Gadgetory

what's up guys kevin here with TLD bring you our view of catherine for the xbox 360 and ps3 now this is one of the more interesting releases is here from Atlas which is actually been pushing it really hard which is weird considering that's not part of an established series or anything the game is basically a matchup of two different popular genres puzzle games and an anime psycho thriller storyline players will switch between these two genres using a day and night cycle during the day time players watch anime style cutscenes to watch the storyline unfold while during the night players will experience nightmares that take the form of a giant puzzle tower that needs to be climbed now the way this puzzle tower works is that it's a series of blocks put together they have to climb up on and the way you do it is that you move them around and use them in order to create the best pathway you can however not all blocks are just simply normal ones that you can move and step on there's a lot of different special ones that could change how you have to build your strategies for instance some blocks will explode shortly after you step on them destroying all the blocks around them and causing the whole tower to shift other blocks are spike traps that if you step on they'll go off and if you don't move fast enough you die some of them are Springs that send you flying in the air ice blocks that cause things to slide farther a whole number of different things that cause you to have to plan out differently now these puzzles are further complicated by the fact that the tower itself is actually falling beneath you if you're not fast enough to climb you don't make your decisions or moves fast enough or you get stuck on a puzzle the tower will literally collapse under you and you will fall to your death now the game does give you two little ways to help you out in case you're not the best at solving puzzles first off there is a back button lets you take back your last action and you can use it repeatedly for planning uneasy and there are items you can find in levels or purchase between stages to make things easier for instance being able to create a block in front of you or a bell that makes all special blocks and just standard normal ones you can move around and step on freezing now the formula for these puzzles is relatively simple they don't really change much other than the new block types as you get farther however the way they construct the tower and make you kind of have to think and move blocks in a smart way really does add a good level of complexity and so it actually stays interesting in later levels which was kind of surprising to me because i thought this exact same puzzle for the whole game was going to get really boring but it actually kept interesting all the way to the end alongside the normal stages which just require you to climb the tower as fast as you can without the blocks falling beneath you there are also boss stages at the end of every so many levels now in these boss stages not only is the tower falling apart but there's some kind of weird nightmarish monster following you such as a baby with a chainsaw what happens with these bosses is that not only do you have to climb as fast as you can but they also have special attacks which can screw with you for instance one of them can fire out a confuse ray that reverses your controls another one can make blocks heavier and her to push and some of them just destroy all parts of the stage if you're not fast enough and during the daytime players will experience the game story mode which revolves around our protagonist Vincent a man is early 30s a programmer with massive commitment issues at the beginning of the game his girlfriend Catherine spelled with a k is pressuring him in a marriage and due to a combination of stress and drinking he ends up having a one-night stand with another woman also named Catherine but with a see the game's plot basically just ends up acting as one big metaphor for everyone's a relationship talking about whether you trust someone in this situation in this situation what would you do here there it's just one big relationships cliche now players do have some small ability to control what happens in the storyline but in between puzzles and during the day players can answer text messages and questions which can cause them to go one of two ways in alignment how players shave Vincent's alignment will affect what happens during certain cutscenes and how he reacts to certain situations and will also affect what endings players can get once they've gotten near the very end of the game after these anime style cutscenes and before you go to the puzzle segments at night players do have a small amount of freedom during what's called like the bar phase basically during this phase you hang out at a bar and can talk to the different patrons and can also do a couple different things around for instance playing an arcade game that plays a lot like the actual nightmare segments talking to these different people at the bar will give you a little more background info on what's going on in the game and some of them will even show up in your nightmares and can affect what happens in their lives based on what you say to them while they're in cheap form yes they are cheap when you're sleeping don't ask why well boasting an overall interesting idea and smashing together two popular genres Catherine definitely does hit a slightly narrow audience puzzle fans will enjoy the nightmare segments but may find themselves becoming bored with the anime style plot line whereas anime fans may not want to even bother with the puzzles and just want to get to the ending but if they don't do well in the puzzles then they don't get to finish the story line now some of this is circumvented by the fact that the game is very short a single playthrough on normal or easy only takes about 10 to 15 hours give or take depending on a player's skill level and that's just for the first time through for who want a little more out of the game it does potentially offer a lot more thanks to the fact that has eight different endings and it's really hard if you play it on the hardest difficulty setting a single stage will take a lot more time on harder than it would in normal or easy overall Catherine is an enjoyable puzzle game and a decent anime and when thrown together is actually a pretty good game overall its biggest problem however that it is hitting a very niche target audience I feel like a lot of people are kind of instantly turned off by the game just because they don't really know what it is or what to expect or if it's really even their thing to be honest i'd recommend it to anyone who's a fan of puzzle games just to even give it a shot i think a lot of people would i should be surprised with how much they enjoy the game if they can get over the initial preconceptions of what they think it might be about and of course if you're a fan of anime and you're pretty good puzzles then this one is obviously something you'd be looking forward to picking up if you haven't already I'm coming for TLD that's our view of Catherine for the xbox 360 and ps3 thanks for watching