Some story elements here were wonky. The opening with the Queen of Maggots misdirected to what the story would be like and what the focus would be on. Other elements of the story are so surreal I have to wonder if they're metaphorical or in the character's head so the extended opening set me up for the wrong expectations.

Judging this story's portrayal of depression is hard because I didn't get a strong essence of what Susan's problems are really like aside from she's lonely and traumatized. As a series of vignettes about sadism and horror– this game works very well. I like the aesthetics and thought that the dour environments were very realized.

I also like the simple controls and presentation. Using the keyboard exclusively– a handful of keys– worked well with the game's stripped down attire. The music could be a little goofy but it was mostly excellent taking from a broad handful of genres.

I've been marathoning a video games podcast and when I got to their episode of The Cat Lady, I decided to check the game as I have heard a lot of good things here and coming away from it, even if I had played more titles this October, I can't imagine me any other potential game giving a more affecting horror experience.

What a fucking game. It was definitely a lot darker and grittier than the other pieces of media I was consuming at the time, but man if it wasn't utterly captivating.

I think I can attribute my understanding of my own struggles with mental health to Susan, actually. She begins the game in a horrid state: cynical and depressed. Life has dealt her shitty hand after shitty hand and she is all the more bitter for it. As she encounters the absolute worst that humanity has to offer, it'd be easy for her to spiral even deeper into her cynicism.

But this doesn't happen. Quite the opposite, in fact. And it's in that juxtaposition between grimdark and the very human interactions between Mitzi and Susan, as well as all the minor NPCs that Susan helps along the way that Susan's character really shines. Why is it that so many of us continue living on even when life seemingly does everything it can to ruin us?

For Susan (and for me, as I eventually grew to understand) it's the few relationships we cherish that gave her hope. She wants to help people. She wants to be a positive force in people's lives so that they don't have to suffer as she did. And that is a sentiment that deeply resonated with me.

Great game with a distinct, and stunning visual style that hasn't left me nearly a decade later.

This is one of those rare games I felt was completely perfect for what it was. The pacing alternates smoothly between the slow, melancholy exhaustion of depression to the adrenaline spike of desperate fighting for survival; it manages to deliver very effective creeping horror (which the art style is FANTASTIC at) as well as an honest, raw depiction of depression and suicide, and succeeded fantastically on both sides. This is a very Heavy story, but somehow it didn't feel depressing, to me - it's not sad for the sake of sad, or dark only for the shock value. It's Mitzi's gallows humor and her determination to use what's left of her cut-short life for what's still important to her, it's Susan's quiet strength in the face of tragedy and horror, it's the catharsis of facing that pain head on and feeling it, accepting it, and using it to claw your way back out of the grave to seek vengeance on your cat-killing neighbors. wait

my point is this game is really good and I understand how the tone and sometimes slower pace might not have worked for everyone, but I feel like it resonated a lot with me.

Nejdospělejší titul jaký jsem dosud hrál. A zároveň i ten nejdepresivnější, nejvíce psycho(logický), zdaleka nejlépe napsaný a to především během lahůdkových dialogů. Není moc her (a ostatně ani filmů), kde by dialogy působily jako skutečné rozhovory.

Že především na indie herní scéně vznikají v posledních letech tituly, které se nebojí dělat věci po svém jeden tak nějak očekává. Že vzhledem k minimu prostředků se snaží udělat z nouze ctnost též, ale že se skrze toho dosáhne nefalšovaného artu (kdybyste mermomocí chtěli přirovnání tak jde o specifický mix starého dobrého Kinga, Lynche, Refna, Davea McKeana a Bena Wheatleyho) , který má co říci jak po umělecké, tak i herní stránce, tak toho bych nenadál. Vizuální stylizace je ve vší své černobílé znepokojivosti nádherná, dabing je prožitý jako žádný jiný (a to dabovat čtyřicetiletou šáhlou ženu bez sebemenší ochoty dále žít, tak aby nepůsobila jako parodie sebe sama, není žádný lehký oříšek) a tak nějak prostě není co kritizovat.

A o čem to je? Byla by škoda cokoli vyzradit, ale když to chcete vědět, tak je to o marastu v našich životech a odvrácené stránce našeho pokolení formou psychologického horroru. Že jsem doposud nezmínil nic o hře jako takové? Pravda pravda, no tak vězte, že jde o adventuru, která si sice vystačí pouze se směrovými šipkami a enterem a přesto se v každé ze sedmi kapitol hraje zcela jinak a jde v ní o něco jiného. Zároveň jde o adventuru, která nabízí možnosti volby a díky omezenému prostoru i minimu předmětů je za každých okolností přísně logická, ale rozhodně ne lehká; umí potrápit, ale nikdy se to nezvrhne v „použij vše na vše a doufej, že se něco ujme“.

Catwoman, ehm... Cat Lady není příjemný zážitek, ale je to sakra silný a působivý zážitek, ze kterého jsem stejnou měrou psychicky vyšťaven jako naprosto nepokrytě nadšen.

I really enjoyed this game overall, even though I think it started stronger than it finished. It does both surreal themes and more grounded point and click puzzle gameplay really well. Ch 6 is a big highlight, as exploring the whole apt building with this mystery as the motive was very fun and interesting. Early chapters like 1/2/3 feel a lot different, less grounded and more avant-garde. You don't really know what's going on, you're trying to understand who you are and what is actually real. I think both of these styles of storytelling work well, and mesh well for the most part too. Some parts of the dialogue do tend to drag, and the ending felt a bit... disappointing? Not for the reasons why the game tells you it should be, but just that overall it feels a bit rushed and contrived. There is a lot of build up and then the ending happens, and then there's a time skip and some exposition that feels necessary... but it also leaves you with the feeling that you missed out on something more emotionally impactful.

I will also say this game would have definitely appealed to me more as a teen, just bc the themes are a bit early-2010s edgy lmao. It gets mildly cringe at moments because of this, its... just a bit too earnestly emo lmaoooo. But so am I, so 🤪 it was giving "fuck the world" teen vibes for sureeee

Also I have to note that there was a long, drawn out moment of ableism, which was very uncomfortable but also tracks with the release year and also the edgy teen humor vibes. Very unexpected and icky, although I understand the context of when this game was made. Mayyybe doesn't track with modern sentiments tho

Overall this is a fantastic game that I enjoyed playing, even with all the jank. I will say though it feels very of its time (or even earlier than its time) and was hard for my modern computer to run. The biggest issue was that alt-tabbing caused crashes. But that was my only annoyance.