Written by Patrick Orquia
Title: Rain World
Developer: Adult Swim Games
Publisher: Videocult
Genre: action adventure, survival, platforming, metroidvania
Number of Players: 1 player
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Release Date: 13 Dec 2018 (NA) / 27 Dec 2018 (EUR/AUS)
Price: $19.99
Also Available On: Steam, PS4
Rain World is one beautiful-looking game. It incorporates retro-inspired 16-bit visuals in its lush, incredibly detailed backgrounds. Every landscape in this game set in a post-apocalypic world looks gorgeous, so much so that it’s almost as if the game doesn’t deserve it. But I guess, it has to look really good to hide the fact that this game is almost impossible to beat.
This game is probably the most confusing one that I have ever played in a long while, if not ever. You play as the Slugcat (a creature that closely resembles a cat but can slither through tunnels and narrow paths like, well, a slug) in this game that just leaves you literally alone right on the get go and it is up to you to survive. Slugcat can jump, do quick rolls, slither through tunnels, wall jump, climb vines, and hang from metal wires, but the game doesn’t teach you any of these move sets. The rules of the game are not explicitly explained at all. Aside from the quick tutorial of sorts that shows you the controls, that’s pretty much it. You have to decipher what the symbols mean and discover on your own how you will reach your ultimate goal, which is to find your family that you got separated from during the intro. In order to save and progress in the game, you have to find a safe zone for you to hibernate in. Finding these safe zones is a pain, since there is no clear signposting of any kind. Well, except for the quick appearance of these phantom-like orange figures that vaguely points you where the safe spot can be found. They also show where you can hunt for food, because since you’ll be hibernating, you have to be eat, otherwise, you won’t be able to do it. There are a number of creatures and other types of food that you can eat, like bats, bugs, berries, mushrooms, etc. The bats are not that hard to catch, and so are the bugs, but sometimes, what you think is prey is out to eat you instead.
Like any other game, you have to fend off enemies. And not just any other run-off-the-mill enemies, they are your predators, and they if they see you, they will quickly try to eat you. To make matters worse, you have no persistent weapons to protect yourself. You can pick up small rocks and sticks that you can throw at these creatures, to momentarily distract them so that you can do a quick maneuver to escape, but not enough to kill them for good. These creatures can be big lizards or a giant winged creature that will one-hit eat you. They can also attack and fight and try to each other. And if you get eaten by any of them, you restart at your last save, at the very beginning of a cycle (the measure of time in this game), and you have to try again. If you get skilled enough to not get eaten, you are still not safe.
Near the end of every cycle, it starts to rain (the game isn’t called Rain World for nothing) which creates a deluge that drowns the entire world. Unless you are in a safe zone to hibernate, you will die and you will have to restart the cycle. You might think “fine, let’s restart” since the more you play, the more you memorize the different areas in the world and where the enemies and food are. Well, not exactly. The enemies constantly roam the world, and it’s hard to anticipate where they are going to be next. Fortunately, entrances to different areas change in color if a predator is coming, and thus you have to either wait for it to pass you by or try a different route.
There are lots and lots of routes to take in this surprisingly expansive world, but unfortunately, getting from one area to the next is quite a chore. You may climb along overhanging vines or jump from one platform to the next. New areas open up once you earn enough karma (the in-game currency, kind of) and survive enough cycles, but good luck discovering that that is what you have to do. This game takes its concept of surviving a harsh, unforgiving world a bit too literally, thus robbing the player the chance to really enjoy the game. It’s very easy to get lost in this game since you won’t know what to do next unless you try and experiment with everything, which could be fun, yes, but very frustrating and wastes your time that you could have used playing other, more fun games instead.
Overall, this game is one beautiful-looking game, one of the best there is, but its brutal difficulty (even on “easy” mode), lack of clear signposting, and lack of weapons to make your chances in surviving this dystopian world higher, makes this game hard to recommend. A game may look awesome but without the fun of actually playing it, it’s not worth the ride. But if you’re a fan of survival games and you don’t mind spending hours upon hours figuring out things on your own, you may find this game really good. Personally, it’s not for me, but maybe you have your inner Slugcat aching for some challenge. Slither your way into this game and may you not get eaten by a giant lizard or drown in the rain.
REPLAY VALUE: Low
PROS
- Outstanding visuals that shows an incredibly detailed post-apocalyptic world
- Excellent level and character design
- Different difficulty and play modes are added to this Switch version
- Very good use of HD Rumble
CONS
- Almost non-existent soundtrack/musical score
- No clear signposting or indication of what to do or where to go next
- Brutal difficulty even on easy mode
- Need for lots of grinding
- No persistent weapon to defend yourself against, or to kill, predators
RATING: 3.5/5 preys and predators
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