The common-or-garden Slugcat—the adorably squishy critter on the coronary heart of Rain World—has lengthy been one among my white whales. I’ve tried (and failed) to grasp the artwork of survival within the Slugcat’s uncompromising world a number of occasions since 2017. With the discharge of Downpour, it lastly clicked. On high of being a titanic extension for the thorny survival-sim platformer, the Downpour enlargement, after 5 years in improvement, goes a protracted method to making the unique recreation extra accessible and fewer intimidating—earlier than unleashing a sequel’s price of recent horrors upon me and overwhelming me another time.
Rain World was the very definition of a cult hit. Initially met with important confusion (our personal Shaun Prescott’s assessment being one of many few actually optimistic ones), it’s straightforward to see why many bounced off it. Rain World is an ornery, uncommunicative beast. Between fixed time strain (a race towards flesh-pulverizing rain storms) and unpredictable, untethered AI, many gamers attracted by cute alien animals have been left chilly, moist, depressing and confused.
Rain World discovered its viewers on the intersection of nature documentary followers and people who play STALKER survival mods
And useless. Steadily.
Rain World is a recreation of usually putting magnificence, with detailed pixel artwork backdrops populated by procedurally animated, physics-driven critters. It seems like a residing alien world with a posh ecosystem. Sadly for the player-controlled Slugcat, that is nature with out restraint, crimson in tooth and claw and wealthy in methods to die. It’s a really daunting recreation, however a mesmerizing one to inhabit, and the promise of discovering one other unusual new surroundings (full of recent methods to be fangoriously devoured) and unraveling a little bit extra of the story led some courageous souls to struggle on. Those that did discovered a recreation that caught with them for years.
And so Rain World discovered its viewers on the intersection of nature documentary followers and people who play STALKER survival mods. Whereas many tapped out earlier than discovering Rain World even has a narrative and dialogue, those that persevered discovered a recreation of wonderful depth. Rain World has shockingly advanced AI (with each creature having advanced drives and reactions), hidden programs like creature taming, intensely technical motion regardless of easy controls, and a morally messy story revolving round karma and cycles of dying and rebirth.
A single playthrough may simply final dozens of hours, and because of the sport’s unpredictable internet of programs, no two adventures have been fairly the identical. It felt nearly boundless. Nearly.
Deluge it your self
For some it nonetheless wasn’t sufficient. The deep properly of lore ran dry, landscapes turned overly acquainted, and creatures that have been as soon as terrifying and majestic turned predictable. Wanting extra, followers picked Rain World aside, produced mod instruments and set to work increasing it. Extra playable creatures, extra environments, extra artwork and music. Many drew fanart and wrote in depth fiction, constructing on its story of alien transcendence. Downpour is the results of these efforts.
Whereas many mods have been launched previously 5 years (most discovered on group hub RainDB), most eagerly awaited was the humbly titled Extra Slugcats, which began as an try so as to add a number of new playable critters with fascinating skills however ballooned in scope. Now the work of almost 40 modders, it’s the central pillar of Downpour. This collaboration was organized by unique developer Videocult, reinvigorated after reclaiming Rain World’s rights from unique writer Grownup Swim.
Laying the groundwork for Downpour is Rain World Remix, a free improve to the unique recreation by Extra Slugcats’ two lead coders, launching alongside the paid DLC. By default, it rebalances Rain World to be simpler to grasp (by way of more information, ideas and tutorials) and a bit much less randomly merciless, but it surely’s absolutely customizable. Get your ft moist and there’s a dizzying array of buttons, toggles and variables to tune the sport to your tastes, plus accessibility choices like the flexibility to gradual your entire recreation down ala Celeste.
Moving into Rain World is way much less intimidating now than at launch. There’s nonetheless a lot to study, however there’s a totally spoiler-tagged wiki with helpful technical guides if wanted. The unique recreation now serves as a warm-up for Downpour, which is break up into three modules—Extra Slugcats, Expedition and Jolly Co-op.
Wading into the deep finish
Extra Slugcats may simply go for a full sequel, including 5 new characters with wildly completely different skills and 5 linked tales spanning generations. Whilst you can forcibly unlock these things early, Downpour recommends finishing the unique story first. Extra Slugcats triples the world’s scale, increasing outdated zones and including new environments with their very own ecologies, creatures, aesthetics and music. Extra Slugcats additionally provides a Problem mode with 70 quick score-chasing ranges (nice for training fight and evasion) and a Safari mode that permits you to freely observe the world from a distance, or possess any residing creature for a style of what life is like as a Squidcada or Miros Hen.
The extra Slugcats and their unusual powers change the sport greater than I anticipated. 5 high-powered mutants by no means thought of for mass manufacturing: Too bizarre to dwell, and too uncommon to die:
The rotund Gourmand wants additional meals to outlive, however the energy go to its mind, letting it mix gadgets into new tools and cook dinner up extra nutritious meals. It might probably additionally throw its weight round in fight, diving onto enemies to wreck and stun.
Picture 1 of 7
The Artificer is violence incarnate. Resistant to blast harm, in a position to craft bombs and organically rocket-jump by way of the air. Sadly, it begins out in a ruined metropolis stuffed with surly neighbors sad at sharing their turf with a residing explosion. The Rivulet has few downsides; it’s sooner and extra agile than common and almost nearly as good in water as on land, though not actually amphibious. Its fundamental quest is a race towards time as rainfall turns into extra frequent with every hibernation.
The Spearmaster is a weird vampiric mutation with no mouth. To feed, it grows spear-tipped tentacles from its tail to impale and drain life from prey. These countless bone-spears will also be thrown into partitions and climbed on, giving it spectacular mobility, but it surely should hunt dwell prey to outlive. Unlocked final is the Saint. Its grappling-hook tongue makes it probably the most agile of all (plus it’s enjoyable to make use of), but it surely’s additionally frail, half blind and so weak-of-limb that thrown spears simply tumble harmlessly to the bottom. It additionally begins out ravenous and freezing to dying, so… good luck?
Fathomless depths
All eight Slugcats are playable in Expedition, a semi-roguelike survival sandbox that permits you to dwell the Slugcat life with out worrying about plot. On high of fundamental survival, this mode assigns each random and hand-crafted missions, rewarding success with factors to spend on perks, score-multiplying problem boosts and different goodies for future runs. Judging by Steam evaluations, some gamers have clocked tons of of hours in vanilla Rain World. I can see them crossing into four-digit obsession right here.
The ultimate a part of the package deal is Jolly Co-op, turning story and expedition modes into an area multiplayer romp for as much as 4. Whereas true on-line multiplayer isn’t in (although with future mods, who is aware of?), Rain World does assist Steam Distant Play Collectively, making distance much less of an impediment. With all characters unlocked, it utterly transforms the sport as soon as extra. One Slugcat is simple prey. 4 are a squishy, noodly nightmare.
Downpour is a monstrously enormous package deal and a brand new starting for Rain World. Now with built-in mod assist, Steam Workshop integration and higher instruments in circulation, the followers who saved Rain World going all these years have a shiny new basis to construct on and loads of recent blood to hitch them. Even after taking part in a dozen hours I really feel I’ve barely explored Downpour’s shallows, however come on in; the water’s fantastic, and solely a little bit noodly.
