Kathy Rain: Director’s Cut – Nostalgia, Cynicism, and Mysteries

“You’re miserable, edgy and tired. You’re in the perfect mood for journalism.” – Warren Ellis

Overview

Kathy Rain: Director’s Cut is an enhanced version of the original Kathy Rain point-and-click mystery adventure from 2016. It boasts an extended storyline, extra puzzles, and new explorable areas. Additionally, the earlier version was made in Adventure Game Studio, whereas the updated game uses Unity. This review was originally going to be based on the first iteration of the game, but the fixed aspect ratio was not well suited to a 16:9 monitor, and the lower resolution meant the pixel art did not look great and the text was difficult to read on a 4K screen.

Narrative

Kathy Rain: Director’s Cut is set in the mid-90s and centres around its titular protagonist after she returns to her hometown following the death of her estranged grandfather, after she learns of his passing by chance from her college roommate. Kathy is a cynical journalism student who drinks and smokes. She is funny, sarcastic and, at times, quite edgy and somewhat reminiscent of Daria, the lead character in a late 90s cartoon of the same name.

Upon returning home and reuniting with her grandmother, Kathy learns of the strange circumstances surrounding the grandfather’s death and the last years of his life. Having been taken from her hometown by her troubled mother at the age of 6, Kathy had been unaware of the tragic and suspicious events that had befallen her grandparents. She decides to put her journalism skills to use and investigate.

The narrative is well-constructed and engaging from the start, creating intrigue and suspense with lots of drama, unexpected twists, and interesting characters. The characters are highly varied, each with their own distinct personalities and interwoven backstories that provide a lot of context to enhance the storyline. The dialogue is superbly written, giving a good sense of who the characters are and progressing the narrative in an entertaining and organic way.

The narrative touches on some quite heavy subject matter and gets increasingly dark and mysterious as the player advances through the game. Touches of humour and occasional lighter moments provide some balance and prevent the experience from feeling too intense or weighty.

Gameplay

Kathy Rain: Director’s Cut plays like a typical classic point-and-click adventure in terms of mechanics and has intuitive controls that are fairly standard for the genre. Kathy must explore the various scenes, interact with different objects, and converse with a range of NPCs. She is equipped with a sizeable inventory, a packet of cigarettes, a Zippo lighter, and, as a journalist, she also has a notepad for important information.

There is a vast array of locations, such as a cemetery, a lakeside cabin, the police station, and her grandmother’s house. There is some degree of going back and forth between the different areas, but travel is straightforward and efficient thanks to brief cutscenes featuring Kathy’s motorbike, which can be customised using skins earned throughout the game. Additionally, once there is nothing more to learn or gain from a location, it will be greyed out as a travel location option.

There are a number of puzzles within the game, which progress logically and do not have obscure solutions that are frustrating to figure out. Solving the puzzles is both satisfying and fun, and adds an extra layer to the already entertaining gameplay. The puzzle types vary; some are very obvious, such as deducing codes and passwords, riddles, and number-based conundrums, whereas others are more subtle environmental puzzles and inventory-focused tasks that are common in this style of game.

Styling

Kathy Rain: Director’s Cut is presented in beautiful pixel art with atmospheric and often moody lighting, the colour palette favours muted and darker colours, with selective pops of vibrancy. The character art is well done, especially in the avatars used during dialogue, and the scenery is meticulously crafted to have depth, detail, and variety.

The soundtrack has a good amount of variety while maintaining a level of consistency that makes it feel cohesive and suited to the game’s storyline and gameplay. The music varies in energy and overall sound and fits each different scene brilliantly. It draws on rock and blues genres, amongst others, to create tracks that range from dramatic to upbeat, or conversely, quite melancholy. The voice acting is of great quality, and the characters convey just the right amount of emotion and are very believable.

Summary

Overall, Kathy Rain: Director’s Cut is a fantastic example of a point-and-click mystery adventure. It features stunning, detailed pixel art, atmospheric and immersive sound design, emotive voice acting, satisfying gameplay, and an intriguing narrative that will have players engaged from the get-go. It will take around 8-10 hours to complete, providing a good amount of playtime and a lot of entertainment. Kathy’s character and her combination of dry humour and cynicism are a highlight of the game. I thoroughly enjoyed this experience, would happily recommend Kathy Rain: Director’s Cut to fans of this genre, and I am really looking forward to playing the recently released second game, Kathy Rain 2: Soothsayer.

Looking for more supernatural mysteries? You may also enjoy these reviews:
Tangle Tower – A Thrilling Murder Mystery in an Unusual Mansion – Murder is Game Over: Deal Killer – The Third Instalment – The Darkside Detective – 9 Point-and-Click Mysteries with a Spooky Twist!

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