S&S Review: Rain

Title: Rain 
Format: PS3
Release Date: October 1, 2013
Publisher: SCEA
Developer: Sony Japan
Price: $14.99
ESRB Rating: E

Rain is another artistic showpiece coming out of Sony Japan, where it fuses storybook storytelling and impressive visuals into a thought evoking experience.


Story and Presentation:
The story really reminded me of elements in The Unfinished Swan, where it was presented like a child's tale, although this tale is a lot darker than Unfinished Swan's.  You play as a young boy, who one night notices a girl in the rain during a storm.  She's being chased by unknown creatures.  Even though her body is a translucent figure, he follows her into the blinding rain, where he too becomes invisible as well.  The narrative is a somber one, and it rounds out to one of the most heartwarming tales I've played this year.  There's no voice acting, and no narration, but you still manage to feel attached to these two mysterious characters.  The game boasts an impressive soundtrack.  The haunting music is easily the game's strongest feature, with a melancholic tone that will quickly draw you in.  You rarely get any cinematics other than the opening and closing cutscenes, but they are impressive to say the least.  There's no voice acting of course, but they're presented through water colored photos that really simulates you reading an old children's book.
Core Gameplay:There's not a lot to the gameplay in rain, it's very similar to Journey in that respect, seeing as how you'll only use a couple of buttons to navigate the environments.  Once the boy goes out to find the girl in the rain, his body becomes transparent, and you can only see him and the girl when you're both in the rain. If you're inside, you can only see the footsteps of the two characters.  That's not all there is to it however, the enemies in the game or, Unknown, will present new obstacles for you to overcome.  The various types of Unknown in the game all have the same curse as well, which can make for some interesting encounters when you and the Unknown become invisible in the same area and you have to avoid them.  I thought the game was going to start to get repetitive once I got a grasp of the simple mechanics, but the game did a great job of introducing new encounters and puzzle elements within every chapter.  You can tell that the developers wanted you to experience the story, there's a lot of hand holding throughout, but I don't see that as a negative in a game like this.  The brilliant level design is also a huge plus, you never wonder where you should be heading to next.  It's reminiscent of Uncharted, you never get lost in an area.  The gameplay is fairly light in rain, but since the narrative is so strong, I can't knock it for that.
Final Thoughts:
Rain won't last you too long, but the ending was really special, yet rather dark at the same time.  It's roughly 3 hours, and the $15 price tag may turn some people off, but I believe that it's worth every penny.
S&S Rating: 8.5/10 @whatsPlay