Difficulty:

Very Hard

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Guilty pleasure"

Catherine starts off with our main character, Vincent Brooks, a 31 year old slacker content with the way he lives his life never achieving anything and terrified at the idea of change. That all changes when his long time girlfriend Katherine starts to hint at marriage and thus his nightmares and everlasting ascend begins. In these dreams he climbs a tower while competing with sheep who are trying to climb the tower as well. To make matters even worse he wakes up next to a girl he met at the bar and coincidentally her name is Catherine but that's Catherine with a "C" (although Catherine is definitely a hottie, I prefer Katherine...Jus sayin'). Vincent not able to remember a thing besides meeting the girl assumes he cheated and now has to deal with his guilt and the dreams he has every night which only get worse and worse. As if this was'nt enough, news reports tell of young men dying in their sleep and rumors are going around about a curse named "the woman's wrath" that causes unfaithful men to have horrible dreams in which if they die they die in real life.
While Catherine may have one intense and very gripping story it has even more intense game-play which blends very well with the story and whole mood of the story.The game takes place mainly in two places, the bar where Vincent gets drunk with his buddies, and his nightmares.The game-play revolves around climbing a tower by arranging blocks to make the ascend possible, making it not only a kind of plat-former but more so a puzzle game and while I don't normally play many puzzle games I couldn't put this one down. The game is pretty difficult sometimes but not really over the top on normal and I assume easy would appeal to those only interested in the story although I cant say much for it since I did'nt try it. The game also has boss battles at the end of each area that definitely get the blood pumping and make the experience that much more frantic as you try to escape their attacks all while trying to climb as fast as you can. In the end Catherine is a blast to play and while it may have some minor camera issues where Vincent isn't visible behind blocks sometimes, this is only a minor issue that seldom arises in specific stages and won't much interfere much with the rest of the game.
The game is beautiful looking during game-play and the animated cut scenes are even more spectacular. This is almost as much a blast watching as much as it is playing it. Besides the spectacular art used for the game, the soundtrack is just as spectacular as it also adds to the jumpiness and frantic feel of the nightmares while also similar to that of the Shin megami tensei and Persona series. The game definitely is not for some because of the adult themes such as the sexuality that this game implies and there will always be those who will talk bad of the game because of such themes despite never touching the game to have a real opinion no matter how much praise the game receives for it's gameplay. These people need to be ignored as they will just rob you of an experience unlike any other. This game is definitely worth a play and then some as there is a multiplayer mode unlocked after beating the main story, and extra mode named Babel, and multiple endings ultimately making this a long game. Also, did I mention that the standard edition includes a small art book and a soundtrack so if you couldn't afford the special edition then the standard is'nt exactly "bare bones" either.