I've just finished The Cat Lady.
Like others have allready mentioned, it is a very dark & mature take on depression and closely related themes and issues. It avoids the high risk of becoming pretentious with it's great writing, human dialouge as well as great knowledge and insight into mental illnesses and psychological despair. It is definetly not for everyone, and i's a real downer in the beginning, it starts off with the protaganists suicide after all. But it moves slowly towards it's conclusion with an ever so slightly growing ray of hope. Not offensively going from utter darkness to blinding bright sunshine though, as that would be an idiots way of reflecting over a human state and a slap in the face to people who suffers from depression.

The game allows itself to take its time, never offending the gamers intelligence despite being very simple in design, and the puzzles fit the themes and enviroments. It's not so much about solving the mysterious/problems, as it is about atmosphere and provoking feelings. In the best cases, the gamer will get an insight into how depression can take form. There's a really clever bit where you walk around your apartment doing ordinary things, like a cup of coffee, and is presented with two HUD bars for your character. One which when filled up by stressful events will make your character have a breakdown. And one which when filled up will enable her to relax. Now the genious of this is that seemingly far more things will effect her negatively, and with more impact as well, because she is in such a mental state. It's possible to avoid a breakdown, but it's hard to figure out what will set it off beforehand, just like in real life. Also, a positive thing, say playing the piano for the cats, will have a greater negative effect in the end because the result of playing the piano is that an upset neighbour comes banging at your door because of the noise and threaten you with pest control.
Another good aspect is also that this game can help gamers who suffers from depression, by it's recognicable dialouge, scenarios, thought processes & in the end hopeful message.
In the worst cases it will bore & frustrate people who don't want to or who can't understand, or crave a faster pace, better graphics & a coherent storyline. Some will surely be offput by the art style & some non-professional voice acting. It may also perhaps envoke sad memories of tragedies & illnesses. But I still would like to emphasize that it's more like talking to someone who understands & making you feel less alone than it is pushing you into dark places. One of the points it makes is that it is okay to feel & think horrible thoughts at times, and we should be open about it and talk about it in order to help each other. In that sense this can be quite therapeutic a game.

There's some replay value in the fact that there are hidden achievements, and you have some dialouge paths and decision options. But like with most if not all decision based games it's more about your own thought processes in making the decisions than the outcome of them (or lack thereof) that are of value. And this is also perhaps not the type of game you want to spend alot of time in once you've completed it because of it's subject matter.

Not all praises to be fair though. I came across some negative technical aspects, including:
* Dialouge bugged out in one section and kept looping for a bit until it continued as meant to.
* A puzzle bugged out as well, as it wouldn't register as completed despite the correct input. It was solved by just repeating it until it finally clicked though.
* Theres was some slowdown at times, which is surprising for such a simple and undemanding game. At one point my counter was down to 3 FPS for some reason!
* I also don't agree with the developers choice to deny saving options or pausing during dialouge. It forces you to miss some in case say someone's at the door or you get called away from your PC.
There's also some less than stellar voice acting and some awkward line delivery at times, but being a small budget indie game it's forgiven, and it really doesn't weigh down too heavily on the final result.

There's an impressive amount of themes & issues touched upon, ranging from self pity, self harm, problems with authority & bureaucracy (both imagined and real), distrust, accepting of lifes unfairness, internet trolls, hatred of human kind, suicide groups, suicide prevention, terminal illness, revenge, relationship issues, medication abuse, loss, and the list goes on and on. Chances are high that even if you yourself don't have any current or past issue that is touched upon here you know someone who does. A game that is also a study into a depressed psyche. Intelligent, human, mature, dark, unique, intruiging, frightening, thought provoking, hopeful.

I've just finished The Cat Lady. Like others have allready mentioned, it is a very dark & mature take on depression and closely related themes and issues. It avoids the high risk of becoming pretentious with it's great writing, human dialouge as well as great knowledge and insight into mental illnesses and psychological despair. It is definetly not for everyone, and i's a real downer in the beginning, it starts off with the protaganists suicide after all. But it moves slowly towards it's conclusion with an ever so slightly growing ray of hope. Not offensively going from utter darkness to blinding bright sunshine though, as that would be an idiots way of reflecting over a human state and a slap in the face to people who suffers from depression. The game allows itself to take its time, never offending the gamers intelligence despite being very simple in design, and the puzzles fit the themes and enviroments. It's not so much about solving the mysterious/problems, as it is about atmosphere and provoking feelings. In the best cases, the gamer will get an insight into how depression can take form. There's a really clever bit where you walk around your apartment doing ordinary things, like a cup of coffee, and is presented with two HUD bars for your character. One which when filled up by stressful events will make your character have a breakdown. And one which when filled up will enable her to relax. Now the genious of this is that seemingly far more things will effect her negatively, and with more impact as well, because she is in such a mental state. It's possible to avoid a breakdown, but it's hard to figure out what will set it off beforehand, just like in real life. Also, a positive thing, say playing the piano for the cats, will have a greater negative effect in the end because the result of playing the piano is that an upset neighbour comes banging at your door because of the noise and threaten you with pest control. Another good aspect is also that this game can help gamers who suffers from depression, by it's recognicable dialouge, scenarios, thought processes & in the end hopeful message. In the worst cases it will bore & frustrate people who don't want to or who can't understand, or crave a faster pace, better graphics & a coherent storyline. Some will surely be offput by the art style & some non-professional voice acting. It may also perhaps envoke sad memories of tragedies & illnesses. But I still would like to emphasize that it's more like talking to someone who understands & making you feel less alone than it is pushing you into dark places. One of the points it makes is that it is okay to feel & think horrible thoughts at times, and we should be open about it and talk about it in order to help each other. In that sense this can be quite therapeutic a game. There's some replay value in the fact that there are hidden achievements, and you have some dialouge paths and decision options. But like with most if not all decision based games it's more about your own thought processes in making the decisions than the outcome of them (or lack thereof) that are of value. And this is also perhaps not the type of game you want to spend alot of time in once you've completed it because of it's subject matter. Not all praises to be fair though. I came across some negative technical aspects, including: * Dialouge bugged out in one section and kept looping for a bit until it continued as meant to. * A puzzle bugged out as well, as it wouldn't register as completed despite the correct input. It was solved by just repeating it until it finally clicked though. * Theres was some slowdown at times, which is surprising for such a simple and undemanding game. At one point my counter was down to 3 FPS for some reason! * I also don't agree with the developers choice to deny saving options or pausing during dialouge. It forces you to miss some in case say someone's at the door or you get called away from your PC. There's also some less than stellar voice acting and some awkward line delivery at times, but being a small budget indie game it's forgiven, and it really doesn't weigh down too heavily on the final result. There's an impressive amount of themes & issues touched upon, ranging from self pity, self harm, problems with authority & bureaucracy (both imagined and real), distrust, accepting of lifes unfairness, internet trolls, hatred of human kind, suicide groups, suicide prevention, terminal illness, revenge, relationship issues, medication abuse, loss, and the list goes on and on. Chances are high that even if you yourself don't have any current or past issue that is touched upon here you know someone who does. A game that is also a study into a depressed psyche. Intelligent, human, mature, dark, unique, intruiging, frightening, thought provoking, hopeful.