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Rain World Keeps Gamers on Their Toes

Writer's picture: Tyler GrudiTyler Grudi

Originally published on my old blog "My Brother's Keeper" on May 15, 2019

Some video games only seek to entertain players. Some games offer high rewards for little effort.

Rain World doesn’t aim to simply entertain players. Many gamers admit the 2017 survival game frustrates them to no end. However, Rain World offers something other games can’t – an experience of the unpredictable.

In Rain World, you play as a small creature called a “slugcat” trying to make its way back home in an unforgiving ecosystem. Every day, you must collect enough food to stay alive and avoid getting eaten by larger predators in the process. If you don’t find designated hibernation zones before the torrential rain comes, you die.

Sounds pretty simple, right? Wrong.

Rain world simulates the indifference of nature. The rules of the world are as simple as the laws of nature – eat or be eaten.

Restricted by time and environmental ruin, you must use the slugcat’s energy efficiently to navigate the over 1600 complex rooms the game has to offer. You can jump, climb or crawl through stunning landscapes that lament the passing of a world once plagued by industry and natural disaster.

While slugcats have a near-perfect memory of places they explored, predators randomly respawn, making every day a unique challenge. You might decide to revisit a room once filled with food, only to find the room infested by lizard-like monsters ready to feast on slugcat flesh.

Maybe you’re trying to swim across a tiny pond but get weighed down by thirsty leeches and drown.

Or you may have finally reached a safe space to hibernate, but without enough food to rest, you die in the rain.

More harsh scenarios like these unfold with every gameplay. Some reviewers found these deaths too punishing. Despite the game’s beautiful and eerie art style, an IGN reviewer said, “the odds are stacked so high against the player that it risks toppling the entire structure of the game.”

To be sure, players trying out this game will die – many times over. These deaths will enrage, sadden and possibly scare you. But with every death comes the opportunity to learn and adjust.

Rain World makes no apologies for its cruel design. It refuses to hold your hand or take responsibility for teaching you how to play. The game’s world seems apathetic only because gamers have grown to expect an easy and predictable trial.

In Rain World, players must adapt to the unexpected to survive just another day. That alone is its own reward.

Tyler Grudi

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