Recent reviews by Dapper Dancing Dan

Updated Review:

My time with Rain World has been challenging, to putting it lightly. But, I feel like I understand why people love this game now. I'm not deleting my original review below though. I stand by much of the concerns in it. It's still a flawed game, with many perplexing design decisions... But, even if it’s not “for me” I’ve come to REALLY appreciate that Rain World exists. The same way I can appreciate a great book or movie, while knowing it's not “for you”. I now see its extraordinary nature and I owe it to the game to revisit my thoughts.

I still believe that the game isn't for the masses... Heck, I still believe it’s not for ME. But, through hours of FORCING myself to play it, it’s made me take notice of things that I hadn’t considered before. Things that make Rain World stand out against the sea of bland “flavorless substrate” prevalent in this industry. Yes, there are other “Metroidvanias”, but none with the tone, gameplay, AI, and environments of RW. To me, the most beautiful thing about the game: There's simply nothing else like it.
The game might be infuriating, but no other game has these mechanics. The animation/physics based movement, the unique and varied AI, the "hands off" narrative structure, ETC. All these “flavors” come together to make a very distinctive dish that, while only a few will truly appreciate, has the potential to completely knock your socks off.

I still propose that RW isn’t for a broad audience. But gaming is a varied, vast, and powerful artform. Rain World stands against the homogonous white noise of 99.9% of other games. It dares to be different, in nearly every way. I hypothesize people dislike RW because the “flaws” are front and center, while the impressive aspects are more subtle and must be discovered to be appreciated. Another hurdle is that gamers try to dominate their environment, while in RW you are PART of the environment. The denizens of the world aren’t your foes, but rather other critters just trying to survive. In an industry full of games that treat the players like toddlers, Rain World dares to go the opposite way (too much IMHO) and lets you find everything with minimal (or often no) guidance.

With all those additional complaints, why would I change my review? If I feel most people will dislike it, why “Recommend” it? I’ve been in this industry most of my professional life. I know from experience that games that really “speak” to a player are basically unicorns. Some experiences are so special and unique that you can almost mark a spot in your gaming career of “Before this game” and “After this game”.

Will Rain World be that way for you? Most likely not…but if there’s a minuscule chance of this game speaking to you, I urge to you hold your nose and dive in. Just, look out for Leviathans first.

Original Review:

First off I want to be CRYSTAL clear. Rain World is NOT a bad game. It's a great game...but the audience that will truly appreciate this title is so limited that I simply can't recommend it as a "for the masses" type of game. The game doesn't WANT to target a wide audience either. Rain World knows what it is, what it's trying to do, and executes on that with laser precision. With that preamble out of the way:

Let's start with the controls. Slugcat does not feel good to control. The game uses a physics/animation based movement system, so your movement is often left in the hands of the physics system just as much as own. There are tons of great movement options. Sliding, long jumping, back flipping, ETC. All of these are awesome additions to the movement roster...but in-depth movement options aren't useful if they are impossible to reliably execute. Take Mario 64 for example. There are just as many interesting and diverse movement options, but those are easy to find, execute, and master. Rain World's movement options though are very, VERY, difficult to execute with consistency…unless you've spent hundreds of hours practicing. In which case, you don't need my opinion about the game. You already love it, and that's awesome! Why are you bothering to even read this? Just to see if you agree or not? 😄

Another "cardinal sin" the game seems to delight in breaking, is making levels so dark that they are effectively unplayable. There are rooms where all you can see is a few white dots on the screen, signifying a door. Couple this with the world's denizens being able to kill you in one shot, and you'll quickly realize why this is frustrating. You can't see them, but the enemies can DEFINITELY see you. It's more than a little irritating to be making your way through the game world and suddenly you hear the distinctive "DONG" of Slugcat dying, with no idea what actually happened.

Even when the levels aren't pitch black, there are still PLENTY of ways the game can screw you over in an instant. Lizards that are invisible unless you're close enough to be killed. "Dropwigs" that hide among ceiling debris and drop onto you in an instant. Rooms that have an "Open Edge" that will kill you (when the room you left also had an open edge, that didn't).

There's a hundred things I could harp on about the game. The lack of any real communication with the player about objectives and goals. The lack of a real tutorial. The Esoteric nature of the combat. The fact there's large collections of rooms that seem to serve no gameplay purpose other than to pad out the world. The camera system being a huge foe (more so than most enemies). Platforms blended in with surrounding level art so you're not able to tell where you can/can't grab. ETC.

I don't think Rain World is a bad game. It's going to appeal to a very certain type of gamer and I LOVE that this game exists for them...but it's not for me. I'm not giving the game a "Dislike" in the hopes it will dissuade others from playing it. I'm just saying, "Not for me".

It's not likely to win a ton of Game of the Year, awards but it's a super chill and relaxing game. Turn on a podcast or something, and enjoy. My biggest complain though, is the narrative is short and unfinished. The story feels like it was about half done and then shipped. Still, the core gameplay is a solid, simple, and enjoyable experience.

A unicorn shoved its horn inside me repeatedly until all its hair stood up and white hot lightning was spurted all over me and my team. 10/10 would hunt again.

Made a quick video review for the game "Death Coming". Let's kill everyone!!!...but in a super cute and fun way!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jEn5eLH40w&feature=youtu.be

Made a video review. Enjoy!!!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93Cqgpkyjfs&t=2s

If anything, this device had made my experience with Steam worse. When not streaming to the link, Steam now hijacks my controller input. When actually streaming, its a low quality choppy mess. I eventually found out that if I disable all my monitors except for one, it works a little better, but still not great. Why in the world does my other monitors being enabled make a difference? I don't know. The bigger question is, "With hundreds of millions of dollars at their disposal, why outs steam such an incompatible mess? Are the people employe there lazy, or just incompetent? Both maybe? " Save your money. This thing, despite valve' s near limitless resources, is a half baked mess.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYl3DPBEgng

Did a full video review.

A short, fun, game that has the potential to be something really special if it ever sees a full release.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDSirVrzUq4

It's free, which is good. But the game really has no legs or depth to it. At some point you have to ask yourself, "Is this worth my time"? It's not. I don't want to seem rude. They made a game! It's something a lot of people can't do! That's beside the point though. If you're SUPER bored, check it out. If you have anything, even slightly, more interesting you can think of to do...you should do that instead.

You know that one game where you run around various worlds jumping on bad guys and collecting coins? You know the one! Where the character can triple jump, wall jump, ECT. It's Poi of course! Wait, what game were you thinking of?

https://youtu.be/EIMDUzSjOzw