Catherine

Catherine piqued player interest before anyone even knew it was a puzzle game with its risque and downright bizarre trailers. It promised to tackle themes very rarely examined in video game form, namely relationships, adultery, and commitment -- with a layer of psychological horror beneath it all.

The gameplay is based on climbing a tower of blocks by shoving and pulling them into ladders before the time runs out, requiring the player to have a good grasp on puzzles and quick-thinking. The game changes up every few levels by adding different kinds of trick blocks, such as slippery blocks and bombs, to prevent stagnation. The controls could stand to be more fine-tuned. The camera is useless and won't turn far enough to see Vincent if he's climbing around the back of a wall and it frequently turns to focus on the boss instead of making sure Vincent is still in view. It's easy to overdo the controls and fall off or push one block too far, but the worse culprit is the controls when gripping the edge of blocks.

This game is so difficult that Atlus had to release a patch to make Easy mode easier and introduce a secret Very Easy mode. The regular levels don't get too hard until late in the game, but the boss levels spike the difficulty to almost ridiculous extremes in contrast with the stages previous. In the easier modes, extra lives are so plentiful that it would take some work to outright lose the game, but beating one boss might take more retries than it's worth. The worst part is that it's not even a satisfying difficulty that comes with a sense of accomplishment when the "A-ha!" moment is reached, but a "This is ridiculous and I've been stuck on this part for fifty retries and this isn't fun anymore" type of difficulty.

The plot sounds deep (and very intriguing) on paper, but the execution is a little flat. Vincent and Katherine are introduced too quickly, with no time to grow attached to them as likeable people before their relationship goes sour. There's no sign that they were ever on good terms, that Katherine is ever cheerful, or that Vincent is ever less of a whimpering liar. Catherine is too psychotic to be a ray of light in this cast, leaving all the likeable roles to the minor background characters. The creepy nightmare world and the mysteries surrounding it are enough to keep the player coming back for more, but perhaps a bit more begrudgingly than if the game had likeable protagonists. In the end, not even all questions are given satisfactory answers, leaving a plothole or two in an already flawed story.

The graphics are as unique as the gameplay, with an anime-esque style with a twist. The expressions can be over-the-top, the mouthflaps a bit awkward, and the edges a little blocky (Vincent's face sometimes looks a little too square), but the colors and shading are pleasant enough to look at. The game also includes animated cutscenes for emphasized moments in the story, which are full-out anime-style and include much tighter lip movements that make the voice acting sound rushed to keep up.

For the most part, the voice acting is pretty bearable -- not great, but not bad. There are only a few voices that really stick out as inappropriate: The narrator sounds a little condescending and nothing like his Japanese counterpart, Yuri Lowenthal should never voice young boys, and, most importantly, Laura Bailey was really not the right choice for Catherine. Her Sexy Kitten voice made Catherine all the more an uncomfortable a character, as if she was a twelve-year-old trying to act like an adult, rather than a clumsy and curious young adult.

The music is an assortment of classical music rearranged by Meguro Shouji. Some are rather obvious to pick out (the "Hallelujah Chorus" and "Funeral March" come to mind), but I would not have caught on that every track was out of copyright if I hadn't read it elsewhere, in large part because they sound just like something Meguro would have written for Persona 3. They're very modern arrangements (not to mention catchy), so long as you don't recognize the tune -- at which point it may become difficult to get an orchestral version out of your head.

While it's hard not to praise Catherine for trying out new things, it's really less than a stellar title. I hope there will be a sequel that works out the original's kinks, but this release smells too strongly of experimentation and a rushed story.


Pros: Original gameplay, plot treads new ground for a video game, gorgeous music

Cons: Takes difficulty to 11 at random, finicky controls, annoying main characters, lackluster story


7.9/10

Classic Review: Far Cry

Far Cry is one of those games that was brilliant back in its day but hasn't aged well. The game still has a number of serious flaws that really lessened my enjoyment. In particular a punishing difficulty with no quicksave option, a slow run speed and an irritating main character really hurt an otherwise fun experience.

Far Cry back in 2004 could bring a system to its knees. It was the ultimate benchmark game due to an insane draw distance. That said, back in 2004 Halo 2, Half-Life 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3 used normal mapped textures that often looked better than those in Far Cry which really makes the game look obsolete, especially since the draw distance is compensated for by a low dynamic level of detail. So despite being a game that needed a very powerful system to run, it's not all that great looking of a game, especially indoors.

The character models are especially terrible, being ugly, blocky and nowhere near as good as the models in many titles that are even older like Soldier of Fortune 2. I like the effects that bullet holes have on flesh but the characters look terrible. Far Cry hasn't aged well compared to many games released at the same time and it deserves to be condemned for such, high draw distance or not.

Also, the first level of the game is one of the hardest. This game took me thirty-five hours to beat, the first four of which were spent trying to survive the beginning of the game on the easiest difficulty setting. I'm no stranger to shooters but Far Cry's AI that can see you and shoot you through walls is incredibly cheap, as was having to clear the enemy base without any sort of scoped weapon.

That said, the game gets easier after this. Most notably because the game gives the player a silenced submachine gun and a sniper rifle that make most encounters way too easy. That said, the lack of a quicksave means that I'd often find myself reloading save files from twenty minutes ago due to the game's slow pace and lack of checkpoints. This is coupled with enemy AI programmed to flank, no regenerating health and a main character who moves like he's stuck in molasses. Up until an assault rifle with a scope can be found, success in Far Cry is entirely dependent on how much sniper rifle ammo can be found.

Sniping in Far Cry is incredibly fun and makes me feel like I'm some type of jungle predator stalking prey. Lining up headshots from a kilometer away is a great experience that's sadly hampered by the fact that the game was designed from the ground up to favor sniping over all else. There are still occasional indoor levels that allow players to make use of other weapons but they're the exception rather than the rule although still frequent enough that carrying around a shotgun and submachine gun is a good idea.

The story absolutely sucks. The plot is a 1980s B-action movie plot riddled with terrible voice acting. The main character’s voice is particularly annoying in a 90s video game way, with such an annoying tone to it that cutscenes were painful to watch. Other characters come across as either over the top or flat, meaning that there are no good voices in this game. Just a collection of hammy monotones that I couldn’t stand listening to alongside forgettable music and bland sound effects.

And for all of Far Cry's flaws, it's still a fun game but one that will forever live in the shadow of the superior Far Cry 2 and Crysis. It's still brilliant for it's pioneering use of first person stealth gameplay. Even though enemies can pinpoint exactly where I am through thinner walls, they still have trouble seeing me through foliage, which leads to some cools ways to escape and ambush foes. In fact, due to the low amount of non-regenerating health that I have, I'm practically obligated to retreat as often as possible since head-on fights in outdoor areas are always suicidal. As much as I hated first person stealth in the past since it often felt awkward, Far Cry finds a way to make it work although there sadly haven’t been many games which have followed suit.

So while it's possible to do a lot worse than purchasing Far Cry, both the sequel and spiritual successor blow it out of the water, making the original hard to recommend. Those who love Far Cry 2 and Crysis should give it a shot but in this case, it's hard to play the original over either title.

Pros: Great draw distance, sniping is great, finds a way to make first person stealth work, (mostly) great AI

Cons: Horrible voice acting, weak sound effects, low health, poor story, AI that can see through walls, the sniper rifle dominates gameplay, inability to shoot while swimming, poor character models

7.2/10