Does life begin or end at marriage? It was a favorite question of Tolstoy, who lamented that books closed, not opened, with the main characters getting married, and it’s the first of many questions you must answer in the utterly memorable horror-puzzler “Catherine.” At turns romantic, scary, sexy and shrill, “Catherine” has occasional tone problems — but so does real life, no?
Real life may not share many of “Catherine’s” elements, like protagonist Vincent’s nightly transformation into a sheep that must flee a giant, murderous version of his unborn child; but, in telling (and letting you tell) the story of a man who must figure out his romantic future, “Catherine” stands apart from video games that offer respite from life’s most agonizing decisions.
Regular-ole-guy Vincent, you see, has drunkenly cheated on his longtime girlfriend, Katherine, with the lovely, young Catherine, and, in choosing between them, must deny either his lust or his duty to finally grow up. As Simon & Garfunkel sang, “Any way you look at it, you lose.”
| ‘Catherine’ |
| » Systems: PS3, Xbox 360 |
| » Price: $59.99 |
| » Rating: 4 out of 5 stars |
The game takes place over eight days, as Katherine and Catherine turn up the pressure and increasingly suspect there’s another woman. Daytime is spent hanging out in a bar, talking with your longtime buddies, choosing how to respond to texts from K and C, and watching news reports about the mysterious deaths of men who cheat. Western gamers will find this style of gameplay odd at first, but there’s no doubt it’s great for storytelling.
Every night, in his dreams, Vincent turns into a sheep who frantically climbs towers of blocks he must rearrange on the fly to form paths upward. In true Elm Street fashion, death in your dreams means death in real life. “Tetris” this ain’t. Every stage finishes with a question, like the aforementioned marriage one, that affects the path of Vincent’s waking life — a life that might remind you, uncomfortably but thrillingly, of your own.
Note: Play the game on easy. The puzzle stages spike in difficulty without warning, and “Catherine’s” all about the story anyway.
