Kathy Rain – The tale of loss, secrets, and detective work
Kathy Rain – The tale of loss, secrets, and detective work
Kathy Rain From Noio
Genre:Detective Developer:Noio
Kathy Rain developed by Noio with their great pixelated graphics and an ever-expanding inventory may have been a disclosure when games like the Blackwell series and Gemuni Rue revived thema few years back, but now they are exposed to something more akin to a cottage industry. And its a great adventure games in the LucasArts style. This protogonist Kathy’s got a story that, despite some reservations, is worth hearing out. Its an old-school graphic adventure game that goes one step further and actually takes place in the 1990s. The end result? A highly solid and entertaining game that does its predecessors proud.
Following the eponymous Kathy rain, she is a journalism student attending university in 1995, centers around our titular heroine our story begins as she learns about the recent death of her grandfather. passing back in her childhood home of Conwell Springs. Our bold investigator decides to hop on her trusty motorcycle and return to attend the funeral. Before long, Kathy finds gerself in the midst of the distinct tale of an incident that robbed her grandfather of his mobility ,and a tangled web of intrigue surrounding this event. Kathy sets out to discover what happened on the one fateful night that changed everything in his life. And with the help of her nerdy roommate Eileen and the local townsfolk, Kathy discovers…Kathy Rain’s story begins to get quite weird after the first act, appropriately yet oddly heading into full Twin Peaks territory and beyond. Oh, it’s still a good story with a captivating mystery at its core, but for a game that sets itself up as more of a detective story, the one-eighty in tone it eventually takes can come off as a bit perplexing.
This game deals with adult themes that we should prepare for it also dealing Kathy’s trouble past. Speaking of which, though, Kathy herself is a terrific leading lady, a gleefully snarky Gen X-er who comes off as a slacker but still manages to show off a heavy dose of wit and intelligence. The supporting cast is also fleshed out quite nicely and they all get some good lines, The game features great supporting lines also fleshed out quite nicely, helped out by some great voice work.
Kathy Rain displays some absolutely gorgeous pixelated artwork. But as this is a graphic adventure games, we all know the true meat lies in both the story and the strength of the puzzles and obstacles in your path to overcome. In most part the the game relies on Kathy’s strengths as a journalism major, so you engage in conversations with people by choosing topics from your notebook, the task you need to do for coming across new leads and following up on them, occasionally having to sneak into restricted areas, searching the phone books for new locations to visit next and more. It really gives you nail down the feeling of a private investigation quite well.
You can enjoy many more traditional puzzles in Kathy Rain, scrabble tiles that hint at how to get past a combination lock, having to figure out the code to a wall safe via a poem that corresponds with a set of graves. These are also well executed providing the perfect level of challenge and an easy-to-use interface to handle them with. There are occasional moments where you may end up being smarter than the game, See, Kathy is one of those characters who kind of annoyingly won’t just pick up any item without a reason, leading to a frustrating moment or two where she refuses to get the exact item you need for a puzzle you figured out without having to find a way to explain it to her. Despite the complete unexpected the plot gradully throws at you as it moves along, Kathy Rain is agreat adventure game with a story that easily gets you hooked and a mystery filled with a grade- A level of chalenge to tackle. Overall the game is very satisfying one. A detective is born” goes the game’s tagline and I wouldn’t mind seeing more of this detective in the future.
