From Clifftop Games comes the return of Kathy Rain, a beloved adventure gaming icon of the past decade, now with a new adventure that is twice the length and scope of the original game in Kathy Rain 2: Soothsayer. Does it match up to or even surpass the original, or is it more of a sophomore slump?
Well, I’m delighted to say that Kathy Rain 2 presents a mystery adventure that’s leaps and bounds above the original game and even the impressive Director’s Cut it received five years later.
Kathy Rain 2: Soothsayer picks the story up three years after the events of the first game, with Kathy now running her own private investigator agency. She picks up a hot lead from her former colleague Lucas, another, more grizzled private eye, about “the Soothsayer,” a sadistic killer who’s tearing up the streets of the city of Kassidy. From vague clues and even vaguer suspects, she must piece together the identity of this killer before they strike again.
By far the biggest upgrade from the original to Kathy Rain 2 is the visuals (unless you played the Director’s Cut, then the leap isn’t as substantial by comparison). The pixel art is gorgeous from beginning to end, with a few cinematic moments featuring fully detailed models that really pop in this game’s art style.
The environmental art is especially spectacular in every location, from Kathy’s cozy office to the large church in the middle of Kassidy’s stunning skyline and hilltop view that overlooks the entire cityscape; they all draw your eye and are rendered in stunning detail, with the pixellated style only adding to the depth and minutia of everything you see. Clifftop Games even leverage some gorgeous lighting effects and parallaxing in some locations to further sell the sense of scale in everything.
As the setting, Kassidy and its atmosphere are similarly impeccable—a neon-drenched, rain-soaked, dirty and dangerous metropolis where peril lurks at every corner and alleyway. It echoes the settings of the game’s inspirations, like the city from David Fincher’s Seven (1995), or the depiction of the seedy, crime-ridden streets of Los Angeles in L.A. Confidential (1997). It’s perhaps a cliche to say “the city is a character in itself,” but both Kassidy and Kathy Rain’s dark odyssey into human depravity tonally complement each other.
Speaking of complementing tone, a special shout-out to Daniel Kobylarz for the fantastic soundtrack in Kathy Rain 2, mixing dark synths with slower jazz tunes to great effect, bringing another dimension to both the story and setting.
When it comes to plot, Kathy Rain 2: Soothsayer soars above the original game, whose plot was already solid. Where it thrives most is the more grounded elements of the story, as well as the development of Kathy as a character who has already gone through her arc in the first game. Here, she’s her same cocky and sardonic yet caring self, but she’s grown complacent and dismissive. She’s pushed Eileen, her best friend and former partner in (solving) crime, away due to her own stubbornness and inability to ask for help.
Now, she’s seeking to prove herself and make her mark by taking on “the Soothsayer,” a prolific new serial killer who has been tearing through Kassidy and the surrounding areas over the past several months. It’s in these parts of the story, the real boots-on-the-ground detective work and puzzle solving, where both the gameplay and story really shine. Uncovering the Soothsayer’s identity, and those of their victims, becomes a cat-and-mouse game across the city with high risk and the promise of a high reward.
Much like the first game, however, it’s when the story starts delving into the more metaphysical and supernatural aspects of its plot and lore that it loses focus a bit. I will say, I prefer how this game handles that stuff versus how the first game did, mainly because it closes a lot of the loops that were left unaddressed before, but the fact remains that the story’s higher concepts just weren’t as compelling as the grounded serial killer mystery that played out prior to that, at least for me.
The puzzles in Kathy Rain 2 have also seen quite the improvement. I wouldn’t say that they’re on the whole “above and beyond” the original, but the ratio of hits to misses definitely skews towards the former for much of the adventure.
The puzzles come out of the gate swinging, too, with one of the earliest puzzles being an elaborate challenge that asks you to find the names, dates, and locations of each of the Soothsayer’s victims, cross-referencing them with newspaper articles over the last year, a calendar, and even cycles of the moon. It’s pretty involved, and while not every puzzle in Kathy Rain 2 lives up to this one’s intricacy, it does go a long way in selling you on the game being of a much larger scale and scope than the previous adventure.
Speaking of the ratio of more hits than misses with the puzzles, there are countless “eureka” moments in Kathy Rain 2 where following the line of logic to ask “if this were me, how would I solve this?” usually gets you your answer. That may sound obvious to many, but for a lot of adventure games, there’s such a thing called “moon logic,” a trope for when the solution is so outside-of-the-box that no rational human being could come to the answer.
Generally, Kathy Rain 2 avoids moon logic even with its weakest puzzles, but it does come dangerously close with some of the more obtuse solutions, where it feels the solution comes from a standpoint of padding gameplay rather than making the most sense for Kathy as a character.
It’s also disappointing and kind of baffling that Kathy Rain 2 lacks controller support, despite the recent Director’s Cut of the original having it built in.
Despite its flaws, Kathy Rain 2 is another spectacular adventure from Clifftop Games that builds on the established characters wonderfully and, for the most part, pays off many of the original game’s lingering plot threads in satisfying ways. There are still some cliched, corny lines here and there, with some characters that feel very archetypal and stereotypical. It also feels like Clifftop Games wants to have their cake and eat it too with the supernatural stuff, considering it doesn’t always mesh with the otherwise grounded and gritty detective story, but it’s at least delivered better here than it was before.
Regardless, it’s a sound, engaging mystery that’s easy to get invested in. If you’re a fan of the original game, this character, or adventure games in general, Kathy Rain 2: Soothsayer will not steer you wrong, and proves that despite innovation across the industry, good old-fashioned, LucasArts-inspired adventure games still have staying power.
