‘Catherine’ Demo Thoughts

Over the years, Atlus has produced some wacky video games, which range from first person beat-em-ups to RPGs the likes of Persona, that are more imaginative than most shows currently on television.

In spite of that, they may have just outdone themselves with “Catherine.”

Even if the demo only allows you to play for about an hour, it’s enough to get you hooked.

Combining a sexy story of love and hilarity with the puzzle physics of games such as “Q-Bert” and “Intelligent Cube,” “Catherine” looks to be a sleeper hit on the Xbox 360 and PS3 when it’s released later this week.

Powered by cinema, Catherine’s gameplay style is different, yet enjoyable. With so much emphasis on story, it would be all too easy to get lost in it. Luckily, that’s not the case here. With a beautiful anime-inspired story and trademark Atlus polish, the same part of the story accessible here in the demo delivers.

The main character, Vincent Brooks [Troy Baker], is stuck in a situation that many men find themselves in at one time in their lives. Simply put, he’s unsure of what to make of his relationship with his girlfriend, Katherine. A slacker of sorts, Brooks lacks the ability to make a decision on many things in life. He’s about to run out of time with his girl if he doesn’t change his ways soon.

In an ironic twist, when Brooks goes to bed, he’s forced to make decisions at a rapid pace. This fun duality makes the actual puzzle action that much more enjoyable.

Through brutal nightmares, he must climb steps to reach a door to escape from humongous enemies. The way this is done- by climbing, pushing, pulling and removing steps to continue your rise, is comparable to the PS-one hit, “Intelligent Cube,” but is much deeper and intuitive. Allowed to crawl around all four corners of each step, traveling upwards in the game can sometimes be tedious, as you’ll fall down the sides of steps in your attempt to continue your journey. Nevertheless, after several miscalculated steps, you’ll get into the swing of things and the control, although spotty at times, is solid enough to make the adventure a worthy one.

With its sitcom-esque story and wild puzzle mechanics, “Catherine” is worth checking out, especially if you’re a fan of the games in the Atlus library. Regardless, even if you don’t know the difference between “Zeno Clash” and “Persona,” it’s hard to deny the worthwhile puzzle experience “Catherine” provides.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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