Welcome to the Golden Playhouse.
Many things have been said about "Catherine"… that it's a third person, puzzle, erotica style, horror game with Tetris like moments, and a little bit of dating Sim thrown in to a journey of making moral decisions.
The Premise: Catherine is indeed a puzzle game, there is no doubt about that. You play as a young man by the name of Vincent who is struggling with making some important life decisions due to the prompt by his long time girlfriend Katherine. Stress is further prominent as mysterious deaths occur in the city, effecting seemingly random targets. Our "hero" is further stressed due to these strange dreams where he is forced to climb a ever collapsing tower armed with nothing more than a pillow and his boxers. What happens if he refuses the climb? Well he'll die, I don't know about you but that would make me climb for my life.
One evening while at the Stray Sheep (a local bar) he meets the seductive and stunning Catherine. Who spends the evening telling you that it's not fair for someone to expect you to be tied down, and "Why can't we just have fun?" A few drinks, and some pretty strong advances later, Catherine makes her move and everything gets a little fuzzy… or maybe wooly… either way. You spend another night climbing and climbing in hopes of not ending up stuck between a block and a long fall to your death. Soon a new addition to the horrific nightmares being a terrifying set of claw like hands now chasing you to the top.
You wake up the next morning with none other than a naked Catherine cuddled next to you. Why is this a big deal? Well in case you weren't paying attention Vincent already has a long term girlfriend, he proceeds to have a "Oh shoot" moment when she suddenly dismisses herself leaving you to reel in your alcohol blurred memories.
As much as I want to talk about the rest of the story anything beyond this point can lead into spoiler territory, which I will cover later in a spoiler cast.
Controls: Very simple, you push, pull, shuffle and climb blocks until you reach the top of a tower. Other options allow you to adjust the camera to and fro for a moment to help you better evaluate your plans for placement. And further into the story you are given items that you can use as you see best. However you are only able to hold one item and should you pick up a new on you loose the old. It's hard to mess this type of control system up and I honestly have little to no complaints. Though if I was pressed to find a flaw it would be that when shuffling about the blocks (holding on to the ledge) you can sometimes get jammed between block A and block B, but this is a mistake that happens only a handful of times.
Difficulty: Something that I cannot seem to say enough, when this game gives you the option to start on easy I HIGHLY suggest taking it. Though as a disclaimer I am not accustomed to this style of puzzle games. IF you have had the pleasure in already taking part in a puzzle platformer like Catherine you may be able to fair better then I did. I however was forced to cast aside my gamer pride and start on an easier difficulty because I simply couldn't figure out how to beat some of these puzzles. I will however mention that if at any time you feel the difficulty is too easy or too hard for that matter you can always adjust it mid game.
Characters: The cast of Catherine is an interesting one to say the least, and I found myself caring about most of the characters that I crossed paths with. During the game you are prompted with options from time to time to respond or answer questions about various scenarios. Answering these questions causes a shift in your alignment leaning towards chaotic or lawful. On my first play though I answered many of the questions as I would have if someone had asked me personally, causing Vincent to lean HEAVILY to the good side of things. However on my second go around I answered things in an opposite fashion which is causing me to, yep you guessed it. Embrace the dark side.
Your supporting cast features a young man named Tobias who while is very green and seems to be following your group like some wide eyed puppy also seems to have those same eyes set on the strikingly sassy Erica, a waitress at the Stray Sheep.
Next we have Jonathan the silent type, not much is ever really revealed about this character other then that he doesn't seem to have much emotion about the girls he dates, and currently has no plans to merry his current girlfriend. Then we have Orlando a dashing and rather cheeky "gentleman" who comes from a broken marriage, he seems light hearted in nature but there is more to this character than meets the eye.
We then have Katherine, a strong willed and overly opinionated know it all that seems to relish in the idea of treating Vincent like a child rather than a boyfriend. (I personally hated this character).
And last but not least we have Catherine, an 'everyman's' fantasy in the flesh. Some of her favorite past times include, sending you flirty texts, kinky photo's and showing up randomly in your house after you spend a drunken night at the Stray Sheep. What's not to love? Oh, she might be a little crazy… but that's all I can really say without spoiling too much about her.
Music: The music in this game does a fantastic job of conveying emotion… most of the time. Though personally I found that during boss fights the score was something that left my hands shaking and my judgment blurred, while the music to the cut scenes was vague enough to not distract me from what was going on but still enforced and perfected to the point where without it I might feel like the scene was missing something crucial. I did enjoy the score enough to have a copy of the soundtrack if that is any indication of my pleasure level for this game in question. One thing I would like to call out would be the use of a church bell as you find your self oh so near to the top of the tower. This queue did a fantastic job of urging you to climb faster be it due to the annoying ringing or the feeling of urgency it often spurs.
Graphics: This games graphics were not ground breaking, they weren't anything "new" or overly special. But I enjoyed them given that they were going for an "anime" style rather than a realism thing. I will say that the animation sequences were stunning; I only wish that the CG could have lived up to the animated version a little more.
Game play: I either loved it or was impressed with it, but on average I was entertained by the story long enough to spend a long, red-eyed, blurry and somewhat memorable night with Catherine. I'll be honest; I have the hardest time putting this game down, unless of course it is from a fit of rage due to me falling to my death for the 7th or 8th time.
All in all I enjoyed my nights with Catherine and while I'm not the first to feel this way about her I'm sure I won't be the last. For a more detailed night on my exploits with Catherine you can check out my spoiler cast about the game on my GameSpot profile. Until then GameSpotters…. Stay Golden.