Review:Catherine

-In a year full of sequels and 1st person shooters, Catherine is one of the most original games to come out recently.

Catherine is a romantic-puzzler/adventure game made by Atlus and to be more specific the team that brought you the Persona series. Now even if you have seen trailers for this game you might not really know what this game is really about since most trailers show the in-game and anime cut scenes. Even I was was surprised when I finally played the Japanese demo and found out that it wasn't all cut scenes it's a puzzle game at heart. Still I found the game play to be fun, but challenging so my excitement for this game didn't fade at all. Finally thanks to Atlus USA we here in the states get to play the game with amazing voice acting.

-During nightmares you face Vincents fears..... whatever this one means

Story

You play as a 32 year old engineer named Vincent Brooks who has been with his girlfriend Katherine McBride for a couple of years and she is dropping some serious hints at getting married and having kids. This freaks Vincent out ALOT and that night he stays out later than usual at the stray sheep his favorite bar. After your friends leave you for the night you end up meeting this mysterious woman who you end up sleeping with and here is the kicker her name is Catherine. During the story every night you have to go through these nightmare along with other sheep's and all you know is that you have to climb up to survive. You soon find out that if you die in the dream your dead in real life. This is as much of the story that you would get from playing the demo and since the story is a HUGE part of this game it is not something you want ruined for you.

I really enjoyed the story but something that really stood out to me in the story of Catherine is how the good/bad decisions are made. In most game the moments that determine whats good and bad are very black in white, but not with Catherine I was stuck in many situations having to really think about it. Thought my 1st playthrough I decided to answer all the questions honestly to see where it took me and enjoyed the outcome.

Gameplay

When you are in these nightmare every night you have to climb these huge towers pushing and pulling blocks with certain rules and technique's you learn as you progress. In between the puzzles throughout the night you talk to other sheep about whats going. Something else people might not know about this puzzler is that it is extremely unforgiving in how hard it can get on normal mode and higher. Still with every puzzle solved I found myself getting so pumped up and excited that I did it. While I feel that way I feel some might not like the difficulty spike in the game.

When you are not climbing those blocks you are exploring the stray sheep your favorite bar. What this means is Vincent can talk to people and friends while helping them with their problems, play a surprisingly deep mini game, reply to text to effect you morality meter, and of course get drunk and learn facts about your beverage of choice. While in the bar I never got sick of the enviorment with the nice mix of people and things to do at one time. It really makes me excited to play it again to help solve everyones problems, making the replayablity even better.

Finally there are two modes not related to the story to keep you playing Catherine even more. First there is Bable mode where you and/or another person climb 4 extremely tall and challenging towers. You unlock each tower by getting gold rankings in the single player game whichs no easy feet on its own, but gives you something to stride towards. Finally there is Colosseum mode which is unlocked after beating the game and pits two players against each other to see who can either last the longest or climb to the top 1st to see who is the winner throughout the levels in the story. Neither of these modes are online, but leaderboards are a heavy focus that will help making you try harder and harder to be the best.

Graphics

-Get ready for a serious game about relationships that will make you think

Whenever you are watching Catherine this game just screams Japanese anime which can be good or bad depending on what you think of that style. The majority of the games cut scenes are using the in game graphics which is not a bad thing the cell shading used really complements the actual 2d animated cut scenes you see at certin points in the game. The amazing animated cut scenes are produced by Studio 4°C. If you enjoy their work be sure to also watch the surprisingly good Thundercats on cartoon network. So for anime style the game totally nails it.

Final Thoughts

After looking forward to this game for over a year Catherine really delivers on my expectations. With all the replay value I mentioned along with the 8 different ending you can see in the game makes the $60 or $80 price tag (if you get the deluxe edition) worth it. Still the diffucluty might turn some people away.

9/10

-To all you haters out there.......