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Sometimes it’s the little games that just stick with us. The best example: Kathy Rain, which just got a sequel.
Sometimes long video games overwhelm me. I just finished the awesome The First Berserker: Khazan, then played Clair Obscure on vacation, and now I wanted to tackle the insider tip Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon… and after the first hour, I’m just losing steam.
How on earth am I supposed to get to grips with a complex role-playing game with millions of notes, skills, and quests? I already need 60 percent of my brain capacity just to complete my daily Duolingo task.
So, I needed a balance! Sometimes I need little games, story snacks, low-threshold and entertaining single-player games that are ideally over after two or three evenings.
So I start Kathy Rain, a story game that has been sitting in my Steam library for years.
Kathy Rain, Nintendo Switch, GeForce Now, Microsoft Windows, macOS, iOS, Android
Solve a mysterious case in a small town as a young journalism student? With a cult retro look straight out of the good old Lucasarts adventure games? And then fully voiced in the Director’s Cut? Sounds exactly like what I’m looking for.
But Kathy Rain exceeded my expectations.
What’s cool about Kathy Rain?
To break it down a bit: Kathy Rain was originally released in 2016 as a small indie project, but was re-released as a Director’s Cut at the end of 2021. The changes include expanded scenes, but also a more compelling story with a more meaningful ending.
I’ve played both versions, and you can safely ignore the original in favor of the Director’s Cut, which is available in every Steam sale (including right now) for a mere 3.70 euros
Kathy Rain starts off very classic and unspectacular. 20-year-old Kathy is studying journalism, but returns to her hometown of Cornwell Springs for her grandfather’s funeral. She quickly realizes that there is more to her grandfather’s death than she originally thought. At first glance, it’s a typical retro crime story, underscored by the fact that the story is set in the 90s.
However, the creators were inspired by Twin Peaks during development – and it shows! The story quickly drifts into mystery, everything in the town seems to be focused on three glowing spheres, Kathy spots a bald man with piercing eyes in a red silk suit, and everything develops completely differently than I originally expected.
The actual puzzles are quite easy to solve, can mostly be cracked through logical thinking, and thanks to the outstanding full voice acting, the adventure never feels dry or boring. Even checking out hotspots remains entertaining because Kathy’s (English) voice actress brings out her punk attitude wonderfully.
I don’t want to spoil anything here, of course, so I’ll keep my conclusion fairly vague: Kathy Rain stayed with me longer than I would have expected from a game that takes four to five hours to play through. The story doesn’t dig as deep as some psychological melodramas, but I lay awake for a long time afterwards, puzzling over what exactly was meant.
If you’re looking for some entertaining filler between two big role-playing games, you can’t go wrong here. Especially since, after a four-year hiatus, a second installment has just been released, garnering an incredible 96 percent positive rating on Steam. Small projects like this definitely deserve more attention.
