The Cat Lady follows Susan Ashworth, a lonely 40-year old on the verge of suicide. She has no family, no friends and no hope for a better future. One day she discovers that five strangers will come along and change everything...
I've never liked cats and much prefer dogs instead, but personal bias and semantics are about all I can throw at this game.
"The Cat Lady" is, at heart, a point and click adventure game, with a a few good lashings of horror thrown in for measure. Although an atypical keyboard-only control system is used, this game subscribes to the familiar "gather items, solve puzzles, advance story" routine. Not that this is a bad routine when used to tell a powerful and immersive story, and that is exactly what the folks at Screen 7 & Harvester Games have managed to achieve.
The story that this game tells is dark, and make no mistake - it is definitely NOT for the faint of heart. However, beyond the shocks, thrills and unsettling eerieness that seeps out of every Dali-inspired pixel, there is a delicate thread exploring the dark recesses of our protagonist, Susan Ashworth's world. The pacing and delivery of the story is pitch-perfect: to my mind, there were no unnecessary loose ends and nothing felt rushed, yet I was always eager to learn more. Sparing the dayjob, I was not able to put "The Cat Lady" down!
But a good plot is nothing without a sense of immersion. Why do I want to know what happens next if I don't care? Fortunately, the characters in this "Blue Cup Noire" are developed well and evoke strong feelings in the player. Even, if the connection was one of revulsion, I still felt something from and for every one of the games cast. In part, I can say this is due to the voice-acting, with a noteworthy performance by Lynsey Frost as Susan. The soundtrack also plays a strong hand, supporting and creating the wide palette of moods evoked throughout.
The only thing that may leave players dissatified is the difficulty of the puzzles and that at times it plays more like an interactive story. I was rarely stumped by "The Cat Lady", but this was a minor concern compared to the emotional and psychological impact it delivered. For £6.99 it would be (and is) wrong to pass this