Catherine Review (Xbox 360)

I admit, I was rather… sheepish (Hehe) about this game. I’m not used to puzzle games, favoring the RPGs and FPS variety of video games. However, the storyline instantly had me hooked and the gameplay itself was challenging yet rewarding at the same time.

In the main Story, you play as Vincent, 32 year old recently unemployed man. He is currently dating Katherine (This isn’t a typo, trust me.) who wants to take things further with their relationship. Vincent, he isn’t really on the same page with her on that and doesn’t want to tie the knot. All of a sudden, the men of the town begin to have strange nightmares, ones they cannot remember. Men are also turning up dead in their beds, in a visibly weakened state but with no cause of death. After an outing to the local bar “The Stray Sheep” with friends Toby, Jonny and Orlando, Vincent  meets Catherine (Again, no typo here.) and ends up talking to her. He wakes up restless and weak the next morning, and to his alarm he finds Catherine laying right next to him. Who is she? Nobody really knows.

The storyline never falters, with everything you do being important to the ending. Every choice you make affects the outcome of the final battle, the current standing being shown on a meter that pops up at the important moments. You can chose to be good and stay with Katherine who you’ve been with for nearly 5 years, or you can give into Catherine, a girl who’s right for you in every way and chose the ‘bad side.’. Or, you can keep things equal, not being bad nor good. It’s all up to you.

There are 9 different endings, each of these show up depending on the choices you’ve made up to that point. We’ll get to these later, however. What’s most impressive about this game is the way in which it utilises the time you spend playing it. There are two places you’ll see quite a lot during the gameplay itself: The Bar and the Waiting area. The Bar is where Vincent and co spend their evenings, where they’ll chill out and get drunk, which strangely helps in the actual gameplay. The Waiting area is a space between levels where you can talk to your fellow men, who appear to be sheep to you, about their problems and exchange techniques for getting through the levels.

Your aim is literally to climb up to the top. Climb to avoid falling to your death, because if you fall then… you’re dead. The stages are made up of moveable blocks, these blocks will be moveable by the player in certain ways so that you can progress upwards and away from the falling layers of blocks below you. You have to collect retrys as you go along in the form of pillows randomly placed on stages. The stages are all set in a certain way, so it’ll always be the same, unless you chose a different difficulty for the game. The only change that you get with the different difficulties is how hard the levels will be, the main storyline stays the same still.

Admittedly, there were times where progressing through some levels (Even on Easy) took 20+ retrys, but it wasn’t a feeling of annoyance in continually failing. It was a feeling of triumph more or less when I finally got through and completed the level. The boss levels were following the same logic, except you didn’t have that spare bit of time to dawdle, instead you have Vincent’s worst nightmares climbing up at you in an attempt to pull you down and finish you. It sounds as fun as it is. Once you’ve been playing for a while, and talking with NPCs to learn techniques for climbing, the boss battles should seem pretty easy. A few of them will catch you off guard and keep you there for a lot longer than you anticipated, but the rewards are worth it.

There are three kinds of items you can pick up throughout the stages. Usable items, Pillows and Coins. Coins are used to purchase items from the big sheep in the waiting area. This sheep thinks that he’ll be able to buy his way out of there with the coins, how incorrect he is. Pillows as said before give you an extra attempt should you fall and die, you can have a maximum of 99 retrys at any one time. I’ve accumulated this many, it’s not a hard feat on the Easy Difficulty so don’t worry. Usable items are items you can purchase or pick up during the levels that can help you to go onward. There are items that will create blocks, modify blocks, destroy enemies… you get the idea.

The only online aspect we have here is the results from questions asked to you by a mysterious voice in the confession booth. You’re asked questions every time you go up to another level, and when you answer them as long as you’re connected to Xbox Live, you will receive the results from all the other players who have voted on that question. These questions also affect the meter and changes the level of good and bad you have.

Overall I found the gameplay itself to be adaptive. Just when I thought I knew it all, I’d have something thrown at me to make me reconsider my path. The storyline and cutscenes REALLY pull you in, swapping from a general anime style to a 3D anime style at different points. The storyline at times was the only thing keeping me from giving up on a level; I really just wanted to see what would happen next. Following Vincent through his dilemmas and shaping his fate was addictive. Hours would pass and I wouldn’t even realise it. The puzzles themselves kept me on my feet, constantly thinking of new ways to conquer them and carry on with the game.

Aside from the main story, there’s a second playable option called the Babel. Here, you can play with friends locally to complete a puzzle, which can help with certain methods and techniques to get things done quickly and correctly. The Babel has 4 big stages to compete on, with items all being collectable there too. This mode is very good for once you’ve completed the main story, as every time you play Babel and select a stage, it will have a completely different layout. Because of this, tied in with the multiple different endings and events in the main story, the replay value is immense. It took me 10 hours to complete one version of the game on the easy difficulty, a lot of this time is taken up by the cutscenes but these are things you really don’t want to skip.

Overall, Catherine brings to the table a whole new ball game for storylines, it keeps you hooked the whole time and nothing can really stop you from progressing. The levels take a lot of concentration and logic, and learning properly how to navigate around the terrain will save you a lot of confusing moments when playing. Vincent’s life is more interesting than you’d imagine when you start delving deeper and many hints about other things happening from other characters during the game always gets tied up at the end. Catherine, while creepy at times delivers a great amount of gameplay to you with so much to alter and discover. I suggest you go out and pick up a copy for your Xbox 360 or PS3 to live through the story and discover it all yourself and its replay value will keep you going for a very long time.

9/10