Kathy Rain: Director’s Cut is a point-and-click adventure game originally released by Clifftop Games and the Raw Fury team back in May of 2016. Publisher Raw Fury and developer Clifftop Games describe the Director’s Cut as a re-imagining of the 2016 game and will include an extended storyline, plenty of extra dialogue, and new areas to visit. After playing the game, I noticed some other additions as well such as a remixed soundtrack, larger environments, control improvements, and some visual enhancements.
The story takes place in the early 1990s, where you jump into the life of Kathy. She is a strong-willed journalism major, who must come to terms with her troubled past, as she investigates the mysterious death of her recently departed grandfather. Joseph Rain was searching for something one night many years ago when Kathy was just a child. Something happened and she ended up causing Joseph to be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life, and in return he became but a shell of a man.
Upon returning to Conwell Springs for her grandfather’s funeral, Kathy stumbles on the mysteriousness of his death. Kathy is used to digging deeper into stories, so she is well prepared to find out the truth of what happened to her distant grandfather. But as she uncovers more information, she soon realizes something bigger is at play.
Many people in Conwell Springs seem to go mad, including a young artist who tragically killed herself. The truth might not be what she wants to hear, but she simply has to know. Armed “with just her motorcycle (The Katmobile), a pack of cigs, and a notepad,” she begins to investigate these events in order to discover the truth about each and what connections they may share.
Kathy Rain: Director’s Cut is a fantastic point-and-click mystery game. Not only does it rely on you solving puzzles but also conversations you have with others in the game to help provide more information for Kathy to solve the next clue. The first one that got me stumped was trying to ascertain the police report. I first acted all big and bad and almost demanded it and got shut down.
So then I had to ask nicely. Granted, of course, they didn’t want to help but I heard someone say the report was past the double doors. So now I had to figure out how to distract the officer so I can sneak by. It was a lot of fun trying to figure it all out. Another great puzzle was opening the briefcase. Trying to figure out the numbers and the order took some time and some ingenuity. All I will say is that the case opened with the correct color pattern.
Kathy Rain: Director’s Cut was both visually and audibly pleasing as well. The original 2016 version was in a letterbox aspect. They did away with the black bars above and below the game and made it full screen. The soundtrack was very decent as well.
The music was pleasing and gave you the whole 90’s genre feel. The game itself has a retro vibe and looks like something you actually would have played on an old-school Nintendo console back in the day. I really enjoyed the work that went into this style of game.
For me, the game was not long enough. I got through the whole game in a weekend but I didn’t do everything. However, I am planning on playing it a couple more times to see what else I can unlock.
There are a lot more Steam achievements to get and I only got like 2 of the different motorcycle skins. I want to see what all The Katmobile models can look like. I also played on mouse and keyboard, but I know it supports controller as well.
For me personally, this game was like a blast from the past and I really enjoyed it. Kathy Rain is a badass do-it-herself lady who doesn’t take crap from anyone. I am hoping that Clifftop Games and Raw Fury make more adventures for Kathy to pursue. I would like to solve more puzzles with her, and maybe take her bike for a drive myself.
This is a great puzzle-solving game and the old-school vibe is so worth it for retro gamers. Kathy Rain: Director’s Cut comes to Steam for $14.99 on October 26th. It will also come to iOS, Android, and Nintendo Switch the same day as well.
This review was written based on a digital copy of Kathy Rain: Director’s Cut for PC provided by Clifftop Games and Raw Fury.
