"Catherine" is a breath of fresh air in a summer filled with video game sequels and bland shooters. This is a puzzle game and part dating simulator where every decision is the wrong choice. Add in a supernatural story where your nightmares can kill, and you get the strangest and most compelling story of the year.
You begin "Catherine" as the protagonist Vincent who is having a "When are we going to take our relationship to the next level?" conversation with his long-term girlfriend Katherine. As a programmer who feels trapped by the talk, Vincent's long night at the bar ends in a chance encounter with a girl named Catherine. She is flirty and provocative and Vincent not-so innocently talks with her about his problems.
It is easy to guess what happens next as life gets very difficult for Vincent as he juggles two very different girls. Katherine is the love of his life, but Catherine is fun and exciting and doesn't talk about responsibility nor commitment. As this drama unfolds, Vincent starts to have nightmares where he believes that he has the horns of a sheep and he needs to climb block-like structures to survive. To make matters worse, the local news shows are reporting that men are dying in their sleep for unexplainable reasons.
The game in "Catherine" revolves around Vincent's nightmares as he tries to survive each dream. Each level begins with Vincent standing at the base of a long stair-like structure. By moving blocks side to side or front to back, you try to create stairs that will help you ascend to the top. The way that each cube connects to the other magic cube edges makes this a unique three-dimensional puzzle game. There is no other mainstream game like it. Learning all of the tricks to manipulate the environment will take much longer than the dozen hours needed to finish the single player adventure.
Mark my words, "Catherine" is a brutally challenging puzzle game. There's no worry about letting a minor play this game for the racy story - they probably wouldn't have the tenacity or patience to work though the puzzles to see the next cut scene. I highly recommend "easy" difficulty at first. Restarting the game on a harder setting is easy since you can skip scenes you saw already. There is a secret "very easy" difficulty level too if you get stuck, but you will have to look it up on the Internet to unlock it.
The story of "Catherine" was my main draw. This game intelligently tackles the age-old story about when a person in a relationship has to grow up and accept responsibility for his actions and feelings. The mythology surrounding the nightmares offers a clever way to thread the story into a life-or-death situation. There is a lot more going on than a simple romance.
Though I couldn't wait to finish each level, this game is not for everyone. Download the demo or rent it to see if the puzzle mechanics are your cup of tea. For me, if "Catherine" was released in the theater, I would be first in line to buy a ticket.
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