If you were like me and didn’t follow coverage of Atlus’ latest game, Catherine, much at all leading up to its release, then all you had in mind of this game was a half naked, freaked out guy with ram’s horns, falling into the cleavage of a nymphomaniac probably named Catherine. Oh and apparently there’s puzzles involved. With only that in mind, I had to buy this game. Glad I did too!
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Let’s see, so the half naked gentleman is Catherine’s protagonist, Vincent Brooks, and we’re introduced to Vincent in true form of his character, a mixture of stressing out and zoning out, while having coffee with his girlfriend of five years, Katherine; and that’s Katherine with a ‘K’. Vincent is under quite a bit of pressure at this point in his 32 years of life, and it’s almost entirely a result of Katherine’s talk of children and marriage, and Vincent’s cowardice toward commitment and change.
For a moment you’d think this game was a Role Playing Game by its introduction, but the game doesn’t dilly dally in its introduction like most RPGs do, and instead what happens next is Vincent finds himself in the middle of dream, standing at the bottom of a tall floating tower of blocks. This.. isn’t an RPG, this is a puzzle game. There’s no grinding here, there’s climbing, and this is no dream, it’s a nightmare.
“Hurry up and climb!” A voice shouts, the tower of blocks is falling into the abyss below one row of three dimensional square blocks at a time. It’s no staircase of blocks either, and Vincent is no spiderman, so it’s up to Vincent, and thus we the players, to scale and scramble our way up this collapsing tower of torment by moving blocks, or face plummeting to death, which by the way, will kill Vincent in real life. Good thing we get a few retries before that though!
Beginning on Easy or Normal mode, the first time you face this tower of blocks, it’s not too-too difficult, but when faced with the option of Hard mode, and knowing the story I’m jumping into here has something to do with a guy going through the torment of a pushy girlfriend, something possessed me to think, “Why should Vincent be the only one being tormented?” Whatever possessed me to begin on Hard mode, “torment” is certainly the right word to describe the gameplay.
You’re climbing for your life here, and all the atmosphere, the powerful and dreadful music, everything going on around this mysterious floating-yet-collapsing tower of blocks, and falling to your death over, and over, and over again from not climbing fast enough, it really makes for a tense, nail-biting, yet rewarding experience, when you survive. And really, it couldn’t be a better fit for a puzzle game.
So is this Catherine in a nut shell? No actually, that’s only the half of it, and really only the tip of the iceberg of half of it. Vincent has a life outside his nightmares – which by the way he can’t seem to remember his nightmares during day, but maybe it’s a good thing as he has a whole other set of problems stacking up. During the evening the next day we’re introduced to the other side of Catherine‘s gameplay, Vincent’s social life.
If you’ve played other Atlus games this probably comes as little surprise, yet a very welcome aspect no less. Here Vincent reflects on his day and the tricky circumstances he finds himself in the days following. He can chit chat with his buddies, Johnny, Orlando, and Toby, as well as other patrons and bar staff. Aside from Vincent’s stresses, the other common topic on hand is news of a local string of unexplained deaths, all among young men, and all during their sleep. Fancy that, eh? Yup, probably something to do with our protagonist, just maybe.
The night goes on as Vincent drinks and checks his phone and replies to Katherine’s text messages, at the player’s whim. I was sold when I saw ‘push square to drink’, but there’s also pre-defined sentences the player can piece together in Vincent’s text replies, putting together messages that are either submissively apologetic, defiantly deflective, or somewhere in between. It’s really up to the player to reply to Katherine however they choose.
It’s getting late and Vincent’s friends have each called it a night, while Vincent continues to drink and think through the pressures currently overloading his life. Then, then in walks Catherine, who asks to sit with Vincent. This isn’t Katherine with a ‘K’ though, this is a much younger women, a Catherine with a ‘C’. She’s stunning, and seductive, and after another night of nightmarish puzzle climbing, we arrive at the crux of this plot, a drunk Vincent wakes up beside Catherine, Catherine with a ‘C’. I’ll stop spoiling the plot there, but oh boy, cheating on his girlfriend of five years? Forgetting to tell the new girl? And what’s this, more dreadful news from the girlfriend? Vincent’s really, as he would put it, fucked. Right, there’s some swearing in this game, so it’s only fair the review gets in on that action too, right?
Nevertheless, this is the dynamic of the game that is Catherine. Every night Vincent has nightmares of climbing towers of falling blocks – which is the games main gameplay element – during the morning and the day we see the story unfold as Vincent scrambles between covering up his on-going affair between the K/Catherine’s, and in the evening players stretch their legs with Vincent and his pals over drinks at the aptly named, Stray Sheep bar.
That’s not it to gameplay however, through a series of player-driven interactions with other characters inside and outside of Vincent’s nightmares, Vincent sways here and there between feeling good, and feeling devious; there’s literally a handy meter in the game that keeps gauge of this, and during the morning and day where the plot mostly unfolds, depending where on the spectrum Vincent is, the plot is lead all the way through to eight different possible endings. Will Vincent do the right thing, or the devious thing, and what challenges and consequences await at each turn down either path? Really it’s up to the player to stumble through it all alongside Vincent. Atlus is stacking up your own morals against the unfolding story, so you can see why curiosity is amped up during the endlessly tense plot sequences, since it might as well be you in the hot seat with Vincent.
So instead of being a puzzle game with a sexy affair, or a sexy affair game with puzzles, Catherine is well rounded in all its gameplay, and unlike other typical story-based games, every moment either feels like gameplay, or close to it. It makes perfect sense when it comes to the medium of video games that cause-and-effect has never been so captivating as it is through sex and puzzles. You’d think someone would have proven that sooner.
For players considering picking up Catherine, consider Hard Mode as totally off limits until at least one play-through of the game. You’ll see it no matter what mode you pick, but the game continuously introduces new elements into the puzzle gameplay through various deadly blocks, such as crumbling blocks, spike-trap blocks, immovable blocks, it really goes on and on, and deadlier and deadlier. There’s often sheep, yes sheep, climbing the blocks too, and it’s push or be pushed with these guys. There’s even boss stages, where huge, seriously twisted versions of the various things on Vincent’s mind chase Vincent up the tower, stabbing, crushing and torturing players just trying to survive. The game is just dripping in symbolism, and oh, you’ll die, a lot.
It’s a very unique experience all stacked together, pun intended. The controls at times can feel a step behind as you scramble for your life, but it’s usually player error for trying to be two steps ahead of where Vincent actually is. And remember, if you’re hanging off a ledge, press X to fall to your death. Actually don’t do that, though you probably will by accident many, many times. Maybe it was just me. Also, with any game that involves suspension of disbelief, when it is revealed what is just screwing everything up in Vincent’s life, it’s a not anywhere near as captivating as the story that resulted from it.
Final Word: If you’re of age, really, go out and buy Catherine, that’s it really. The game is an example to other developers of what an original, well rounded product should be, and yes, it even has multiplayer, and it’s a great time too. Catherine is a game we gamers don’t see very often, but I sure hope Atlus changes that trend in the future.
4.5/5 – Great
