The Haunted Hoard: The Cat Lady (PC)
The Cat Lady is an ambitious game that sets out to explore some incredibly heavy subject matter, a fact that becomes immediately apparent as the game begins with our main character Susan Ashworth attempting to take her own life. This isn’t just a dramatic opening meant to hook potential players with a whammy of an opening scene though. The Cat Lady’s core narrative is about exploring this woman’s life after an attempted suicide, exploring her depression in a surprisingly tasteful and realistic manner that is given the room it needs to be thoroughly related in-depth.
Even for someone who has not experienced clinical depression personally, Susan’s tale is an understandable one as we ride along as the person in charge of her actions and choices. We are able to see how people treat the character in a certain manner once they know about her psychological state and face the same hurdles Susan does as the behavior of others is influenced by Susan’s drastic action. It is not a game that tries to shy away from the many ways that depression and suicide are treated in society, and while it can’t cover the full breadth of it of course, we see many different perspectives on it. The Cat Lady has Susan interact with other people dealing with their own heavy emotional issues that paint pictures different than her own, the mental illness of depression magnified for close consideration. Susan herself has become almost lethargic in the bubble of diminished self-worth she’s created for herself, but she encounters people who have successfully masked their underlying issues or deal with it in entirely different manners than her, not all of them healthy. There are people in this story who glorify the route of suicide, and people whose attempts to discourage it end up hurting the individual they’re trying to help by restricting the agency of the person at risk. There are definitely people trying to approach the topic in the proper way as well, but by not ignoring the many distorted views society has built up around the misunderstood disorder of depression and the complex topic of suicide allows the topics to share the same space rather than being dismissed with good intentions of trying to avoid a hurtful idea reaching vulnerable ears. By tying it all into a narrative where the central character is also essentially battling with these mindsets in her own recovery, the game is able to tackle these various mindsets and draw some attention to every aspect of the subject before going through and sorting them out in real time with an evolving plot rather than dismissing them outright for potentially being harmful to a real person.
Susan’s story is primarily a character piece that chronicles how her depression evolves in her life after the attempt to kill herself, but it has an interesting secondary layer that takes what could otherwise be just an exploration of a complex subject and gives it a companion narrative that might read strangely on first blush. When Susan dies at the start of the game, she is taken to a world between life and death, where a powerful and supernatural old woman has decided to make Susan her agent in the world of the living, tasking her with ending the lives of five absolutely despicable unknown people referred to as Parasites. The Parasites are deeply disturbed individuals without realistic psychoses, being more the monsters found in graphic horror movies who exist to make others suffer, and while at first this contradicts what could be a grounded tale of one woman’s attempt to overcome her suffering, this supernatural task is yet another approach to the grander topic of the game. Susan Ashworth is given a task from a higher power that is undeniably for the betterment of the world, the kind of quest heroes might be given, but it comes from a flawed understanding of Susan’s mindset. Here, the belief that someone who does not value their own life would be able to find purpose in it if they are given tasks of undeniable value is brought into question, because even as Susan deals with the Parasites, her own life is not shifted away from its current course by the action. Susan is not detached from this goal, but it is not one that is fulfilling for her, and to set her on the right path involves not doing this task of importance that is assigned through societal definitions but through working on her own personal problems and mindset.
It might seem like that a game that not only has depression and suicide at its core but supplements it with a task of ridding the world of human filth might be an incredibly overbearing and bleak title, and it is true that The Cat Lady is not afraid to tap into the deep lows of human emotion. However, it actually manages to balance that somewhat with moments of believable light-heartedness, as life is not truly steeped in the dreary glum of dark subjects. While the game does devote the proper time to fleshing out the moments it tackles the main topics, there are breaks in between where there is room for humor, and when Susan meets a young woman named Mitzi, the two establish a charming repartee. As they grow more accustomed to each other, jovial jabs and silly quips begin to eke their way into their topics naturally, and on the whole, the game manages to nail realistic dialogue excellently. A few voice actors aren’t quite the best, but the writing carries even the worst cases of bad voice acting. There is a considerable amount of talking in the game, but characters have distinct mannerisms and well-constructed personalities. People try to approach subjects with tact or blurt things out, they react appropriately to extreme or unusual situations, and emotional highs and lows are delivered with the proper level of disruption to the typical behavior of the individual. The search for the Parasites has its tension heightened by this, as the Parasites are drawn naturally towards her by her new role in the world but all of them have found some manner to escape detection in society. Susan is not actively seeking them, but it makes her suspicious of anyone new she encounters and also adds a layer of paranoia to explore as even people trying to help her might be branded as suspicious. By making the player just as skeptical as the character about the intentions of strangers, The Cat Lady further pushes you into that mindset, but this is not a story without hope. In fact, no matter which ending you get, it is a plot that works towards a proper conclusion, one that can be bittersweet, but one that isn’t aiming just to make the player feel miserable for coming along for the journey. Susan’s mental well-being is something the game wants you to want to improve as much as she does, and it doesn’t toss out that idea just to make some statement.
Despite the care and attention put into this narrative and handling the subject appropriately, The Cat Lady is quite indulgent when it comes to its moments of horror. The moments spent with Parasites are a deep plunge into a pool of depravity, with the game unafraid of showing the grotesqueries their sadistic mindsets have created. If anything, the game sometimes does the complete opposite of discretion, zooming in hard on a disturbing image to nail in that what is going on in that scene is not pretty in the slightest. Perhaps one of the most unsettling things is the constant authentic sounding screams of a woman in peril at one portion of the game, something that might cut through the thick skin that could otherwise weather the scenes of mutilation. These extreme moments are not used lightly though, with most of the horror indulging in more atmospheric decisions like the choice of color use in a scene or supernatural situations tied to distorted flashbacks or Susan’s otherworldly goal. Much like the general tone of the game, the more pronounced moments of body horror are saved for moments where they are effective rather than overwhelming the experience, meaning that the player should be able to stomach the visits to these darker moments.
Perhaps the most surprising thing about The Cat Lady is that, on top of its excellent work in exploring a delicate subject and tying together a more traditional narrative to follow with that more emotional one, it’s actually got a good adventure game underneath all that. Susan will end up in a situation where she needs to overcome it through clever thinking, the player guiding her to talk to characters and choose her words for the conversations as well as looking around the environment for objects that can help her overcome whatever obstacles, whether they be life-threatening or mundane, impede her from making progress. Impressively, both halves of the game’s narrative work together to make situations for Susan to work her way out of. Her chronic depression leads her to being kept in a hospital for her own safety, but her desire to leave inspires her to try and work away around the hospital staff to do so with whatever is on hand and some clever talking. When it comes to the task of the Parasites, Susan might find herself held captive by one of them, and then her skills of making items around her useful now becomes involved in freeing herself and taking down the depraved individual. The interactive puzzles here are tightly designed and are mostly logical extensions of the options you have available in your current situation, with perhaps only a small mirror puzzle feeling a bit unnatural. Even when she’s standing in a supernatural setting, the path forward usually comes pretty naturally with what’s on hand since you are not given anything that has no purpose. Every item that enters your inventory has a use save an odd exception that ties into a narrative deviation made to build some connective tissue between The Cat Lady and the creator’s other title, Downfall. Otherwise, most of the game feels coherently connected and if you can interact with an object or pick it up, it has some purpose to your goal, even if it’s only an alternative to another solution.
There are some particularly inspired moments of the gameplay being designed to help you better understand Susan’s mindset, of which I’ll share two prominent examples. The first is one done during Susan’s mandatory psychological evaluation, where the doctor asks her questions about her past, her parents, and how she grew up. Oddly enough, the player, despite not knowing much about Susan’s history at this point, has full control of these elements, essentially constructing a multiple choice past that quickly makes something apparent. These details the psychiatrist is asking for are irrelevant to how Susan ended up here, and not only that, but she is not taking this evaluation as seriously as she should, seeing it as a road bump to overcome rather than the source of aid it could be, a mindset that isn’t altogether rare in real life. To better understand just how depression impacts Susan’s life though, one chapter almost focuses exclusively on trying to complete some simple chores around the house. Your tasks are as simple as taking a shower, making food, and feeding the cats that give this game its title, but there are two meters that appear on the screen, one measuring stress and the other relaxation. Certain tasks going even slightly wrong can upset the stress meter, and your efforts to make her feel better by feeding relaxation don’t make the stress subside. Many of the stressful moments are completely unavoidable and out of your hands, just like how negative moments in life can strike an individual despite their best efforts. It is not impossible to come out on top in this chapter, but it is difficult, just like the daily struggle of the woman we’re getting to know and sympathize with.
The construction of this game’s narrative is stellar, but if an issue had to be identified with the game as a whole, it would be some of the quirks to its visual design. The backgrounds are actually quite detailed and do an excellent job of supporting the tone of whatever scene takes place in them, but the characters don’t come out quite as well. The entire game has a bit of a grungy look to it, but the characters can be a bit muddied in design, almost like they were sketches that were meant to be smoothed out later but it never happened. This does give the game a distinct visual identity and these rough designs do well when paired with the general tone of the game, but they aren’t animated very well. On the whole, body movements make the characters look like they’re made of individual strips of paper held together by brass fasteners that give them a small range of movement. Joints in the character models are apparent in motion and talking often comes with mouth flapping and head bobbing instead of a greater emotional range of head movement, but dialogue and actions are relying more on their meaning and importance than the visual representation, so it’s more an area that could use work rather than one that ruins the experience. Oddities like the characters becoming blurry when they face the camera of course could be ironed out as well, but along with some strong musical accompaniment, the more impactful images do their job right.
THE VERDICT: The Cat Lady is an expert mix of three seemingly disparate parts into an effective and emotionally resonant narrative that explores the topic of depression without any fear. The main thread of the experience is the exploration of Susan’s mental state and by making it an interactive adventure game, The Cat Lady allows the player to experience some of the effects of the depression by making it the source of many of the obstacles you need to work your way out of as a player through inventory puzzles and dialogue trees. For players looking for a more traditional narrative on top of it, the game also includes the goal of taking down the five disturbed individuals known as Parasites, which sparks forward progression while also setting up situations for the personal growth of the main character in a natural manner despite how much the supernatural comes into play as well. With stellar writing, a meaningful narrative that knows when to go in hard and when to pull back for levity, and the adventure game angle ensuring it’s all still enjoyable to play, The Cat Lady constructs a complete package with a lot to say and interesting ways to make the player receptive to listening.
And so, I give The Cat Lady for PC…
A FANTASTIC rating. Like any form of media, video games should not be afraid to tackle the tough subjects of the human condition, and The Cat Lady is an excellent example of how games can not only explore a serious topic in-depth and do so tastefully, but they can do so while still having a traditional narrative to follow and gameplay challenges that can actually improve the concept being explored. The Cat Lady puts its thoughts out there for consideration and brings in many aspects of the subject matter that help to make it a full-bodied look at depression through the lens of a character the player controls. It leaves room for interpretation for those who engage in the story more deeply, but even a casual player can see the broader concepts at play as well as being able to relate to and find fulfillment in the basic structure of the plot. While many adventure games make their inventory puzzles string together humor, The Cat Lady taps into horror, sometimes using the kind that affects us all, but also looking deeply at the real issues of the mind that are perhaps more truly terrifying.
The Cat Lady has a powerful story about life after attempted suicide while also introducing supernatural situations and logic puzzles into it to make a fuller experience. It is a story meant to be played, one that can make points about serious issues without it devolving into a disguised lecture on psychology and ethics. Mixing drama, horror, and a bit of levity that punches through both makes Susan’s new life a fuller experience, with her personal tale able to do a lot more because of how the different pieces combine into a cohesive whole to enhance its storytelling.