Here are some of the reasons why Catwoman is an awful game. It has become a well known fact in the media recently that the movie, Catwoman is unbelivably diabolical - even with Halle Berry in leather. So can the pint sized Oscar winner and sexiest woman in the world cut it in the world of video games? As if. Think of all the things that made Catwoman the film terrible in the first place.... 1) The carpet dialogue. 2) Entirely pointless, no direction or any inspiration to watch. 3) Laughable attempt of action sequences. 4) Lame characters with cliche personalities. 5) The casting of Halle Berry. 6) Catwoman's suit (and all because Berry couldn't fit her arse into the original one). 7) The dim and dark lighting 8) Poor rehash of a great story from Batman Returns 9) Why go see Catwoman when Spiderman a free roaming game was out the same month? ..and those are similar reasons as to why Catwoman the game is just as bad (like my short version of '10 Things I Hate About You?'). However, it's pretty fair and on the mark to state that most people will have expected this, so it reflects more disgust on the developers EA than the license. Why? Well EA has justified why most movie license games choose their company to endorse video games from movies with the excellent tastes from their development of all three Lord Of The Rings games, and even Spiderman 2 was just as good as the film. Their resume instantly draws you to think that Catwoman should work, but it falls very short of even being a second hand rip off. Simultaneous releases with it's film are another thing that executes Catwoman without any mercy - perhaps whoever was behind the idea for Catwoman as a game was hoping that the game would distract criticism for the film or vice versa. If the game had a little more time to develop after the release of the pitiful film, the game could redeem the film. Instead Catwoman arrived on our shelves not long after everyone was wiping their sweaty Prince Of Persia: Sands Of Time fevers from their foreheads to find their not-so favourite leather clad comic book character imitating their favourite game at the moment. And this game will show that it isn't flattery. It's just plain insipid and pointless. Catwoman throws you into the role of the betrayed Patience Phillips who has been murdered and ressurected by a persian cat and given cat-like abilities. A simple revenge mission, Catwoman gives you a tutorial of her moves and then set's you off into a nonsensical, transparent and unclear path to decimate those who were responsible for her death. The cutscenes elaborate nothing more than pathetic enemies bursting through a door to challenge Catwoman and for her to gyrate weirdly while spitting out some corny line that sounds overdone and very sparse. "Working the night shift? So am I." makes you cringe and bow your head down in embarassment that you have this on your console. While being deviously foxy (or at least tries to be), Catwoman is painted to be the victim, not the villain in the long run and that comes as a shock to fans of the iconic feline. Who says that the only inspiration to play her is because she was thrown out of a window? Having Catwoman relish her antics or having her on the run from the law would have been far more fun to play than a cliched 'revenge' story. Ultimately, the great part of Catwoman's gameplay is melted with a very bad control system and unsuitable battle mechanics that don't fit and grate nerves easily. Consisting also of puzzles such as level structure, Catwoman can climb walls, she can hang and swing from poles, and she has a whip that can be used to press buttons or grab onto out of reach poles for swinging. All very Prince Of Persia isn't it? Second rate though! Because Catwoman's premise of abilities are not in a comfortable niche to execute them. The controls are either unresponsive or just too complicated to perform actions, and how frustrating is it when you know what to do but can't do it because of shoddy control mechanics? And if you thought that with everything else was bad, the camera angle just gives the game another kick in the head. The camera laps up the cool moves Catwoman can do and the funky capoeira moves she unleashes onto the enemies but never is it on your side for you to use thus making the gameplay excruiatingly harder. How are you supposed to kill enemies if you can't see them? That goes for environment interaction too, some specific things (such as buttons, levers, items etc) are hard to see and the camera angle doesn't show them properly. Lucky for us there is a first person view mode that will be there to save the day and present quite a unique trait of a scent that directs you through the whole level (well maybe not so unique seeing she has the abilities of a cat). Personally being disappointed by the rather banal fighting abilities of Spiderman in the games, perhaps Catwoman would be at least a little more interesting. It isn't. But I'll explain the functions first. To attack, you tap the left analog stick in any direction and you'll kick only if you're holding the crouch button and only whip or punch if you're standing up (depends on close you are to the enemy). You earn experience in the form of diamonds after defeating the enemies (everyone knows Catwoman was always getting her ass kicked from Batman cause she kept stealing jewellery). You use these diamonds to purchase new moves that come in many useless forms, but only a few prove worthy of using in combat such as the disarm move. It's all very interesting making the choreography decent, but pointless if it won't help you any. Catwoman also tries to borrow some of the slick motion effects from titles such Matrix and True Crime with the domination mode that may look pretty, but absolutely does sweet FA for the gameplay. As in Enter The Matrix, the slow motion was their invention and useful because of the melee action that was pretty challenging. Catwoman is devoid of both of those. The game also inexplicably shows how inferior Catwoman is to the norm she was famous for beating in the comics. Menial thugs and guards? Illustrations always showed that Catwoman was never as strong as Batman but the enemies in this game never seem to die. Instead they'll stop, glow and freeze. And is it a glitch or an insult of the price-tag that when Catwoman kicks an enemy off a high ledge, he'll sit up again? Especially considering Catwoman isn't particularily a nice lady, why is it important that she can't kill anyone? She wouldn't have thought twice about it in the comics or animation. Here's why the whole gameplay of Catwoman stinks of fish. You always have to have your hand on the left analog stick to perform attacks and shoulder buttons and galore are then mapped to the analog making acrobatic skills and abilities near by impossible to execute. Also the combat is uninspired, and hardly worth the time to even try and use advanced moves when all you have to do is punch 'em in the mouth or kick them in the gonads (and hey, the advanced moves still won't kill them). The functions malfunction by triggering them to the primary attack buttons and the only time you won't be cursing is when you're just exploring a level, which is pretty next to linear if you've somehow managed to get into a routine with the horrible control mechanics. As the gameplay falls off the lackluster ladder into a puddle of urine, the visual presentation is remarkable, even more so than Spiderman 2. Catwoman herself - putrid outfit and all - animates perfectly. The levels and environments are also quite well designed and animated leaving a sexy impression that Halle herself didn't on set. Some of the close ups of Catwoman are quite mesmerising although she looks like a dominatrix stripper, and seeing her writh around licking her finger and winking not only reinforces that but leaves you thinking "EA have taken that a little too far.". However it does have to be said that the model of Catwoman is flawlessly animated and the game in general is one of the best looking this year, as far as movie games go (Spiderman 2 was weak in it's graphics). Although the film has had a few saviours from it's critics who dubbed the film being deemed as camp, the sound in Catwoman is nowhere near that landmark. The casting of Catwoman as a victim betrays fans and the casting of movie victim Halle Berry - who won an Oscar for Monster's Ball, a role in which she played a woman who had a relationship with the killer of her husband - does not have the substance to play someone so morally complex as Catwoman. She doesn't do mean, she does earnest, she doesn't crack the whip convincinly and quite fran- oops, EA have hired Halle Berry to do the same torture on the video game also. People who thought the dialogue was lame on the movie better prepare themselves here. Halle Berry is thrown lines that are supposed to sound sultry but sounds embarassing. Some of the lines are in league with the camp classics from Resident Evil but other than that Berry's usually warm voice becomes erratic. Muscially there are few tracks, and the battle track blends into the background as you're delivering a stiletto to the face but the unchange of music while sneaking and infiltrating is disappointing and offbeat as Catwoman stalks and climbs to a background of dynamical music that shouldn't really be heard. The ultimate question is; is Catwoman as good as Spiderman 2 or Lord Of The Rings? No. Is Catwoman a good game? Er, no. Is Catwoman sexy as she is in the film? Only if you're on medication. With only outstanding graphics, Catwoman remains just a cheap and scroungeful rip off from the masterpiece that is Prince Of Persia, except with badly designed controls, horrid camera angle and an awkward fighting system that doesn't make good use of the actual character of Catwoman herself. The unoriginal concept litters the game severly and Catwoman claws on the sub bench desperately. If you're whimsical and sympathethic, then do the right thing and get over it (or rent). The only reason I got my paws on this was after my eight year old sister loaned it from a friend and I pinched it. And I'd rather be laughed at for that than to be laughed at for shelling out money for it.
Call Me Crazy Or Dumb But I Liked The Game Is'int That Bad Like People Were Saying When You Get Used To The Controls You Tend To get In To The Game Or Maybe Thats Just Me Lol ...Like Once You get A Hold on How To ... Read Full Review
Gameplay:It stinks.crawling around on the floor like a cat?I mean, she is catwoman but she should still walk like a human at times! graphics:average.the graphics are good during cutscenes but graphics in gameplay stin... Read Full Review
