Sometimes there are games you know you are going to like: the Halos, the Uncharteds, the Fallout 3s and GTAs of the world are laid out with if not perfection then enough spit and polish to let you know that you are in for a treat – and a streamlined one at that. You can’t help but like them for their achievements.
Then there are those games that actually strike a chord. They aren’t always the best games – as defined by objective games journalism – but due to something in their vision they are able to grab you by the throat in a way that no playtested-to-shit, focus-grouped-to-high-heaven game ever could. Games like Borderlands, Limbo and Way of the Samurai 3 wrap you up in what they have to offer and the experience is hard to shake off.
Catherine is one of those games.
I honestly think that on a different weekend Catherine would have struck me as a solid puzzle game with an extensive but superfluous story. That would have been a few years ago when I felt I had all the answers tied up, and when I knew that games were about gameplay and nothing else. But it wasn’t that weekend.
Catherine tells the story of Vincent, a 30-something who is on the cusp of finally having to grow up. The game starts with him in a long term relationship with a loving girlfriend, named Katherine, and a new job that seems to give him ample time to do whatever he wants. The problem is that he doesn’t seem to appreciate these things and instead he spends his time hanging out at the same pizza place/bar with his equally aimless friends. All of them seem to be clamouring for past glories, and no stories about their current lives seem to inspire them.
Vincent’s ennui is shattered by another girl, called Catherine, appearing in his life and subsequently jumping into bed with him. The resulting affair is the basis of the game’s story arc as well as the gameplay’s main hooks: the nightmares.
Catherine is divided between two very different styles. Vincent’s waking life is spent talking to his girlfriend and lover, then wandering around a bar talking to his friends and random patrons. The whole time he is drinking heavily – this gives him an edge in his dream world – and these drunken conversations set up the neuroses he has, whether it is sharing a pizza slice and lamenting about how he has to make a choice between continuing his bachelor lifestyle and staying in his dingy room while looking at a poster of space travel versus actually taking the terrifying plunge into marriage and perhaps fatherhood, or simply trying to figure out whether it is a good idea to let his penis do the talking in his life. This ties into the gameplay.
The second part of the game is Vincent’s dream world, and all his laments come to the fore. His fears manifest themselves in a literal way. Vincent has to overcome block puzzles that are part of a tower-climbing challenge; the clock is always ticking, the ground below him dropping away as an incentive to push him further forward. His worries about marriage and becoming a daddy turn Katherine into a hulking, bridal beast that chases him up the tower with a bouquet at the ready to eviscerate him if he doesn’t keep pushing further upwards.
In between these nightmares Vincent encounters other men, portrayed as sheep, stuck in the same struggle as him. The demons that chase them every night look different but are no less deadly.
A lot of reviews feel that there is serious dichotomy between the two styles presented. I disagree. The design, the mechanics and the aesthetics marry so neatly together to tell the story; a story that is ultimately influenced by your choices.
The frantic desperation of the puzzles match Vincent’s dilapidated psyche in the day time. The collapsing, disjointed patterns represent the unfocused nature of his life and his attempts to put order to it.
There are those who will tolerate the puzzles just to see more of what will happen next, sure. Understand that the puzzles are no slouch either.
The block switching works oddly with it being possible to connect cubes by just their edges. It might be odd but once you understand the rules they remain consistent throughout, and various strategies can then be employed. Some are not immediately obvious but, as the game expands and Vincent talks to more sheep, the tactics and manoeuvres become more interesting and the breadth of choices in any situation widens.
This would not have been sufficient to justify the price tag alone, but the developers offered up more variations of the core mechanics – an arcade mode with limited moves and a randomised scramble mode – as well as interesting spins on these modes – both co-op and versus are available. The game also encourages you to try escalating the difficulty; more stuff is unlocked as you beat levels on normal and hard (for puzzle beginners normal is pretty damn hard). With these options available I might have agreed this was a decent mid-range purchase.
Now that I have seen what the developers wanted to do with the story – there are a hell of a lot of animated sequences – it is hard to separate the puzzle elements from their narrative. You could have one without the other but why would you want to?
Ultimately I think the thing that reached out to me, that made this game something more that it had any right to be, was that the final ending I received which was based on my choices coming in conjunction with my having recently watched the George Clooney film Up in the Air.
Up in the Air is about a man who has humanely dehumanised himself. The narrative finds him at a point in his life where all the choices he could have made to bring himself closer to his family, his co-workers and the world in general have been pushed aside in lieu of the comforting cocoon that isolates him. He is not a bad person but you feel like there are missteps out there that might have made him happier.
Playing as Vincent straight afterwards I felt like he was on the brink of such choices. That he might not end up alone and distant. Admittedly my choices took him down that path; I found Katherine too cloying and Catherine too disingenuous to ever consider being with either of them. Although Vincent’s outlook is positive, his future seemed rather empty.
Although I must warn any potential plot enthusiasts that the story veers dangerously into ridiculous territory towards the end, this wasn’t enough to dim its final impact and despite this Catherine remains one of the most affecting games of this year.
Just make sure you play it sooner rather than later.
Love is over? No, it’s most definitely not. Because I found myself loving this game beneath a secret hatred born from aggravation.
Having heard of the game long before its release I thought to myself that I had to try it, and not having played the Persona games I thought I may miss out on this too. I knew from friends’ recommendations of other Atlus titles that at some point I needed to jump on this crazy train, and there’s no train crazier than Catherine.
At first I thought I’d be getting an over-sexualized puzzle game; boy was I proven wrong as a morally challenging story and equally difficult gameplay were put in front of me. Being able to relate to elements of the story and more readily to Vincent’s inability to focus on which direction his life should take I quickly cared for the character and his dilemma.
Originally I only rented the game thinking I could beat it in one go, but after a few short days I found myself re-renting it with an urge to beat it and prove love could conquer all. The game invaded my regular life, much like Vincent’s dreams; I saw block combinations in my mind every waking moment as I did many years ago with my long stint of playing Tetris. The anime art of the game is stylish and appealing, and with its farfetched story it manages to somehow stay grounded allowing the player to become truly invested.
At first I thought myself to be answering a lot of the questions with what I assumed would be the ‘right’ answer, but before long realized I was just answering truthfully – which happened to be “correctâ€. The question system was often surprising, mainly in how the percentages of people selecting one answer or another was at times shocking, with certain genders giving landslide results I’d expect from the opposite gender.
Catherine isn’t just a game in my eyes; it’s an experience that is enjoyable all the way through, if not for the puzzles then for the story alone with its multiple endings. The ending I received, “True Loverâ€, is probably my most ideal and best ending, but others may see one of the other various conclusions as their ideal ending.
A gaming experience like Catherine comes around about once a year, if even, so don’t miss out on it if you’ve experienced even the slightest curiosity toward playing it.
Comments
19 responses to “Catherine: the review”
Something I found interesting about this title is that is pretty much only targeted towards men, but for the first time I can remember, it does it for the right reason.
I liked how the game has two distinct gameplay type. It gave you time to decompress between puzzles. I found the last stretch a level or two too long, further demonstrating my point.
Yeah they heavily marketed the perv factor to the audience (hence why I didn't really use any of the 'obvious' screenshots) but the game is much more than that. Are you trying to say that this game isn't appealing to a female market? I reckon it is probably just as appealing to women as men.
I meant it addresses problems which are typically male. I don't think women can empathize with Vincent the way men can. My girlfriend certainly couldn't anyway.
Interesting, I know quite a few women who got into this game, regardless of whether they empathised with Vincent or not. But I do see what you mean, this is normally a male 'problem'. And apart from teh very end they do try and address it in a mature fashion.
So you like GTA now AJ?
I found myself following the news on Catherine a lot more than normal for a game of this type, it doesn't really fit into the class of games I usually enjoy.
It certainly seems interesting and any game that plays on your choices gets extra credit in my books.
I'm curious about why you mentioned playing sooner rather than later AJ?
That whole bit with GTA and Fallout 3 has to be taken with a pinch of salt.
The sooner rather than later is that the spoilers are already starting to come out, that and this game feels very much like a NOW game, that it fits the mood of the times we live in and that leaving it for too long might me that you sit down and play it on a weekend where you think you have everything figured out and know that gameplay is key to everything in a game.
The one bit of the review that made me do a little eyebrow-raise was the use of "Fallout 3" rather than simply "Fallout". But I justified it to myself by thinking about Fallout Tactics and Fallout Brotherhood of Steel, which are rarely spoken of fondly (though I recall you considered BoS to be okay).
Alas, we Euros have no choice but to wait for the moment to pass. October 28th for the EU release, folks!
I have already said too much.
I cannot wait for this game. Well, I can, because I have to, but if I didn't have to, I would.
Which is a long way of saying: Day 1 purchase.
That second paragraph is ridiculously true. It's hard to say any game that's really big can resonate. That's no bad thing, but it's a shame when that can rather easily be said of more than a few blockbuster film releases.
Probably something to be explored in another post but I think cultural resonance is a lot less monolithic in an age where subcultures are more numerous and widespread and few people identify themselves along lines of nationality or even national commonality. We are all so much more individualistic these days and pick and choose the fictions, art and entertainment that we feel most suit us (or indulge us). Plus, there's tremendous cultural over-saturation compared to any time before the 70s or 80s (although this is an idea that's been bandied around Western culture since at least the 1700s).
On the other hand, the production of art in capitalist societies has always been driven by money. At their inception films like Citizen Kane or Casablanca were produced primarily to make money, ditto all of Charles Dickens' serialised works, ditto Shakespeare's plays; it's only upon release and the aggregation of historical appreciation that they've been built into something bigger than that. So perhaps I am barking up the wrong tree with this line of thought.
It may be more accurate to say that the evolution of the blockbuster is now proceeding along lines of what a blockbuster is understood to be, as opposed to along lines of what a film is understood to be, which goes some way toward explaining the incoherent, hyperkinetic spectacle of Michael Bay (the greatest proponent of the contemporary blockbuster, for all that his films can simultaneously be described as appalling pieces of cinematic bilge).
Anyway, I'd better go eat something as I've been up for hours and am startling to feel slightly dizzy…
That doesn't really work with Citizen Kane, it was lambasted as pure garbage and it wasn't until many years later that everyone went 'hang on, this film is actually pretty good. Oh wait, it is a classic'
As for blockbusters resonating, we might need to get off our high horses on that one. I know someone who thinks that The Last Samurai is a modern masterpiece, shit tons of people I know highly rate The Hurt Locker and that film is pure nonsense. As for games, if I had a penny for every time some one told me how amazing the story in GTA IV and Red Redemption was… Ugh.
I'm currently playing WinBack on the PS2, and its story resonates with me on a comedic level, by accident. That's far more valuable in my eyes than GTA IV's "my send-offs always echo my current employer's sentiments"-driven character (and plot).
It also made me realize that Japanese writers should come up with names for all American characters. Last names like Cougar and Birdy don't show up nearly as much as they should.
Re. Citizen Kane: that is more or less that point I was making! It's the collected weight of critical, commercial and audience reaction that produces a 'timeless' and 'universal' classic.
Definitely worth drawing a distinction between subjectively thinking a blockbuster film is good/great and finding that one resonated on a personal level. I think R.E.D. is a fantastic action film but it doesn't resonate with me, because I am not a retired CIA wetwork operative being hunted down by shadow ops units, and nor do I know any retired CIA wetwork operatives, and so on. In contrast Fishtank, for example, does resonate with me, because that sense of alienation and bitterness speaks to me (although that film's protagonist's reactions to these feelings do not).
Eh, it wasn't the point I was contesting, it was how you were making it. Citizen Kane is frequently used as a point in arguments without really understanding that it wasn't until many years later that everyone realised it was awesome. Most games do not get that, they are either realyl good at that point in time or never good.
RED, the film, was a massive disappointment for me, with only the performances by Hellen Mirren and Malkovich saving it for utter gutter fluid.
That seems kinda tangential but as a tangential person I accept the point. :)
R.E.D. made me laugh a fair bit, had entertainingly OTT action scenes, placed its tongue firmly in cheek, helped Warren Ellis buy his daughter a pony, plus I enjoy Bruce Willis being Bruce Willis… and it sure was better than The Expendables or The Losers.
I am sure everyone will be happy to know that Sledgehammer now has a competitor for Game Of The Year in 2012. Well, in Europe at least.
Catherine got a release date, 10th of February:
http://www.joystiq.com/2011/12/07/catherine-has-a…
Deep Silver has got publishing duties there (thems that published Dead Island). Like the Joystiq article says, perfect game for Valentine's day.
That is four days before Dear Esther. I can already foresee my Valentine's Day: half the time I'll be exploring the lonely, desolate wasteland OF MY HEART, and the other half I'll be sinking ever-deeper into the neuroses OF MY HEART.
Hooray! It's a thematic triumph!
[…] conversation about Borderlands and instead tracked down El Shaddai. It was inside my boxed copy of Catherine, next to a copy of Ninety Nine Nights II that I had no recollection of […]