The Cat Lady Demo

Horror games need a good story in order to inspire fear into the players, because simple jump scares won’t cut it with hardened fans of the genre. Intrigue and mystery are what keeps the fear alive, which is why the formula works best when you do not really know what you are up against and every encounter is an adventure into the unknown.

The Cat Lady is a 2D adventure game with a horror theme which has a rather different approach on the subject, given the strange way the story is presented and how everything blends together. Although it starts in a rather innocent manner, things quickly get out of hand and you find yourself in a weird landscape, with barely any explanations as to why you happen to be there.

Story-wise, you play as a woman who goes searching for her cat into someone’s apartment, only to fall into a hole in the floor and wake up into a different world. Disturbed things start happening to her down here, such as the fact that she appears to be in some sort of hotel from where there is no way out, which is also inhabited by a couple. Strange noises, paranormal events, and many other such occurrences make up the rest of the story, which is quite interesting.

As far as the gameplay is concerned, the mechanics are about as straightforward as they can be, which means that all you have to do is move around and interact with various objects/characters. In order to do that, you can make use of the the directional keys on your keyboard, or the enter key whenever you need to activate a specific item, or access your inventory.

Visually, the pre-rendered environments are masterfully done, with an emphasis on creepy level design and brilliant artwork. It would have been much more interesting if the perspective wasn’t so flat, but with a bit of imagination and a lot of patience, you can certainly get over it and have a great time even so.

All things considered, The Cat Lady has a few flaws that might make you think twice before giving it a chance, but once you do, you certainly won’t be too disappointed. The story and the artwork alone are worth your time, if only to marvel at the strangeness of it all.