Rain World provides the harshest of challenges; however, in doing, so it provides the greatest of satisfactions.
In today’s gaming landscape there are many games crowned the “hardest”: Elden Ring, Getting Over It, Sekiro, Cuphead, and many more. However, I believe the true title of the most difficult video game belongs to Rain World. While the game may seem tame at first, even cute with you playing as a small creature called a slugcat, lost in the wilderness it quickly turns into a dangerous game of life and death.
What makes this game unique is its inventive approach to enemy encounters. Instead of loading only nearby enemies, the game goes out of its way to process what’s happening in rooms far away from the player. What makes this so interesting and difficult is that the game is entirely random and separate from the player. Unlike a more traditional game, like Elden Ring, enemy spawns and patterns aren’t decided by a fixed sequence, instead relying on the interaction between AI to create interesting and unique scenarios.
For example, the main enemies throughout the game are lizards. There are many different types of these enemies characterized by their unique color, attributes, and behaviors. This leads to many interesting interactions with some being territorial which forces the player to learn the ecosystem and play around it.
“Because the environments in Rain World are always active and feel alive, it’s a breath of fresh air from the rest of the gaming industry,” explained Donovan Mirabal, a semi-experienced player with 16 hours in-game.
A key example of the ecosystem’s role in the game is the interaction between lizards and vultures. Vultures are large and intimidating enemies at the top of the food chain, as such lizards and most everything else fear them. Each wears a unique mask and if a player wears said mask lizards identify them as a being at the top of the food chain. Thus, the lizards run in fear which is just one example of a game brimming with complex interactions.
The world itself feels alive and draws you into it. One of the most important aspects in this game is how the entire environment reacts to events in the world. For example, one of the key features of the game is its rain cycles. At the end of these cycles a vicious downpour will begin, drowning or bludgeoning anything outside of a shelter. This importantly affects more than just the player with the landscape becoming scarce quickly as every creature is found scurrying back to their den.
This is the primary mechanism behind the Rain World gameplay loop. Survival and discovery are at the core of the game’s philosophy. Every cycle includes a delicate balance between discovery and survival, creating a complex journey. The player must carefully determine how to spend their time, while avoiding the many threats that the environment poses.
“I thought it was a really good game, but I got really mad playing it. The vulture killed me a lot and I kept running in circles with no sense of direction,” said Aidan Brouillette, a player with 8 hours in-game.
Many other players relate to Aidan with one of the main criticisms of the game is that the player can’t fight against these seemingly random occurrences with a very limited tutorial. However, as the player progresses they will stumble upon various mechanics and much like a creature in the wilderness will learn how to not only survive but thrive in the dangerous world of Rain World.
An example of this is the complex movement of the game brought about by the unique animation of the game, procedural generation. Instead of having fixed animations that the player character cycles through they instead have a reactive animation that moves based on what the player inputs. This unlocks hundreds of possibilities that simply wouldn’t be possible in a normal game. To prove this point there exists a 138 page movement guide that players have compiled in order to share their knowledge in order to survive as a community.
“The movement is what I struggled with. It’s very smooth and responsive, but having never used a keyboard I wasn’t as good as it. Eventually though it became an extension of myself and the game really opened up,” said Donovan Mirabal.
Another more obvious application of the game’s procedural animation is its aesthetics. Everything from the music, to the backgrounds, to the characters help contribute to a feeling of being lost in a foreign and hostile environment. The enemies specifically feel fluid because they are subject to the same system as the player, forming unique methods of attack. For example, the centipedes in the game move frenetically and in bursts, curving around the environment quickly, presenting a tangible yet unpredictable threat.
The game is very subtle in its art: its backgrounds are beautiful but often go unnoticed. They give credence to the feeling of being lost, while also creating some of the most wonderful tranquil
moments in all of gaming. The backgrounds are not separate from the game, giving some of the only pieces of forewarning before an attack or clues to progression.
Vultures are a near impossible threat with players’ options being limited to running, which is why it’s so helpful (and terrifying) when you see a subtle shadow drop down from the skies or hear an ominous soundtrack begin playing. Rain World does a stellar job in making these visual and audio cues both subtle but recognizable. While a player may not catch onto these details at first they will eventually notice these small warnings given by the game and be able to not only react to threats but prepare for them.
The music of the game does a great job in further building the atmosphere. As previously mentioned each region has a unique threat soundtrack which warns players while providing an intense feeling of danger and excitement. Rain World’s 40 tracks are fit for almost every situation in the game, from wandering around a dark abandoned city to swimming through an ocean filled with terrifying and visually stunning creatures which is further aided by the 53 songs added in the Downpour DLC.
“I like how quiet it is at points, and how relaxing the game can be in certain regions,” recalled Josh Leo, a new player with 4 hours in-game.
As one becomes more experienced, and hopefully reads the movement guide, they begin to feel not like prey and instead like predators. The Downpour DLC helps in this process, introducing several slugcats each with differing and challenging styles of play. For example, in one campaign you need to play as a carnivorous hunter while in another you take on the role of a pacifist.
The various slugcats appear in different spots in the timeline, which helps expand the world and story. In response to this the world changes and various different areas are added or modified. Some excellent examples come from Shoreline, Shaded Citadel, and Underhang.
Shoreline is the first introduction to an aquatic environment, and with that comes many new challenges and creatures to discover. This new environment teaches the player how to interact with creatures, giving them a valuable tool in the form of a grabbable jetski creature. However, Shoreline often changes its form depending on where it is in the timeline. It begins as Waterfront Facility and through the various slugcats it degrades into Shoreline.
Shaded Citadel is an important area for new players as it is often one of the first spikes in difficulty of the game, the reason for this being the oppressive darkness. The world is responsive to this change, forming a whole ecosystem around it and giving hints as to why it’s so dark.
Underhang is the epitome of the game’s challenge, pushing the player to learn the new creature interactions (the grapplebug) while having no ground to stand on and aggressive enemies. Not only that, it gets more difficult as you go through the various campaigns, changing to target specific abilities of the slugcats.
Overall the game is a masterpiece, hiding behind the steepest learning curve in gaming. Pairing complex gameplay, interesting creature interactions, and a stunning atmosphere, Rain World brings a fresh, new gaming experience.
