Kathy Rain Review — A Modern Feminist Game With a Retro Twist
Kathy Rain is a point-and-click adventure by Clifftop Games, and the quintessential example of an indie game done right: it is a well-made, polished product that also boasts the kind of narrative-driven, complicated character development not seen in bigger releases.
In short, Kathy Rain is everything that makes indie gaming a treasure trove of little gems, and you should definitely check it out.
The first thing you’ll immediately notice about Kathy Rain is that it looks like it came out of a three decade-old time capsule. With its pixelated art, plot set firmly in the 90s, and litany of leather jackets, the game is not winning awards for its photorealistic graphics or million-dollar soundtracks.
For what it’s trying to do, though, the game doesn’t need to look like Halo. It works because it never tries to be more than a truly retro game.
Here’s the story: our protagonist is Kathy Rain, a young journalism student who learns of the death of her grandfather, whom she hasn’t seen since childhood. When she goes back home for the funeral. Kathy reunites with her grandmother and starts digging into her grandfather’s past to find out what went wrong so many years ago. What follows is a slippery slope down a conspiracy so deep, it puts their entire family at risk.
Kathy Rain is a point-and-click adventure. You click on objects to solve puzzles. You find a dead lamp so you go downstairs to find a replacement light source. You talk to a bum to distract an officer so you can rummage through his desk. You find a notebook with number sequences and you then have to open a briefcase with a combination in that book.
The majority of the puzzles are not overly obvious, but they are logical enough that you’ll never feel like “OMG I could never get this without looking up a guide online.” That’s a flaw many games in the genre have, and Kathy Rain doesn’t.
The game, as a result, moves at a steady pace. If only Kathy could walk a little bit faster.
So with a simple setup that doesn’t challenge you graphically or introduce any revolutionary game mechanic, the game is going to live and die by its story. And, the good news is the story is good. In trying to solve the conspiracy that wrecked the Rain family many years ago, Kathy comes across several characters and tests the limits of her wits to figure out the problems.
And while the plot twists are not entirely novel, they are still presented in a way where you don’t always see them coming.
Some points in the game stretch the imagination a bit — too many contrivances and the puzzles sometimes feel a bit too easy — but it’s nothing fatal and it really does come off as a compelling, logical detective story with a strong female lead.
The best example of this is during a phase where Kathy has to hack into a computer and use a certain software. Her “hacking” is done by using her wits to manipulate the nerd into robbing his admin access, and it is a brilliant example of how the plot and gameplay come together.
Immediately after this segment, however, is the part where Kathy uses the software to edit some photos, and it is laughably simplistic. From brilliant to banal (and then back to brilliant) in just five minutes is about the standard in some of Kathy’s puzzles.
Fortunately, the vast majority of the game’s puzzles are compelling, but there is no overlooking some of the puzzle design and story issues.
Any narrative shortcomings, however, are countered by the greatest strength of the game — Kathy Rain herself.
Kathy is an amazing character — a mixture of toughness, kindness and blunt wit that we simply don’t see enough of in gaming. She is a more complicated character than the genre usually allows, a kind of open feminist leaning that isn’t available in the medium. If the “Detective is born” subtitle is anything to go by, we will hopefully see many more adventures starring the foul-mouthed sleuth.
I also hope that voice actress Arielle Siegel returns to voice Kathy, because she really is flawless.
It’s also worth repeating that the game is set in the 90s, because that really contributes to the story’s sense of style. Kathy makes snide remarks about the “latest” tech such as fax machines, and there are quite a few subtle jokes about the decade that you would only catch if you were paying attention. It gives the game a unique atmosphere that isn’t present in the weirdly post-apocalyptic future set games of today.
That, coupled with Kathy’s awesome dialogue and the story’s brisk and largely logical writing, make it a game worth playing.
In short, Kathy Rain is a stylish, true-to-the-genre story that should appeal to even the most casual gamer. If you like your games narrative-centric, your puzzles challenging but fair, and your protagonists witty, you should definitely check out Kathy Rain.
I reviewed Kathy Rain on PC via Steam, and it took me roughly eight hours to beat. Your mileage may vary based on how quickly you work through puzzles. Kathy Rain is available for IOS, Android, and PC at a base price of $15 on each platform.
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If you end up buying the game and actually like it, be sure to let @ClifftopGames know you loved it; indie studios don’t get the kind of coverage big games do so word of mouth is a big part of their base. And if they make something awesome while having a thousandth of the budget that big games do, that’s worth commending.
On behalf of everyone at Pakistani Pepper Productions, This is Abdul Rehman saying peace out and stay peppery.
