Atlus has done it again! Catherine is a psychological horror puzzle adventure that delves into the mind of Vincent Brooks, a thirty something engineer who struggles with infidelity, alcoholism, and horrific nightmares. You control Vincent in and out of his head as he struggles with cheating on his girlfriend, Katherine of five years with a young vixen named.....Catherine (see the problem here?).

 The story is at your control with every text message you send to Katherine and Catherine, you can change the fate of the various people at the bar, The Lost Sheep, which Vincent frequents. The game utilizes the Gamebryo engine with HiDef picture and swapping between anime and 3D animation during the story.

The gameplay portion of this thought provoking adventure takes place during Vincent's nightmare. Each night he goes to bed, he has the same nightmare: he's a sheep that has to climb walls of cubes from one point to another without falling or becoming the dinner for the various monster bosses in each of the 8 levels.

The soundtrack is among my favorites amidst great video game soundtracks. Like the game itself, the soundtrack is unique, including arrangements of classical greats. Atlus soundtrack guru Shoji Meguro composed the music and arranged much like the Persona soundtracks with continuous, loop-styled themes. In the special pre-order edition, he arranged the works of Chopin, Beethoven, Bizet and Mussorgsky, among others, to fit the mood of each different stage and situation in the game.

Atlus is renowned for their extreme difficulty, and Catherine is no stranger to that. The game is based on logic on which is the best way to get from point A to point B based on the hand you're dealt, however, the lowest row falls after a small amount of time, thus adding to the stress of getting to the top. There are various types of blocks that hinder or help your progress and you can buy a few items to help you in your adventure.

The beauty of this game lies within the story. There is no other game, to my recent knowledge, out there quite like Catherine. Normally, video game stories lie within a fair maiden caught by a devious villain, or a heroic soldier saving his platoon, or a fanciful creature out to find his friends. Instead, Catherine is about cheating and the psychological effects therein. I'm not gonna spoil anything, but the twists in this game are the best part. Instead of a nearly invincible hero, the protagonist is a wishy-washy borderline alcoholic who can't decide what he wants out of his life (which is where you come in.)

Overall, this game has nine different endings, all of which are within your control based on your decision. Throughout the game, you are asked questions. Deep, thought provoking, almost provoactive taboo questions, and you must decide between two answers, and your answer affects your karma and thus affects the outcome of the overall story.

This game is seriously one of the best, most unique, addictive games out there, and has constant replayability even if you unlock each of the 9 endings. There's a challenging “Babel” mode that involves a seemingly neverending tower of cubes that you must traverse for a high score. There's a smaller arcade game in the bar called Rapunzel that parallels the gameplay and has 64 challenging levels with an “interesting twist” within, according to the game.

I definitely suggest this game to any Atlus fanatic, or anyone who likes addictive and challenging puzzles.