Megaton Rainfall from Pentadimensional Games, SL
Megaton Rainfall was something I came across by chance and decided to take a look at, completely on a whim. My first curiosity was about the claims of an entire world that you could fly around – complete with cities – with no loading times. What I discovered was exactly as promised and more, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
Megaton Rainfall brands itself as a superhero simulator. You are an immortal super being tasked by a cube that spits words at you – literally – and claims to be the creator of the universe, a universe created just for humanity.
But ho! An alien invader has appeared, a life form that he was unaware existed, come to attack the cities of man! Save them, oh hero protector! And so it goes.
Set Up Us the Bomb
In a series of short missions, you fly around the globe shooting down UFOs with your magic atomic bomb-shooting hands. It sounds goofy and over the top, because it is, and that’s exactly the point.
It’s not so simple, though. Being that you shoot hazy bombs from the palms of your hands and your targets are in low altitude over buildings, gleefully lifting cars from the streets and throwing them around or burrowing into skyscrapers, what happens if you miss? Why, you vaporize an entire city block, of course! Silly you! Well don’t miss, then!
And that’s the meat of the game: an adrenaline-pumping defense of large cities against these invaders where one bad shot can, and will, “end someone’s day,” to borrow a popular Mass Effect quote. That’s why we don’t “Shoot from the hip!”
Galaxy Brain
If you can’t tell, this game got me extremely pumped up. Even though a few weeks have passed since I finished it, I have noticed that having let my thoughts brew on it and just sitting down to punch this out has me all hyped up again. Several times, between stages – even where you are simply following your cube friend as he shows you around, granting you new powers – the only words that were going though my head were, “This effing game!”
It’s an experience, to say the least. It’s short, but boy if it’s not an experience. At one point, you are even granted the ability to zip off to any planet, any star, to any GALAXY that you wish. Just zoom off into the deep void and explore the universe as you see fit. Why? There’s no reason to, no purpose other than being able to say that you can, and that’s amazing.
Endless? Virtually Unreal!
Now, if you’re playing the Steam version, there are mods to extend the game, add an “Endless” mode, and to make it so that your own attacks on civilians cause a Game Over screen so that you can act out the villain. But, if you’re playing just the unmodded base game, there are some Easter eggs to be found that I will not spoil here.
I must stress again how short the game is, which would be a shame for console versions, if the build I played on PC is the same as what’s to be found on PSVR and Switch.
Yes, I said Switch! It was just announced last weekend.
Steam VR support will also come at the same time, as well as Oculus and XBox One. What I’d really like in the full base game is more modes, including a fleshed out and supported Endless mode. Though a “Free Roam” mode was announced for release at the time of the new console launches, I don’t know enough about it to comment.
Devils in Details
Megaton Rainfall will impress. It’ll be one of those things you want to sit your friend down and say, “Play this – now,” without any pretext of what they are about to see. It’s like one of those presentations from the mod scene where you download a 3 kilobyte file and open it to be blown away by a music video that you scream could never fit into its file size.
From outer space, you can zoom to the surface, burning a little bit as you pass through the atmosphere, and, as you touch down in the middle of a field, a flower suddenly enters your view as you land. Or in the middle of a city street where low-poly people will stop and stare at you, cars driving by, phone booths on the sidewalk, bus stops, light posts, shops, parks, an amount of detail you’d never expect to see. They don’t have to be there for what the game is, but they’re there, nonetheless.
I say again to myself, “This effing game…” and fly off to the next mission way-point.
In all, Megaton Rainfall’s technical splendor and its ability to evoke emotion is still rather simple and – one last time – short. It’ll be over before you know it. But with its simplicity, its length might be a blessing for not overstaying its welcome. It warms my heart that it exists, though for further releases, I do hope it adds more to the mix to give it a bit more staying power.
There is enough of a variation in enemies and their behavior that it can hold up as it is now, so keep an eye out on update news for what Free Roam mode could possibly mean.
Megaton Rainfall is available via the Sony PlayStation Store and Steam.
[xrr rating=”3.5/5″]
Watch the official Megaton Rainfall trailer below:
