunning and areal highlight of the game.

That being said, the 3D CG is very well done, with charactersretaining the same look as their 2D anime counterparts. Animation isalso good, though a little rigid at times and the lip sync is prettyoff. It's a game with a very distinct look to it, you'll be able totell it apart from pretty much anything on the market and thatcertainly goes in it's favour.

The sound is pretty good. The music is brilliant though the voiceacting can sometimes let the game down, though it could be due tosome rough translation from Japanese to English that causes it. Thedialogue regularly seems a bit forced and some of the performancesare a little wooden, though it's nothing that will ruin the game.

On the whole Catherine is a very solid experience. It's difficult yetnever unfair and it provides you with a story quite unlike anythingyou'll have seen in a game before. Though as I mentioned before itdoes begin to overstay it's welcome towards the end. It also appearsto be a lot less clever once you see the game through to the end,hidden hints throughout the story are always fun to find and lookback at thinking how clever the developers were to structure the gamelike that, yet some of Catherine's hidden meanings seem a littlecliché or cheap when you finally work them out. Things that havebeen glaring you in the face all the time don't make you feel cleverfor having worked them out at the end, but rather a littledisappointed that it wasn't something a bit more original. Thoughthese are small issues in an otherwise superb game.

I learned a lot about myself when playing Catherine. It allowed metime to reflect on how I have treated people in the past and some ofthe more recent situations I have found myself in. It gives you thechance to fix Vincent's life as you see fit and evaluate your own inthe process. It takes something very special indeed to be able to dothat.

Catherine– 8/10

+OriginalStory

+DifficultYet Rewarding Gameplay

+ArtisticStyle

+MatureThemes Handled Very Well

-EndingDragged A Little

-PhilosophicalMeanings Are Cliched

-OccasionalWooden Performance/Dialogue