Rain Hands-On: ICO’s Spiritual Successor

If I was limited in the words I could use in which to sell you Rain, I would say but two things: ICO 2. While I’d feel rather guilty as that amounts to nothing more than a big tease, the connections are obvious from the start. A lost boy. A distressed girl and enough atmosphere to embarrass the majority of other games.

Much as the name infers, Rain sets you down in an almost make-believe world where your character can only be seen during a downpour. This has been made abundantly clear, as has the ability to find shelter and see the focus shift to following your wet footprints or, when dry, the many objects you’re bound to walk into in the process. It’s a surreal thing to witness, essentially because you’re being asked to control an invisible child. It’s a concept that is, on paper, ridiculous. At the same time, it is incredibly well executed.

Much like ICO or, to a lesser extent, its successor Shadows Of The Colossus, Rain succeeds due to how well crafted it is. Every level sees you trying to protect a young girl – who has suffered a similar fate to yourself – from ‘the unknowns’, a breed of monster that, once more, aren’t too dissimilar to what Sony Japan has toyed with before: they resemble nothing you’d recognise and yet still somehow carry a very real threat to the two children. It’s here a genuine sense of tension is introduced.

As you’re unable to do any damage, it’s a case of either avoiding your enemies entirely or forcing them into aiding you in your journey, such as collapsing a wooden platform which then allows you to climb up the wreckage. It’s a simple mechanic but one that works wonderfully well. You feel vulnerable from the off in Rain, not just because of the melancholy environment you find yourself in but due to the knowledge that there is no direct way to protect yourself. Throw in the girl who you’re also trying to keep safe and it’s the perfect antithesis to the usual ‘get gun, shoot gun, love gun’ approach.

While Rain certainly isn’t flying this flag by itself – just take a look at The Unfinished Swan and Journey, for example – it doesn’t stop it from standing out in its own right. Lovingly put together, there’s not one area that doesn’t seem like a meticulous amount of attention was poured into, right down to the choice of music. A mixture of identifiable classical pieces and almost Professor-Layton like tunes, it ties into what’s being presented beautifully. That may sound horribly pretentious, but seeing it all come together reminds you that that games retain the power to be unique.

The mechanical setup is incredibly stripped back as well. Giving you control of the movement of the boy, obviously, the only other options at your disposable are to jump or interact with specific items. Even then Sony Japan has still found ways in which to test your mental strength. Be it finding ways to destroy or simply explore your surroundings, this is far more challenging than it may have you believe, and all the better for it too. It creates panic through the simplest of things, and anyone who buys into the relationship between its leads will find themselves oddly worried about two individuals who vanish when the skies don’t open. That in itself is an achievement.

The team behind Rain have no shame in admitting that ICO is one of its favourite games to have existed, and while this does have its own sense of self, the comparisons are easy to see. It may seem a little more grounded, but if you longingly think back to 2001 on a regular basis, you may not have to rely on nostalgia for much longer.

It’s a credit to Sony too that it continues to support such titles. In the continued absence of The Last Guardian – which we’re all still waiting on – it’s smaller, more intimate games like Rain that remind you how well the PlayStation caters for oddities such as this. Technically excellent with a personality to boot, it’s an experience you just won’t be able to find anywhere else.

It goes beyond this generation, too. Sony’s Japan studio has long been credited for the worlds it creates, and this seems set to continue where the PS4 is concerned. Producer Noriko Umermura told VideoGamer.com that the new console “would allow us to explore a lot more and newer game mechanics” and that the developer “will definitely come up with new ideas for PlayStation 4.”

Naturally, the next question would be what exactly this would entail. When pressed about a similar re-imagining of Shadow Of The Colossus, Umermura would only say that “Yes definitely [we’d like to do something similar with something like Shadow Of The Colossus]. We want to have more surprises and different experiences.”

Well that’s that then…