Kathy Rain 2: Soothsayer review

• Reviews by Johnny Nys
• Published:

If you expected another gorgeous and gritty urban thriller, you’d be absolutely right in a sequel drenched in mystery

Arriving with little fanfare in 2016, Kathy Rain was such a surprise hit with fans that a sequel seemed inevitable, but in the nearly ten years since then, all we’ve had to fill the void is the upgraded “Director’s Cut” in 2021. At long last, however, developer Clifftop Games has delivered the follow-up we’ve been waiting for in Kathy Rain 2: Soothsayer. And what a release! It’s another amazing point-and-click adventure game with even more beautiful pixel art, quality voice-overs, a decent amount of puzzle challenge, and an edge-of-your-seat murder investigation with some supernatural elements thrown in.

It’s not absolutely necessary to have played the original game to enjoy the sequel, but for a complete understanding of what’s happened to Kathy so far, I do suggest acquainting yourself with her background first, since there are some in-game references to past events. (Besides, Kathy Rain is a great adventure in its own right, so if you haven’t played it yet, do it now!) If you have played it but your memory is a bit fuzzy, Soothsayer starts with an optional recap, with screenshots designed as Polaroids and the talented Arielle Siegel as the voice of spunky Kathy giving a short summary of what came before.

It’s now May 1998, three years after the strange events of the first game, and we find ourselves in the fictional American city of Kassidy. Kathy is woken from her slumber on the couch of her private investigator’s office by her friend and mentor Lucas Longhorn, who asks her to help him out with the case of a serial killer dubbed “the Soothsayer.” Kathy’s P.I. business hasn’t been all that successful lately and the bills are starting to pile up, so the reward on the Soothsayer’s head, along with the prestige of catching the killer, seems like just what she needs to turn things around.

Right from the start of this adventure, my heart and soul were sucked into the screen and the real world practically stopped existing for me. With all due respect to the many great fantasy, sci-fi and cartoony games out there, as far as I'm concerned, nothing beats a realistic setting with relatable human characters telling a captivating story. It’s no wonder I love detective and mystery games best, especially slow burns with lots of attention to detail, great interview-style conversations with an eclectic cast of characters, a cool variety of puzzles, wonderful voice actors and great music. And that is precisely what Kathy Rain 2 delivers in abundance.

Soothsayer immediately puts you in control of the investigation by researching the serial killer and their victims in the newspaper archive of the local library. While quite an easy puzzle, I enjoyed figuring out the dates of each previous edition reporting on one of the murders, as well as looking up information on the library’s pre-internet computer, featuring a catalogue and search function that looks like it was created in dBASE IV. I also liked the side stories in these newspapers – printed in gray instead of the more important black-inked main articles – through which you can acquaint yourself with other goings-on in Kassidy. Or not, as it’s optional worldbuilding that isn’t forced down your throat.

While similar at first glance, the sequel's presentation is definitely an upgrade from the first game. It’s still pixel art, but it’s been improved with a higher resolution this time. To me this was mostly apparent in the slightly larger, more detailed character portraits during dialogue, which now have more depth and feature several different facial expressions befitting the lines being spoken. The game also includes dynamic lightning and surface reflections for an even more realistic effect. There’s one scene with Kathy standing in the spotlights on a stage that’s quite stunning. There are more cinematic cutscenes with closeups of the characters as well, which are gorgeously artistic.

But this game doesn’t only impress graphically; the soundtrack too adds to the atmosphere with a mix of themes. Complementing the occasional jazzy instruments are slow and melancholic piano melodies that accentuate Kathy’s emotional journey, while faster-paced electronic elements like 90s synthesizer rhythms reflect the style of the era and the tension of a thriller. Soothsayer is also rife with sound effects bringing the city of Kassidy to life. You will hear the constant tapping of keyboards in the newspaper office, the patter of rain on wet days, and of course the recognizable roar of Kathy’s motorcycle, the Katmobile!

On foot you control Kathy with a one-click interface. Most often she will only comment on whatever you are looking at, but occasionally she will manipulate a hotspot or take an item for your inventory. The cursor is a gray arrow that glows golden when you hover it over something you can interact with, which also reveals its descriptive label. There are many things to examine in Kathy’s world, some useful but most only there for some added flavor.

Kathy has a carrier bag you can open by clicking its icon in the bottom left corner of the screen, spilling out all inventory items in a row across the bottom. Clicking one will only make Kathy comment on it; if you want to use it somewhere, you need to drag it to another item in inventory to combine them, or to its counterpart in the environment, and release it. Not my favorite inventory interface, but at least while dragging items, all hotspots are indicated with little gray squares, the same way the regular hotspot highlighter does, accessible via spacebar. Because you have to open up your inventory pretty often, I would have preferred it to remain permanently open; as it is, the inventory closes automatically whenever Kathy performs a successful manipulation, usually leading to a short cutscene.

Among the inventory items is Kathy’s notebook. Inside it, under three different tabs, she records a list of all the topics she can ask people about, phone numbers she can call (there’s even a phone book in her office to look them up) and objectives to complete. Click on an objective and Kathy will give a short description of what needs to happen but without giving away any concrete hints. It can still be helpful, though, so if you feel the temptation makes the game too easy, you can disable it in the settings menu. Other than going over the topic list when talking to other people (the notebook opens automatically when you engage someone) you can also ask them about your inventory items, as well as the hotspots in your immediate vicinity.

The first day is spent purely on gathering information. This makes the start of Soothsayer fairly linear, with Kathy often saying, “I’ll leave this for tomorrow.” But I didn’t mind easing into the game, getting my bearings, and digging up all the facts of the case. The second day, though, is when the real fun begins with a bunch of places to choose from. Then it’s up to you to figure out which order is most efficient. While figuring things out, you will definitely be travelling back and forth between each of the murder sites – including a lookout point, a church, and a cabin in the woods – and other places around town, such as a ranger station, a university dormitory, a psychiatric institution, and a club. Sounds like a lot, but not all locations are always available, with Kathy mentioning there’s nothing left for her to do there and she needs to follow other leads instead. This effectively narrows your search radius and lowers the difficulty to a more manageable level.

Kathy Rain 2: Soothsayer

Genre:	Drama, Mystery
Presentation:	2D or 2.5D
Theme:	Crime solving, Psychological
Perspective:	Third-Person
Graphic Style:	Pixel art
Gameplay:	Investigative, Puzzle
Control:	Point-and-click
Game Length:	Long (more than 10 hours)
Difficulty:	Low

The game comprises six in-game days, plus a finale. Each day involves completing a number of objectives before Kathy states that there’s nothing left to do. Instead of starting the next day immediately, however, you go into evening mode. Some areas you visited during the day can now be explored at night, under different conditions. Others won’t be available anymore, but new ones might open up in their place. For instance, the flower shop is obviously closed at night, but that famous nightclub everybody is talking about has finally opened its doors – if only you can get your hands on a membership card, of course!

The cutscenes leading into morning are especially interesting. Kathy suffers from nightmares; strange dreams in which dead people invade her bedroom and lay siege to her sanity. Are they just dreams, or visions, or something else completely? You will only find out when you play Soothsayer for yourself, but these supernaturally tinged elements turn the investigation into a lot more than a simple serial killer case. Even when awake, the way Kathy deals with the case, her interaction with others and the nightmares she suffers make her a very interesting person. She’s a haunted woman, silently suffering from what’s happened to her, scarred not only by her life in general, but the events of the first game too in a way. While at first the world seemed to go back to normal after that, ghosts from the past are hard to keep away and now Kathy is forced to confront them again.

The game has quite the cast, and thus features lots and lots of dialogue. Besides Kathy there is Eileen, Kathy’s former roommate who assisted with Kathy’s agency for a while before they had a falling out. There’s also fellow investigator Lucas, with whom you'll compare notes on occasion, and Josh, a cop with the local police force that you might be able to persuade to do you some favors. You will meet lots of people related to the Soothsayer’s victims as well, like a priest or a neighbor that you'll want to question more than once as you uncover more clues. Other extra characters emerge too, who might have a connection to the darker side of the city, like a graffiti artist and a small-time drug dealer who could offer some small but necessary additional pieces of information. 

All the voice actors really help bring this intriguing cast alive and elevate Soothsayer to a great narrative experience. Next to the excellent Arielle Siegel as Kathy, Shelly Shenoy returns as Eileen. There’s so much natural chemistry between these two that it sounds like they were really acting together while recording their lines. Arielle’s performance believably conveys both the weary grittiness of Kathy’s life experiences, and a kind of predatory perseverance in combating evil. Shelly’s Eileen is definitely the sweeter of the two but has developed a sternness when dealing with Kathy, demanding respect and civilized communication. I was also happy to discover the prolific and always wonderful Ivy Dupler as both a New Age hippie character constantly trying to heal Kathy’s chakras, and an emo college student whose roommate has gone missing.

This is a very mature game, immediately apparent with Kathy’s first lines. She’s not shy about swearing, and neither are the other characters, so the linguistically faint of heart are warned! Besides some strong language, there’s also mention of intoxicating substances and suicide, and you will witness plenty of violence, so as a result there will be blood. Everything you would expect from an urban thriller involving a serial killer.

You will be talking a lot in this game – perhaps a bit too much for people only looking to solve puzzles – but there are several inventory-related obstacles to challenge you as well, some of which involve multiple stages. A particularly fun one requires you to research and re-create a pack of specific-flavored cigarettes that has been out of production for a long time, right down to its original flavor. You will be also faced with a couple of code-breaking puzzles, and need to hack your way into a computer by figuring out the password. There’s a number code for a pager system to decipher, and most creatively, you need to compile a haiku good enough to convince someone to talk to you. All these puzzles kept me occupied for quite a while and are probably the main reason it took me a little over ten hours to finish the game, providing a welcome difficulty balance compared to the more easygoing conversations.

Sometimes you'll need to act fast or say the correct thing to progress, such as when Kathy is about to get caught in an area she isn’t supposed to be, or must talk down a potential jumper from a rooftop. Failing to do so will automatically take you back to the start of that scene to give it another shot. The game allows for both manual saves and an autosave on exit, but thanks to this restore function, you don’t have to save when you think there’s danger around the corner – though I still did so myself to ease my mind!

It can be easy to forget to save, however, when you’re so caught up in the captivating story. Everything here feels real. I cared for the main character, and I shared Kathy’s desire to find the killer, not simply to get her that monetary reward, but because it was the right thing to do. Talking to people who knew the victims became quite emotional at times, while other characters provided some comic relief. I believed this story, as it felt complete to me as a well-written tale should. The investigation part often delivers a feeling of accomplishment as well: Asking the right person the right question, giving you another lead; figuring out the puzzles; finding new clues… It’s a trail of smartly laid breadcrumbs, but I wasn't simply following them as I went along; I still had to work to find my way to the next one.

As was the case in the first game, the ending of this one takes you into uncharted territory as the supernatural elements, first only hinted at during Kathy’s nightmares, begin to completely envelop her. You could compare it to Gabriel Knight making his way inside the underground Voodoo hounfour in Sins of the Fathers, or in another medium, to Special Agent Dale Cooper finally entering The Black Lodge in the television series Twin Peaks. All logic is thrown out the window, which is quite the adjustment from the more grounded majority of the game, followed by a rather cryptic (not to mention overly long) monologue by the true villain of this story. But being familiar with how the first game went, I was totally expecting this shift into weirdness again and I had no trouble accepting its reality.

Final Verdict

I really enjoyed Kathy Rain 2: Soothsayer, which, just like its predecessor, is like a continuation of the classic point-and-click adventure game genre in its heyday. It’s got a great story, with fun puzzles, amazing graphics, and a wonderful voice cast, and what more can anyone really ask? From the moment I entered Kathy’s office all the way through to the finale, I felt the awesomeness of a beautifully compiled work of interactive fiction. That’s no exaggeration: I was glued to the screen, eager to finish the story and discover the identity of the Soothsayer as fast as I could, even though I wanted the experience to last as well. For fans of the first game, this is exactly what we wanted from a long-awaited sequel. And now the wait begins anew, as I really hope Kathy Rain becomes a bigger ongoing franchise with even more cases to solve.

Johnny played Kathy Rain 2: Soothsayer on PC using a review code provided by the game’s publisher.