RAIN WORLD: A Beautifully Sophisticated Survival Game

RAIN WORLD is a game that documents the travels of you, a slugcat (a creature of which is a mix between a slug and a cat, if that was not already clear), exploring the beautiful world of a broken ecosystem, where every few often, a downpour of rain floods the landscape and drowns anything that fails to find somewhere safe– including you. Not only is there the constant stress that at any time, anywhere, you could be drowned within the unforgiving wrath of the rain, but you are also at the near bottom of the food chain. Everywhere, there are creatures hungry and unmerciful, chomping at you at any chance they could. This game is very, very hard, with a map that even I had difficulty memorizing due to its immense size and diversity, but I feel as though that’s what makes me love Metroidvania games. Now, without further hesitation, I will be going through what I feel makes RAIN WORLD such a great game.

The A.I.

The creatures throughout the world are almost like any other video game NPC– almost. The way these things live almost feel… alive. Not only do the creatures interact with you, they also interact with other creatures. If there are two species of predators in the same room, there is a chance they might go after each other and forget about you. You can use this to your advantage sometimes, as you might not always have a way to fight back. There are also different subspecies of certain types of creatures such as the Lizards, as there are some that may have the ability to climb walls or jump long distances. The most interesting thing about the A.I. in my case however, is their personalities. Every creature you encounter in RAIN WORLD will have a sort of personality, whether they’re more or less aggressive towards you, or their feelings towards your presence. If there are two Lizards chasing you at the same time, there is a chance they could start fighting over you, being another way to escape. There are creatures that don’t want to eat you, though, such as the Squidcada; a mix between a squid and a cicada. If you kill one in front of another, however, your reputation towards the Squidcada population will go down. Speaking of reputation…

Reputation

Your interactions with other creatures play an important role within the game. As I talked about with the Squidcadas, your reputation towards a certain species of animal can either go down or up. If it goes down, that creature might want to avoid you, or be more aggressive towards you than they usually are. If it goes up, you might gain benefits such as cool stuff, or most importantly, allies. It is possible to either make friends or tame creatures, which is always nice. In RAIN WORLD, you’re normally solitary, exploring aimlessly. But with an ally by your side, it makes things feel a little less lonely…

Movement

In RAIN WORLD, there is an absolute list of moves and movement combos you could do, ranging from backflips to a thing called side-flipping, where you slide into the wall and at the right moment, jump to boost yourself off the wall and ground to launch yourself in the opposite direction at top speeds. The movement list is rich and plentiful with a ton of things to help you with your travels, but here’s the thing: it doesn’t tell you anything about it. You could have completed the entire game without knowing the movement tricks. Once you get into the game, it tells you how to move, jump, grab, eat and throw, and that’s it. It leaves everything else for the player to find by themself. If you want to see the list of moves Slugcat can do, it’s in TAKE ACTION, all the way at the bottom.

Though there are so much more amazing things there is to talk about RAIN WORLD, I will end this article here for you to possibly find out more on your own (and also because this article is getting too long), whether it be playing the game or watching some Youtuber explain this entire thing 10x better than me. Thank you for reading, and as always, remember to wash the dishes.

RELATED ARTICLES:

https://www.destructoid.com/reviews/review-rain-world/

https://metroidvaniareview.com/2020/07/20/rain-world/

https://unionstreetjournal.com/2022/05/rain-world-a-stubborn-masterpiece/

https://www.pcgamer.com/rain-world-review/

https://www.pcgamer.com/rain-world-is-getting-5-new-slugcats-in-surprise-downpour-dlc/

TAKE ACTION:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/312520/Rain_World/

https://rainworldgame.com/

https://www.nintendo.com/store/products/rain-world-switch/

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o3gouaiHsHT2H9d2HD5gDhgmoWwoL94gSFt7Ka1-vDk/edit