Rain World

I usually detest platformers built around the "respawn until you get it right" format, respawning in the same room repeatedly until you discover the correct sequence of moves, necessitating near flawless execution. Those kinds of platformers are typically adjacent to puzzle games, your moveset being the puzzle pieces, and the environment the layout where the pieces are to fall. It's a subgenre I can appreciate at a distance, you solve the puzzle, but then are presented the secondary challenge of stringing the puzzle pieces together through mechanical skill - it's an interesting way of expanding complexity in a genre often prone to instinctual, intuitive gameplay or rote memorization.

But man I just cannot handle the tedium of retrying until the execution falls in place. I love solving the puzzle itself, executing its movements, not so much.

Rain World does not deposit you in the same room when you die. You go all the way back to a save point, and are then tasked with completely re-assessing your plan. Enemies move around, conditions change, and a near immeasurable amount of variables threaten to unseat those plans. The game knowledge present in Rain World is immense, and the opacity of its mechanics and variables means that every bit of knowledge is gained through experimentation, observation, and oftentimes, pure chance. From movement, to environmental interactions, to enemy behavior, and even the particulars of its randomization.

Enemies are lethal and vicious, but they are entities with behaviors that can be anticipated or even manipulated, not every scenario necessitates brute-force mechanics, and due to Rain World's relatively disempowered movement in regards to your character, you oftentimes can't progress if you insist on that approach.

The emphasis on ecology and enemy behavior means that each attempt feels genuinely different. Which enemies are in the room with me? Which prey animals? What tools are there on the ground? Which path and which pipes take me where? All of these factors change how you attempt to solve any given situation.

Most platformers that require iterative attempts until success are incredibly deterministic. Rain World is not. You are often just as screwed over by your own expectations as you are by exterior concerns. Rain World demands awareness, it demands you respect your enemies, but at the same time, it encourages you to play with fire by using the very enemies as tools for success.

It's brilliant execution, and the lack of typical power-ups forces the player to maintain this adaptibility from beginning to end. When your gameplay becomes effortless, it's because your ability to utilize the knowledge you have increases, and Rain World never fails to surprise you with new tidbits of knowledge, just when you think you've figured things out, a new revelation completely changes your approach.

It's a fuck of a game difficulty-wise, but without that difficulty the game simply would not work. One of the most justified and necessary high difficulty curves I've seen in a game, period.

Rain world was an experience that I have no dramatism to call transcendient. Beautiful graphics, incredible designs, and powerful world building coupled with a punishing yet fair mechanic, all wrapped up into a complex thematic story- Rain World is the best game I have ever played. I say that with absolute certainty. If you're wondering weather or not to buy it- it's absolutely worth it and THEN some. Bravo. Bravo.

This game has made me want to cry, scream in both fear and in frustration, but most of all it has put the widest grin on my face

i be SO REAL you NEED THIS GAME... its difficult though.. goat game though..

oh my gosh. what do i even say? this has to be one of my new favorite games ever. its really fun (very much when you figure out you can kill your predators) and it has a insane amount of replay ability.

BAITA JOGO! Ecosistema simulator. Difícil. A sequência final é demais

Rain World, an frustrating and fascinating place where prey becomes predator. The environment is unforgiving, and the creatures found there are relentless. The only thing that strands between you and demise is your wits and a bit of luck. Quickly find shelter before the rain comes, and keep an eye out for clues. piece together a history long forgotten as you explore the ruins of an ancient world.

Possibly the best game ever made, honestly not sure why other studios just don't give up, it's possible they haven't heard about Rainworld, make sure to post about Rainworld everywhere just in case the propaganda doesn't reach someone

I love the game (modding makes it fun because you can play with your friends) also slugcats are so adorable!

can confirm that there is rain in this world. fantastic game. 9/10. i only say 9/10 because i cannot romance five pebbles. that would DEFINITELY make it a 10/10 from me, personally.

An absolutely amazing game. Once you learn to adjust to your environment, there's so much to explore and discover.

if you like simple to approach yet feature dense and complex games play this game its incredible. kinda similar to games like animal well, spelunky, or like a super difficult kirby/metroid mix. very worth it overall 9.5/10

First of all, let me just say that if you are prone to rage-quitting and are not atleast a little bit patient, this game is not going to be fun for you.

This is literally the best game I've ever played. I'm not saying that like "oh this game is so good", I am saying it like it is. It is the BEST game I have EVER played. The game is a fun challenge, and the gameplay loop is almost seamless.

If you love combat, sure, Rain World has that. If you love survival, sure, Rain World IS that. If you love running away and yelling "PLEASE NO", sure, Rain World will make you go through that.

All in all, this game is really memorable. One thing to note, though. This game is LONG. It's long even without the Downpour DLC. Hell, most of my hours on this game are on ONE campaign! Now, either that's because I was terrible in the first half of my experience, or because tihs game is just long. I assume it to be the latter.

Please do try this game out. It's much too underrated, and critics rate it poorly. I hope you'll enjoy it!

very hard but once you get the hang of it is a masterpiece and very addicting

amazing game! cant say much about playing on your own since I tried multiple times and would have to log off out of fear of messing up and havig to get my karma level up. Playing with someone much better then you at the game is very fun tho. Its a good way to learn your skills and sometimes you have to only rely on yourself when your friend dies. I cant even imagine how long it toke to program this and its so interesting to me. This game has amazing replay value as their are tons of charcter to play and every playthrough is diffrent since alot of the game is random leading to the game always being entertaining. A surprisingly good multiplayer game to play as long the person your playing with is willing it learn and actually try...otherwise it may be hell. Fav slugcat is rivulet fav one to play is the green one with the tongue lol.

Game is unfair, does not care about you or your feelings, but that is the entire point.

First time I played the game I hated it and left for a year, second time I came back in put in nearly 200 hours into multiple runs, once you accept you a merely prey in a predator filled wet world, you will either fall in love or hate this.

My favorite Rat simulator of all time.

Easily one of the best games ive played.

It does the ecosystem really well and does what it aims to greatly. the ability to use mods makes the game even better.

10/10

One of the best games of this genre i would suggest it to whoever likes platformers and metroidvania

miros birds aren't real, they can't hurt me
miros birds aren't real, they can't hurt me
miros birds aren't real, they can't hurt me
(this game is making me go fucking insane, but funny shit cat)

Very cute, scug go brr. They wiggle, they go fast. Very difficult game though, unless you like dev tools. Fortunately I do, therefore its not a problem. Its a little weird but kind of fun to figure out to navigate the world.

It took a while for me to click with this game when i first got it mainly cause of just how lost i got, i didn't like the time limit and i didn't like the gathering of food for the karma gates. however once you get past that first hurdle and kinda have a sense of where you need to be going then the game really picks up. The farther in the game i got the more excited i got about what the next area could be only to discover some of the most beautiful horrific things with a very fitting soundtrack.

This game is amazing. but it can take a while to click.

I am bad at game. Does not mean game bad. (game IS hard)

10/10 creatures (I love you slug cats)

once you get past the "this game is a bunch of horseshit" phase, and you realise it isn't your typical adventure, or sidescroller or metroidvania (or soulslike??), you see it for what it truly is. calculated bullshit.

one of the most unique, beautifully bullshit experiences I've ever had.

Personally I would absolutely recommend Rain World. It's an amazing game with very cool environments, And while it is a very challenging game at times I would say it is rewarding once you get the hang of it.

The story of the game is very good, However I personally do not find the endings in the base game to be very satisfying and I personally think that the story and lore could be deeper, however these are only minor nitpicks and they were fixed in the Downpour DLC. Which you can read my review on here.

Another thing that makes Rain World absolutely awesome is it's amazing modding support and active modding community, and while mods have been around since early one, the introduction of workshop support was a real game changer, since now modding is easy and readily available for everyone who wants to use it. Allowing anyone to play the game how they prefer to play, or expand the game well beyond what the base game has to offer.

Overall Rain World is an amazing experience, even despite its difficulty and few shortcomings, and is by far one of my favorite games.

I have bought this game + its DLC twice and my thoughts are the exact same.

Rain World is a special experience paved only by developers who not only wish to innovate what could be done, what stories we could tell, but also stands in utter defiance modern gaming has become. I am currently guiding a friend through this experience and there is nothing in the world I would trade that for.

FUCK LOOKS TO THE MOON PLEASE MARRY ME-

This is a knowledge based game. You are thrown into a massive, complicated world with its own rules, but given very little guidance on what to do or where to go. You don't unlock anything, you don't get any upgrades or skills. The way you are at the start is how you will be for pretty much the rest of the game (...unless?), and the entire world is open to you from the beginning, without any hard barriers preventing you from going anywhere you want.

Progress comes from the expectation that the player "studies" the game through careful observation of the environment or just trial and error. The skill ceiling is ridiculously high and the process of learning Rain World's rules can at times be very difficult and requires you to experiment, die and backtrack a lot. Rain World's lore is one of grand scale: The story feels epic, ancient and tragic. This game is designed with so much detail, life and layered complexity that you can't help but be fascinated by it, and this desire to understand drives your urge to keep going and see what happens.

Rain World is pretty much a "hard simulation" of what survival in the real wilderness would feel like, taken to its rawest, most extreme form. It does an excellent job of selling this feeling of isolation, high-stakes danger and being just a tiny insignificant part of a much grander world. Overcoming its challenges and learning its secrets are rewarding on a deeply personal level that I haven't felt in any other game.

-Evil level design
-Bullshit enemies
-Annoying combat
-You get one shot by pretty much everything
-Easy to get softlocked
-Your actions can carry over to future save files
-You can eat mold and throw children off cliffs
-Drugs
-Made me hate grass


10/10 favourite game of all time

Let me preface this review with the following: I love environmental storytelling, complex AI, retro graphics, worldbuilding, and a sense of feeling incredibly small in a world that is far larger and storied than you are. This game felt like the perfect setup to a great experience.

I cannot state how quickly that sense of wonder and urge to explore turned into seething irritation and boredom.

This game undercuts the power of its own setup at every turn. Its exploration is hampered by its constant and incessant need to make the player backtrack and loop around. Its progression is kneecapped by a lack of direction that leads the player to aimlessly spiral throughout the frankly far-too-massive world looking for something, anything, to tell them where to go. And its immaculate detail and sense of scale and history goes absolutely nowhere with a main story that is borderline nonsensical.

You will die. A lot. And you will be forced to backtrack, and scavenge, and backtrack, and scavenge, in the same exact locations you have seen a billion times. Your desire to see more of the world and encounter new and interesting foes and locations will be weathered down into a rote desire to just get to the nearest checkpoint so you can be done being snapped up by the same Daddy Long Legs or Camo Lizard every attempt. Thankfully, the Karma requirement for most gates aren't too high, but the need to have a higher survival-to-death ratio to merely progress (when the entire game is built around randomly killing you) is punishment on top of punishment.

When playing through the game on Survivor for the first time (for which I eventually completed the game), I immediately went exploring and found a nifty gate in the outskirts to the Drainage System. Wow! A new area! I explored and explored, heading deeper and deeper through the Filtration System and into the Depths, where I found the Temple of the Ancients. These Guardian dudes sure were cool, until they bashed my head into the bricks, leaving me unable to progress.

It was at this point, out of pure frustration, that I googled what to do, only to realize that I had *skipped 80 percent of the intended progression*, missing both of the major NPCs I needed to meet. I had to *restart the f---ing game* to get back to the outskirts, and follow the little yellow guy with regimented strictness so I wouldn't get lost.

People often review this game saying "go in blind! experience everything for the first time without spoilers!" Respectfully, go f--- yourself. This game is already confusing enough, and my blind first-time experience led me straight into a massive dead end. For a game that is intent on minimalism, to not hold your hand in the slightest, its main progression is a nonsensical chaining-together of NPC locations and an obtuse Karma requirement that isn't explained in the slightest.

Hand-in-hand with progression obscurity is perhaps the biggest dampener on my experience with this game: the story. There isn't one. Like, at all. Which is fine, plenty of games have an abstract or nonexistent plot, emphasizing experience with the world and gameplay. However, the game assumes that your *ultimate goal* is "breaking the cycle you're stuck in". This is related to some mumbo jumbo about the precursor civilization of Rain World, blah blah blah, which guides you to the final location to achieve the ending. None of this is explained or introduced explicitly at any moment until someone directly says it to you near the end of the game. If you are going to make your game non-linear, the ultimate goal should be clear to give some sense of progression direction. Remember the *literal opening cutscene* where you are *separated from your family?* I was wondering where they went, how do I find them, are there other slugcats lost like me, among other questions, none of which are answered in place of some abstract metaphor for breaking the cycle of Samsara.

Look, I get it. People *love* this game. I'm sure I could learn to love it too, if I got really good at movement tech, learned to effortlessly butcher lizards and vultures, memorized the whole map, and learned a bunch of stuff about the lore and the characters and the timeline. However, this game is an exercise in *excellent worldbuilding and environmental storytelling* wrapped up in *the most infuriatingly boring gaming experience I've had in years* for a first-time player.

I completed the game once on Survivor, and it will be the last time I complete the game as well.

I played this game for a few hours after I bought it and I didn't enjoy my time. After coming back to it a few months later I rediscovered a hidden gem in my library and I can confidently say that Rain World has earned it's place as the best game I've ever personally played.

The game play in Rain World is unlike anything that I've ever played. You can feel like the most powerful creature in the game while still knowing that you are only one mistake away from dying. The game is difficult in an unfair way that can initially be very frustrating as it feels that you have no control over your environment. One of the best parts of this game is it's simulated environments. Due to the fact that everything is simulated independently from you, it really makes you feel like you're just an observer in a real ecosystem. The creature AI in this game is really detailed and helps the feeling of an actual ecosystem with both predator and prey.

You play this game as a creature known as a slugcat. The best feeling in this game is the feel of getting stronger, not from in-game upgrades or weapons, but from your skill increasing and learning new mechanics and techniques with the tools available to you. The movement in this game is procedurally generated, which leads to the movement sometimes feeling unnatural or clunky, but then as you learn new movement techniques the movement becomes far more fluid and natural, which leads to some of the best feeling movements in a game that I've ever played.

There's so much more to this game that I haven't covered here, but I'll leave that up to you to decide if you would like to try the game and become more familiar with it. This game is truly one-of-a-kind and itself is an experience. It certainly isn't for everyone but it is so unique and enjoyable that if you can make it past the first few hours of game play and get the game to "click" with you, then you may just find one of the best gaming experiences that you've ever had.

Ignore what other people say when they say this is just an adventure game. This is a Horror game. I have heart attacks around every corner of this games Huge map, and when i think im safe? Pole Plant. Its so scary but genuinely so fun, i have this love-hate relationship with this game, and its amazing.

Rain World is difficult. You will die. Hopefully you will learn. And maybe you will play long enough to start to understand the world your tiny slugcat is living in. Or just have fun surviving.

I love this game. I wish I could forget about it so I could explore the whole world again.

Steam has an option called "remote play with friends" so you can share the game with others. If you can, playing with friends is a much better experience.

There are options in the remix to fix a majority of the problems that some people have with the game and mods to fix the rest. (except for the rng, that is part of the experience)

Out of every single great story in video games, like Hollow Knight, both Red Dead Redemption games, and maybe even Concord, I personally think that Rain World's story is by far the best written one. Its themes are beautiful, and the story is engaging in that it leaps across multiple time frames and allows the player to fill in the gaps of what happened. The character development is expansive and touching, and its parallels to the real world are far reaching and inspiring.

The only problem is that every hour I have put into playing this game has been encouraged by will alone. The gameplay loop is so much less engaging than every other game I mentioned. Eventually I broke and I looked up a video explaining every piece of lore because I was too weak to continue on the path of death and despair.

I would never be able to play this game blind, and I recommend any potential players to take any guides they need in order to help them achieve the full story that this game holds, as it is unmatched in its beauty.

All this said, I still want to have Joar Jakobsson's children. Thank you for reading.

everytime i feel good at this game god sends a new kind of lizard after me

Sorry, several gameplay and plot spoilers in here so don't read if you want to go in blind. I'm just talking about the base game, no expansions or mods.

Of course this game is quality, particularly the sound design, music and art. I'm not disputing that and you can read all the other reviews which talk about it in more detail.

But I made this review negative because I just think the store page isn't clear about what type of game this is.
In my opinion, it's a platformer - that's it. Simply a platformer. The tags like "survival" and "exploration" and especially "souls-like" are pretty misleading. That's not the dev's fault but I think the trailer misleads you as well.

I mean how is this like a souls game at all other than it being hard? Playing on "survivor" (the normal difficulty level), combat is optional and mainly consists of spear throwing and running away. You can't eat the bigger predators or get anything from them even if you do manage to kill them so why bother? And no leveling up, or collecting items, or boss fights.

Why bother exploring when the guide creature directs you where to go? I tried to kind of go my own way and ignore the guide, thinking it would have an effect on the story, or that it would change other parts of the map. But it doesn't, there's only one ending and NPC interactions are extremely limited. And is it really Metroidvania when there's hardly any reason to return to earlier areas? It's not like there will be anything that wasn't there before. You don't unlock any movement abilities or attacks, you just get an ability about half-way through the game that let's you find and read lore about the world and the game's plot. But it's frankly a pain in the arse to do so because you'd have to schlep thru the same rooms for the umpteenth time for the sake of a paragraph of lore. Story-wise, it's really just vibes and philosophy, I didn't understand what I was being shown until I read the wiki.

I do think the creature design is cool and sometimes you get funny unexpected interactions between you and one or more mobs, like in Spelunky. Unfortunately it's all a bit pointless because to progress in the game you just have to move on and leave that level behind you. That's why I call it just a platformer, because more or less all you do is move on, one screen to the next, one area to the next, until the game ends. If you're spending enough time in a room to get to observe the creature behaviour it's probably because you've already died there several times from missed jumps or getting unlucky with enemy spawns and you're therefore sick of it anyway.

I don't mind admitting I found the game pretty hard even on the normal difficulty. I think if I had spent some time on the wiki just learning the movement system properly it would have been much easier (the game barely explains anything to you). It also would have been easier if I had followed the indicated path and not wasted time exploring and getting lost when there was not really any payoff for it. But the main challenges are jumping, climbing, swimming and dodging... Dying sends you back to the last checkpoint and lowers your level by one but that's not much of a loss because the level demanded by the gates between areas is only ever 5 at the most. I dunno, I'm just not sure a survival game should revolve around basically moving forward all the time without any permanent equipment or base.

And one final complaint is that the trailer seems to show a dynamic camera scrolling across the level as you play. That doesn't exist in-game. It's all fixed camera, even in large rooms or open spaces where you would expect it to scroll with you. Sometimes means there's danger off-screen but you don't know exactly where or what it is so you either risk going to that screen or you awkwardly wait for it to cross to yours.

Overall cool game but overpriced. Probably buy, on sale, if you like games-as-art or doing speedruns / challenge runs of platformers.

Absolutely the best game I can't recommend to everyone.

The gameplay is difficult and *not player centric* which means the world does NOT revolve around you- but it is INCREDIBLY immersive. You do not gain abilities or upgrades so you, as the player, must learn to survive in this ecosystem. The only agency you have is your own game knowledge and mechanical skills which you develop over time.

The story is fantastic and dives into spirituality- expressed mostly nonverbally; there are many different slugcats to play (in downpour) and each slugcat represents a different point in time for both the world and certain creatures you will meet along the way.

If you want to reduce frustration with the game, it's always my philosophy that you should be having fun while playing any game, and if it's too difficult, there are some settings to tamper with difficulty- though half the fun is acclimating your skills to the harsh world. Navigation was probably my biggest problem throughout 110 hours, so after my first Survivor playthrough of the game, I occasionally looked at the community-made map (though I've basically memorized the map at this point).

Have you ever thought about how would it be to live as a small creature? Do you hate yourself? Do you want to meddle in affairs of passing Gods? No? Well this is the game for you! It is beautiful at times, and the difficulty only adds to the feel and sight of the game, Best game in my library

rage game but its kinda cute so ig it passes

and cats

A game hasn't given me such deep seated depression mixed with curiosity since Hollow Knight. Additionally I haven't had such knee jerk horrified reactions to monsters in most horror games.
And it's a skill issue. Survival of the fittest.

It's my autism and I chose the cat survival game

This game is, well, special. The AI is sort of predictable, however sometimes it makes decisions channeled directly by a pidgeon. I have no other words, just play it. Please.

Rain World

this is a game where you really need to have pacience and determination to complete.
it's a game where you need to explore, survive, develop your own skills (the actual player skills) in order to make some progress.
I would absolutly recommend this game. However, if your a person who gets pissed off easily, this game might not be for you.

Great game.
There's not really any other game that is anything like this.
Try to not look up anything that might spoil anything. The best play-through is the first. Even if you die a lot. Especially because of this.

A fair warning, this game is hard. Very hard. Emphasis on this: The difficulty is part of what makes this game great.

Despite this, do not play the Monk's campaign first. The Survivor is the way to go.

Also, do note that it is not uncommon for most players to drop the game after a few hours. The first few hours can be harsh. But after this initial hurdle to overcome, the best part comes.

This game is hard. This game is unique. This game is one the best games I have played.

One of the best games that I've played ever, it has a mix of everything, cuteness, horror, stress, frustration, fascination and sorrow. Most unique environment and AI interactions representing how a real ecosystem would work, which no other game managed to achieve (yet)... It might be hard in the start, but if you keep trying you'll enjoy it in one way or another. The gameplay is based only on skill and map layout knowledge (which you can just use the wiki for the map to save some stress from exploring the map and getting lost).

10/10 without a doubt (in top 3 best games for me), I recommend buying the DLC for more content, since the base game is plain, but trust me - it's worth it's shekels.

Also recommending to use a few mods before starting playing it, for example "Controllable Deer", "SBCameraScroll", "Health Bars", "Aim Anywhere", "Watch Your Aim" etc (Oh, and don't forget "Push To Meow", best mod imo ❤️).

This game is absolutely a masterpiece. I feel as though I am actually apart of the ecosystem and I can get super immersed. the mechanics and ai are fantastic and I love to mess around and just scurry about sometimes. The story of this rain world is amazing and touching, and the art and music are as well. The base game is also full of a lot of content so even if you cannot afford Downpour, this is well worth it even at full price. I have yet to see another game like this that can capture my heart in the way Rainworld has.

Please be aware that this game is incredibly difficult and the controls can feel bad when you're first starting. If you plan to play on keyboard please rebind your controls, it gives me a better time with keyboard when I play. This game has no upgrades, just you in an ecosystem. You have to get better to conquer this world. It may take a few hours to a few days for someone to really get the hang of this game. I have sunk quite a bit of time into this game and have beaten 2 campaigns and I'm close to beating another, guess what? I still suck at this game! And that is ok!! You have to give it time, which might be a deal breaker to some.

10/10 would scug again

first played in 2020, quit for 2 years after rage quitting, came back and now i'm addicted like a rat in a cocaine bath

Lovely game about exploring a long abandoned world where you are in the middle of a complex food chain.

So good you play as little slug cat guy he jump around its like if you combine A slug and a cat I like both of those things

Rain World is a physics based platforming game with heavy emphasis on exploration and survival.
Rain World became my special interest for 2 months and I still want to come back and 100% it.
Such a gem and so wildly certain of what it wants to be for a studio's first game, in terms of mechanics, visuals, and themes.

Rain World also features very cute characters (and plushies) if you like that! Slugcats are adorable and Rain World's lizards are my favourite creatures in any game ever!
The devs were inspired by the experience of surviving as a rat in the NYC subway system, and this absolutely shines through in the gameplay.

Rain World is built on an ecosystem simulator. A variety of creatures dynamically hunt, fight, flee, and more depending on both internal factors and external ones (ex how aggressive this particular algorithmically generated creature is naturally, but also how much something it can eat is jumping around infront of it).
This system is ridiculously complex on the back end and it comes together to produce a highly emergent system that is not only a treat to see simulated infront of you, but to interact with as well.

Rain World also has a physics based procedural animation system which makes its creatures look delightfully grounded in the world, as well as producing some humorous visuals at times (ex seeing creatures fall by accident). They take full advantage with what this system is capable of animating especially later into the game.

As a slugcat, you are very close to the bottom of the food chain, and largely need to rely on map knowledge, movement mechanics, and use of scavenged tools to evade threats, secure food, and find shelter before the beyond-torrential crushing rain leaves the surface inhospitable (killing you).
You have a randomly allocated amount of time to survive each day before the rain starts again. This keeps the gameplay focused and meaningful. You will have to get good at managing your time between exploring and survival, and understanding how much time you have left before needing to seek shelter.
Rain World does not have traditional progression elements such as leveling up or unlocking skills. What the player can do is entirely dependent on how skilled and knowledgeable they are as well as what they've scavenged from nearby.

Rain World has a large and nonlinear map that is separated into many expansive sections, with a few connections from one section to another, and many sprawling routes and points of interest through each section.
Each section has a unique ecosystem that functions a little different from others, with pleasantly varying visuals, worldbuilding, and gameplay.
Each playthrough you will likely be taking different paths and spending more or less time in certain regions. Many playthroughs will end with entire regions unexplored.
Learning how to get from one place to another is critical, but you're also meant to get lost in the world and figure it out yourself.
There's very few instances of backtracking, and generally you can just keep going in any direction to areas you haven't explored yet and it will eventually lead you to where you need to go; which prevents Rain World's expansive world from being more of a hassle to navigate than it otherwise would.

The game features a lot of platforming in certain sections, these can be frustrating but many can get less so with time and skill.
Especially if you take the time to learn Rain World's surprisingly deep movement tech system (there is a 36 page google doc that concisely outlines all the movement tech, it's that deep).

The game features a mix of ambient music tracks that play sparsely as you explore, and dynamic threat themes unique to each section of the map that grow more intense as danger approaches. The soundtrack is interesting, eccentric, and adds so much to the themes of different areas.

Different campaigns take place on the same map but in different time periods, with some campaigns having exclusive access to specific regions. This seems like it could get repetitive on paper but Rain World uses this as a wonderful opportunity for worldbuilding (particularly in the DLC). Gameplay and story wise the world changes depending on the campaign, and I would suggest looking up a timeline after you've done a few campaigns so you can understand how everything fits together.

The game has 3 campaigns in the base game, and 5 in the Downpour DLC.
The DLC adds so much, definitely look at playing it with the basegame if you can (Downpour adds many gameplay twists, plenty of lore, music, and many new areas, with many additions to even the base campaigns as well). Although you can wait to get Downpour until you see how much you vibe with the base game.
That said, for me the original campaign (survivor) was the most emotionally impactful. I cried during the ending. The other campaigns can be more unfocused thematically but they add so much in gameplay (and worldbuilding) that they more than justify themselves.

Recommendations:

Conclusion:

Rain world is probably the best game I ever played. You play as a small, (not so) defenceless creature known as a slugcat. This is a great change of pace from other games that make you feel like a powerhouse, as well as just making this game feel unique. Rain world also has probably the the best enemy AI in any game ever. Creatures will never chase you of cliffs or near other predators that would eat them. They want to hunt you but their survival will always come first. The animation is incredibly fluid using procedural animation which makes the creatures look alive rather than just sprites on a screen. The enemy design is also fantastic. for example, the most common enemy type are the lizards. They come in many different colours, each with different abilities. For example there are green lizards which are strong and tanky, but also slow, stupid and they also can’t climb poles. Blues are small and weak, but can climb the background walls. Whites can camouflage and have a long tongue but are deaf. And the lizards are just the simplest most common enemy type. Another amazing thing about the creatures which really sells the ecosystem vibe is how certain creatures hunt each other. As well as that, all the creatures behaviours are happening off screen meaning that sometimes when you enter a new room a fight will already be happening there. Another thing I love about rainworld is the art. You can tell this game was made by an artist.
The rooms are absolutely gorgeous, with amazing lighting systems and shadows. My favourite background in the game is in a subregion known as ‘the wall’. The top of the walls background has huge metal structures in the distance, surrounded by a thick cloud layer. And if you look up you can sea the moon and the stars. And that’s just one of 1600+ rooms, all waiting to be explored. This game has 12 amazing regions, each with unique creatures and challenges. The ‘sky islands’ with its platforming challenges and flying creatures, the ‘drainage system’ and ‘shoreline’ with their underwater areas and aquatic life forms and the farm arrays with its wide fields of worm grass, with the only way across being a ride on one of the regions ‘raindeer’. Another thing this game does very well is the lore. Now I won’t spoil much, but in my opinion the lore of this game is as good, if not better than the FNAF lore, with the same amount of crypticness. Also, to anyone who has already played rainworld: 🪨🪨🪨🪨🪨. Have some flashbacks. One thing I will mention though: the game is quite unfair, and you will die a lot for reasons out of your control but hey, that’s part of the fun and if you don’t like it you can just play monk which makes creatures attack you less, among other things. And if you want to give yourself depression you can always play hunter, and be cool like me. Overall rainworld is an amazing experience, filled with amazing creatures, beautiful areas and a very good story. 11/10 Would go through unfortunate development again.

its a really good game because at the start its harder then most other games because it simulates something you are not used to playing, so you have to adapt to everything. that is what makes it a good game. (FYI figure out how to use grappling worm ahead of time)