Neb on 6/6/2014 at 23:28
I picked up The Cat Lady on Steam during a weekly sale. Sandwiched between a horde of other unknown titles, I decided to give it a shot - although, after coming out of playing Kentucky Route Zero (an instant classic), I wasn't expecting a lot. It turned out to far exceed my expectations and is one of the best games I have played this year.
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It is an unrelentingly macabre side-scrolling adventure that begins with your character's suicide. Not entirely dead, she wakes up in a strange place, meeting an old woman who grants her immortality in return for dealing with five individuals referred to as 'parasites'. The irony of a suicidally depressed immortal is not lost on the game, and thankfully it doesn't get played up too much (but it sure makes that one insta-death section of every adventure game ever that little bit more bearable) - and neither is it lost on the game that while these 'parasites' will seek you out (some of them hiding their evil intentions) a person in the depths of a depression will isolate themselves and distrust others.
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Pacing is the game's strongest point. It knows how to deliver its beats and introduce fresh surprises, while themes are cycled and expanded on for characterisation. There is the occasional flashback or scene played out of sequence, player control of NPCs, multiple choice morality, and sudden changes of setting which add up to a game that won't stop at anything to keep me hooked, and it succeeded wonderfully in never confusing me about where I was or what my goals were. Saying that, a better job could have been done in linking some of the characters to the player. The way in which you meet a few of them feels a bit too uncanny, while the others are well integrated with the story.
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One of the game's disappointments is its lack of custom resolutions. Without the use of third party software and a bunch of fiddling around you're capped to 800x600. My 16:10 display was also chopping off a tiny portion of the right side of the screen. It's a shame considering that this game isn't even two years old yet. It also suffers very slightly with its controls, despite them consisting of only the arrow keys, enter, and space. I never got used to cancelling out of things and activating the inventory.
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While The Cat Lady is a contemporary adventure game with a heavy story/character focus, there are plenty of traditional adventure game puzzles. Mercifully, they are fair. I was always terrible at the old LucasArts titles, but thankfully with this, by the time I felt stuck and ready to try everything with everything, the solution just came to me. For such a dark, surreal game the puzzles are largely down to earth, barring a couple of exceptions.
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Voice acting is another area which could have been done better. The recording quality varies greatly, with some characters 'popping' the mic as they speak, along with plenty of amateur performances. It sounds as if the developer had asked friends online to record themselves and send it back (and by their own admission, the devs were running on a budget of zero dollars for the most part.) Even so, the experience would have had much less impact being text only, and you wouldn't be able to hear David Firth as the creepy pest control guy. As with most of the game's other flaws and lapses in tone, the overarching vision shines through.
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After finishing it, I was left with a strange feeling of not knowing what to do with myself. I guess I should go and play their earlier game, Downfall.
It won't be for everyone (it has 'cult indie adventure' all over it), but if you're open to adventure games, are intrigued by the dark, moody tone, and wasn't one of the people who complained that The Walking Dead isn't a game - then there's a chance you might be caught by its spell for 8-10 hours, just like I was.
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Maxmillion on 7/6/2014 at 05:49
Holy shit, so I'm not the only one on this board that has played this game. Love it, love it, love it. Excellent writing, and I find the voice acting for all of the important characters to be generally quite good. The protagonist especially. And the puzzles were logical and frustration free for the most part. I only remember one part leaving me baffled for more than a few minutes. Any other game play related frustrations come from the occasional fiddlyness of the controls.
One of the most brilliantly told video game stories I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing. Anyone whose a fan of a emotionally affecting and moving story should give it a go. The best impulse purchase from GOG I have ever made. And a far better five dollars spent than quite a few AAA games from Steam sales or Humble Bundles.
Neb on 7/6/2014 at 18:06
*high five*
I was surprised that the only thing on RPS about it is a short pre-release announcement from 2010, and I also did a TTLG search that turned up nothing. This is one of few games that had me hooked to end, even though the game mechanics bring nothing new to the genre, especially when you look at the way popular adventure games are changing.
The voice acting for the protagonist is good, yeah. My only criticism is that she sounds at least 10 years younger than her character.
Maxmillion on 7/6/2014 at 18:48
Now that you mention it, it does strike me as really odd that RPS didn't cover this more extensively. It would seem to be right up the alley of at least one of the people there.
I think one of the reasons that game is so struck me so much with its quality is that it doesn't just have a good story in terms of plot ideas or characters, but it also tells it so well. And showing the story with competence is something that is far too rare in the gaming world. As any Elder Scrolls game can show, having a deep world with excellent lore and good plot ideas doesn't mean much for the player when the actual experience of the plot beats is done in such a laughably horrible fashion.
The only other games I can really think of that operate in the same league of mechanical story crafting are the unfortunately overlooked Second Sight and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. All three are games that got me involved with the characters, genuinely hooked me in on their respective mysteries and laid out fair and consistent clues before the answer was shown.
Played either of those two? Or other games that you feel have similar storytelling quality?
