This review contains spoilers
Downpour's biggest strength is its ability to recontextualize the environment of the world, showing how few changes to the movement system can present a completely new set of fun platforming challenges. The movement in the original game is superb as it was, but I would definitely argue that several of the campaigns here do it even better. The speedrun feel of Rivulet, the ability to move a lot more freely during combat as Artificer, the Gourmand slide, the Spider-saint (that momentum preservation is so sweet) and the Spear-climbing possilibites of Spearmaster (my greatest idea was throwing a spear underneath with a backflip and then one above as well to reach certain ceilings with dropwigs).
The lore elements are consistent, if one were to engage with the lore of the original game that is. I fully understand, however, that the pearl-reading process was a powerfully tedious task, and I wished there was a simpler way to find out the lore. There's the wikis of course, but that's always less exciting than finding stuff out for yourself. Well, now with the added dev-tools, you can experiment at your leisure! So I hope people go back to the main game and check out the lore to see that the Iterators always were emotionally unstable discord users, and slugcats always were purposed beings, even though they are also animals. The player may be able to realize these things better if they complete all three of the OG campaigns, but the pearls go into further detail.
I do understand if the sheer feeling of encountering certain things, and the mystery surrounding each creature or plant is lost when there is a dictionary that can explain everything to you, but it was always there, there were always some answers waiting for those who were interested in the "canon" explanations. If you aren't, Downpour's focus on story will lose you fast. I, however, think that all of them present fascinating ideas to an already fascinating world, one of my favorites, now only cemented as one of the coolest fictional universes of all time.
I think Spearmaster's campaign could be skipped, I believe the devs even pondered removing it, but I did enjoy the fact that playing it allowed me to defeat creatures I never could otherwise. It did have the single worst idea of removing one of this slugcat's key abilities as part of the progression, which I thought sucked. It is my least favorite one, it feels the most out of place. And while I do greatly enjoy this story, all the ideas and moments that reward the curious are there, nothing really comes close to the feeling of the original Survivor playthrough. I replayed parts of it before diving in, and the void sea segment sends shivers down my spine every time, same as meeting Pebbles. There are cool setpieces, but the feeling is different. Perhaps it's because I've gotten so much better through these campaigns that I gained excitement for new challenges and lost some of that fear of the unknown.
But there is no way to ever make another campaign like the first one. Even replaying Survivor I was already much better and knew so much more about how to deal with threats. I have moved from observing the ecosystem and slipping past to engaging with the ecosystem, being a part of it. And in that way I think Downpour's approach is the correct one for a sequel aimed at players familiar with the systems, while also adding some more tutorial messages for the starter Slugcats while sleeping. To me it opens up Rain World to so many more new possibilities, and I'm so happy it truly rewards anyone who wants to engage with the movement system or combat or lore on a deeper level. Though I fully understand if there are people who do not wish for Rain World to be like that.
I've seen the sentiment blaming modders for such an approach, but that's not true. The devs specifically overviewed everything and worked with them on the lore. It was something they wanted to add to the game, something they worked on as well even if a lot of the work was done by the modders. To conclude that this DLC is something detached from their vision of the base game is weird. I've personally never felt that it is. And that's actually the best praise I can give it.
The lore elements are consistent, if one were to engage with the lore of the original game that is. I fully understand, however, that the pearl-reading process was a powerfully tedious task, and I wished there was a simpler way to find out the lore. There's the wikis of course, but that's always less exciting than finding stuff out for yourself. Well, now with the added dev-tools, you can experiment at your leisure! So I hope people go back to the main game and check out the lore to see that the Iterators always were emotionally unstable discord users, and slugcats always were purposed beings, even though they are also animals. The player may be able to realize these things better if they complete all three of the OG campaigns, but the pearls go into further detail.
I do understand if the sheer feeling of encountering certain things, and the mystery surrounding each creature or plant is lost when there is a dictionary that can explain everything to you, but it was always there, there were always some answers waiting for those who were interested in the "canon" explanations. If you aren't, Downpour's focus on story will lose you fast. I, however, think that all of them present fascinating ideas to an already fascinating world, one of my favorites, now only cemented as one of the coolest fictional universes of all time.
I think Spearmaster's campaign could be skipped, I believe the devs even pondered removing it, but I did enjoy the fact that playing it allowed me to defeat creatures I never could otherwise. It did have the single worst idea of removing one of this slugcat's key abilities as part of the progression, which I thought sucked. It is my least favorite one, it feels the most out of place. And while I do greatly enjoy this story, all the ideas and moments that reward the curious are there, nothing really comes close to the feeling of the original Survivor playthrough. I replayed parts of it before diving in, and the void sea segment sends shivers down my spine every time, same as meeting Pebbles. There are cool setpieces, but the feeling is different. Perhaps it's because I've gotten so much better through these campaigns that I gained excitement for new challenges and lost some of that fear of the unknown.
But there is no way to ever make another campaign like the first one. Even replaying Survivor I was already much better and knew so much more about how to deal with threats. I have moved from observing the ecosystem and slipping past to engaging with the ecosystem, being a part of it. And in that way I think Downpour's approach is the correct one for a sequel aimed at players familiar with the systems, while also adding some more tutorial messages for the starter Slugcats while sleeping. To me it opens up Rain World to so many more new possibilities, and I'm so happy it truly rewards anyone who wants to engage with the movement system or combat or lore on a deeper level. Though I fully understand if there are people who do not wish for Rain World to be like that.
I've seen the sentiment blaming modders for such an approach, but that's not true. The devs specifically overviewed everything and worked with them on the lore. It was something they wanted to add to the game, something they worked on as well even if a lot of the work was done by the modders. To conclude that this DLC is something detached from their vision of the base game is weird. I've personally never felt that it is. And that's actually the best praise I can give it.