Jonathan Zabel

Review - Catherine (Xbox 360)

It’s a setup right out of an episode of The Twilight Zone.

Men in a small town begin dying in their sleep, a look of horror fixed on their face when they’re discovered in the morning.  Our main character is a nebbish 30-something who waffles about committing to his longtime girlfriend.  He meets a beautiful woman and has an affair.  

Then, the nightmares begin.  Every night, he must climb an endless tower that’s crumbling beneath his feet.  To give up would mean certain death.

All of the elements of a classic Rod Serling narrative are there: the supernatural juxtaposed with the dramatic tension of a protagonist with major moral failing.

Sadly, this greatness is only very briefly glimpsed.  The story begins to unravel almost right away in a jumble of completely implausible character motivations and plot developments.  The titular Catherine, with whom the main character has his affair, is so clingy and psychotic that no sane human being could reasonably continue seeing her.  She’s a far cry from the alluring temptress you could easily imagine leading men to an untimely end.

And the final reveal that explains why the nightmares are happening is so wildly ridiculous that it essentially destroys any enjoyment that came before it.  I’ve seen this happen a few times (the ending of LOST, anybody?) and my personal theory is that it’s far better to under-explain than to over-explain.  The Twilight Zone never felt the need to tell the viewer exactly why strange things were happening, which made those occurrences even more unnerving.

The gameplay is a bit of a mess.  You push blocks around to climb the tower and are occasionally chased by a big scary boss.  In an age where so many great games seamlessly blend story and gameplay mechanics, it feels odd to have the two be so thoroughly disjointed.

It also bears mentioning that the game is soul-crushingly difficult.  So hard, in fact, that the developer had to add a “Very Easy” mode in a post-launch patch.  If the majority of players are skipping the gameplay to see the story, you know you’ve got a serious problem.

I’ve got to give credit to the designers for exploring thematic territory that’s been completely neglected in videogames thus far.  As gamers, we’re growing older and starting to feel the societal pressure to settle down.  The scenes in the bar where you’re commiserating with your friends struck an emotional chord in me.

It’s a little regrettable that Atlas marketed this as a sexy Japanese pinup game when it offers more nuance than that.  I could imagine a completely different marketing campaign based on the moral questions they ask you in the game.  Imagine a full-page ad with the question, “Does life begin or end at marriage?”

Though at times I found myself completely dumbfounded by an inexplicable plot twist or grinding my teeth in frustration at the unreasonable difficulty curve, I was still hooked.  Definitely a guilty pleasure.