Catwoman (PS2)

It looks pretty good, and Catwoman is nicely animated. The fighting takes a while to get used to but you can get pretty swift and agile after a while. The climbing sections - which is really the core of the game - figuring out how to get from a to b via climbing, swinging, vaulting, etc - also look pretty cool and are immensely satisfying when you get it right.

And there lies the fly in the ointment. WHEN you get it right. You will need lots of patience to get it right, because when you inevitably get it wrong you often fall all the way back to the bottom, and have to do all the climbing again to get back to where you were. OK once or twice, but after falling for the umpteenth time you'll need saintly qualities not to be shouting obscenities at the TV. This is made worse by the fact that it is often the controlls rather than your lack of skill that result in a fall - often feeling clumsy and imprecise.

Shame, as the game looks great, plays well when you get it right and has a relaxing undertone - but only those who can persevere will reap the full rewards.

The shallow story may be forgivable if the gameplay were at least fun, unfortunately it's not. Gameplay in Catwoman is very repetitive.
Throughout the game there are 2 types of enemies, guards (in various uniforms), & bosses. You fight every single guard in exactly the same way, you hit them into a box (or through a window etc). You cannot kill anyone in Catwoman, so as your enemies are indestructible, it is possible to knock them off of the top of high buildings, only to have them get straight up off of the(usually concrete) floor.

All of the bosses are also fought in exactly the same way, you punch/kick them until they run out of health (making the bosses weaker than the guards). More often than not it is possible to do this by holding down to attack in a direction & dozing off for 5 mins, as the ai for each boss is poor, limited to a couple of moves which just seem to cycle

The gameplay where enemies are concerned may be repetitive, but there is also a significant portion of the game that is composed of jumping/swinging sections. These sections could be fun, but the camera seems to go out of its way to obstruct the direction you are trying to view. You often come across jumps that require precision aiming, but the camera will find its way to a position that will make jumping unnecessarily awkward, sometimes it points in the complete opposite direction that you need to jump. This is made ever tougher as you cannot move the camera by any significant amount, & the price for missing a jump can often mean falling all the way down to the beginning of the level, only to have to climb all the way back up to where you were via a lot of frustration & jump/camera issues.

The only reason this game hasn't got 1 star is that its graphics, for the most part, are reasonably effective. There are some nice effects & the game has a relatively polished feel. Although they are by no means cutting edge

Overall the game is nice to look at, but seems too overly frustrating & lacks much of the finesse featured in other games of this type (such as Prince of Persia). All too often you find yourself just using trial & error to get through the levels (& sometimes pure luck). Catwoman the game, like so many other movie-game tie ins, has taken a backseat and is relying solely on its license to sell