Rain World is a sidescrolling platformer in which you play a small rodent who must survive on a planet of other life forms pelted with recurring lethally powerful downpours of rain. You must learn to control your creature (who moves with dynamic physics, along with all other creatures), and learn to interact with and hunt the various other creatures (who have varied and intelligent AI and are not necessarily hostile) in order to gain food to sustain you through the next rain cycle.
Through all of this you explore a large interconnected world of different areas that show a background lore of a world that previously inhabited intelligent industrial beings (who have vanished) and uncover the mysteries within and find others of your kind.
That was as succint as I could make it to show off the unique qualities of Rain World. Its visual style is beautiful, its gameplay has a moderate learning curve due to the physics, and the AI of the creatures are successful in creating a dynamic ecosystem wherein the player feels like they're a small incidental piece of a world that has its own goals and behaviors that the player must learn to fit in with and work within.
I really wanted to love rain world since it seemed right up my alley. I bounced off it not because of the difficulty, but I think because the character’s movement feels bad. You’re slow, can’t jump high, a lot of maneuvering is fiddly.
Maybe I’ll try it again at some point though, because the world they made is brilliant and has interesting emergent behaviors.
Slay the Spire: I don’t just think it’s the best deck building roguelike, I think it’s the quintessential deck building roguelike. It’s such a complete exploration of the design space of the genre in terms of the options it gives the player to build their deck and the challenges it puts those decks up against. Not that there aren’t any other fun games in this genre, but they all still feel like STS, but worse and with a gimmick that doesn’t add much.
Balatro has taken that mantle for the moment (over a hundred hours in under two weeks). Other similar games would be Cobalt Core (finished with all characters, don’t feel the need to go back though) and… Monster Train (it’s okay, not as tight as the others).
I’m in love with balatro, but do you think it’s better than slay the spire? I think slay the spire just feels… More of a game than balatro I guess? Maybe I feel that way just because there’s not really a story set up against balatro, and slay the spire at least has you fight an entity that you feel good about.
StS doesn’t really have a story, but yes, it has characters instead; I don’t really mind either direction, Balatro’s fight-against-the-game is essentially the same thing.
They are different, and I do enjoy them both in their own ways. Balatro’s heavy focus on combinations (and regular stores) means decks can shape quite quickly into something very unique. It’s also more accessible as the games are shorter; StS can be an hour if successful, if not more. My comment is more that Balatro is newer and has at least satisfied the itch which - after being out for years - StS has perhaps not been able to do in such a way for a while.
I picked up Balatro because of this thread and I agree, it’s a great game and something a little fresh, but slay the spire is still probably the best.
I agree about the “more like a game” element. Baltoro feels more like playing cards than playing a video game. I think it’s cause I’m using the same odds/play styles as when I play real life card games.
Yeah, StS really ruined me for other deckbuilders, and I’m still chasing that high. Some pretty good ones have been Power Chord and Banners of Ruin. They’re both team-based games where cards are tied to certain characters, and I think that particular mechanic adds enough that it took me a while to crack the code on them.
Wildfrost is a really good one. It’s got a lot of different play styles and has a pretty big learning curve.
Also on android there is Pirate Outlaws. It feels like a slay the spire clone, but has a good amount of content and does enough different to be worth mentioning.
Not exactly the same cause it’s not a deck builder, but has a similar feel is dicey dungeons (both steam and android). It’s a lot simpler and luck is a larger factor, but it’s got a decent gameplay loop and being able to play on Android helped scratch that itch on the road.
I liked Wildfrost, but it didn’t have that much replay value after 30 or so hours, whereas I have 500+ in StS. They have updated it since I last played though, so maybe there’s a bit more to do now?
They’ve definitely added things to it over the year or so it’s been out. Not sure if enough to make it worth it for you. It’s also possible I’m just bad at it, as I haven’t beaten it (although only 12hrs on it).
I’m not too into deckbuilders, so I played it just for that gorgeous presentation lol. The art style falls under an unusual category of “cute, but I’m pretty sure that the artist also draws naughty stuff on the side”
From what I read, it didn’t even just suck, it was practically fraud. They knew how many sales they had and only stood up enough servers to support around 200 players.
I recently bought stardew valley and its fun but the farming grind feels kinda forced, no? I feel like I need to pay attention to not loose myself in the game which defeats the purpose.
I can imagine it gets better but the grind is kind of not for me. The mining and farming grind in minecraft I understand and the grind in factorio as well. Maybe its heightened due to the saving cycle that seems to want you to keep going.
I used to find it kinda stressful until i realised there was no time limit to the game like the usual harvest moons so once I realised that, I never find myself rushing around or overextending my ability to farm to grind more and just focused on what I was enjoying in the game which was a bit of everything.
There is sort of a time limit though, you get your “review” at the end of the second year (at which point no new events happen). Also getting things planted in time for when the seasons change etc is kind of time-limiting.
But that’s all detail, it’s great that people can enjoy it without time pressures!
I only really played early on, not dabbled with it properly in years but I do remember things happening. It’s not like I could only get things to happen in the first two years in game
There are ways to play (besides mods) where you barely have to grow crops. Unless you’re trying for all the achievements there’s not really a wrong way or a time limit to play.
I had a harder time getting good at and staying interested in ITB. I still really enjoy a playthrough every now and then.
With FTL I guess it just feels more replayable and “on edge” to me. There is just something special about ftl runs, be it overpowered, under powered. There are so many ships, weapons, systems, and crew combinations that no run really feels the same.
The same could be said about ITB and their different mech teams but I guess it just doesn’t have the same feel. ITB feels like I’m selling my services to big corporations with saving people as an after note. FTL feels like a suicide mission for the fate of the galaxy and I think that feeling is what really makes me come back to FTL.
Interesting! Thanks for sharing, I don’t really disagree with any of your points. Maybe I just liked the style of ITB more…I do love isometric tactics games
Personally one of the aspects I enjoy a lot in FTL is managing my power levels mid-fight (Do I need my oxygen powered right now? I could probably turn it off until the fight is over…) I don’t know if any other game that has you shuffling around power like that.
Even Arkane alone at that time wouldn’t be considered indie. They had done a few contract jobs for major releases, like CoD, before developing Dishonored.
bin.pol.social
Najnowsze