Rain is a puzzle based downloadable game from Sony developer Japan Studio. The game features some interesting mechanics that use rainfall as a means of stealth and distraction.
The game opens with some lovely water colour style story boards. You play as a nameless young boy who finds himself trapped in another world – where he is invisible and only has the rainfall to reveal himself. He soon finds a kindred spirit in a young girl and sets off after her to find out what is going on.
Rain is one of those games that garnered great excitement when it was first shown and the game design certainly dazzles. The rain looks fantastic and sounds amazing. Muscially the game is lovely as well – the use of Debussy’s “Clair de Lune” is particularly inspired.
However, despite all the positives I felt a little let down by Rain. The gameplay does get a little stale after a while and at times I felt I was simply holding up on the analogue stick for long stretches.
Thankfully the atmosphere and story are strong enough to carry Rain from an average game to a good one. It’s not massively long, perhaps 5 or 6 hours and the last hour or so is a real highlight.
Puzzles come mostly in the form of enemies that you’ll need to avoid, staying out of the rain to remain invisible. There are also some mechanical puzzles but these are all fairly simple.
Rain feels a bit like one of those projects where they had the idea first and then built the game around it. But it is supported by a haunting story and soundtrack, which add some depth to proceedings. I’d recommend giving it a try as I felt the game as a whole was just about interesting enough to keep you playing through to the end.
Rating: 7/10
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