Rain World has an attractive aesthetic, a foreboding atmosphere, and an interesting concept. I like almost everything about it, with the rather significant exception of the core gameplay loop.

Summary: You are a slugcat separated from your family. Everyday you must eat, avoid being eaten, and find a place to shelter from that devastating rain world rain. In between, you can explore the vast, vast landscape. Sometimes a lil yellow plant thing will point at things you might want to check out.

That’s all you have to work with at the start. 15 hours later, it’s still all I have to work with.

Rain World is a game I tried very hard to like, and I’m sincerely disappointed that I don’t. I explored dozens of rooms in eight different biomes, evaded and fended off predators, found applications for most of the items slugcat can hold, and for my troubles I found myself at the end of a loop leading back to the beginning of the game. I'm confident there was something else to learn along this route, but my most generous interpretation is that Rain World is completely indifferent to whether or not I know what it is. Well, I find I am equally indifferent.

The game is simply not very fun to play from moment to moment. Every screen is an invitation to make a costly input error or to just get punked by a lizard that falls on you jaws first. It’s tense, I’ll grant, but when I succeed I usually feel lucky instead of smart.

Yet it’s hard to find fault in Rain World because there is no single aspect of it which is bad in isolation. It’s the way it all hangs together; a game that’s less than the sum of its parts. At its core (or, I guess, somewhere on its extremely wide surface), I find a knot of contradictions and mechanics that are all in tension with each other. Some examples:

• A game about exploring further and further into hostile environments to uncover ancient mysteries of a lost civilization vs. A game where the player’s avatar is an animal whose primary motivations are to find food and a place to sleep every day

• Deaths are frequent and sometimes unavoidable vs. The player must survive several consecutive cycles to move between regions

• Procedural animation renders the sprites dynamically based on player inputs and the environment vs. Precision platforming requires the player to quickly discern small visual differences

• An intricate simulated ecosystem with procedurally generated interactions the player can study and learn to exploit vs. The player is always on a ticking clock

• A quick-swap inventory system where the player needs to pay close attention to what is held in each hand at all times vs. A control scheme that is deliberately obtuse and difficult to master vs. A minimalist colour palette where many common items are represented by small black blocks of similarly shaped pixels

Each of these elements, taken on its own, is found in some other game I’ve enjoyed. Even the concept of pulling the player between contradictory mechanics is, on its own, not a bad idea at all. But a bunch of systems that all pull against each other is not a substitute for a center of mass. Nothing holds them all together. So Rain World is tedious to play.

I’ve read accounts from players who love this game. They hint at a subtle, sprawling, environment-driven narrative. I’ve no reason to doubt this is the case, but the game doesn’t seem to care whether I see it, and I’m just tired of looking.

This game is a survival platformer that places you in control of a fragile slugcat navigating a hostile, post-apocalyptic ecosystem. Its standout qualities are the gorgeous pixel art, fluid animations, and the haunting atmosphere that emerges from its dynamic world, filled with predators and relentless rain. it's art is what made me want to play this game, and I stayed because of it's amazing gameplay loop.

The game’s ecosystem feels alive, with procedurally animated creatures that behave unpredictably, creating tense and immersive encounters. Exploration is at the heart of the experience, with storytelling left mostly to environmental clues rather than dialogue or cutscenes, which adds to its mysterious tone. I find that the pixel-art is something from another world since the animations and fluidity feels like it is not a pixel-art title at all, it is truly one of a kind on this regard.

However, Rain World is notoriously punishing, death often comes suddenly, and the scarcity of guidance means you must learn through trial and error. It'll make you want to quit several times over, this is truly one of the hardest games I've ever played, and it absolutely does not feel unbalanced or cheap, it is just trying to convey the idea of you playing as a fragile living being in a hostile environment. This combination of harsh difficulty and opaque mechanics can be frustrating, especially for those looking for a more forgiving experience, so I advise you skip this one if you don't like this idea.

The reception was mixed at first, with some people praising its artistry and atmosphere while others criticized its severity. Over time, though, it has gained a cult following among players who appreciate its unique approach to survival and its uncompromising design, even launching some DLCs afterwards, with more playable characters that can drastically change how you play the game. And I highly recommend playing those, even though, particularly speaking, I never came back to it after I finished it for the first time. For those willing to endure its challenges, Rain World delivers a singular, unforgettable journey.