Catherine (PS3) Review
On the surface, Catherine seems like a provocative, childish, game about getting laid.
However, Catherine is actually a game about personal struggles, relationships, cheating, moving on, and fear.
Intro:
Vincent Brooks, 32, is in a long term relationship with his girlfriend Katherine (Katherine with a K, keep this in mind). During lunch with Katherine, Katherine talks about getting married and Vincent begins to freak out a little bit. That night, He decides to meet his friends for drinks, and after drinking a little bit too much, Vincent wakes up the next morning with the girl of his dreams in his bed. The “other girl” is named Catherine (Catherine with a C, see see?). Following this, Vincent begins to have nightmares about climbing a tower and falling to his death. There is also a strange rumour going around… if you die in your dreams, you die in real life.
Story:
The story of Catherine is incredible. Each moment of the story is interesting and captivating, and the games karma meter determines things such as endings and how Vincent reacts in certain situations. Besides K/Catherine and Vincent, the game is filled with other characters such as the other bar patrons, the boss, Erica the waitress, and Vincent’s best friends – Jonny, Orlando, and Toby.
The story of Catherine is very “adult” in a sense. But not in the “adult” you are thinking of. Each and every character in the game has some sort of dark secret and past (and some characters’ back stories get extremely graphic); this game explores relationships on a very deep and almost taboo level. The story and themes of this game are very dark, and I felt my heart pounding in my chest at times. This game is “adult” because children won’t understand it on the same level as older players would.
All I can say is, the story is incredible and unforgettable. So don’t miss out on it if you have the chance.
Gameplay:
Catherine’s gameplay consists of 2 areas or types. There is the bar, where Vincent interacts with his friends and other bar patrons, and then there are the nightmares where Vincent must climb the tower before he falls to his death.
The Bar – in the bar, Vincent has the opportunity to chat with all the side characters in the game, and help them by talking with them and helping them out of their deep psychological issues. If you’ve played the persona games, this is sort of reminiscent of that, At the bar Vincent can also have various drinks and get himself drunk as hell. Being drunk in real life makes Vincent slightly faster in the dream, which is something I don’t like about the game as it totally promotes alcoholics (lol).
The Nightmare – Most of the core gameplay takes place in the nightmare. In the nightmare Vincent must climb the tower by pushing and pulling blocks around to make staircases. This seems simple, but the game is very tough as the game throws some very difficult puzzles at you. You have probably heard about how hard this game is, but I personally didn’t find it to be extremely or impossibly difficult. You just have to think before you mindlessly push blocks around. In addition to just pushing blocks around, Vincent may be run into another person trying to climb the boxes. These “enemies” knock Vincent down a step and tend to get in Vincent’s way as he climbs the tower, but they are never really a big deal. There are also several different types of blocks: ice blocks, exploding blocks, and spring blocks to name a few. A new block type generally appears every couple of levels and they never fail to make the game more interesting and difficult. Between each floor, Vincent can interact with other people trapped in the nightmare and learn new techniques which help him climb the tower. The gameplay is solid, and never becomes boring at any moment. There are also bosses which Vincent must escape from, which all look creepy as hell and make you want to run away as fast as possible before getting murdered by their vicious attacks.
Music:
Composer Shoji Meguro mixes the old and new in Catherine. He takes a classic track like Revolution by Frederic Chopin and remixes it to fit with the game. It offers for a very unique soundtrack, which makes you think “oh I know this song!” – a very, very cool idea indeed. There isn’t much to say about the soundtrack except for the fact that is memorable and very unique (no cheesy battle music here! You get to listen to Bach while running for your life). An awesome addition to the soundtrack is the fact that you get to hear the song hallelujah every time you complete a stage, it feels great to cheer and sing along every time to you complete a stage where you died at least 20 times.
Conclusion:
Catherine is an excellent game with a lot of replay-ability due to its multiple endings and difficulty levels. However it isn’t the type of game that appeals to everyone; if you are looking for a game with a deep, dark, and meaningful story with challenging gameplay, then Catherine is the game for you. My only gripe with Catherine is the fact that is was marketed almost like pornography. It was targeted at the wrong demographic (teenagers), even though it truly appeals to a slightly older crowd because of its focus on relationships and dark themes.
Overall: A
Play the demo before you buy it though, if you can’t stand the game play you will hate this game.
