Catwoman lunges forward with a beautiful fur coat.  Her moves are extremely cat-like, more so than any other animal interpretation by a human.  Granted, this is a video game, and in the movie everything is done in CG.  But the work is remarkable.  I'm not big on movie sequences in games, but I couldn't take my eyes off the intro.  Catwoman leaps from wall to wall as if it took no effort at all.  The way she holds herself, the way she clings to things – it's just like a feline.  This Catwoman is entirely different from the one introduced several decades ago.  This one is more mutant, more next-gen.  No one beats Michelle Pfeiffer on the big screen, but Halle Berry is queen of the game screen.

In one way Catwoman plays like it was designed for neophytes.  The objectives are akin to an interactive movie; press a couple buttons and watch the action occur.  This easy, everyone-can-play-it style is spoiled by a lack of effective hints and clues.  Why in the world would you need help to get through a cakewalk such as this?  You don't.  The enemies practically kill themselves.  (Killing is too harsh of a word – few of the villains face death.  Most are just knocked aside, tossed into a perishable object, or thrown into a dumpster.  That's kind of strange for a game that was based on a character who was intended to be less heroic than Batman, but not purely evil like Joker.)

Catwoman's levels are only effective in appearance.  The nightmare begins when you try to navigate through the many winding paths, climb up walls that won't let you through, or attempt to read the shoddy info messages before they disappear. Attacks and other actions are revealed through the info messages.  But the message only appears in a specific spot.  Walk up to the spot and it appears!  Walk anywhere beyond the spot and it's gone.

Thus, you run around, looking for enemies to fight (which there aren't nearly enough of), and wonder what the info message was trying to tell you.  You go back, stand in the exact spot and read the message.  That same message – along with any other you saw – will still be there.  (Most games remove info messages once they've been read.)  Sometimes the messages are clustered together.  This creates nothing but confusion.  You often wonder if you've read a message or not, and if you haven't, should you go back and check it out?  Some of the messages are close to ledges.  Do you see where this is going?  The controls may have been designed for newcomers, but that doesn't mean they're good.  Catwoman's movement is so loose that it's hard to cross a small ledge without falling at least once.  So in trying to read a message that you may or may not have already seen, you'll end up falling right back to the beginning of the level.

Please pause for a minute while I take a moment to scream.

Let's suppose that you know exactly where to go in this game.  You have a great sense of direction and let nothing stand in your way.  Sounds great, but there's another problem: the camera.  While Catwoman looks pretty enough to turn heads, the camera is wobbly enough to churn stomachs.  The camera's control is out of your hands, and the game does a poor job of handling it.  Catwoman has a first-person view to seek out specific items, but the screen is partially blocked by the image of an eye.  (The whole screen looks like a cat's eye, implying that you are truly seeing through Catwoman's eyes.)  Cool idea, but if it hinders game progress it has to go.  And just to clarify, you can't walk or run while using the first-person view.

Add it all up gamers.  Catwoman doesn't have many enemies to fight, and the ones she does have are barely worth the trouble (or lack thereof).  Attacks can only be executed by pressing the C-stick toward the enemy.  The camera is a work of agitation.  And the info messages are about as helpful as a friend who brags about having good advice but never wants to share it.

Gameplay: 5
“Feline domination.”  That's what the tagline says.  Visually the game would dominate the comic book genre if it weren't for Spider-Man 2.  Gameplay-wise it disappoints.  It's very unlikely that casual gamers will enjoy the battles, and it's even less likely that casual gamers will consider renting Catwoman, let alone spend $50 on it.  But, just as with Spider-Man 2, that's who the game was made for.  The difference is, Spider-Man 2 had a complex, innovative, difficult-to-master-but-easy-to-learn control scheme.  Catwoman's controls have no such qualities.

Graphics: 8
The commercial for this game had me worried.  No gameplay footage is shown!  Why in the world would they do this?  That's usually something that publishers do when their game looks like garbage.  Catwoman is anything but.  The city streets look great.  The animation is eye-popping.  And they top it all off with high-quality lighting and a texture job that makes Catwoman look like Catwoman.  You can't tell it's Halle Berry with that mask on, but you can't always tell it's her in the movie either.

Sound: 6
Music and voice-overs from the film.  The action sequences are worth watching; the story sequences are not.

Difficulty: Easy
Less than one day.  That's how much time it'll take you to beat this game if you can figure out where to go and how to navigate the crazy levels.

Concept: 5
No new gameplay concepts are introduced in this game.  Every element, both good and bad, has been seen many times before.

Overall: 5
This cat looks phat, but she ain't all that.  Catwoman is an eye-catcher – you'll see it, you'll want it, and you'll wish to love it.  However, you can't always judge a book by its cover.  Some of the ugliest games have the gameplay of a beautiful swan.  The opposite is also true.

Catwoman's lack of challenge is disappointing, but its confusion is what covers the game in darkness.  Not knowing where to go next is awful, but if the game is great in every other respect you could always buy a strategy guide (or get one for free at GameFAQs.com).  The controls and the unpredictable camera work together to make the game even more confusing.