Rain World is a survival platformer in which you play as the Slugcat, a clumsy creature trying to stay alive in a vast world full of heavy brain damage and baffling lore.
To put it shortly, the point of this game is to: wake out of hibernation, go find some food through scavenging or "silencing" your foes, and hibernate before you get crushed by periodic rain that falls like, every ten minutes.
The game's brutally difficult, and let me tell you a pretty sad thing: most of you guys will probably not like it very much. It's really not for everyone. The game doesn't reward you as you play, you never gain any sort of new abilities, it's all about learning how the enemies and items work.
Speaking of it, the enemies' variety and AI in this game are absolutely mindblowing. As soon as you learn how to deal with a lizard, another one appears, ready to send you into oblivion. Fortunately for ya, there is a crap-ton of items that assist you in "climbing the food chain."
The platformer part isn't bad at all, but it's surely pretty damn unique and maybe confusing at first. You won't believe how much advanced movement there is hidden behind like, three buttons and a d-pad.
In terms of graphics, Videocult did a phenomenal job at making the world look absolutely gorgeous, although I witnessed a bunch of funny-looking visual glitches throughout my journey, but hey, at least I couldn't find any bugs that affected the gameplay, so that's pretty nice I'd say.
The sound design is awe-inspiring. There are some great beats there, but the gimmick is that the instruments get louder as the chance of you getting your ass whooped increases.
As I previously said, you play as the Slugcat, You have three (nine with the DLC) of them to play around with. The thing is, you unlock more of them as you beat the game with different ones, which rounds up the Slugcats you can play as from the beginning to two: the Monk (hard mode) and the Survivor (Cambodia, 1975), though worry not cause it only gets worse from now on. As you beat the game once, you unlock a bunch of other Slugcats, the thing is, they turned them into the tools of death. One, as an example, learned how to generate infinite spears using his ass. It doesn't mean you can roam the lands of Rain World effortlessly since some enemies overdosed on methamphetamine and are ready to annihilate you out of existence.
The DLC includes so much more Slugcats, foes and regions that it could be released separately and called Rain World 2. It really is worth the price.
As a great reviewer, I will provide you with some spoilerless tips that might help you like the game:
- Embrace death, it will come for you, a lot.
- Experimenting and figuring things out is so much fun, and of course, knowing the mechanics will help you survive.
- (You will get that part as you play the game, but I find it very important) Take your time to explore a region deeply. When you're done, and ready to move on, go to the "floodgates". The symbol you're facing is a karma symbol. You gain one karma if you hibernate, and lose one if you die. The point is, if you don't want to go to the biomes too hard for you, go through the gates which the karma symbol is the lowest since it indicates the biome difficulty relative to the one you're in right now. So let's just say there is karma from 1 to 5 right? The biome after the karma symbol of 2 is easier than the biome after the karma symbol of 4, on my first playthrough, I'd rather pick the easier ones.
Jesus, I didn't think that it will be so long, but hey, I just hope I made you at least try the game maybe even like it. For me, it was an experience unlike anything other. Do yourself a big favor and at least try it out ;)