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Rain World: Life Is Hard When You're a Slimy Little Guy

By Wes Ellis3 min read
A tiny white slugcat on overgrown ruins in Rain World, with a vulture circling overhead.
Rating
Platform
Steam · 114 hrs
THE SHORT VERSION4 points
  • 5 out of 5. About 114 hours on record. It broke me, then it kept me.
  • A living ecosystem where creatures hunt, flee and scheme on their own, and you're near the bottom of the food chain.
  • Deliberately awkward movement and almost no guidance. That's the point, and it's brutal.
  • Runs well on modest hardware, and it's playable on the Steam Deck.

"Life Is Hard When You're a Slimy Little Guy" was my Steam headline, with "The most beautiful way to suffer ever created" underneath. Rain World will absolutely break your spirit before it builds it back up. If you can push through the early frustration, it's one of the most unusual and rewarding games there is.

I've put 114 hours into being a slugcat. I regret nothing. Mostly.

What it is

You're a slugcat. You're adorable. Everything wants to eat you, and the rain wants to drown you. Every cycle you need to find enough food and get back to a shelter before a torrential downpour floods the world. Then you do it again.

A tiny white slugcat on overgrown ruins while a vulture circles overhead in Rain World.

The game never really gets easier. You just get better at being a slugcat.

What worked

The ecosystem. This is the magic. The creatures behave in startlingly smart ways. They hunt each other, run from each other, and go about their own business whether you're watching or not. It feels alive rather than scripted, and you're one small part of a complicated food chain.

The world. Ancient, alien and completely indifferent to you. The environments are breathtaking, the soundtrack is sparse, and the ambient sound builds a sense of isolation that fits the survival experience perfectly. The storytelling through the environment is masterful.

The vulnerability. The movement is intentionally unwieldy, and combat is less about fighting than about staying alive: dodging, escaping, and sometimes outsmarting something much bigger than you.

Slugcats resting together in a pink-lit industrial space in a Rain World illustration.

Heads up

You will die a lot. Then die some more. Each death is teaching you something about the world, even when it doesn't feel like it.

What didn't

The difficulty. It's brutal, frequently unfair and sometimes outright hostile. That's what makes it special, and it's also what makes people quit.

The learning curve. Basic movement takes hours to feel comfortable.

No direction. There's minimal guidance, and it can feel overwhelming.

Technically, it's in great shape. It runs smoothly on modest hardware (integrated graphics are fine), bugs are rare, and there's mod support if you want to tweak the experience.

Who it's for

It is not for everyone. You'll love it if you enjoy figuring things out without help, can treat death as a learning tool, find beauty in hostile worlds, and want something genuinely unique.

Skip it if you get frustrated easily, need clear objectives, want conventional mechanics, or are looking for something relaxing.

How long?

The main story is somewhere around 20 to 25 hours if you know where you're going. Doing everything is 60-plus. As my hours show, it can be a lot more.

Worth it?

Rain World is like nothing else in gaming. It isn't just about surviving. It's about learning to exist in a world that doesn't care whether you live or die. If that sounds appealing, welcome to your new obsession.

If you want the same kind of mystery with a little less starvation, Animal Well is a gentler rabbit hole.

LINKED FROM1 note

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