The best way to describe Atlus’s latest puzzle game, Catherine, is to say it is not your typical game. It’s certainly different than the standard game players will find on store shelves, but it’s different in a good way. On the outside, this game may seem simple, but brave through the nightmare and you will find an interesting and unique experience awaiting you in Catherine.

What Dreams May Come

In Catherine, we follow the story of Vincent, a regular guy who’s happy with the status quo of his life and would love nothing else to leave it that way. However, his long time girlfriend, Katherine upsets that quo by beginning to pressure Vincent into marriage. Vincent grapples over the notion of marriage, commitment, and eternal bondage later that night by himself over a drink at his favorite bar. Then along comes Catherine. No, you’re not crazy and that’s not a spelling mistake. The game has two “Catherine”s. One spelled with a “K” and the other with a “C”. Despite a close association by name, similarities stop there. Where his girlfriend Katherine with a “K” is grounded, disciplined and focused on the future, Catherine with a “C” is care-free, spirited and vicarious. With Catherine’s good looks, youthful charm, and a little bit of forward flirting, it’s barely a fair fight for slightly drunk Vincent. The next morning, Vincent awakes to find Catherine still with him in his bed thus starting a long nightmare of a love triangle that carries over into Vincent’s dreams.

These puzzle make you think outside the box…and up, down, and all around it too!

It is in these dreams you tackle the majority of game play that makes up Catherine. Vincent finds himself in a nightmare world similar to Dante’s inferno where he must climb blocks to get to the top. To climb, you must pull and push blocks to create steps up to the next level and must do so quickly since the floor is rapidly falling beneath you. This adds a great level of suspense and gives a well balanced tension to the game causing you to climb as high and fast as possible. The towers become progressively more challenging and cause you to find a solution from a “top-down” perspective. While at first it may be difficult to think of different strategies, the game does a good job of presenting new techniques and ideas on how to climb throughout the game. There are quite a few techniques demonstrated for you, but you don’t need to worry about memorizing all of them. Majority of the puzzles can be figured out using the basic block techniques figured out early on in the game.

While the controls feel smooth for the most part, there are a few problems that can be frustrating. The controls are a bit “twitchy” at times and it is all too easy to push a block away when instead you wanted to pull it. Luckily, it’s a forgiving game which allows you to undo a move on the lower difficulty settings. The game’s camera angle can also be troublesome and limiting. This is especially made apparent when you go behind a set of blocks and there is no way to see yourself or no where you are making moving around difficult. It’s a minor complaint though and won’t greatly interfere with your game play.

Top down thinking is harder than it sounds…especially when the ground beneath your feet keeps crumbling away!

This puzzle climbing makes up the majority of the game play and while it seems like this would become repetitious and boring, the game finds ways of making each level interesting by increasing the complexity and the variety of blocks. New blocks are constantly added to levels which cause you to change strategies and rethink the rules on climbing which adds refreshing and changing game play. For instance, you have blocks that will crumble and fall apart after stepping on them so many times, or blocks that are made of ice causing you to slide until hitting a non-ice block. Boss levels also add a change of pace and variety. Still, there were times where I did feel the climbing segments did become monotonous and repetitious but these moments were usually short lived and broken up by the games cinematic presentations and interactive intermissions.

Little Lost Sheep

The Stray Sheep, a place where everybody knows your name.

The second half of the game consists of these interactive intermissions with Vincent at the bar which serves as a nice break from the puzzle climbing. The best way to describe this part of the game is it’s an interactive RPG-ish socializer. You get text messages from your two Catherines and can choose to reply to these messages in a variety of ways. You also can chat with your friends as well as fellow bar members giving more character depth to both Vincent and those around him. Not only do these interactions provide more story, but how you choose to respond to people will affect the outcome of the game. There are also quite a few treasures one can find while spending time at the bar for those willing to get up and explore the quaint little pub.

And once you beat the game there are still plenty of reasons to come back to Catherine. Not only are there 8 potential endings to the game but there is a multiplayer feature that is unlocked during your initial play through of the single player. The multiplayer is local based only but gives you two modes: co-op and competitive. Also unlocked as you go through the game are additional puzzle challenges with online leader boards showing best times and highest scores.

The presentation style is unique and gives an interesting and different atmosphere to the game. Much of the game’s story is presented through a blend of 2D anime sequences as well as 3D cell shading. If you’re a fan of anime then this style of story telling will feel like a natural fit. One possible downside is the length of these sequences in between game play. They can range anywhere between 2 minutes to almost 10. While they can get long, I definitely recommend sticking through them. The voice acting is fantastic  and the scenes are well written and provide plenty comical and suspenseful moments.

Overall atmosphere is spectacular as well. The use of neon lights and shadows creates a bright but edgy atmosphere in the bar. Nightmare levels are filled with torturous machines, cries of fellow trapped souls falling to their doom, and moody and creepy music creating a dark and twisted atmosphere definitely leaving the feel of living in a night terror.

Something More Than Just Sex

Despite it’s strong sexual theme, the game isn’t about sex! Make no mistake, this is a mature level game that you do not want to play in front of your kids! However, while the game is very sexually themed and there are some scenes which demonstrate this, nothing graphic is ever shown (with maybe the exception of some of the bosses) and nothing seems out of line or overly done as some games tend to do. The story goes deeper than that and becomes more about relationships, maturity, and self discovery. Combined with it’s unique presentation and game play, Catherine offers an enjoyable and different experience than most games being released.

Final Verdict

For me Catherine is one of those games that you’ll either love it or hate it. It is a game that will take you by surprise if you let her. Surprisingly deep at times with fun and challenging puzzles with interesting atypical characters. The fact that the game is not centered around saving the world or rescuing damsel’s in another tower, but rather about an average guy with personal relationship issues trying to fight his own nightmares makes for a refreshing change as is the puzzle mechanic of the game. As mentioned before, it is a game that breaks away from standard norm and takes a risk…take a chance with Catherine and you might find plenty of reward waiting for you.

The Plot

You play as Gabriel Belmont, a knight who belongs to a brotherhood sworn to defend the living against otherworldly forces. Gabriel is a man on a mission, if you’ve seen the movie Commando you know guys like that are not to be messed with. Well someone has hit Gabriel’s rage button and now a whole lot of baddies are going to realize something even worse is coming for them. Gabriel’s love, a woman named Maria has been murdered, angered and saddened Gabriel sets out to find the God Mask. The mask is said to hold limitless power and is even said to be able to bring the dead back to life, giving Gabriel hopes of bringing Maria back to life. Gabriel will encounter many trials and characters on his journey, as twists and turns in the story make you question the character you’re playing as.

The Gameplay

That looks painful.

Lords of Shadow has taken the action-adventure approach, Gabriel can dish out a variety of combos with his whip called the “Vampire Killer.” Combos can be purchased and upgraded with points that you earn by killing baddies, this is cool because not only does it add depth but it adds a somewhat strategic element when fighting tough foes, I’ll explain further into the review. The game’s enemies are VERY diverse, you fight everything from werewolves, to zombies, to vampires, to skeletons, and all of them have their own quirks that make them different. Instead of having a rage meter (AKA a whoop ass meter as I like to call it) he has two separate bars of light and shadow magic, with a focus bar thrown into the mix. Each meter does something different when triggered.

The light meter allows Gabriel to heal by beating his foes to death, while the shadow meter allows him to deal out more damage. The meters cannot be simultaneously active and must be refilled by getting magic energy. Magic energy can be gained by defeating enemies or filling up your focus bar, this requires getting numerous hits on enemies without being hit yourself, which then makes your opponents spew out magic energy whenever you land a hit on them. If you’re hit your focus bar will be depleted and you’ll have to make it go up again. Each bar must be filled up separately, you hold in the left stick to absorb magic energy into your light bar, and the right stick for your shadow bar, energy and health pools can be found on every chapter so combat is not the only way to go.

Some combos are only available while in light or shadow mode, and certain weapons such as the dagger and holy water are more effective in those forms. So remember that tactical element I was telling about, it’s there believe me. When you’re getting butchered by a boss you’re going to try and get on your game by getting that focus bar up and absorbing magic energy in order to either heal, or deal more damage to them. You’re  probably going to  use combos like the chainsaw to land more hits on enemies in order for them to give out as much magic energy as possible before being hit. The game also has a block, dodge, and counter system.

Nice beard dude.

Some attacks from enemies can be blocked while others can break through your defense, this will require you to dodge out of the way quickly. Countering is simple as you only press the block button as soon as an enemy strikes, allowing you to attack them while they’re stunned. The game does retain it’s platforming element. Gabriel can climb walls, use his Vampire Killer to swing from one location to the next, or he can use it as a lever to turn switches and can even bring down statues with it. All of this makes your character feel capable, so when you overcome a boss or a tough spot using all of the skills available to you it does give a sense of satisfaction.

Finally Lords of Shadow has puzzles, these differ greatly and make you think. Some puzzles require you to move at a certain pace, move objects into the right position, match up patterns, and more. You folks who love challenging puzzles welcome to Lords of Shadow, those who don’t, know that most of them CAN be skipped, you will however lose the experience points you would have been given had you completed the puzzle. The puzzles can be fun and are a good change of pace. The game has a lot of elements that keep it fresh, from combat, to traversing levels, to making you use your noodle, it definitely stands out from being just an average beat em’ up.

The Atmosphere

The game’s atmosphere is dark and varied. Lords of Shadow keeps that great dark fantasy feel, it’s art style, epic soundtrack and scale make this game stand out BIG time. The story is LONG and makes you feel like a champ at the end of your journey. Visually Lords of Shadow is very good, no part of the game feels like the devs cut corners, everything looks top notch. It captures what it set out to do in flying colors and immerses you.

The Verdict

I love dark fantasy, I love action-adventure when done right, and I LOVE lengthy games. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is a treat for those who want something epic and challenging, for those of you who beat this on the highest difficulty I salute you. My only gripe with the game is that sometimes the camera gets a little wild, causing you to sometimes plunge to your death, or setting up for something really dumb to happen. Those problems can be overlooked, and do not hinder the overall experience. I highly recommend this title, and cannot wait to see what the future holds for this series.

The object of WordsWorth is to link letters together to create words. The longer the word, the more points you receive. Some letters are worth more than others creating an even higher score.

WordsWorth has two modes, one being “Classic” and the other being “Timed.” In the Classic mode you aren’t timed and you can go at your own pace but once a timed letter falls into the mix you must use that letter before the time runs out, if you fail to do so it will end the game. In the Timed mode you must reach a certain amount of points before the timer ends. If you reach that amount of points before the time is up, your time is extended and you move on to the next level. In both of these modes there are “buzzwords” which are shown in the starburst at the bottom of the screen. If you spell the buzzword you will receive even more points.

To make the game more interesting there are a few different tiles that come in to play. Green tiles are worth more points, Gold tiles are earned by creating words two letters longer than the minimum word size required, Blue tiles are also known as “wild cards” and they can be used as any letter in a word, and lastly there are Auto Shuffle tiles which will shuffle the letters without penalty or without decreasing the shuffle count.

My Thoughts:

I being a fan of word games really enjoyed WordsWorth and still come back to it regularly. It’s easy to pick up and play and highly addictive. WW is very polished and pleasing to the eyes. If you like Scrabble or any other word puzzle games then WW is a must have. WordsWorth is available for a mere $1.99 which means there is no reason not to download this one.

I am really having a lot of fun with Ivory Tiles and would suggest it to anyone. With over 80 levels to perfect there is a lot of game here to challenge your brain with. Ivory Tiles is price at $1.99 which isn’t much for such a great game. If you are into puzzle games on the iPhone then I would say Ivory Tiles is a must-have.

Sudoku Unlimited is available in the iTunes and iPhone appstores for $2.99 as of the writing of this.

Braid is a simple platformer which means you have all the basic abilities such as walking and jumping but there is one ability that you will learn in the very beginning of the game and that is the ability to rewind time. This ability instantly shifts the focus from making sure you don’t die to something a lot deeper. Dying is no longer a concern and you must focus on the more difficult tasks ahead. The main goal in the game is to collect puzzle pieces. Each world has it’s own puzzle that you are to complete by collecting the pieces scattered about the world. There are a total of 6 worlds including your own little “house” which acts as your base where you can work on the puzzles and travel to different worlds. Even though each world introduces a new game mechanic none of these mechanics travel over to any of the other worlds and you don’t have to do any backtracking, you are given the tools you need to get the puzzle pieces the moment you enter that world. This is hard to grasp as some puzzle pieces seem impossible to get and initially you will think “oh, I am to come back to this later” but this is never the case.

Braid is one of the hardest puzzle games I have played in a very long time and I am proud of myself every time I reach a puzzle piece. As of the writing of this game I have to get 3 more puzzle pieces in world 6 and then I will have completed the game. Once you complete the game you will unlock a mode called “Speed Run.” I had my wife along for a few levels and noticed that even though it is not a co-op game per say, it is definitely a game that is fun to watch and help with. Braid doesn’t just shine with its gameplay it is also a brilliant work of art with a painting-like style that you won’t be able to put aside. I’ve noticed that recently music has been a big part of my perception of a game and this music is very relaxing and fits the game perfectly.

Braid is a game that everyone needs to play. It is a game that breaks all the rules and teaches us a totally different way to play a game. It shatters what we know as conventional and utilizes what we think as unconventional. Braid really knows how to stretch your brain and make you think in ways you never have before.