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Catherine (Xbox 360)

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"Fucking blocks! I'm gonna climb the shit out of you!"

Posted 6th February 2012, 10:29am in Games / By Michael J Fax
Here's the problem. Catherine's cover art shows an anime temptress, all wide-eyed and innocent pushing her bust up. The UK launch party for the game was held in a strip club in London with writhing pole-dancers dressed up as the game's character. So, ultimately, you'd be forgiven for thinking Catherine was some hentai sex-fest for wankers and industry lust demons. It really isn't.

Catherine has shot itself in the dainty Japanese foot, particularly in the UK. Don't get us wrong - Catherine looks brilliant; the animation is wonderful and it feels like a breathing cartoon at times. It's that the risque artwork and image it's portraying couldn't be further from the odd, complex and mature tale it actually weaves. Atlus, the minds behind the Persona series, have crafted themselves one of the most 'adult' games of all time, and we're not using 'adult' as a synonym for 'porn'.



You play Vincent Brooks, a spineless but amiable chap, plodding away at his life working at a dull job, going to a bar with his friends and seeing his long-term girlfriend Katherine. But, doubts about his future with Katherine, who is pushing for 'the next step', see him, rather uncontrollably, fall into the arms of another woman – the irresistible Catherine. That's a K and then a C. They're different people.

Suddenly, an opportunity arises – an escape, a beautiful distraction, a temptress, a chance to cheat. And Vincent wakes up beside the blonde vixen the next morning after an apparent night of drunken debauchery. Terrified beyond belief about his actions and the future of his relationship, he's then plagued with guilt and the pull of the thrill. Will he stay with Katherine? Will he use it as a way to break up with her? Will he call it off with Catherine? What if they find out about each other? And to top it all off, each night Vincent is plagued with nightmares about sheep and climbing towers.

The actual crux of the gameplay of Catherine lies in the nightmare sequences. Each night, Vincent appears in his dreams with just a pillow and spotty underpants trying to climb his way up a tower made of movable blocks. Vincent must ascend the tower to reach a bell at the apex by pushing, pulling, sliding and hanging on solid blocks. And if you fall to your death in the nightmare, Vincent will never wake up.



Each nightmare ends with a church-like mezzanine level where sheep sit around discussing tactics of climbing and despairing about whether they'll make it out alive. Yep. Then you're ushered into a confessional booth and asked a morality-based question before you're whisked back to the land of the living.

And when Vincent does wake up, he's a mess – his relationship with the C/Katherines is spiralling out of control, and his only respite is in the Stray Sheep (it's not exactly subtle symbolism) bar, run by the enigmatic Boss, where he can hang around with his friends drinking booze, all living in their own arrested development world. Harassed by answerable text messages and confusingly peculiar conversations with patrons, the interactivity of the Stray Sheep scenes bring a welcome break from the constant block clambering.

You can reply to incoming text messages using a variety of responses and the way in which you respond corresponds with a morality meter which pops up to judge you every now and then. Affecting the course of the gameplay, how you deal with the sticky situations you encounter can change the story. If you encourage Catherine's advances, the meter dips into red and if you solidify your relationship with the caring-yet-nagging Katherine, it'll tilt towards the blue side. The Stray Sheep bar is often filled with sad and pensive patrons who'll come and go as you get drunker. You're able to speak with them and learn about their problems, some of which can be solved and, as the story progresses and changes depending on you choices, the patrons will too.



While the morality meter gives a sense of freedom to the game, it also caps and controls your actions. Who is this game to judge your decisions and on what morality scale? Unfortunately, Catherine's story will falter in the west with its overtly Japanese morality. It can be morally confusing and has a strong sense of 'doing the right thing'. The confessional booth questions after each nightmare don't always have an answer that seems completely right or wrong. While there's a heavy push on a 'marital age' in Japanese culture, in the west it's not so much of a big deal and, while you think you're answering in a noble fashion, your meter may dip to the red. Cultural problems aside, Catherine acts as a terrifying new urban myth for non-committal males. Vincent's problem isn't so much that he's scared of commitment, but that he's scared of the change of growing up. And given we're all playing a computer game to discover this story, it's probably one we can relate to.

While Catherine's actual gameplay is a little lacklustre compared to the story, there's enough variety to the block-pushing to keep it interesting with special destructible blocks, ice blocks and spring blocks appearing to help and hinder your progress. Bulging and horrific bosses eventually chase you to the summit and it can become a frantic and frustrating dash. The relentless and seemingly never-ending crawl to the top echoes the dilemma Vincent finds himself in and it won't be long before the frustration of the whole ordeal becomes a huge sigh of relief as Vincent awakes alive. Waking up dead is pretty rare, right enough.



Catherine is truly oddball. What begins as an obvious and predictable tale, backed up by some unnecessarily risque artwork, slowly untangles and then re-tangles itself into a dark, complex and poignant tale. Don't let the tit-fest artwork fool you, Catherine isn't for the children, but neither is it a Hentai-wanker's paradise. Catherine calls itself as a 'relationship horror' and it's the perfect description. The terror in Catherine comes from its believability and the strength of the story – one that's been, so far, untouched by gaming

Its problem is that it's aiming itself at a select group of young men, rather than people in general. It'll have you believe only men can play this game, but that would be to assume only men cheat or have doubts about relationships. The 'horror' aspect of Catherine works in every direction. Going for the jugular of a niche market that will play Hentai games is the wrong move and they'll no doubt be disappointed by the game's lack of sex and nudity – there's literally none. Instead, this is a tale that deals with both the comfort and the itchiness of a long-term relationship; the themes are distinctly adult. Vincent isn't a typical cheater – he's a push-over controlled by the people in his life, unsure of what he wants. This is never solely a male problem. There's no machismo, there's no muscle-flexing, there's no high-fiving – just guilt, terror and genuine despair.



The PR team have got it wrong this time – objectifying Catherine as a stripper in a pole-dancing club couldn't be further from the real point the game is making. We urge you to ignore the artwork, ignore the spin and get stuck into Catherine. Not in that way. See, even you're doing it now. It's not porn! It isn't, honestly! Look, just fucking play it.

Catherine is available on 10th February for Xbox 360 and PS3.

Rating: 9/10

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