The Cat Lady is almost a year old, but I hadn’t heard of it before. It was a Christmas present from a friend, based on two things I love: cats and videogames. When I saw this title in my email with a Steam gift note, I thought it was going to be something cute and fluffy. I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I started playing it, and I don’t think neither did he when he chose it based on name alone. But I don’t regret this experience once bit.
The Cat Lady tells the story of Susan Ashworth. She lives alone with only stray cats as her friends. They come when she plays the piano. Other than that, Susan finds that she has nothing to live for, so one day she decides to put an end to her depression by taking a bunch of pills and welcoming death.
Death isn’t exactly what Susan expected though. She wakes up in a field and meets an old lady who tells her that she can’t die yet and must go back to face the “five parasites”. Leaving this sort of limbo will cost Susan just a little bit of blood… and this is where the game actually shocked me for the first time.
For an adventure game, it was a bit strange not using a point and click system to navigate through The Cat Lady. You move with the arrow keys, and if there is something to interact with in the scenery, an arrow will appear. Press the direction of the arrow to be presented with options. There is an inventory, but you can’t combine items in it, only use them in specific spots.
Nothing is quite as it seems in The Cat Lady. Susan’s life becomes stranger and stranger, with a series of bizarre events happening all around her. Get used to the idea of death and dying, as the game revolves around them. Susan is now in charge of finding and getting rid of the five “parasites”, psychopaths who prey on the innocent. Maybe saving some lives can give Susan’s life some meaning again.
These predators are monsters in human form, and Susan’s only hint is that she will know them once she meets them. Her gift is immortality, so even if she dies, she will come back to finish her task. Soon enough, killing an evil character who represents everything that is wrong is just part of her day, and we see Susan finding courage and motivation where there was none. The evolution from confused mental patient to vigilante is an interesting journey, especially after Susan finds a friend in Mitzi, her newly found roommate.
As for technicalities, there was a portion of the third chapter where everything slowed down to a crawl. The sounds weren’t even synchronized with the image, and it was nearly impossible to play. Persistence dictated I got through it though, by keeping my finger pressed in the direction Susan was supposed to walk… Other than that, the only thing I wish I could do is delete and rename saved game files.
The Cat Lady is like nothing I’ve ever played before. The artwork is strange and unusual, the adventure gameplay is familiar but the controls are not your usual point and click. The music fits the bill and the voice acting is quite good, but some of the sounds seemed a bit off. The story… well, that’s really up to you to decide. It’s a bit like mixing Twin Peaks with Silent Hill, surreal and disconcerting, but not necessarily scary.
I must say that a couple of chapters in, being stuck for about 15 minutes watching Susan have some sort of nervous breakdown made me depressed, and I was in pretty good spirits before I started playing. I actually had to stop and continue playing some days later, because the entire thing was so sad and completely bringing me down. Watching someone having a nervous breakdown, even if it is a fictitious character, gave me an entirely new perspective as to how people may have seen me years ago, when I also experienced one due to stress.
The Cat Lady is an unusual game populated by strange riddles and intense emotions, something that is certainly not for everyone. It’s a game that will haunt you long after you are done playing it. It is both disturbing and depressing, but also beautiful and mesmerizing, in its own way, much like a surrealist work of art. If you are looking for something different with a more mature theme, you will find that The Cat Lady is anything but cute and fluffy.
