The Cat Lady

« A rare creation, a unique study on human behavior that exposes instincts, fears, desires that most of us would not even care to admit to ourselves. [February 2013] »

« Mature, gory and moody. This game from UK based developer Harvester Games is one of the best surprises we've had in a long time! »

« The Cat Lady is simply one of the most beautiful horror adventure out there, something that goes beyond a videogame and yet a work of art that only a videogame could have delivered. »

« As long as you're not totally put off by the art design, there's no reason to not play The Cat Lady. It is not only one of the best games of the year, it's one of the best horror adventures out there. »

« It's rare to find a game that deals with topics like depression in such a mature way. If you want to experience an experimental artistic adventure, you're in for a journey you won't easily forget. »

« A deep, scary, fascinating adventure with a mind-blowing story, a great acting and a positive utilization of soundtrack; still, there are some little flaws in the plot, and the gameplay is quite classic. Anyway, long story short: this is a hell of a game. »

« The Cat Lady could be defined as a “non game”: it’s a beautiful, sad picture of our lives. Maybe one of the most interesting horror adventures around. »

« The Cat Lady offers a unique and deviated world and a setting full of horror and despair, although the keyboard controls and an excessive backtracking remain flaws to be reckoned with. »

« Have you ever held a game so close to your heart that you can't bear to read negative reviews on it? I'm not going to be the person who says "This game saved my life!", but I will say The Cat Lady did a lot for me. I was 11 or 12 when I first watched a playthrough of this game. For the most part I was much too young to really understand the subtleties and overarching messages, but by that age I was already struggling with my mental health. I won't get into details, but I was already extremely depressed and deeply contemplating taking my own life. I vividly remember watching the early part of The Cat Lady, where Susan wakes up in the afterlife and meets the Queen of Maggots, and it shook me to my core. It scared me. It was the first time I'd been faced with the concept of suicide meaning I'd wake up somewhere bleak and terrifying and sinister and revolting, that it wouldn't be an escape to somewhere peaceful and relieving at all. I couldn't get it out of my head, couldn't stop thinking about the possibility of something like that being real - I was a kid with a very overactive imagination who often had night terrors at the slightest glimpse of a Scary Thing or piece of media, and my brain took this and ran with it. And I was too scared to go through with it. I was, unironically, too scared to risk meeting this maggot lady. And, God, was I mad at this game. I hated it. I was so incredibly angry that it had scared me away from what I'd been viewing as a solution. If I just hadn't watched it, if I just hadn't experienced this story, I would've been able to do it. My memory of it and my fear faded over the years, and I would go on to indeed attempt suicide several times. The last time would be the worst, and I ended up in intensive care for two weeks with doctors trying to save my internal organs from shutting down. And then I came out the other side. That was two years ago now, and I can now say with full honesty I don't want to die anymore. In fact, sometimes I'm even brave enough to call myself happy. I'm engaged to a wonderful fiancee, I have a solid support network of amazing friends who care about me, my confidence is growing, and I'm proud of who I've become and am becoming. And so I played this game again. The Cat Lady is heavy on the heart. It's not a light game you can play on stream, or sink into to take your mind off reality. It's a visceral and real look into the psyche of a depressed, bitterly suicidal woman, and it doesn't make her palatable for you. Susan is resentful, she's cynical, she's reclusive and messy and often rude. But her journey, through her mission and her friendship with Mitzi and her backstory unfurling to the player and her love for her cats and her mental health and her path to learn to live again - it's so, so special. It's really something for a game so unabashedly raw and unfiltered to leave you with a sense of genuine hope and optimism and appreciation for life when the credits roll. At 11, I hated The Cat Lady for forcing me to live, and now at almost 24 I love it for being here while I learn to do it myself. It took us 13 years to do it, but Susan and I climbed that insurmountable cliff side by side, and for that I'll always sing this game's praises. »

« I got some really good vibes out of this one and what I mean by good vibes are some horrible depressing and sad which is my jam. So I found it very interesting. The black and white art style that sometimes gets color looks so good and depressing story and storytelling just makes it a mood piece that are telling you to stop playing it but you can't stop because it's so interesting and the characters keep doing depressing things but we want to see it becoming at least a little bit better. I was amazed by the story and sadly it is Made in adventure Games Studio which made it extremely janky and crest many times, so it is enjoyable to play and get through but f****** fights the technical is a mess behind the scenes. It feels like the game is gonna crash any minute. »

« The Cat Lady: Clunky catnip for horror fans The Cat Lady, almost a one-man-project, is not everybody’s cup of tea. There is an easy test. google a screenshot of the game: If the very distinctive style awakens at least a little bit of curiosity in you, you should give the game a try. Don’t be discouraged by the do-it-yourself clunk of the menus or the keyboard-only controls: If you’ve got a taste for weird, horrifying yet uplifting stories, The Cat Lady will be a gaming experience that will stick with you. Just don’t expect a smooth ride. The art can be almost confrontationally ugly at times, the soundscape is rudimentary and low quality, the plot has a few startling dips in quality and coherence, some of them completely unnecessary. All very forgivable sins, especially for a hardcore indie title. Enough grousing, let’s talk about the interesting things The Cat Lady does. For one, while the point-and-click-adventure seems to fit best for the game, there is no pointing or clicking here. The main character is controlled almost as if she were a 2D-platform mascot: She can go left or right, and when she happens to stand at an interaction point, the label of the thing or person she stands near to will be hovering above her head, giving her the opportunity to use it, talk to it, pick it up or rub something out of her inventory against it. That means there is no pixel hunt, no weird positioning hangups. There are also no moon logic puzzles here. To be fair, there are almost no headscratchers, either. The Cat Lady is not a difficult game. Now it’s time for praise: The plot, despite what I’ve written above, is excellent. It’s a lean, mean horror yarn that will have you on the edge of your seat for the entire run time of the game. It tackles some very difficult subjects with astounding grace and success, it will shock you, scare you, make your heart ache and in the end it will hand you a gem of hope that will lift you up like a glorious sunrise after a terrible nightmare. The next thing I need to gush about is the cast. These are clearly not professionals, but they voice their characters with such passion and conviction, that through some awkwardness in the dialogue, the low quality of the recording and some questionable choices the performances gain an authenticity and charm that left me invested in the characters almost immediately and to a profound degree and elevate the whole game to an incredible degree. These are the parts, but the whole is more than their sum. The whole game breathes this flair of grindhouse low budget production, that fits exceedingly well together. The stark and crass imagery, the scratchy, awkward, heartfelt sound and performance, the weird gameplay are maybe just right for a story about a glimmer of hope surviving in an all to real hellscape. TLDR: The Cat Lady is the equivalent of a mean, smart, hard-hitting low budget horror film. For some, it’s a tragedy to miss one of these. You know if you are one of us. Act accordingly. »

« A journey to darkest parts of human mind. Heavy, uneasy but brilliant. I recommend it if you like gloomy stories. »

« A game where you play as a suicidal lady. It has a pretty good story that is told with the dark life perspective this character has. Overall I think it's just a decent game though, this is a low budget game with serious quality issues. »

« DIsturbing and emotional tale about disturbing and emotional... things. Very well written. A great soundtrack. Best than most horror novels. Play it. »

« This game for me is not a game but a form of gaming art. The sign of this is that if you take on its own graphics, gameplay, story or any other part of this game - it is not that great, even shallow sometimes, but all parts as a whole for me is close to masterpiece. Game itself is an adventure with horror elements, some nontrivial (but not very hard) puzzles and very depressive atmosphere. Atmosphere , violence and weirdness of this game have strongly reminded me of old silent hills (before sh4 , anything after this is not silent hill in my humble opinion). Graphics itself is pretty poor, which is obvious since it is indi and very low budget project, but backgrounds are so in sync with atmosphere that it is hardly noticeable. Music is pretty rare but existing pieces are great and unexpected. Story itself is good - it is not with some phenomenal twist or something - it is pretty weird Lynch - like story with some psychological elements but what is really outstanding is not story itself but how it is told. Atmosphere and immersion of this game is top notch - since silent hill 2 i haven't seen such a game with such immersion. It is game when you are not scared from jumpscares but from uneasiness and creepines of surroundings, sounds , etc. All in all it is a great game that can be viewed not as a game but as really atmospheric horror movie with psychological subtext. »

« This is what horror games should be. A dark, mature almost visual-novel-esqe game with a point-and-click format that has almost every type of horror prevalent from Lovecraft-ian imagery to full physiological horror to raw violence. The story is a genuinely mature one with taboo themes like marriages braking down and mindsets of suicidal people that is hard not to appreciate. The game is truly unique. It is one of the few games to have a middle aged women as the protagonist and does not shy away from exploring that. The art style is rough and it really fits the harsh story. It also strays away from using 'horror' as a cheap label that just means 'has monsters' like many other horror games and is about things that are genuinely horrific (but it does include supernatural elements). But all games have their downsides. Some of the choices and puzzles are bordering on random and the best ending is more-or-less impossible without a walk through. But this really is a must play game for any horror fan. »