Megaton Rainfall Review

Everyone at some point in their lives has dreamed of gaining super powers, whether it be flight, super strength or invisibility. Megaton Rainfall hands this to the player and so much more. Superman eat your heart out.

I began Megaton Rainfall in a swirling vortex, my ethereal hands and legs being the only recognisable thing in front of me. A haunting voice coaxed me onward, and as I exited the swirling whirlwind of energy I found myself floating high above Earth. A small curious box began projecting words and emitting the same voice as before. It explained to me what I was and what my purpose is: I had been reformed, no longer human and only I could protect humanity from an unknown enemy. The cube granted me my first power, supersonic flight, and with this it took me on a tour of the planet, speeding past cities that loosely represent real locations with landmarks such as the Sydney Opera House and Dubai’s Coastline visible from high altitude. This section continued for several minutes, at first I thought I was missing some objective, however the game simply wanted to take me on a tour, to get used to the flight mechanics and absorb myself in the moment. This experience is one to behold, flying from ground level to orbit in a matter of seconds all to a gentle almost haunting soundtrack that left me with a feeling of awe.

Catching up with my talking cube friend it granted me a second power, energy blasts, and a new objective to use this power to stop an attack on the planet. Reaching the mission marker the enemy was revealed to be alien aircraft's laying siege to a city, the occupants standing no chance against the superior technology this interstellar threat possessed. Being an indestructible godlike being, the aliens could not harm me. Instead of a health bar the player has a human casualty meter, if the casualties become too numerous the mission will end and force the player to continue from a checkpoint. The kicker with this is by being too careless with my new found powers, I could do far more damage than the aliens and was occasionally responsible for most of the human fatalities. A missed energy blast might slam into the side of a skyscraper and send it crashing to the ground causing hundreds of casualties. I found myself shouting apologies at the screen far too often as the alien crafts nimbly avoided my attacks and caused me to inadvertently wreak havoc below. My best ‘oops’ moment was when I gained a new charged energy blast that I decided to use to destroy a mothership from above. The blast was so powerful it ripped through the mothership and into the city below creating a shockwave that swallowed the entire city in a crater visible from orbit.

There is a large variety of enemy craft to battle, each with their own behaviours. Some crafts may make clones of themselves, others disguise themselves as buildings and some charge up attacks for catastrophic damage. This is where the game shines the most. The slow introduction of different mechanics and enemy behaviours build up to scenarios that rewards quick thinking and skill utilisation, all the while taking careful consideration how to aim attacks so they would not cause unnecessary destruction. One of my favourite ships to battle are small cylindrical crafts that dart between tall buildings and then cloak and attach themselves to the side of a building, making them hard to track down and destroy. The game will often spawn this type of enemy in groups, making them even harder to keep track of.

Between missions the player is free to roam the planet as they please. There is something extremely satisfying about being able to go from orbit to ground level in a matter of seconds.  While there is nothing to really do other than fly around, the sense of wonder does not disappear, especially when granted the ability to fly faster than the speed of light which allows the player to escape Earth’s orbit and explore the universe and beyond. The game hints at there being something more to discover outside of the Milky Way which only adds to the mystery of the story. This is the main feature of the story, the mystery of what is going on, who the enemy are and how the player fits into it all. Themes of the meaning of existence and purpose are heavily intertwined into the plot which makes for an interesting story that kept me playing to learn more.

The game handles draw distance exceedingly well, cities are visible from orbit and as the player descends tree’s become visible and even grass and flowers are generated at the ground level. Megaton Rainfall will not be winning any awards for its graphical detail, models are extremely low detail, and textures are relatively low resolution. Despite this the game still has its own beauty, the way light hits planets is beautiful and soaring through the universe is a sight to behold.

There are unfortunately some mission-breaking bugs present at the time of this review. During one of my missions I had to destroy four motherships that would keep spawning smaller enemies. Despite destroying them the game did not recognise they had been destroyed and kept spawning enemies in a never ending loop. I had to replay the same mission about five times for the game to finally respond and allow me to proceed. This is a bug that is present in multiple levels and while not game breaking it is nonetheless frustrating.

Megaton Rainfall is an interesting title, it hands the player overpowered abilities and a huge sandbox to play in but forces the player to restrain themselves by making collateral damage the key to success or failure. I had hours of fun exploring the universe, checking out landmarks and discovering secrets out in the galaxy between fighting off waves of alien enemies. Unfortunately I have to mark Megaton Rainfall down for its mission-breaking bugs, however this title is a refreshing experience and a fun one at that. I recommend just taking some time to sit quietly and absorb the experience that is Megaton Rainfall.