Review: rain

rain is a somewhat stealthy, somewhat platform-y, somewhat puzzle-y, video game for the PlayStation 3. It was developed by SCE Japan Studio, Acquire, and PlayStation C.A.M.P, a studio that develops user submitted game ideas.

The little boy outrunning some Unknowns in the mysterious town.

One day a boy sees a girl being chased by a monster and follows them through a giant door. On the other side of the door the boy finds himself in a version of his town that is dark, gloomy, filled with nonstop rain, and crawling with more semi-visible monsters. The boy finds that he himself is also invisible, as long as he stays out of the rain. With his new invisibility powers the boy decides to track down the girl while avoiding the monsters, called Unknowns, especially the giant club-wielding one pursuing the girl.

rain mostly revolves around the boy’s invisibility and his use of that to avoid the Unknowns since he cannot defend himself. The town has a large number of overhangs and other covers that you have to move under, which serve as the boy’s main protection. There are also puddles of rain you have to step quietly through lest you alert the Unknowns, and puddles of mud that make the boy show even under canvases hat can be cleaned off by stepping the deep water puddles. The boy can do nothing more than run, jump, and push and pull things.

The stealth mechanic is never used well and the game is really easy. Stealth puzzles are simple things like wait for the Unknown to turn around to run to the next canvas, or wait until the Unknown is turned around to move a box out of the way, or make a noise to lure the Unknown to one side of the screen so you can sneak by the other side. Simple puzzles, puzzles seen in every other game with a stealth mechanic ever, but instead of hiding behind rocks or in boxes you are hiding under canvases. The Unknown are not that intelligent, they will stop chasing the boy as soon as they cannot see him, and only react to loud noises. The deep puddles and mud puddles might as well not be there, given how often they are used. The puzzles get a little better when the boy finds the girl and they have to push blocks out of the way to create paths for each other and other teamwork exercises. Overall though I never had a problem with any of the puzzles and found the whole thing to be terribly linear.

I think the idea is that the rain is giving the boy shape, but he looks like a film projection standing in the rain, not a boy covered in water.

If rain is not about challenging the player, then it should be about marveling at the game itself. Unfortunately the aesthetic qualities of the game are plain and repetitive. At first the rain-soaked town is kind of pretty in a haunted kind of way, though I am not a fan of that giant white European building look the town is made out of. But the rain-soaked buildings and garbage everywhere loses its novelty by the second level and goes on for another three levels.

The story is forgettable too. The boy chases after the girl, both of whom are pursued by the club-wielding Unknown. For the first five levels the most story you get is when the boy and the girl meet up. The only interesting character is the club-wielding Unknown, who never changes but gets under your skin by its sheer persistence. I found the ending to be predictable, I was expecting one of two clichéd plot twists at the end, but I am glad that in the end rain went with the less melodramatic reveal.

It is a shame that most of rain is boring, because it really picks up in the last three levels. The game abandons its stealth mechanics for more platforming action leading to a lot of instances of the boy and girl running and jumping over everything to escape the club wielding Unknown. The town gives away to a more surreal setting, and the several plot points happen, more than the rest of the game combined.

The interesting part starts at this circus, which also has the best puzzle in the game.

rain is just dull. It is not very nice to look at, the stealth mechanic is not used well, there is no story, and it is definitely not worth fifteen dollars. If the first half of the game taken out and the price reduced to five dollars that would be a more appropriate price, even if it would make the game even shorter. Instead I would recommend waiting until it is on sale, or maybe watch the whole game online instead. It would not take you long.