(Note that I have not played the original Kathy Rain so I only have my playthrough of Director's Cut to base this review off of.)
I wouldn't say this is so much of a mystery point and click as a psychological horror point and click, but it still kept me engaged through its relatively short run time despite my prior expectations. The puzzles are nothing complex and be can easily solved by looking at one or two proper clues for directions, which is a great thing in a genre that's often known for obtuse problems with somewhat vague hints. The plot never gets too exposition heavy nor too overbearing or to levels of mindfuckery that took me out of the game (compared to some other narrative heavy games I've played, at least), and in fact I appreciate how much it told with pretty terse dialogue and environmental features. The start is a bit slow admittingly, but it definitely gets grittier once you're near the end of Chapter 3, and ramps up nicely from there. I'm not going to go into too much depth regarding its darker themes (such as abuse, regrets, mental illness, etc), but I think it touches upon these quite nicely without sounding too preachy or overbearing as well, which I appreciated. I do think that some of the characters could have been expanded upon a little bit more, but considering the short game length, I understand the limitations and fortunately no one seems exaggerated to the point of being a walking stereotype. If I really had to nitpick, the only major complaint I'd point out is that a lot of time was spent traveling back and forth between places (maybe 33% of the game was just driving on the motorcycle or walking inbetween places for me?), and I think this could have been eased by condensing the amount of content in some areas instead of introducing a few areas that you visit once or twice, and then never again. I'd say that Kathy Rain's a great little point and click if you're looking for a dark (but not Silent Hill 2 levels of dark) adventure game to tide you over during a rainy afternoon; it's not one of the greats, but it handled its run time well and it knows its place.
I wouldn't say this is so much of a mystery point and click as a psychological horror point and click, but it still kept me engaged through its relatively short run time despite my prior expectations. The puzzles are nothing complex and be can easily solved by looking at one or two proper clues for directions, which is a great thing in a genre that's often known for obtuse problems with somewhat vague hints. The plot never gets too exposition heavy nor too overbearing or to levels of mindfuckery that took me out of the game (compared to some other narrative heavy games I've played, at least), and in fact I appreciate how much it told with pretty terse dialogue and environmental features. The start is a bit slow admittingly, but it definitely gets grittier once you're near the end of Chapter 3, and ramps up nicely from there. I'm not going to go into too much depth regarding its darker themes (such as abuse, regrets, mental illness, etc), but I think it touches upon these quite nicely without sounding too preachy or overbearing as well, which I appreciated. I do think that some of the characters could have been expanded upon a little bit more, but considering the short game length, I understand the limitations and fortunately no one seems exaggerated to the point of being a walking stereotype. If I really had to nitpick, the only major complaint I'd point out is that a lot of time was spent traveling back and forth between places (maybe 33% of the game was just driving on the motorcycle or walking inbetween places for me?), and I think this could have been eased by condensing the amount of content in some areas instead of introducing a few areas that you visit once or twice, and then never again. I'd say that Kathy Rain's a great little point and click if you're looking for a dark (but not Silent Hill 2 levels of dark) adventure game to tide you over during a rainy afternoon; it's not one of the greats, but it handled its run time well and it knows its place.