Rain World Reviews
Hauntingly beautiful and challenging. Rain World is more than a platformer, it transports the player to a fully fleshed out ecosystem in which he must play by its rules to survive.
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Overall while there’s no doubt that Rain World is a unique title on Switch it’s also very likely going to be a love / hate affair for people at best. The controls that feel novel and unique to one person may just seem to be wonky and difficult to another, and I’d say both perspectives are right to a degree. It’s very much a trial and error kind of game, and the ever-present reality of the next monsoon coming to wipe you out when it’s most inconvenient adds to the tension and, often, frustration. That said, if you like a challenge, are interested in something that plays quite differently, and have some patience for getting to know how to make the best use of your always-limited time is can be rewarding.
It is odd to only just be getting to this game now with it having been out a while. The joy of the Switch is that once again Rain World will be brought into people’s lives. The resurgence is going to be good for the few who play it, but I think it will probably still be criminally overlooked. Even those that start it might not see it all the way through, but I implore you to do so. This is a cold and loving game that is far more than most people realise. It is worthy of both your attention and your time. It thoroughly deserves this second chance and I hope that people make the most of it. Also, I want a Slugcat now.
Rain World shows up to the table with a lot of good ideas but fails to execute successfully on many of them. What should probably be a challenging but enjoyable game feels more like a directionless, unintuitive slog that, while mostly pretty to look at, is confusing and possibly overly difficult for the sake of being difficult. I can see a situation where just a few tweaks to character movement (namely improved speed and agility) would go a long way toward making this game feel like a properly balanced challenge. It’s entirely possible that the point of the game is to be really hard, but if so I find the controls, mobility and systems design is at odds with that intention, because as a player I never felt empowered to deal with the challenges laid before me so much as at the mercy of the whims of whomever is pulling the strings.
Rain World is a one-of-a-kind experience, that while perhaps understated in its simplicity, challenges notions of traditional game design in an experimental way that yields brilliant results.