Rain World review

Reviewed on: PS4

[dropcap1]A[/dropcap1]s I mentioned in the last review, it takes audacity to invent a new genre. Not everyone succeeds in the attempt. Unfortunately, that is the case with Rain World.

The game is set in a world apparently overrun by pollution. The protagonist is a creature known as a Slugcat. Separated from its parents, its mission is to run back to the bosom of its family.

And that is relatively hard. Not that it’s impossible, but a platformer – which is what this game would be – is generally built on lean, precise gameplay; a platformer without “fixed” weapons needs that even more, which doesn’t happen in Rain World. It was while talking with a friend that I remembered what this cat-slug reminds me of so much: Worms. No joke, the movement feels the same as the famous worms.

The gameplay problem spreads to other mechanics, such as rest time and hunger. You are “guided” by a yellow-lit creature with apparently schizophrenic traits, because it often pushes you to spots you can’t reach.

The map is quite intricate; you really feel like you’re in a man-made labyrinth. But without a specific destination, you spend a lot of time wandering. The (countdown) rain counter keeps you from exploring places, and you eat some things without quite understanding what they are. Reading the trophy list, there apparently is an “illumination” system, where the Slugcat becomes more illuminated as it eats a certain plant.

Then, of course, there are enemies. They are hungry for the Slugcat’s tender flesh. Of those I had seen by the time of this review, there is the green lizard and the purple lizard – the latter able to climb anywhere you are. What could have been a fun game, with sharper mechanics, ends up becoming a festival of pointless deaths. It’s death because you have nowhere to run when the purple lizard shows up, it’s death by rain because you didn’t find the next rest point on the map, it’s death because the rest points aren’t marked on the map. Difficulty with precise mechanics is one thing, a legacy of series like Dark Souls. But a mechanic that clearly needs polish, with the controls being one more enemy in the gameplay, is hard to swallow.

Verdict:

Story: 7
Gameplay: 4
Audiovisual: 8

PlayStation 4 version