The Cat Lady

[h1] This game will haunt you like The Cat Widow [/h1] I once again might have judged a book by its cover by emphasizing the odd sound effects and unassuming aesthetic choice by the developers and almost missing out on a small gem of a story that will surely remain with you long after putting the game down. While not particularly impressive in the aforementioned aspects, The Cat Lady manages to dig its psychological claws deep into your mind. At its core, The Cat Lady is a narrative-driven horror point-and-click game (with no actual point-and-click) that consists of linear progression, small exploratory areas, minimal gameplay, light problem-solving and scary imagery. There are no enemies to deal with since the main focus is the heartfelt depiction of Susan's mental health struggles and the completion of an important objective that stretches beyond the realm of mortals. As someone who's into psychology, I found the character development aspect and the portrayal of severe depression very interesting and believable. Despite the bleak environment and downright horrifying gameplay events, there is an underlying message of hope and resilience in the face of hardship. I was in awe at how touchingly human yet badass Susan was at times - it goes to show how multilayered one's personhood can be, something I often see overlooked in video games. I will definitely recommend this game to almost anyone - cat and dog people alike - with the exception of those who suffer from serious depression, anxiety or trauma because The Cat Lady actually includes some triggering content. I rarely add a warning to the end of a review, but some of the darker themes can be quite hard to handle in a volatile mood. [b]Graphics[/b] ☐ Stunning ☐ Beautiful ☐ Good ☑ Decent ☐ Jumble of pixels [b]Gameplay[/b] ☐ Super fun ☐ Enjoyable ☑ Normal ☐ Boring ☐ Don’t fall asleep [b]Audio[/b] ☐ Eargasm ☐ Amazing ☐ Good ☑ Not horrible ☐ Better without headphones [b]PC Requirements[/b] ☑ Potato ☐ Medium ☐ Fast ☐ Ask NASA for a spare computer [b]Difficulty[/b] ☐ Piece of cake ☑ Easy ☐ Average ☐ Difficult ☐ Very difficult [b]Story[/b] ☐ No story ☐ Some lore ☐ Average ☐ Good ☑ Masterpiece [b]Length[/b] ☐ Super short (0-2 h) ☐ Short (2-6 h) ☑ Average (6-10 h) ☐ Long (10+) ☐ Endless [b]Price[/b] ☐ Free ☑ Worth the price ☐ Buy it on sale ☐ If you have extra money ☐ Not recommended [b]Bugs[/b] ☐ No ☑ Minor ☐ Annoying ☐ Too much ☐ The game itself is a bug [b]Replayability[/b] ☐ No replay value ☑ Maybe once ☐ Multiple times ☐ Infinite replayability Scariness ☐ Try not to yawn ☑ Has its moments ☐ Very scary/tense ☐ Nightmare [h1]8/10[/h1]

The visuals are grimy, and there are many great gameplay design choices that use the limitations of the gameplay to their advantage in a horror sense. Empathetic depiction of mental illness in the main character. Very interesting art direction, memorable story. It's one of those games that can be oddly comforting to the disturbed.

Man, what a great game. If you like point and click games and mature themes in games this is right up your alley. It is a little bit outdated when it comes to controls and UI but you will get used to it in an hour or so. Please give it a try past the first chapter as it is kind of a slow-burner but when you play through the second chapter you will be hooked for sure and it is only upwards from there. Music is amazing, you get songs at the end of chapters like in Alan Wake 2 and it is freaking awesome. Dialogues are witty and well written, VOs are quite good as well despite being all over the place when it comes to audio quality :) Cannot recommend it enough, Strong 9/10