Kathy Rain (2016)

I play a lot of these pixel graphic inventory+dialogue+environment puzzle games. They can get a little same-y after a while. Usually what makes them stand out is something unique or unexpected about the character or the plot. This delivers on both fronts for me.

I won't spoil it but I like the MC. She reminds me of some of the women I knew in my younger days. Sarcastic, not especially friendly and with a punk aesthetic. The story also goes in a direction I had not expected at all based on early clues.

A good game and I'll probably play the sequel soon.

Finished up Kathy Rain 2, I had a great time with it! The pixel art's all lovely, the mystery's solid, and it's got by far the smoothest suite of puzzles I've ever seen in a point and click adventure. Plus the whole thing is elevated by Kathy herself being such a fun protagonist, whip-smart and prickly. Hope we don't have to wait another 9 years for her next case!

It's been interesting to dive into Kathy Rain 2 right after playing Old Skies, another point and click adventure which recently came out. Old Skies has puzzles that often feel like distractions from its central story, vestigial obligations included only because adventure games are expected to have them. But in Kathy Rain 2, literally every puzzle I've encountered so far has been good to great, just a nonstop cascade of delightful detective work!

Why am I loving one set of puzzles when I was so ho-hum on the other? The investigation and inventory mechanics I'm using are more or less the same. Both games are brimming with arcane roadblocks that make less sense the longer you think about them. What's different?

So far as I can figure, Kathy Rain 2's success mostly comes down to two factors. For one, its murder mystery plot is just a way more natural narrative fit for all these puzzles than is Old Skies' focus on existential crisis. And for two, Kathy Rain's hint system is absolutely killer at sanding away the traditional pain points of the genre. It's truly nuts how much special case dialogue Kathy has to keep you from getting stuck, or course correct you when you're approaching the right answer from the wrong angle. And that all these hints can help without ever feeling overbearing is even more impressive!

Anyways, can't wait to jump back into the Soothsayer case tonight.

First, I played the director's cut, which doesn't have a listing here.

Second, oh my god the writing in this game is so good! The mystery is genuinely compelling even before it gets supernatural and every character feels like an actual person. In the middle of the spiraling horror mystery they manage to squeeze in a pretty moving little exploration of grief that made me cry for real

Third, the puzzles are mostly logical and satisfying, with only one I found truly obtuse (the church code puzzle). Any adventure game where I feel clever but never actually get stuck is a well designed adventure game as far as I'm concerned

I want to go into more specifics about the plot, but honestly, if you like adventure games and haven't played Kathy Rain yet, just go do that. It's a masterpiece

EDIT: Knocked it down to 4 stars after some consideration. If you want the full spoiler explanation, read the comment I left on this review.

In the last few years I've enjoyed a lot of amazing point and click adventure games like Unavowed, Lamplight City, The Excavation of Hob's Barrow and Return to Monkey Island. It was time for a new one so I choose this because it was forgotten on my Steam library.

I don't know if my expectations were too high because my previous experiences with the genre, but Kathy Rain was... just fine.

The plot was nice. I expected just a murder mystery but it surprised me with supernatural elements clearly inspired in Twin Peaks. Those weren't great but at least had a lot of mystery. Most puzzles were great, but there were a few that made me rage and look at the internet. How the hell would I know you can scan a literal audio tape on a PC scanner to export the audio.

I've heard there's a director cut with more puzzles and a more streamlined plot (some of the supernatural elements don't make any sense), but I didn't liked it that much so I don't think I'll play that version.

• Game

My new year’s gaming resolution has to be to catch up on adventure games; I keep buying them but haven’t really played any for years, so I’ve got a massive pile of them to get through. Kathy Rain is a good but not great retro styled point and click set in 1995, you play as the titular character Kathy who returns to her sleepy hometown to investigate the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of her grandfather. I didn’t read anything prior so wasn’t expecting the Twin Peaks style story beats and how the narrative constantly strays into weird and wonderful territory. Less said the better – go in and play this blind.

• Gameplay

I played this on Android and I like how you can touch hold to highlight all hotspots which saves much frustration missing something on a smaller screen, I also like the travel system in which you see Kathy on her motorbike surrounded by places to visit as cool guitar theme plays; it’s all very streamlined and very welcome. Most puzzle solutions were straight forward but there are a few odd choices that aren’t proceeded with much a breadcrumb trail to lead you to the solution (I googled that solution with the thermometer near the games end; I would have never thought of that and still aren’t sure what line of dialogue hinted as that being a thing to do).

The voices are all “OK”, some are better than others but all are a match for the game. I see some people had issues with the main character, but my problem was more with the way that Kathy is written as often she has lots of varying shades of aggressive responses that come across as tone-deaf when you’re trying to get people to talk to further her investigation. The character never really evolves and struggles to break out of the cliché tough girl. She definitely grows on you though and I’d happily play a second game [which is yet to materialise].

The credits note that it was made in Adventure Game Studio. It’s always cool to see a polished well designed game made with the tool and especially so considering it’s written, designed and programmed by one person - Joel Staaf Hästö. It looks like his next game was “Whispers of a Machine” which I also have on my pile of bought-but-not-played shame… onwards!

Solid game. Didn't care for the main character tough girl style. Was too over the top but towards the end she became a bit more down to earth. Would be a nice series to play for those in tween times ya know. Puzzles were classic and made sense and story was pretty straight up with some paranormal type things gone on. I mean it always creepy when one has to face themselves🕳️

-_-

Kathy Rain may not stray too far from the path of Wadjet Eye games before it, but this title shows a promising and polished effort that could lead to some classics down the line.

Featuring a goth/punkish woman coming to her hometown after hearing of her grandfather's death, she kickstarts into mystery mode and looks to find some answers. Gameplay is fairly standard point and click adventuring, with a split between logical puzzles and investigative knowhow - the latter definitely evokes the previous Blackwell series. There are some quality of life bits (double clicking to enter an area faster) not present but the game isn't long enough to drag on like that.

The puzzles, whether they be scrabble, thermometers, or cracking gravestone codes are very sensible, which is more than I can say about a lot of adventure game puzzles. Investigations usually come down to asking the right person or grilling a list of people until you get your next clue. The tone starts off fairly humdrum but goes into sinister then surreal near the end.

As for the actual plot, it's a bit of a mish mash of quality. Dialogue ranges from standard to laughable (that "hacker" bit will make you cringe) but the story is firmly rooted in Kathy's own self-discovery and coming to terms with her past, even if the voice acting isn't as compelling. From the start the neo-noir tone feels pretty bland but finds its own footing eventually, even if it has to crib from other (spoilers) sources eventually.

Kathy Rain is a quality title with adventure game mechanics that while not new are sensible and won't leave you frustrated. The story takes a while to warm up to but is satisfying and easily opens up the door to another sequel.

I was so happy first, I thought the girl is gonna be a journalist like Clark Kent (except the Superman stuff, I loved Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman series ), I liked the mystery... I had a good theory: the rich guy had an affair with the teen, then killed her, Kathy's granddad found out and started investigating his friend... rich guy did something with granddad, bought the paintings. Oh sweet summer child I couldn't be more wrong! The whole stuff is SUPERNATURAL CRAZY BS!

I did not want to believe in Supernatural, Aliens might have been better! And the part against abortion... surprised me even more.

This is another one of those games where I really, really wanted to love it, but...I just couldn't. And it's particularly frustrating because the game has such a promising beginning. Everything gets off to an intriguing start, there's some solid writing and humor, and I found Kathy to be a very enjoyable protagonist. But about the midway point the story went off the rails and never recovered. I don't object to supernatural elements in games--far from it!--but this didn't feel well-developed. The premise just couldn't live up to itself.

I don't regret the time I spent on "Kathy Rain", but I doubt I'll ever play it again. Three stars out of my customary four, but the first half is definitely carrying the second in terms of that third star.

Kathy Rain is a traditional point-n-click adventure/puzzle game, developed by Clifftop Games and released in 2016. The game is set in the 90's and it has enough attention to detail to give it a nostalgic feeling. The story is part detective tale and part surreal horror, and clearly the writers have taken much inspiration from Twin Peaks. The puzzles in the game are excellent: not only inventory puzzles, but also logic puzzles, words and some number puzzles, lots of variety. Most importantly though the solutions can be found with logic and the difficulty balancing is perfect; I never felt lost or needed to hunt down a walkthrough. This is a real quality release, the art, voice acting, music, environments, it's all very well done and detailed. The game has a length of around 6-8 hours, depending on if you get stuck and how much exploration you do.

This game has a lot of work put into it, at least equal or perhaps beyond the quality of Wadget Eye's AGS games. Surprisingly every single bit of dialogue is fully-voiced, and every character is represented with a detailed portrait during dialogue. There are many little touches like this which bump it up an extra grade. The story is also engaging and interesting, and the game plays out like a good film. The game is also available on Android and iOS for anyone who is interested.

I am a little bit biased towards this game since I'm an obsessive Twin Peaks fan, plus my nostalgia goggles were turned up to 11; people who lack understanding in these components will probably miss out on much of the references and subtle details in this game (for example someone in the Steam discussion was complaining about the protagonist having the "scene" fashion, unaware that this didn't exist in the 90's.. she seems more like a 90's rock/punk girl more than anything. She has a sarcastic wise-cracking personality, similar to Daria, which felt suitable, unique and appealing.

Anyway, I really enjoyed this game; it's probably the best I've seen in this genre since Primordia. If you're interested it's often quite cheap on Steam and well worth it. During the last section of the game they hinted at a sequel, I hope they make one and I'll definitely be on board.

Wow, what an awesome game. I play a lot of Adventure Game Studio titles (I must have completed nearly 40 of them by now), and this is one of the most polished I've seen. Wonderful voicework with lots of excellent actors, fitting music, great graphics (low-res but imaginative), an intuitive interface and some great puzzles that offer a genuine challenge even to relatively seasoned players (at least that's what I consider myself to be...).

The game takes place in 1995, and a good chunk of the puzzles are solved using period technology: cassette recorders, landline phones and old PCs. As a child of the nineties (I'm only about five years younger than Kathy Rain) I found this intriguing. So the stuff I still have on my shelves is now officially history. Wow.

I was also impressed by the games absolutely bug-free execution. No glitches, no wobbles, no technical issues. As far as I can see, you could play this in one go without ever saving.

The best things about this adventure, however, are its flawless pacing and excellent, witty writing that is on a par with the oft-cited classics from Lucas Arts and Sierra. You are always given plenty of guidance as to where to go next, yet the game is never predictable, and the plot never slows down. Remarkably, Kathy Rain manages to pull off a soul-searching, psychological narrative that explores some of the murkiest depths of human relationships, yet it never descends into pathos or self-pity. The snappy, sharp-tongued heroine and most of the cast of secondary characters are just the right mix of likable and insufferable, which, at least for me, resulted in a welcome ironic distance. This didn't stop me from being genuinely scared by the sinister intrigue at the centre of the story, however, nor from laughing out loud at the hero's wisecracks.

Overall, I simply cannot find anything negative to say about this game. I'm going to have to give it five stars -- and I'm going to have to play it again, this time trying out the localized German and French versions.