I find it interesting hearing all the different situations people go through in relationships and at some point I have to ask, “Is it really worth all the drama and headache?” If you’ve ever been in love and been caught up in a messed up situation, then Catherine is the game to bring back all those bad memories. Catherine, screws with your world and might be your death if you can’t survive your nightmares.

The game begins with the hero/villain Vincent who is faced with any regular man’s life decisions, being in a long term relationship and having to deal with the responsibilities that come with it. However Vincent’s girlfriend Katherine starts getting that “wedding feeling” and puts him in an awkward position, which honestly should not be that bad since they have been together for a while. After that Vincent begins his first nightmare in a world full of sheep and all he has on is boxers and horns. After a night of drinking with your boys, the story takes a turn for the worst, a strange female decides to sit with you. I know what you are thinking, “So what. She sat and we talked, completely harmless.” This would be true, but Vincent wakes up with her in the bed.  Apparently you two had a very GOOD time however, Vincent can’t remember a thing. The humorous thing about the situation is that her name is also Catherine but spelled with a “C” instead of a “K” like your girlfriend. Irony is more of a b*tch at this point. Now the story becomes more complex when each night you go through a trial of survival in your dreams. Apparently there is a witch out there casting curses on men and it’s all based on your “karma” choices throughout the game, all this influences Vincent’s fate. Basically you have to deal with real world annoyances, but you have to survive your demonic judgment in your dreams.

If you’ve played any of the Atlus titles, you know that they are infamous for having twisted games and Catherine is no different. The gameplay is pretty straight forward outside of the nightmare sequences. Catherine is one big interactive movie with a lot of social consequences. During the day, Vincent spends time with his girlfriend.  While in the evening Vincent spends time at the bar with his friends. In the bar, Vincent has the ability to walk around, use the bathroom, check his cell phone messages and even chat with other people. I would recommend going into the bathroom once in a while. The advantage of going to bathroom, besides checking out dirty pictures of your mistress, is washing Vincent’s face in the sink the demons of your nightmares will give you a glimpse of your next boss fight.

The moment you leave the bar, the nightmare begins, the world looks like hell except instead of imps there are sheep. Even weirder is that all the sheep in the nightmare world see Vincent as sheep while you view yourself as normal. I think that when Atlus made this game they had the saying “Bringing lambs to the slaughter” in mind. All the nightmares, are challenges where Vincent has to climb a tower.  The tower consists of blocks in which you have to navigate up, Vincent moves the blocks to progress upwards where the escape door to freedom is. However there are obstacles within the tower like blocks falling beneath you and the occasional lamb trying to bump you off. It is important to learn all the tricks to safely and quickly reach the top if not Vincent will meet his death. Along the way to the top there are power ups you can collect.  There is also the option of buying items before tackling the tower, however there is a limit to what you can carry.  Vincent is only allowed to carry one item at a time, so if another item is picked up while still carrying the previous one then it will be replaced with the newer one. Thankfully there is a checkpoint at the half-way point of the tower, so if something happens you will have the option to start from at the checkpoint or the beginning.

If you play on Easy, the game is very generous by giving you a “re-do button” which allows Vincent to restart from the last block moved, however there is a limit. The harder difficulties aren’t so generous of course and won’t gain as many continues. So I suggest having a spare controller around just in case you get mad and wanna rage quit. Once the game has been mastered there is an option where you can go into the Challenge Mode or play some of the two player games (co-op or versus modes). There are also online leaderboards for having the best time, so be sure to get as much practice as possible.

The thing that annoys me about Catherine are the controls when dealing with the puzzle tower. There will be times where you make a mistake and pull the wrong cube or Vincent’s movements get all clunky and he ends up in places you did not mean to go. Because of the mistakes, you end up dead but if you remember the lessons you’ve learned from the other sheep and take your time thinking about the block positions, you should be fine. I would also be mindful of some of the power ups you choose, also the enemies that you encounter will have to be slapped out of your way.

In the end Catherine is a definite “BUY”. It is great to see developers thinking outside of the “normal” gaming styles and giving us something unusual and unique. It had a great storyline that was comedic but also terrifying situations.  As well as addicting puzzle elements. This is a game that can relate to you in either a real world or a psychological stand point and adding a dab of fantasy horror. This game is a mind trip and as a male it freaked me the hell out. I would definitely suggest playing this with your significant other, but with caution. This maybe just a game that touches base on what some relationships go through in their lives. I do hope you enjoyed this review of Catherine.  Catherine is currently out for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 gaming consoles. This is Quan saying, stay frosty gamers and drink responsibly or end up in your own nightmare.

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