The Cat Lady

The Cat Lady is one of those unforgettable experiences you’ll encounter in your lifetime. Yes, video games are special, and yes, most games you encounter will leave an impact. But, with The Cat Lady, this game might just leave a dent in your heart. This story is a gripping tale that follows the life of Susan, the neighborhood cat lady. In this tale, you’ll encounter some mystical elements that are pivotal to driving the story forward, however, they don’t really get in the way of The Cat Lady’s message and very real story.

The Cat Lady is one of those video games that plays more like an interactive story. It is a psychological horror video game that was created by Harvester Games, an indie developer. You can find it on PC.

Story

In The Cat Lady, you follow the life of Susan, a Cat Lady that frequently plays the piano for neighborhood cats. She seems to hate flowers and lives a life of solitude. It is evident that Susan struggles with depression from what is established in the early hours of the game. She eventually decides to take her own life, and this is where she encounters the Queen of Maggots, an otherworldly entity that grants her immortality alongside the task to rid the world of five different psychopaths.

As you take on this new mission with Susan, you’ll begin to explore some darker parts of The Cat Lady’s world. From the eerily detestable Doctor X to the grieving Mitzi, the characters in this video game feel like very real people with real problems. Because of this, the subjects that are addressed often feel quite difficult to digest as a player.

In a video game classified as a psychological horror, it does its job a little too well. Unlike most horror games that rely on cheap scares and fear tactics, The Cat Lady tells you as it is. Watching the characters in this game struggle with their mortality makes you ponder on how people often let traumatic events determine the person they’ll become.

By the end of this tale, depending on the choices you made, you’ll generally leave it with a sense of hope, but more so an inner conviction to live out your dreams even with the darker moments we might be destined to face.

This solidifies The Cat Lady’s status as an experience, and not a video game. The Cat Lady isn’t the first video game to achieve this by all means, however, it really drives the message of how impactful the work of independent video game studios can be.

Gameplay

In The Cat Lady, the gameplay and controls are pretty simple to grasp. You only need to use the arrow keys to move around and interact with characters and objects. There are lots of unskippable cinematics that are essential to watch, and pivotal to the story.

Pros

• Great Story
• Impactful Lessons
• Awesome Music

Cons

• Really, really sad