Vincent’s a happy guy: He’s got a decent job, good friends that he goes out drinking with and his beautiful, long-time girlfriend Katherine (with a K). He’s got a lot to be happy about. And then Katherine announces that she wants them to move to the next level of their relationship. She even mentions the “M” word, and how Vincent needs to start preparing for their future together.
Vincent is shaken a bit by this sudden announcement, and while out drinking alone he accidentally meets a blonde bombshell named Catherine (with a C), who’s quite the free-spirit when it comes to the physical, and who enjoys drinking as much as Vincent does. Vincent wakes up the next morning with a hangover and with Catherine (with a C) in bed next to him.
And that’s when Catherine’s creepy possessiveness shows up. At one point, she even threatens to kill Vincent if he “cheats” on her with another woman…
Thus begins Vincent’s decent in to madness and nightmare as he tries to navigate the twisted pathways between the woman he’s been with for years and the young siren that he keeps finding himself attracted to.
The gameplay of Catherine is broken up into day-time and night-time segments, with the day-time segments playing out in cafes or other places, as Vincent interacts with his friends or Katherine, or Catherine. The night-time segments are played out in Vincent’s nightmares, as a seemingly endless tower of blocks that Vincent must climb while overcoming various obstacles, some of which are directly influenced by the events of the day-time segments (after Katherine announces she might be pregnant, Vincent is pursued in the nightmare by a giant, malformed, murderous baby).
The game’s got an interesting morality system, which reveals itself in how you respond to various interactions. You’ll be asked direct questions, and you’ll also be judged on how you respond to conversations with your friends as well as how you reply to text messages from Katherine, Catherine and others. There are eight different branching storylines, determined by your responses to the interactions around you.
The story is engaging, and the way it’s presented is utterly unlike anything I’ve played so far. I know that Catherine may not be for everyone, but it’s a game that I would recommend everyone play.
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