The post-apocalyptic wasteland of Rain World is stunning, brutal, and full of strange creatures that would love to eat your cat face. It’s a landscape of wonder and pain that’s about to get even more wonderful and painful. The upcoming Watcher expansion, which will add novel locations to explore and a novel type of snail to play as, is coming early next year, according to the developers. There’s a trailer to back it up. Look at that slippery gastropod, standing there calmly in the rain, as if the rushing, deadly weight of the water couldn’t crush that little, fluffy head. Bile!
Set to release on March 28, 2025, we haven’t been told exactly what this expansion is all about, only that the slugcat you control this time around will be a Watcher, also known as “Nightcat.” This shadowy creature has something of a cameo in the game’s previous Downpour DLC. You can play as Nightcat in the multiplayer arena mode, for example, and an adorable little Squirmle also makes a brief appearance toward the end of another slugcat’s story campaign.
We don’t know what abilities this slugcat has, if any, though. In Downpour, each novel slugcat variety has special traits and characteristics. For example, the prickly Spearmaster has needles in its body that it uses as weapons and climbing tools, and Saint uses its sticky tongue as a kind of grappling hook. But Watcher? I have no idea.
Perhaps the confident way the furball stands in the pouring rain signifies immunity to the game’s most invincible environmental hazard? Or maybe all the cryptic talk of ripples and concentric rings suggests this slugcat has some ability to travel through time and space in novel ways. I don’t know. But one thing is clear from the trailer. There will be a ton of novel areas to explore, and some of them look very different from your usual twisted urban swamp. Sand! Snow! Pink skies!
“The wilderness that awaits you will be unlike anything that has come before,” the DLC description reads. “Unfamiliar creatures lurk, climb, dive, and hunt. New races claw, tear, burrow, and hide. Predator and prey redefined.”
Sip.
If you haven’t staggered precariously through the post-apocalyptic landscapes of Rain World, I recommend it, provided you consider playing on an easier difficulty than the default. This survival metroidvania (I don’t know what else to call it) was nails When I played it for review purposes and was under time pressure, I didn’t have a perfect experience.
Nevertheless, it’s an exceptional piece of work. It has both some of the best rain in gaming and some of the best cats in gaming. Its stark and fascinating world has stayed with me in a way that few games have. Sometimes I look back on this review with a hint of regret, with a feeling that I wasn’t able to fully experience the game on its own terms. Then again, that was before the creators at Videocult threw a ton of updates at it and added that nice, basic mode for sufferers like me. I’ll be back someday. If I find the courage to keep going this thing Again.
