Kathy Rain 2: Soothsayer

I'm not done with this yet, but I think I've seen enough to warrant a review. In short, I recommend this, mainly for the audiovisuals and to encourage more point-and-click game-makers. The graphics are beautiful and slick, lots of great detail. Audio too is on point, with cool tracks and sound design. BUT in terms of writing, characters, and puzzles - there are better point-and-clicks out there. I don't find the characters very believable or relatable, and the puzzles aren't integrated well with the plot - they feel very forced and mundane. They're also not particularly difficult - the game heavily signposts everything. So you won't be stuck for long, and you also won't feel much satisfaction for completing the puzzles. That's not what a point and click should be IMO. Better modern point and clicks? Fran Bow, Book of Unwritten Tales, The Blackwell Series. I'd like to see the lush pixel art of Clifftop Games attached to a story and world with a bit more meat on its bones (including puzzles). I will see the game through, but I think it's telling that I'm looking forward to just finishing this so I can go play the new Detective Grimoire game. :)

Like the first game, the pixel art and story are both very impressive. The puzzles are very friendly, including the timed ones with fail states, which I appreciated because timed puzzles have always been my Achilles heel. There are a lot of fun locations you get to travel to and a large variety of puzzles to solve, all with full voice acting. I would definitely recommend this to fans of detective games and point-and-click games, although you need to play the first Kathy Rain game before this one as the story will make little sense otherwise.

Make sure to play the original game 1st. If you have already played the 1st one and enjoyed it then yes definitely play this sequel. If you like point and click adventures then I'm sure you will enjoy and appreciate it. To be honest I love the atmosphere, story and characters the most. But there are some great classic point and click style puzzles. Voice acting is fantastic too, even if the dialogue can be ever so slightly cringey at times (but in an endearing way I think). The voice actors sell the lines well. I'm quite invested in this series now and would love to see another one!