I want to like this game. What am I doing wrong?

[pcdeltalink]

I bought this game years ago and got frustrated and quit not too long into it. I just didn't know where to go, most of the rooms looked the exact same to me, and everything wanted to kill me. All I accomplished was finding food and hibernating, usually dying instead of hibernating.

DLC comes out and game catches my attention again. Also hear that it's actually a really great game. I give it another go. Get a bit farther, actually make it to a karma gate and manage to cross it, but still have no clue where I am or where I'm supposed to be heading. Got to a room with some water, had to use my only spear to climb a small pipe, got stuck between two pipes and a pole plant in some water. Only way out seemed to be climbing the pole plant or having a second spear which I didn't have. Died again.

Looking at the game again now years later, I do agree that the world is beautiful. I think the slug cats are adorable. And I really want to explore more of this world but exploration is painful. I'm playing Survivor and slug cat feels like he can barely get off the ground with his little jump. I feel like he can barely move even though I've seen footage of people doing amazing navigating of their surroundings. His jump distance and height feel really bad. I love that you can climb up spears thrown in walls but I feel like I never have them when I need them.

I just, I feel like I'm not doing something right. Like I'm trying to find out what is that thing that will make it click for me.

[solamon77]

Honestly, I would get a couple mods. One mod that makes the game significantly more forgiving is the Omnispear mod. It lets you throw the spear in 8 directions. The game is still balls hard, but at least now you can mount a competent offense.

Another great mod is the Map Options mod. It lets you do things like speed up the time it takes slugcat to remember the map. Or it can also be used to fully fill in any room you visit.

Another thing that will help out a lot, enable the option that lets you remove spears from the wall once you stick them in.

As a matter of fact, make sure you go check out the options menu in the new mods. There's a lot of quality of life stuff in there that makes the game a bit easier to new players.

[Skirus]

So I was in the same boat as your for a long time, and now i'm obsessed.
It takes a while to "figure this game out" and the best way I can describe it is this.

Rainworld is a pilgrimage.
Thou who art Slugcat, art chosen... In thine exodus from the Slugcat family, maketh pilgrimage to the land of Ancient Lords... When thou ringeth the five pebbles, the fate of the Slugcat thou shalt know..."

Get lost, enjoy being lost, don't spoil anything and slug your way to victory!

[BlackSunEmpire]

Its just a matter of different taste.

Some people love not getting told what to do and where to go and others hate it.
If you cant get lost in the moment while exploring the different ecosystems, its probably not a game for you. I have seen simular discussions in the Subnautica forum.

I think the main two abilities you need to have in order to enjoy games like Rain World are:

- not getting annoyed from dying a lot, dying is just part of the gameplayloop.
- being able to enjoy gameplay without having an objective, other than to explore the world and its inhabitants.

Its not the end of the world if you do not enjoy a genre or subgenre. Everybody has that.
I personally could never understand why people enjoy playing all of those interactive movies, like:

- GTA
- RDR 2
- GOW: Ragnarok
- TLOU 2

All that being said, Rain World has definitely also some annoying aspects to it, like:

- clunky controls
- spears bouncing of walls
- camping enemies/ bad rng
- the tutorial npc Iggy following you through the entire game and being super spammy
- some of the areas are badly designed, like Shaded Citadel or Farm Arrays
- and some of the dead ends and towers you can climb, serve no purpose, at least not in early til midgame.

[Strangle McDangle]

Play the Monk until you're more comfortable. It's definitely "too easy" once you have a good feel for the controls and other aspects of gameplay, but for a new player it's absolutely the best choice.

[fluffymonster]

Messaggio originale di pcdeltalink:

I do prefer a 360 controller when I can for PC games simply because I vastly prefer it over WASD for longer play sessions.

I've been preferring more and more to use controllers. Some games are better with keyboard and mouse, but some games (like this one) is much better with controller. If the controls are uncomfy, it's also a good idea to remap them. I'm fine with the default controls, but my friend remapped them on his end.

Messaggio originale di pcdeltalink:

I think you may be right. I do remember I ran into a white salamander that was just sitting and blocking the only exit from a room. Had to lure him to me and dodge around him to escape. I think they are only in that region if I remember right?

Are you talking about the underwater white lizard or the invisible white one? There's actually another region that have the salamanders I do believe, but they typically live in the clean water regions. I do believe Drainage System in particular has squids all around. They like to eat those, so you can also use them as bait and jump past them as they run away. Things won't attack you if they are already carrying something. If you have a passage, you can teleport out once you sleep. There's a couple that are easy to get (such as monk or the non-violence one). Water can be somewhat difficult to maneuver in.

Messaggio originale di HeXXedSmile:

4. Don't press jump when you're swimming. Super specific but seriously this messed up my group for a while. Pressing jump while swimming makes you boost BUT it consumes a TON of your air. Do it twice and odds are you are going to drown. You have plenty of air to make it if you just don't boost. Plus you actually move decently fast in the water, boosting isn't really necessary.

You can also turn off this in remix. You can also enable an option to see your air left so that you have a better idea of how long to wait before you go back under. It definitely isn't a bad idea to give it a look and see if there's any options that would better suit you being on or off.

[fluffymonster]

Messaggio originale di Strangle McDangle:

Play the Monk until you're more comfortable. It's definitely "too easy" once you have a good feel for the controls and other aspects of gameplay, but for a new player it's absolutely the best choice.

A lot of people recommend starting as Survivor, but I second this. I played Monk until I was more comfortable with the controls, and then switched over to Survivor.

[Honkiewithaboomstick]

If you don't enjoy exploring, or being lost, or 2d platformers or hard games this game probably isn't for you.

Try setting slowdown to 1.17 in the remix options that may help you with the controls but unironically this game is too hard for a lot of people and thats nothing to be ashamed of.

[Burger]

Messaggio originale di schnappkatze:

I had the same experience as OP, also stuck in the sewers(?) now and kinda losing interest. I am really curious what there is in the middle and late game that is so cool, because if it is more of just what you see in the beginning, rooms you can climb and more and more creatures that kill you, I guess it would be disappointing. Is there more to the middle and endgame than "more of the same"? (if you can say that without spoling stuff that is better experienced first hand)

I really want to like this game, I like the artstyle, I like exploration, I like hard games, I like games that don't explain everything to you, but somehow this game doesn't click for me, I feel like there is no "hook", nothing that gives me a real purpose except from "eat and hide", which gets a bit boring.

sewers are heading towards the end game area your really not ready for.
restart and stay a couple cycles in outskirts and the yellow guy will give you generally the correct direction. the hook is the actual story. the yellow guy will direct you towards and most regions are vastly different even a entire region dedicated to 0 gravity.

head to the discord and some nice people will give you some good tips with the actual route to get past early game.

[Burger]

the outskirts drainage connection is the biggest crime the developer has never made

[BlackSunEmpire]

Messaggio originale di Burger:

the outskirts drainage connection is the biggest crime the developer has ever made

Na, its one of the best things ever put in a game, comparable to Blighttown, Maridia or Deepnest. Every game needs something like that.

[Burger]

yeah the first 2 regions are notorious for turning off people for being slow game clicks once you get to places like sky islands and garbage wastes

[Burger]

ah well sucks for ya buts thats how it is i suppose

[Ζiоqch]

Rain World is both cool and stupid as a game. Not the most eloquent way to put it sure but it's just so immersive as an experience.

Until you randomly die because a lizard didn't feel like moving or because the Monk has the lung capacity of a chainsmoker.

[Not green]

I want to start with, many people, even some of rainworlds biggest fans have been in a place where you're at.
On the first playthroughs of many, people will play the game for five minutes, decide its too unforgiving and toss it aside in frustration, 'its just bad game design' or, 'just following that trend of rage bait video games'.

So, you're not alone in this experience, you're just going to have to give it a lot of chances, and everyone gets the hang of it eventually.
You'll get frustrated, but that does not mean its a bad game, nor does it mean its not worth your time.

Before I start, I'll say that I have played this game for over 700 hours. I have been playing it since late 2017. Plenty have more time than that, but that's just to preface that I have had a lot of time to reflect on this game!

That being said, I find people often have trouble with rainworld because-
...

1.

>They play it like a doom game. As far as your first playthrough is concerned, you are not the main character, you are prey, and the game treats you like such even if you don't realize it yet. Predators only chase after you because you're food, and they'll chase after anything else that's edible if they've fixated on it, not just you.

Predators also aren't perfect unstoppable creatures, every single one in the game (even red variants) have kinks to them that'll help you evade them.

Green lizards, the first ones you encounter are some of the toughest HP wise, but its an intentional choice of game design that they absorb so much damage, its to teach you to stop trying to murder. Just get by, because you have a long road ahead of you.

they will also

2.

>Try to breeze through it in an hour

Rainworld looks like it'd be a small game before you get it, but its unexpectedly vast and surprisingly rich with story, in what little it gives you. (for vanilla, anyway) You might not even think it has any when you first play- not that I'll fill you in, though.

It's more than likely that you'll spend an egregious amount of time trying to finish the game the first time you see things.
You will get very confused, and often you may even think you'll be completely trapped or stuck in a hard place. Other than occasional creature RNG, when it comes to level design this is never truly the case with rainworld.

and finally

3.

>Wont take the time to learn mechanics and platforming via trial and error. I suppose this is an extension of 2, but I think its necessary to consider.

Rainworld actually has incredible movement mechanics and long time players may find themselves still learning new things about the movement system, unfortunately an issue with this system is that at first its frustrating-
...but gradually getting used to it is incredibly rewarding, and makes a second playthrough going through places you've already been feel like nothing in terms of difficulty with clear cut paths, when before it probably felt like an awful mess.

The game may as well be renamed trial and error, because at least before DP came out and basic info became more integrated- the game had almost no pointers, everything had to be learned through death, near death, or for more harmless things- a few ticks off of a timer.

Like, new players might not immediately know that moving while standing upright is faster and no longer so clunky, that just getting in the habit of pressing up when you fall or end up in a crawling position can be a huge step in outrunning creatures.

Whats sad about it is, and many other beginner difficulties with the movement system... that's very easy to figure out, but frustration, especially when built up and felt that its deserved can cloud judgment like nothing else can, so suddenly this difficult game is suddenly not just difficult, but unfair. And... that's a hard lesson to learn with the game, but you'll have to learn it eventually.
...
And yeah, the game is actually unfair at times, even a seasoned veteran like myself can tell you that!
but you hit back, and keep trying even though it'll try to beat you down.
If you want to try to brute force learning movement and outsmarting creatures, I suppose trying out arena mode may help. There, there's even less to lose.

[solamon77]

Messaggio originale di Not green:

I want to start with, many people, even some of rainworlds biggest fans have been in a place where you're at.
On the first playthroughs of many, people will play the game for five minutes, decide its too unforgiving and toss it aside in frustration, 'its just bad game design' or, 'just following that trend of rage bait video games'.
.
.
.

This is a fantastic explanation of Rain World. Thanks for writing all this. Like you suggested, I think most people just don't realize that they are playing a survival simulator wrapped in a metroidvania-like exterior. But despite it's outward appearance it is undoubtedly a survival sim first and foremost. Even calling it a survival sim kinda misses the point because it's more of an ecology simulator where to be honest.

I remember when the game first came out, watching reviewer after reviewer completely miss the point of the game and give it bad marks based on their misunderstanding. Maybe this is Rain World's fault because it goes to great lengths to avoid explaining anything to the player (even more so when it first launched) and is content to let you struggle, but I think this opaqueness is one of the things I like most about it. Hopefully your worlds will help newer players understand what they are getting into.