Rainswept – Review (PC)
Rainswept – Review (PC)
First off, I want to apologize for taking so long to review Rainswept. This game is definitely worth taking a look at. Rainswept is a point and click adventure mystery, games I grew up playing as a child on my old Pac Bell x286. (Yes, I am kind of dating myself with that one.) But I absolutely enjoyed those games. Rainswept does a very good job in keeping with that idea of clicking around and playing through a story, yet keeping it fresh enough and giving the option to have different endings as well.
For those not familiar with point and click adventure games, it’s exactly as it sounds. Move around and use the mouse to click and locate objects within the scene to collect objects or clues to move the story along. Rainswept is no different. You use ‘WASD’ keys to move around then interact with the mouse or ‘E”. You also get options in the dialog to choose, those can be selected with a mouse, WASD, and E, or the corresponding number. Overall this was a perfect system to get this story told.
The story is a highlight that needs to be brought up. You play Detective Michael Stone, who gets sent to Pineview a small town, to assist with a murder case. The case seems fairly easy to the locals, it was a murder-suicide. The detective gets teamed up with Officer Amy Blunt as you go through the clues and stories from the locals to see if this tragic event is really just a murder-suicide.
Rainswept focuses on something different with the story, mental health. This theme plays a huge part and is a driving force behind everything you come across in the game. You get to see the effects of mental health on individuals and relationships if they are visible or not. Not only on the deceased couple but in Detective Stone as well. It was really heartbreaking and touched on some personal notes with some of the themes Rainswept touched on. One thing I have to give props to is how the story handles mental illness. It doesn’t make it out to be a monster, it makes it feel…acceptable. It really helps to feel for the characters. The story overall is pretty well done. Some parts did feel rushed while others felt to drag on with unnecessary back stories.
Visually, it is very basic. All 2D characters had very basic movements, as if on hinges. There aren’t many details in the backgrounds but there are moments where the game pans out to overlook a valley, though the details aren’t there, it didn’t make it feel any less beautiful. The soundtrack was smooth and fell right into place with the story.
There were a couple of bugs with the dialog that came across. They weren’t game breaking, just broke my ‘in the moment experience’.
You can check out Rainswept on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/772290/Rainswept/
Rainswept was a great surprise. The deep, meaningful, story around mental health that doesn’t make it some evil idea, is refreshing. Though not perfect, it is definitely memorable.
Note: A digital code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of reviewing this game. Any code or product intended for reviews is distributed to the team to review and stream for our audience.
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