During the One Six Indie Showcase 2024, we were treated to a trailer for a brand new DLC for Rain World. This DLC, The Watcher, looks to take players to unfamiliar territory for a new S??lugcat adventure, and fans want it to go as far as possible.

Eagle-eyed players spotted several key details Rain World's The Watcher DLC trailer, including a lack of Iterators, walking snails, and some fresh-looking animated backgrounds that hint at new environments. The franchise is known for an incredibly complex ecosystem that interlinks as you explore, with every environment impacting the other in some way. But fans want something that cuts deep from the DLC. A region or regions cut off from what we've seen b??efore.

Where are the Iterators?

Long before the DLC's trailer was released, Rain World fans on the game's subreddit had been discussing what t?hey wanted from it. User ANBpokeball sums up what a lot of other fans want. "Exploring new regions, seeing new creatures, meeting Slugcats other than the protagonist, and getting to meet one of the iterators other than Five Pebbles or Looks To The Moon."

This would be brilliant. Iterators are massive entities that house entire ecosystems. They're also said to create the rain that gives Rain World its name. In the base g?ame and other DLC, you can see other Iterators in the distance when you reach the top of one, as high as you can go.

The featured image for this article shows a Slugcat at that point, and there's a shocking lack of Iterators. This hints that The Watcher DLC could? ??be set at a different time, in a different dimension, or in a region separate from the rest of the franchise.

We can actually look to the Akupara Games page for the DLC for some clarity here. "Journey beyond to something, somewhere only ever glimpsed. When th??e world beneath your feet cracks and crumbles, will you hold? on to all you once knew? Or dive into the unknown?"

It suggests we'll be somewhere in the Rain World series we've neve??r actually been able to visit. Part of what makes the franchise so intriguing and gripping is its comple?x ecosystem that you sneak, run from, and fight your way through across many playthroughs.

From the sounds of it, I'd say we're heading to a dry location, somewhere the ground cracks and crumbles away from an Iterator. It could reveal the planet's past below the crust of dirt and away from the fairly familiar territories we've known around these large machines. Having played Animal Well earlier this year, I'm excited to play as another creatur??e delving into the depths.

Fans want something new, and the trailer and description certainly make it look like that's what we're getting. We'll have to wait until March 28, 2025, to know for sure, and if you're new to the series, that should be just enough time to get caught up on everything you need to know before The Watcher DLC drops.

The post Rain World ??fans want new ecosystems and regions in The Watcher DLC appeared first on Destructoid.

A solid showing of indie games

Microsoft held their ID@Xbox Showcase today showing off the lineup of upcoming indie games heading to PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|?S. We got a good look at some? promising-looking indie games that are coming out over the next year. Alongside world premieres we also got a few surprise today releases.

We've put together a recap of all the new game reveals and announcements from the showcas?e. There were twenty games showcased in this ID@Xbox event so there's lots to talk about. Let's dive in!

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhRr_5HhKxI

Monolith: Requiem of the Ancients

Monolith: Requiem of the Ancients is third person action adventure RPG about a mysterious powerful monolith threatened by dark forces. Embark on a dangerous adventure with the power of the Runic Swarm and crush minions of evil on your path to save the planet. Monolith is co??ming in 2024 on Xbox One and Xbox Serie??s X|S.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlwSl-jCNMM

Hellboy Web of Wyrd

Hellboy Web of Wyrd is an upcoming action-brawler-roguelite where you can punch, dodge, and blast your way through the mysterious Web of Wyrd as the comic-favorite Hellboy. While no exacty timeframe was given, Hellboy Web of Wyrd is coming soon to Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCMCZ3gALc4

Everspace 2

Space action RPG Everspace 2 will finally be leaving early access and receives a full launch on August 15, 2023 on Xbox Series X|S. It is also a Day 1 on Game Pass title. Though it wasn't mentioned, we also know it's releasing on PS5 the same day. The full release will feature a 30+ hour main ?campaign story that is fully voiced in English and German.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=mioYYcmsog0

Sea of Stars

We got another look at the Sea of Stars announcement trailer that was released a few months ago. The turn-based RPG inspired by the classics still looks as beautiful as ever. Sea of Stars tells the story of two Children of the Solstice who combine powers of sun and moon to perform Eclipse Magic and fight back the evil Fleshmancer. Sea of Stars features special guest composer Yasunori Mitsuda who is well known for his music in Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, and Xenoblade Chronicles 3. The retro RPG wil??l release on August 29 and will be day 1 on Game Pas??s. A demo is out now on Xbox.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECbYebmtqvs

Solace State

Take on the role of a young hacker confronting political plots in Solace State. The visual novel-style game claims choices will be important as you build relationships and support communities attempting to revolutionize against a corporate biotech conspiracy. Solace State is coming this summer to Xbox On??e and ?Xbox Series X|S.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCyWv7rexbo

Worldless

Worldless is a stylized 2D Adventure Platformer featuring turn-based combat. Explore a mysterious and abstract world as you attune to various polarities that change your style of combat. Worldless releases on Xbox One and Xbox S??eries X|S in Fall 2023.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dXwcSoHWUU

MythForce

Jump into a Saturday Morning Cartoon with first-person melee roguelike MythForce. Adventure through crypts and castles with your friends as you hunt down the evil Hexstar. MythForce launc??hes on September 12 on Xbox One and Xbox Seri??es X|S.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGtYNFtvGzc

Jackbox Party Pack 10

Timejinx and Hypnotorious were revealed as two of the five games coming in Jackbox Party Pack 10. We've already seen Tee K.O. 2 and FixyText revealed as two of the other games, meaning we're still waiting on one more. Jackbox Party Pack 10 releases this fall on all major platforms.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMgy7vI6hn0

Roman Sands RE:Build

This is a very unique-looking title. Roman Sands RE:Build is a delirium-charged journey into an apocalypse. Play through a variety of genres including visual novel, adventure, puzzle, horror, and survival simulation games. Roman Sands RE:Build is coming to Xbox One and Xbox Series ?X|??S in Winter 2023.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4ziEhBytrM

Scarlet Deer Inn

Scarlet Deer Inn is a narrative platformer featuring an emotional story and an interesting cast of characters. Explore a dark dungeon full of monsters and branching dialogue options where all character's animation frames have actually been embroidered. Furthermore, all backgrounds have been hand-painted. The Studio Ghibli-inspired Scarlet Deer Inn is coming to Xbox Series X|S but no release timeframe just y??et.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xnc7jSmcxB4

Rain World: Downpour

Rain World and the Rain World: Downpour DLC are ou??t now on Xbox. Take control of five new characters as you explore the dark and mysterious world.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvRLsQmQAc0

Second Wave

Wait, this isn't an Overwatch skin pack? Apparently not. Second Wave is a free-to-play online multiplayer hero-based shooter MOBA in the world of Armantia. Choose from Domination or 3-Way Battle as you fight other heroes and exiles in an endless war for the Arcane Stone. Second Wave is co??ming to Xbox Series X|S b?ut no release timeframe was given.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Coku_dX7Tfk

Vampire Survivors

Even though it was revealed a couple of weeks ago, we got another look at the Vampire Survivors couch co-op mode. Dust off your couch and jump into the bullet hell Vampire Survivors with up to four total players. The new mode i?s coming to Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and Game Pa??ss on August 17.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVju4TQoT1w

Axiom Verge 2

You can now explore the award-winning alien world of Axiom Verge 2 on Xbox. Our very own Eric Van Allen thought this was a beautiful Metroid-style game so it's definitely worth checking out. Axiom Verge 2 is out now on Xbox One and Xbox Ser?ies X|S either alone or in a bundle with the first one.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=avFlZxNjOtI

Stray Souls

Ok, this probably has to be the best reveal of the showcase in my opinion. Stray Souls is a creepy-looking indie game that looks like a mix between Silent Hill and Resident Evil. The spooky third-person shooter features new music by legendary Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka. Stray Souls hits Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S in Fall 2023.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RxnHLsDGo8

Birth

I'll be honest, Birth definitely looked unique but I wasn't too sure exactly what I had just seen by the time the trailer was over. Apparently, it's an adventure puzzle game about constructing a creature from spare bones and organs you find around a city. The art is hand-drawn and the gameplay involves you solving physics-based puzzles as you discover secrets around town. Birth releases on Xbox One on July 28.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=50K1cw5_9vU

Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Like the film, Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a g??ame based on true events. Try to survive in this ?insanely chaotic survival game when it releases on August 18 on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. It will also be a day 1 Game Pass release.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_EseZ_Kalw

DREAMERS

It's time to go on an emotional journey with DREAMERS, a new colorful adventure game by PlaySys. Explore a world full of challenges and mysteries on September 1. DREAMERS is releasing on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=utb6ET0uhV0

Stumble Guys

The mobile game variant of Fall Guys is now officially coming to consoles. Stumble Guys is a??nother multiplayer knockout royale game coming to Xbox Series S|X and Xbox One.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyfNjdTaFLE

The Making of Karateka

Based on the 1984 martial arts action game by Jordan Mechner, The Making of Karateka is an interactive documentary that also includes four pixel-perfect versions of Karateka. It will also feature an all-new remastered version of the game with new features. The Making of Karateka releases later this year on Xbox Series X|S.

Whew, that's it! I'm personally really looking forward to Sea of Stars and Stray Souls. How do you guys feel overall abou?t the ID@Xb?ox showcase?

The post Here’s a full July ID@Xbox Showcase Recap appeared first on Destructoid.

Rain, rain, go away

Don't get wet -- enter our contest for your shot to win Rain World.

Adult Swim Games publishes some really, really neat games. I mean, you really gotta have some respect for someone willing to put out games like Fist Puncher, Battle Chef Brigade, and Pool Panic.

Get in on their newest game to hit Nintendo Switch, Rain World! We've go??t copies for Switch, PS4, and Steam, so everyone will be satisfied!

This stunning action platformer sees you as a slugcat, a species that relies on stealth and cunning ??to survive. Sep?arated from your own kind by a cataclysmic flood, you must traverse strange and alien worlds in order to find safety. Everything can and will kill you; it's up to you to use the environment and enemies' weaknesses against them in order to make it out alive.

Game features include:

• Sneak, climb, and pounce your way through a dynamic, ever-changing ecosystem of predators and prey
• Explore a vast world of over 1,600 rooms, spanning 12 diverse regions filled with ancient secrets and undiscovered dangers
• Nimble movements and procedurally generated animation gives slugcat a natural fluidity of movement and unique sense of weight
• Intense, primal predator encounters will challenge your reflexes
• Limited resources and the constant, impending threat of rain will test your nerve

Don't forget your raincoat.

To enter to win, comment below with your preferred platform (Switch, PC, PS4) and what threat you face every day that tests your reflexes. As someone who commutes in a car to work, I have to constantly be on the lookout for shitty drivers in my area. There are a lot, and they're all hellbent on either crashing into me, guardrails, or each other in order to make me late for work. I have to navigate these treacherous conditions in order to make it to my desk with minimal damage to ??my car, person, and psyche -- all just to do it again the next day. It's tough out there, man.

We have 10 Switch keys, 10 PS4 keys, and 5 Steam keys to give out. Our Switch and PS4 keys are for North American ?accounts only. Winners will be drawn on Friday, January 11. Please make sure to comment using a Dtoid-generated Disqus account, and that your account has your current email addres??s on file.

Rain World is available now for Switch, PS4, and PC. Head over to PC Invasion and Nintendo Enthusiast for more chances to win!

The post Contest: Win a copy of Adult Swim Games’ Rain World appeared first on Destructoid.

What if Mary Lou Retton was an unlucky cat in a global warming wasteland?

Nic Rowen's review of Rain World seemed sympathetic but sad, which makes sense given that the game does a lot to invoke those two feelings. The bad news is, he was also feeling pretty disappointed when he said "I feel so badly for this game in a way. It seems so close to being something special and wonderful, but is just undermined at every turn by baffling design choices, poor cont??rols, and frustration. Maybe some of these issues will be addressed in a future patch and Rain World will become the game it feels like it should have been. Someone else will ha?ve to let?? me know."

Then a few months later, many of the issues Nic described were indeed addressed in a series of updates that added difficulty levels, decreased the need for potential grinding, and ??improved the map system. So the devs did their part, but did anyone let Nic know? 

Steam's user reviews definitely tried to get the word out, which now average at very positive. Still, it's an uphill battle for any game that's looking to reestablish its reputation after coming out of the gate to a mixed critical response. Slain managed to garner some goodwill after completely overhauling its combat system shortly after launch. TumbleSeed added an entire n??ew game's worth of co??ntent for free a few months after its debut, which helped it to get some additional headlines. Still, it's unclear?? if the positive press for either game led to much of an uptick in sales. 

I hope that Rain World fares better than that. With a new physical edition on PS4, and a surprise early launch on Switch, I think it has a chance, especially on Nintendo consoles. I know this game has an audience in the home of Mario, Samus, and Olimar. Though they aren't directly related, you can see the DNA of all three running through different aspects of Rain World. I just wonder if Switch owners will pull Smash and Pokémon away for long enough to see it too.

Rain World puts you in the role of Slugcat, a noodle-like mammal trying to explore and survive in a serene post-apocalyptic wasteland. Your wobbly feline has no claws or bite to speak of, but their javelin throwing and gymnastic abilities are beyond Olympic level strong. Coupled with those powers come specific moves that seem directly inspired by some of Samus's tricks in Super Metroid and Mario's acrobatic turn in Donkey Kong '94, like the wall-jump, the quick-turn backflip, and the tuck and roll landing. ?Also like in those Nintendo classics, most of these?? maneuvers are never explicitly taught to the player. You're supposed to discover them organically.

Organic is probably the best word to describe all of Rain World. Everything from the controls, the characters, the story, and the game flow feel alive a??nd mushy. It's all like a big bed of moss tha??t may or may not release endorphins, hallucinogens, and/or toxic spores into your lungs at any time. 

That may sound overly intimidating, or even disgusting, but thanks to its consistently poetic delivery and reward for risk-taking, Rain World almost always inspires curiosity. For example, if (or should I say, when) you are killed by a giant lizard, you can watch where it carries your ??corpse as it travels back to its nest. Watch for long enough and you may see it drag your dead body to an undiscovered location. In your next life, you can use that information to discover all new areas that you may not have found otherwise. Heading back to the scene of your most recent murder also yields more practical benefits, as wherever you died in a past life, a flower will grow. Eating the plant can later help you to preserve "karma," the in-game currency you need to progress. 

Hiding a tip amid a morbidly fascinating wildlife funeral procession may seem like a random move, but it falls right in line with the game's overall aesthetic. Like in Pikmin, Rain World's animal kingdom is fascinating to observe. Through traces of lost language? and smatterings of graffiti, you get the sense that people used to live here. Now ?they are gone, replaced by nature's food chain. Slugcat sits near the bottom of the chain, above bats and centipedes, parallel to giant beetles and ape-like scavengers, and far below the Ghibli-esque fungus deer-rabbits and monstrous deep sea leviathans. Few of these monsters are your "enemies" in the traditional sense of the word. Like you, they just need to eat, and sometimes that means eating someone else.

Like in many of the best games in the survival genre, Rain World makes it fun to push back on the barriers that separate predator from prey. Slugcat is a softy, but with your human brain calling the shots, they can use tools to turn the tables on anyone or anything. Som?etimes it's as simple as throwing a rock to distract a dragon, or poisoning swamp parasites with a specific form of plant, but it can go way past that if you're willing to experiment. If you show enough commitment, it's even possible to inspire empathy in this harsh world. It took a lot of work to turn wolves into dogs, and likewise, it's not easy to domesticate carnivorous reptiles, but it is possible. 

One thing you can't tame is the passage of time. Rain World has an internal clock that ends in a deadly storm that sweeps away everything in its path. This makes exploration for long stretches particularly anxiety-inducing. If you're in a new area and don't know where the safe zone is, you may end up drowned or torn apart before you get lucky enough to find shelter. These safe zones also work as respawn points, so if you die on your way to one, you'll have to make the same treacherous hike all over again. In this f??ar-reaching la??ndscape made up of twelve different regions, sprawling across industrial dumps, waterlogged islands, floating continents, and anti-gravity tunnels, death from exposure to the elements is bound to happen more than a few times. 

That's just one of the many ways you will end up dead in Rain World. Even on the least conflict-oriented difficulty (appropriately titled "The Monk"), you will often end up a limp a??nd lifeless. While many rooms are carefully choreographed to inspire you to learn to tricks (a trap with no exit leads you to learn to wall jump; a field of carnivorous red grass coaxes you to try riding a giant beast), the complex and active AI of the wildlife brings on many random-feeling events.

Just like there is no predicting when you might trip in Smash Bros. Brawl, Rain World sometimes asks the player to accept unavoidable loses. In life, and in video games, sometimes the? cards are just stacked against you. That may frustrate control freaks, but for those that like an added layer of realistic ?chaos in their games, it just makes the experience more believable, especially when you manage to survive a situation that seemed destined to end in your death. 

The difference, of course, is that when you die in Smash, you may be playing competitively, and losing against another person is a bad feeling for some people. In Rain World, the only thing you have to lose is karma, the previous??ly mentioned in-game currenc??y that you need to collect in order to open up certain locked doors. That can definitely sting, as finding new areas and creatures are among the best moments in the game.

The good news is, you can gain karma simply by getting to shelter before the rain falls with enough food in your stomach to hibernate on. I lost all my karma once in about five minutes, after repeatedly getting eaten by plants or stabbed to death by angry primates. Then I gained it all back in fifteen minutes, thanks to a lizard that distracted the scavengers long enough to let me get to safer, more familiar ground. From the sounds of it, the karma currency exchange system wasn't quite as generous when Rain World first released. After being patched several times, it now stings just enough to make the looming chance of death fe??el scary, but oppressive.  

The only place in the game I felt truly crushed is in the optional Arena mode, which takes place out of the single-player campaign and its karma system. This combat-heavy deathmatch mini-game and the Sandbox mode are the places to go if you want to practice your action and evasion skills alone or with friends. Both can get intense, sometimes to the point where the amount of stuff on screen causes serious slowdown. The devs are working on fixing that though. Just earlier this week they released a patch that fixed several game-crashing bugs and other technical issues. I can only hope that the next update offers up some Slugcat pups, but only if you can't kill the younglings. 

Apologies in advance if you're tired of me comparing Rain World to Nintendo franchises, but after playing the game for a week, I can safely say that this is the experience that I wanted out of Breath of the Wild, but didn't quite get most of the time. It offers up a massive, mysterious world that feels real, while still being filled with smartly designed "game-y" opportunities to develop a sense of mastery of your character and co??nnection to your environment.

More importantly, it's densely packed. You never have to run for five minutes straight across an uneventful open field in order to get to something interesting, or contend with the same drawn-out battles against bullet-sponge bad guys that come at you in the same way over and over again. If you play well, you're always just a few seconds away from the next screen, and you literally never know exactly what will happen when you get there. If you can get past its cryptic nature and eagerness to make the player feel vulnerable, then Rain World just may have the power to take you away from Smash for go??od, ?or at least ;until that seductive Piranha Plant shows up and sucks you back in. 

The post Switch Port Report: Rain World appeared first on Destructoid.

December 21

I really dug Rain World at launch though some people decidedly did not. Videoc??ult has since been trying to make this gorgeous looking game more enticing, and after a series of updates they're still working on the game a year and a half after the fact.

The studio has announced that they're doing a limited run (via Limited Run) of physical copies of Rain World, complete with the memorable Slugcat in plush form, as well as a glow in the dark vinyl, a PS4 copy of the game a soundtrack code and a 12x12 art print. It'll be availab??le on December 21 for $79.99.

Rain World is also being updated in general at the same time. Local multiplayer is in (as a Sandbox extension, which PC already has), as well as "The Monk" mode for a "slower, kinder experience" -- a sort of remixed easier mode if you will, with "fewer enemies" to deal with and more food to survive. The Hunter is basically hard mode with stricter hibernation requirements and even new enemies (reminding me of classic action games like the Xbox Ninja Gaiden that provided new de?signs for higher difficulty settings).

With all this work it's probably safe to say that a Switch version could be in the ??works.

Rain World Gets New Modes and Physical Edition December?? 21 [PlayStation Blog]

The post Over a year after relea?se, Rain World PS4 is getting a physical? edition and an overhaul appeared first on Destructoid.

Why haven't you done it already?

Its still super crazy, to me, how Adult Swim seamlessly transitioned into video game publishing. I used to watch them with an almost religious devotion when I was a teen and that followed me into college. My roommate freshman year had never seen Futurama before meeting me, but after? that first year, he had watched ??the entire series about four times through.

Anyway, you can get Volgarr the Viking for a dollar in the newest Humble Bundle, based on Adult Swim Games. Some of the other games are pretty good, too, but Volgarr is absolutely worth that low entry price. As a matter of fact, why are you even reading this? Just go buy Volgarr and prepare to get? your teeth kicked in for a fe??w hours. It will turn you into a bad ass, guaranteed.

The other games are as follows:

$1 Tier:

• Small Radios Big Televisions
• WASTED
• Westerado: Double Barreled
• Volgarr The Viking

Beat the Average ($6.25 at time of writing) Tier:

• Duck Game
• Rise & Shine
• Headlander

$12 or More Tier:

• Glittermitten Grove
• Rain World
• Frog Fractions 2

Humble Adult Swim Games Bundle [Humble Bundle]

The post You can get Volgarr the Viking for $1 in the Adult Swim Humble Bu?ndl?e appeared first on Destructoid.

You won't lose your map progress, for starters

It's a shame about Rain World's brutal reputation, but I'm still keeping an eye on it to se??e how things progress from here. Videocult has already responded with a patch "intended to accommodate some early player feedback and polish assorted rough edges on the various game systems."

The idea behind this "quick patch" was to smooth out the player experience without stripping Rain World so far back tha?t it would totally lose its "unfo??rgiving and even occasionally unfair" nature.

Gameplay improvements:

• "Stuck in holes" fix - disconnected exits will no longer snag you
• Subtle backlit slugcat in low visibility swimming situations
• Quicker turning around in tunnels
• Larger lung capacity while swimming
• Nerfed the more intense waterfalls in Shoreline to prevent repeated drownings
• More pearls near Scav tolls in Garbage Wastes
• More food in central Garbage Wastes
• More food in central Shaded Citadel
• More karma flowers in world
• Karma gate requirements on the Shaded Citadel, Drainage System and Underhang side were lowered to prevent players becoming stuck in challenging regions
• Food / karma flowers regeneration now ticks forward on deaths (helps eliminate stuck / starvation situations at low karma)
• Players will now keep map progress between deaths (I'd say 99.5% of people asked for this)
• Map now features gate karma symbols and shelter icons when locations are discovered
• Karma depletion on game exit removed if done within 30 seconds of sleep cycle
• Full karma drop on exit bug fixed (that was a brutal one, sheesh!)
• Intro cinematic is now skippable by holding start / esc
• For players having issues with Grey Screen of Death and starting the game from save files, you can now entirely skip loading the intro by holding "s" when pressing "New Game." hopefully this helps until we have a real fix!
• Many many minor room fixes

Stability improvements:

• Map loading bug fixed (was causing the corrupted savs, ugh)
• Gate crashing bug fixed
• Assorted stability improvements

The team also says ?it expects to deliver more patches and eventually new content.

Hello friends?? and slugcats! We present ??to you patch #1: Rain World v1.01 [Steam]

The post This week’s Rain World update addresses common complaints appeared first on Destructoid.

Washed out

I have a known fondness for difficult games. When applied correctly, adversity and challenge can raise a game to another level. I've gleefully lapped up the absurdities and frustrations of titles like Darkest Dungeon and the Binding of Isaac in the past.

Rain World is the only title I've played in recent memory where I felt I had to shut it off for the night and walk away or I was going to put my controller through the screen. It's the kind of game that wa??llows in the worst kind of difficulty. The kind that wastes the player's time, punishes them for factors beyond their control, and undercuts what otherwise could have been a phenomenal experience.

Rain World [PS4 (reviewed), PC]
Developer: Videocult 
Publisher: Adult Swim
Released: March 28, 2017
MSRP: $19.99 

Rain World is a survival/stealth/horror hybrid with a metroidvania flair. It's about embodying the? life of a slugcat -- a tiny, slightly gelatinous cat/rabbit creature trying to survive in a hostile world. The story is simple: You're a slugcat, you were separated from your family, you need to survive long enough to find them. How you accomplish?? that in a world determined to do you in is the real question.

Set in a simulated ecosystem, you have to obey the laws of nature. Just like any animal trying to survive, your little slugcat needs to fend for its own basic needs. You need to eat, avoid or overcome predators, and find shelter from the elements. A variety of simple commands (pick up, throw, jump, eat) allow for a startling variety of survival techniques and abilities. While picking up a rock or spear may have an immediate and ob?vious purpose, there are lots of little secrets and odd interactions to be found. Plants you eat may have surprising secondary purposes. Shiny stones might be good for more than distracting a predator.

But, you'll have to discover these techniques on your own. Rain World is strident about not holding the player's hand. Outside of a quick five-minute tutorial that explains basic locomotion and hibernating, y?ou're completely on your own. A weird flower/worm buddy may occasionally spring out of the dirt and cryptically warn you about some danger or suggest a nearby route, but I found those warnings always came a second too late, and the directions too vague to provide any real guidance.

While I'm generally a fan of games that respect the player's ability to figure things out on their own and make their own way, Rain World tests the limits of that design choice. It's easy to dump hours into it without fully understanding the basic mechanics and rules necessary ?to progress.

The first thing that is immediately apparent about Rain World is the look. Y??es, this game is as gorgeous and amazing to look at as every animated GIF you've seen of it teased over the past few years. Each screen is a painting of a ruined world, a tableau depicting the stark beauty of nature reclaiming a post-human environment. The procedurally generated animations of the slugcat are as flui??d and viscous as playing with a water balloon in your hands. The way it slips and slorps his way around, squeezing through narrow tunnels, balling itself up as it leaps from ledge to ledge is delightful.

The second thing that is apparent as soon as you get it in your hands is how difficult it is to control all those gorgeous animations. For as fluid and nimble as the slugcat? looks, it controls like a soggy sack of bricks.

Unbelievably, for a game that has been largely marketed based on how cool it looks in motion, nothing about Rain World feels right to the hand. The slugcat's jump is oddly heavy and stubby, its ability to cling to ledges inconsistent. Scurrying up and down poles is frustratingly finicky; trying to jump off to the left or ??right can sometimes result in the slugcat just dropping off the pole to one side or another. And forget dropping from a higher beam and clinging to a slightly lower one, especially when the pipe you want to grab is at the edge of a screen transition.

Of particular frustration is the slugcat's habit of getting stuck in imperceptible nooks and crannies that scatter the world. The game is bafflingly full of these tiny holes (other monsters use them as spawn and travel points), but the chief frustration is that they always seem to flank vents and pipes that you need to access to get around. I can't tell you how many times I died thinkin??g I had narrowly dodged a monster, only to find my slugcat had accidentally wedged itself into a small hole JUST below or above the vent that would have ushered it to freedom. It is such an obviou?s and persistently frustrating issue that I can't help but feel it was an intentional design choice, but I also can't begin to fathom the logic behind it.

The myriad of control issues makes exploration and movement, in a game all about exploration and movement, a thankless chore. On its own, this would already be troubling, but the controls are just the start of Rain World's issues.

It is a rare thing to see a game so fundamentally at war with itself. Without a doubt, the best of Rain World lies in?? exploring and discovering what its mysterious, vaguely post-apocalyptic world has to offer. The breathtaking visuals and unique quirks of each new area. The nervous excitement of spotting an unfamiliar creature. The thrill of finally piecing together what a certain plant or gem can be used for. All of these moments are brilliant, and beautiful, and sublime.

But, tragically, the game is dead-set on making the path to these moments as ted?ious and unrewarding as possible.

Death is harsh and frequent in Rain World. A slugcat's life hangs by a thin thread and nearly every predator can kill you with a single bite or swipe. Deaths from predators, falls, and other threats are all regular occurrences. Dying? resets you back to the last hibernation spot you slept in, erases all forward progress, wipes any new discoveries or trails you blazed off the map, and reshuffles the locations and conditions of al?l the roving creatures who may want to make a snack out of you.

To their credit, the dynamic AI of the monsters populating Rain World is impressive. Each animal has its own abilities, and survival priorities. Lizards of different colors slink and snap their way across the map, some possessing the ability ??to crawl along the background imagery, or turn invisible. Underwater terrors lurk in murky depths, moving to a prehistoric rhythm all their own. They squabble over territory, hunt game, and huddle together like actual animals.

It's all fascinating to watch, but the most salient point is that they all want to kill you, and most of them are ruthlessly efficient at doing so. The problem is, there is no way ??to really understand what each monster can do (does it have an extending tongue? Can it fly? Does it shoot some kind of ink or thorn?) or how it will behave until they give you an up-close and personal demonstration with tooth and claw.

This extends to the environments, which are maddeningly opaque. Rain World is covered in carnivorous plants, hidden obstacles, and gotcha-style sudden-death traps. The difference between a plant you can eat, and one that can eat you, is almost impossible to know wi?thout sticking your neck out (for ages I was deathly afraid of some red, spear-shaped plants for fear they?'d animate and kill me if I got too close. Turns out, you can eat their seeds like popcorn).

This isn't even counting all the times the game's rust-covered art style makes it difficult to discern foreground from background. Knowing for sure what poles you can grab onto, which garbage piles are decoration and which are obstacles, or even which ledges you can han?g on to is impossible without just taking a leap and finding out f?or yourself. It's all trial and error with the looming specter of this harsh penalty hanging over you.

As the monsters all reset and spawn in different positions each time you die, there is no optimal path or strategy to work out to deal with them. Sometimes you get lucky and the monsters clear a path for you. Other times, a lizard will squat in the exact vent you need to travel through and refuse to move. Or three monsters will spawn on the same screen and corner you together. The most controller-pitching moments of frustration I had were when enemies were positioned exactly at the edge of a screen transition or the end of a ven??t, res??ulting in a completely unavoidable, impossible-to-predict death.

If that was the worst of it, I could? probably handle it. Unfair deaths and punishing checkpoints are some grievous sins, bu?t not immediate deal-breakers. The real killer though is the entirely unexplained karma system that penalizes each death with a major curtailment of your potential to explore.

Each time you lay your slugcat down to rest, a rotating icon ticks up in the left hand corner. I assumed this was a ca??lendar system of some kind, representing the passing of days (or months, who knows) while the little slugcat happily dreamt the horrors of the world away. Instead, these are actually a kind of accrued point you receive and build on for each successful day where you manage to eat enough food to be able to hibernate without getting eaten yourself. Die, and you roll back a point (provided you haven't devoured a special kind of flower, a mechanic that is also left entirely unexplained).

There are literal gates that will only open and close (in an admittedly beautiful sequence) if you have the appropriate karma value when you reach them. If you have explored the open areas available to you as far as you can, you have no choice but to reach the karma? level required to open one of the gates -- which means finding something to snack on and sleeping a few days. It's dressed-up XP grinding.

Of course, new a??reas also represent fre??sh, unexplored hazards waiting to kill you and there is rarely a checkpoint/hibernation area close to the opening of a new area. So, poking your head into a new zone usually results in having it quickly chopped off.

This leads to an interminable cycle of grinding for karma points by hunting, eating, and sleeping in the same areas again and again, retracing the same path to a new area, and praying that you don't lose another karma point to another cheap death to a randomly placed beastie. All for the privilege -- the absolute joy -- of getting one step further into a new area before the next impossible-to-predict, tria??l-and-error trap?? kills you and starts the cycle all over again.

It's a process that absolutely k????illed any enjoyment I was having with the game.

This is also without mentioning the weather pattern the game gets its name from. Rain World is beset with regular monsoon downpours that punctuate your exploratory efforts every 15 or 20 minutes or so. These storms drive down rain with such unrelenting force and volume that it's fatal to stand exposed to them, while also quickly flooding any subterranean shelter you might be hiding in. If you're not in a safe, air-locked hibernation cubby when the wat??er begin to rise, you're dead. These precious points are few and far between.

To me, the rain system is almost a perfect microcosm of the high-points a?nd faults of the game.

The style and personality is so on point during these storms that it hurts. The rain looks beautiful and harsh and instantly defines a killer mood that hangs over the entire game. The way all the other noises die down as the slow trickle of the first few drops echo off the walls gave me honest-to-god goosebumps the first time I heard it. I was playing on the PS4 and didn't expect the sudden strobing flashes from the controller in time with the lightning, illuminating my darkened living room. At its best moments, Rain World made me feel the primal dread ?of being a small animal trapped in a storm from the cozy comfort of my couch.

But while aesthetically re??markable, the rain seems directly opposed to the game's core strength: exploration. You're actively punished for straying too far from familiar surrounding by the very real, and very likely, danger of being unable to find a safe haven. Everything tells you to go forward a??nd explore, but then the world pulls the rug out from under you and sends you back to square one for your troubles.

Is it realistic for exploration to be ??dangerous to a small animal trying to survive in nature? Sure.? Does it make for a game that is in anyway satisfying to play? No.

From the moment I hit start on the intro screen, I had the distinct feeling that Rain World wants to be the next Dark Souls, Fez, or Spelunky. A slow-burning classic, rich in mystery and secrecy, beggi??ng to be revealed. A game that pushes the majority of people away with its apparent difficulty and needs to be "discovered" to be appreciated. One that is teased and prodded at for months (or years) after release by a fervent and growing fanbase until all of its secrets have been unveiled. It c?ertainly has the depth, the mechanics, and the world to be one of those games.

But, from my perspective at least, Rain World does nothing to justify that kind of dedication. Dark Souls is an amazing action game even if you couldn't care less about who Gywn's firstborn really was. Fez is a delightful puzzle-platformer you can enjoy without ever diving into the inner-workings of its mystery. Spelunky is a master-class in p??rocedural generation and religiously enforced world-rules applied?? to every object.

Rain World is sloppy, clunky platformer. It's a game of fumbling controls, arbitrary deaths, and tedious repetition. Why should I bother figuring out what all those twee little glyphs mean? Why should I devote dozens of hours to figuring out what spitting up one kind of plant might do in a specific situation when the controls can't even be bothered to feel consistent? You can't?? just make a game that tells the player nothing, smacks them down at every other turn, and expect them to happily commit themselves to unraveling its mysteries. There has to be a reason to want to dig deeper for buried treasure.

I feel so badly for this game in a way. It seems so close to being something special and wonderful, but is just undermined at every turn by baffling design choices, poor controls, and frustration. Maybe some of these issues will be addressed in a future patch and Rain World will become the game it feels like it should have been. Someone else will have to let me know. As far as I'm co??ncerned, my days of being a slugcat are officially behind me and I won't be looking back.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Rain World appeared first on Destructoid.

PS Plus subscribers can save 20% on pre-orders

Sony is holding another one of those PlayStation Network promotions that'll give ?us some good new games, one after another, for several weeks straight. This one, Play Collective, starts next Tuesday.

• March 21: David OReilly's play-as-anything sim Everything
• March 28: The game that gave the world slugcats, Rain World
• April 4: The needs-no-introduction rhythm classic PaRappa the Rapper Remastered
• April 11: New Zeboyd Games RPG Cosmic Star Heroine
• April 18: The still-great LucasArts adventure Full Throttle Remastered
• April 25: Surreal family adventure What Remains of Edith Finch

Pl?ayStation Plus-having folks who pre-order can save 20 percent on any and all ??of these games.

Out of this lot, I'm most curious about Edith Finch. That's my biggest question mark. The developers at Giant Sparrow (The Unfinished Swan) describe it as "a collection of strange tales about a family in Washington State." If you remember Brett trying to unpack the game's mysteries a couple years ??back in a preview, I was right there with him at that event, also confused and intrigued as hell.

Play Collective: Six Ne??w Games Launching with PS Plus Discounts [PlayStation Blog]

The post PaRappa, Cosmic Star Heroine, Edith F??inch, and more coming soon to PlayStation Network appeared first on Destructoid.

And so am I!

You know we're getting close to Rain World's launc??h when Videocult is trading in gifs for?? a trailer.

Sure e?nough, the ecosystem-survival platformer is headed to PC and PlayStation 4 on March 28. We'll soon be sneaking and leaping for dear life as a very killable slugcat stuck in a?? very hostile food chain.

We've tracked Rain World since its ?Kickstarter in 2014 and boy is it nice?? to see this one near completion.

The post Rain World i??s read?y for a March 28 release on PC and PS4 appeared first on Destructoid.

It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world

Rain World, a game about not g?etting eaten, is ?still coming along. I've got the gifs to prove it!

But first, writing on the PlayStation Blog, artist and programmer Joar Jakobsson put into words why this title continues to captivate us (and why, otherworldly visuals aside, it's such a looker in motion). "With Rain World," he said, "we are doing quite a lot of things diffe??rently from the standards of video games. As much as a game, we've built a kind of living ecosystem simulation where creatures exist independently of the player and autonomously search throughout the world for food and shelter."

Citing examples of that design in practice, Jakobsson noted that "slithering neon lizards yo??u encounter have brutally dangerous claws and teeth, but are also individuals that can learn to recognize you. The mighty vultures swooping down from above are fierce hunters of both lizards and slugcats, but they're not mindless machines — if you wrong one it may decide to track you specifically and you’ll never again be able to pass under open sky without an anxious eye upwards. The scruffy scavengers rooting through the garbage heaps are distrusting and dangerous, but save one from the jaws of a vulture and you might make a friend, or eventually even gain the tr?ust of the entire pack."

Simply put, "the world and its inhabitants give you no special treatment," and rather than growing more powerful, "you'll gain knowledge about how other creatures work such as their hunting habits and tastes in prey." Wonderful conce??pt. I don't mind waiting for a game like this to take its time.

With added context for the food chain's inner workings, I?? think you'll enjoy these gifs that much more.

Even the bugs in the first gif are well-animated!

Rain World: Surviving in a Living Ecosystem [PlayStation Blog]

The post Rain World looks riveting in t?his new b?atch of gifs appeared first on Destructoid.

I missed the slimy little thing

Rain World met its Kickstarter funding goal almost three years ago, and it has been largely out of the spotlight since then. Heck, the last time we wrote anything about the oppressive, waterlogged world was like a year and a half ago.

But it popped up at PlayStation Experience and developer Videocult updated backers with a new teaser, which drew me right back in. This teaser is actually an update to the original alpha trailer. It sure has come a long way since then.

Most importantly, it still stars slugcat, the ??sluggiest cat? (or the most catlike slug, I'm not sure). It's a bat-eating, spear-throwing slugcat. It probably deserves its own Saturday morning cartoon.

Rain World is scheduled to release in 2017.

The post Been a while since we’ve seen Rain World’s good ol’ slugcat appeared first on Destructoid.

Those poor Slugcats

I melt every time I see a new set of gifs for Rain World or even a picture of a Slugcat. But for all my cooing and fawning, I have to admit I don't really know much about the game. Other than the exploration and puzzle elements we've been able to divine from small snippets of gameplay, I'm not exactly sure what you do in the game. I don't know any of the background story, how the world got to such a state or even what a Slugcat is. After vi?ewing this latest alpha footage, I still don't know these things.

I do know why they call it Rain World though. Make sure to watch to the end.

The post New Rain World footage justifies the title appeared first on Destructoid.

Sploosh! Rain World gets wet

What's that? You didn't get enough Rain World gifs this week? What's that? Timmy is trapped in a well, rehabbing from that awkward back spasm in mop up? What's that? Old Man Tim is going to be lights out tonight in his stead? What's that? You want to see pictures of my dog. What's that? You want someone to make a game based on Kevin Costner's Waterworld? What's that? You want me to stop with the rhetorical questions??  

How is has the global economy not collapsed under a?nticipation for this game? Or...wait. What year did this start devel?opment?

WHOA! Hey thanks for the gif love @destructoid ! //t.co/vYm0KuV69m Here is another for youuuu ;D SPLOOSH!! //t.co/Zv6KWS6Twi

— Rain World (@RainWorldGame) October 23, 2014

The post More Slugcat gifs? More Slugcat gifs appeared first on Destructoid.

This is what we all need right now

It's been a while since I've espoused my love for Rain World. It looks even smoother in this interesting Kickstarter update, as the game has transitioned to Unity. The update is a good read, but?? if you're just here for the gifs, well, I feel you. Ain't nothing wrong with that.

The?re are a few more in the update, including a comparison of the original buil??d and some cool, in-development behind the scenes gifs. 

The post Slugcat gifs? Slugcat gifs appeared first on Destructoid.

Throw bricks and batteries like Eagles fans pelting Santa Claus

Rain World is still the best. And it's coming to Vita (and more).

Jonathan Holmes went and chatted with Rain World's developers at PAX. In the background you can see a very early alpha multiplayer sandbox that looks to be in the vein of Samurai Gunn and Towerfall. You get points for eating flies and lizards an??d killing each other.

Did you know lizar?d only has one "z"? That's weird.

The post Rain World has competitive slugcat mult??ipla??yer and bat attacks appeared first on Destructoid.

'PSN, PS Vita and well beyond'

Last week we learned Adult Swim Games had picked up and planned to publish Rain World, among other cool games. I have been unfettered in my enthusiasm for Rain World, which stars a slugcat who goes around stabbing other weird creatures, and unfettered in my?? hope that it would end up on Vita.

Well, the team has announced Rain World for, "PSN, PS V?ita and ?well beyond." The more systems it can release for, the better. But the Vita news is my favorite. 

The post Yes! Rain World is coming to Vita, PSN appeared first on Destructoid.

Got to get you into my life

Rain World has met its Kickstarter funding goal and, with a week left, is close to its first stretch goal that would increase the likelihood of the game being ported to other platforms. Namely, Linux, bu?t Wii U, Vita, and just about every other console are fair game. I need this on?? my Vita.

In celebration of the successfully ongoing campaign, the developers released a new video showing off different areas in Rain World's, uh, rain world. It's great!

Slugcat pups!

The post A day in the life of Rain World’s adorable slugcat appeared first on Destructoid.

Look at that slugcat go!

While I don't think there will be any topping the expressive .gifs of Rain World, this new footage captures the kinds of tactics necessary to outmaneuver predators in one continuous session that's worth watching. Those flourishes in the an?imation ha??ven't stopped impressing me yet.

According to the developers, "each predator has its own distinct hunting behavior and specialized senses it uses to perceive you. You won't be able to just out-run them every time, so the only way to survive in Rain World is by learning to understand the capabilities of each creature; their methods and personalities." The flow is much more methodical than I was expecting??. Then again, the game was described as having a stealth vibe.

The "Match Complete" screen at the end of the video also came as a surprise to me. I was expecting a more open-ended str??ucture and not segmented levels like this footage suggests. Perhaps that will be the case, though -- this was captured from an alpha build of the game and the Kickstarter does mention "a lengthy well-written single player campaign."

Rain World gameplay video and Greenlight news! [Kickstarter]

The post Rain World meets its Kickstarter funding goal appeared first on Destructoid.