Catherine Review

Catherine is a difficult game to classify by any standard. The trailers led me to believe that it would be an anime-style murder mystery with gameplay similar to Heavy Rain. It turns out that the core game mechanic is pretty far from detective work, although it does have dialogue options that change the outcome of the story. Get ready to dive into the deep inner thoughts and nightmares of Vincent Brooks.

Vincent is a 30-something year old male between jobs and unsure of his future. He has girlfriend problems, spends most of his nights at a local bar with friends getting hammered, and suddenly finds himself having strange dreams. Before he knows it, Vincent is cheating on his girlfriend with a beautiful young girl that he met at the bar. Reports surface daily about young males dying in their sleep. All of them were cheaters like Vincent. He begins to wonder if he is next.

The world that Vincent finds himself in at night is a tower filled with blocks. The only thing keeping him alive in these nightmares is climbing. Once you reach the peak of each section of tower, you meet up in an atrium area with other people that are also dreaming (many of them are from the bar), but each appear to you as sheep. They reveal to you their deepest secrets, many of them quite dark and disturbing, as well as strategies for survival.

Most of the game is puzzle-solving. The tower is made up of a variety of blocks in a grid-like pattern rising into the sky. You can only climb when a block is on the same level as you (it is not possible to jump, so any gaps will make it inaccessible). You will have to move blocks in order to climb the tower, maneuvering them in a way that creates a path for you to progress. Blocks come in many varieties. Aside from the average block, there are also immovable, ice, bomb and monster blocks.

Your main tool, if you want to call it that, is the ability to pull and push blocks. The simplest way to climb is to pull out a block from wall and simply use that as ledge to reach the next level of blocks. There are a number of strategies, though, that you will learn by watching videos scattered throughout the game when you talk to the sheep. These include a pyramid formation, a shimmy ability along ledges, creating bridges and so forth.

The puzzles are often broken up into three or four different stages a night. Between these stages is the previously-mentioned atrium with the sheep. This is where you will also encounter a man in a confessional booth that asks you questions between levels. It’s interesting to see other people’s responses to the questions that the game asks. Responses are shown in a pie graph, allowing you to compare yourself to the world at large.

Once you are done with the stage, including a boss for each. You will wake up each morning, usually with a movie sequence, and then end up at the bar the next evening. This is where you meet with your friends, talk to characters in the bar to gain background on the story, drink alcohol (it actually helps you move faster in the puzzle stages), and play an arcade game named Rapunzel, which is basically the same as the puzzle stages, except it has old-school graphics and a limited number of block moves.

Catherine took me about twelve hours to beat, although it depends on which difficulty setting you choose. I expect that a lot of people will want to play a second or third time just to see the different endings and earn a higher rank on each level. Getting gold for each puzzle is quite a feat. There is also a multi-player element, but that is more of an extra than anything. The main game is an interesting experience to say the least. If you enjoy puzzle games, anime, or Japanese game imports, Catherine will likely be a satisfying experience.