Catwoman review

With Catwoman you expect a combat orientated game but it’s actually more of a platform game. In fact, it’s similar to the Tomb Raider series in that you progress by moving past obstacles with some combat in between. Since Catwoman is endowed with superpowers but Lara Croft is just well endowed, you have some added options like crawling up walls, using your whip to swing with, doing some acrobatic stunts using poles (no, not that kind!) and you are able to survive high falls. Instead of using guns in combat, you use a combination of whip lashes and Capoeira. The game is split up into scenes that follow a story; there’s for example a jewellery store, factory and a mansion that you traverse through while trying to stop the bad guys from putting some kind of skin lotion with nasty side effects on the market. The horror! The story is a bit unclear though, perhaps to avoid spoilers for the movie, perhaps because it’s badly written. In fact the success of the Tomb Raider series was largely due to a good story and fun gameplay, both of which are lacking here.

Cat control

One of the first things you notice is the lack of camera control. The camera goes for the cinematic angles which is more useful for survival horror games and not a platform game. This creates some annoying situations because of items blocking your line of view and the dark setting of the game. It’s not uncommon that you have to take leaps of faith which often results in a nasty fall. You can however go into a so-called “hunting mode” where you can’t move but you can control where you look. This is not as helpful as it sounds since it zooms too often into interactive things without you having any control and the view is filled with a green cat’s eye background (you know, so you don’t forget you are using cat senses). You are also unable to use the hunting mode while you are climbing a wire mesh or swinging on a pole.

The controls are also a tough beast to master on the PS2 since you have to get familiar with using the whip, jumping, climbing, fighting, evading, doing special moves and so on. They’re not badly done per se but take some time to learn.

Curiosity killed the cat

Replay value was obviously a focus factor. In order to get a perfect objective score for a scene Catwoman has to do a certain amount of moves. These moves (or move sequences) can be anything from getting past obstacles in a short amount of time (this is called the “alley cat” move) to scaring a security guard (yep, that would be the “scaredy cat” move). Incidentally, being cool is very important for Catwoman because her life depends on it! Her lifepoints are represented by a domination meter, if she does something impressive like kicking a guard repeatedly she gains dominance but when she loses her cool, i.e. gets damaged, she loses dominance. Despite the combat this game is not true to the comic book style of violence of proper superoheroes. Your enemies end up fleeing through an exit (or getting kicked to an exit by you) after some fighting. They can even fall down from great heights only to sit up groggily right after.

Diamonds are a girl’s best friend

There is a reason you go the extra distance to get a decent score for a scene, the points are changed into diamonds that are used to buy skills. These skills are mostly for combat, for example being able to disarm guards, striking a seductive pose to leave the guards drooling and helpless and even being able to see through walls. These skills are not really needed though since combat is easy, but they allow you to toy with enemies even more. It’s interesting though that you have to buy the pussycat skill to be able to get a perfect objective score on most scenes, I guess they wanted to make sure that we would see Catwoman do her little semi striptease moves (which are more weird than sexy actually). Another interesting combat skill is a version of Max Payne’s bullet time, where if you have a full domination meter you can go into slow motion. The catch is that while you are in domination mode it drains your meter (and thereby your life) and due to that reason and the easy combat, it’s hardly ever useful.

Now I know some of you are thinking “So, where do the nine lives enter into the game? You can’t pass up on a cliché like that in a cat game can you?” Well, in each scene (after you find him for the first time) there is a cat called Midnight hidden behind a panel somewhere. Find him and you get nine lives, otherwise you’re just stuck with the one.

The vet speaks

The game is well designed visually, as you would expect from EA, the artwork is good throughout and the game looks nice. Catwoman herself looks fine and many of her moves are impressive. However, and this is a big however, the story sucks and the gameplay does not do the game justice. There is a very steep learning curve which can be manageable by itself but the initial scenes are also difficult and any mistakes you make are unforgiving. The scenes are designed in such a way that you are usually moving upwards, which is often a slow and linear progress. Then you fall right back to where you started ...again ... and again. I’m not saying that games of this type should be easy but all these factors (steep learning curve, difficult initial scenes, adjusting to the controls, difficult camera, little room for mistakes) makes for an unpleasant exercise in frustration instead of fun. The good news is that if you are masochistic enough you will get better and the game will become a little more enjoyable but the frustration factors will still be there throughout.

The game further illustrates the fact that voice acting for a computer game is different from movie acting. Even though most of the movie cast reprise their roles everyone comes across as wooden and half asleep - why is good voice acting still so rare? It’s not all the actors fault though; the dialogue and the one-liners are simply inane. This and other aspects give you the feeling that the game was rushed out in time for the movie. (Not sure what the movie’s excuse for being crap was though. – ed.)