VIDEO GAME REVIEW: Catherine - Xbox 360 - Deep Silver

Release Date: 10/02/12

SYNOPSIS:

Falling for this girl might be hazardous to your health...

Vincent likes his girlfriend. Katherine's pretty, smart, and successful. Trouble is, she's starting to talk about long-term commitment, something Vincent's spent his entire life avoiding. Since romantic complications are the last thing he wants to deal with, Vincent meets his friends for their regular night of drinks. Little does he know that he's about to be blindsided by a beautiful, seductive, irresistible freight train named Catherine.

Suddenly, he's hung over in bed next to the most beautiful woman he's ever seen, unsure about the previous night's events. Was it just making out, he wonders, or did something more serious happen between them? Should he tell Katherine? Will he ever see Catherine again? Vincent's about to find that a stumble on the staircase of love can turn into a horrific, fatal plummet...

Vincent's waking fears, doubts, pressures, and growing guilt about commitment and fidelity now follow him into his dreams, manifesting as horribly disfigured monsters and a ticking clock.

The player must navigate Vincent through heavy moral decisions. As in real life, hardly anything is black and white. Someone's going to get hurt!

The Nightmare of Your Dreams-Under the watch of producer Katsura Hashino, acclaimed director of Persona 3 and Persona 4, famed character artist Shigenori Soejima and master composer Shoji Meguro create sights and sounds unlike anything else.

Local versus and co‐op multiplayer modes, in addition to leader boards, ensure that the many thrills and horrors of racing through twisted stages can be enjoyed by more than one player.


REVIEW:

This release from Deep Silver is one of those games that you’re either going to love to death (literally) or absolutely hate with a passion as it takes you from compelling mangaesque animation through to fiendish nightmare block pushing to find out more about the tales principle “hero” Vincent.

It’s cleverly done and the overall arc is one of those ones that is only for the older gamer as to be honest it deals with a lot of adult themes which include and not restricted to, cheating on the characters girlfriend Katherine with blonde bombshell Catherine, lying with texts and of course hanging out in a bar getting drunk with your pals. Add to this multiple choices throughout which will affect the ending and its also a game that has a number of different endings.

Whilst, as I’ve said, it’s one of those games that you’ll either love or hate, the block moving Nightmares, will increase the difficulty the further into the game you get. It can confound and confuse the player at times and there will be points when you wish you’d thrown the controller at the wall but this game is so unlike anything else out there that it’s quite ground breaking in its own right.

All in this title is one that will go down in history as the beginning of a new genre, whether it ends up as a gamer favourite or not remains to be seen but if you don’t like puzzles or hate the concepts portrayed within, then it may not be the game for you. Finally on a lighter note, if you are married or have a girlfriend of your own, this game is not a cheaters manual and if you are looking at getting yourself a copy, at least talk it through with them along with the themes that the game will reveal, after all, you can guarantee that the significant other will walk in at perhaps the worst moment and you’ll have a lot of explaining to do.