Metroidvania Uruc is similar to Rain World, but the snotty cat grabs a shotgun and pilots a mech

Rain World’s snotty cat is a distinct minor character. He squirms through narrow tunnels with a movement that’s both cute and slightly disgusting. When he gets eaten by a passing disco lizard or a greedy skull-faced vulture, it’s because he’s a delicious Squirmle existing in a fundamentally terrifying cryptozoological ecosystem. But he’s never crushed by a mech with a missile launcher. He’s never given a shotgun, nor is he tasked with shooting other animals. Yet this basically seems like the elevator pitch for Uruc, a sci-fi metroidvania set in the distant future where strange life fights mechanical monsters.

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Solo developer Stefan Haasbroek has been working on the game for over a year, and recently launched a crowdfunding campaign (as spotted by enthusiastic RPS fanzine PC Gamer ). Unlike Rain World's exploratory survival gameplay, the game seems more focused on action and combat. At one point, your creature climbs into a minigun. At another moment, the player is seen piloting a mech equipped with powerful weapons. Later, the player is seen controlling a small ship with turrets.

Other features look familiar. Your character rolls and somersaults in a cat-like fashion, climbs and descends poles placed throughout levels, falls into water and floats with the same sense of weight. Several dialogue samples in the trailer create a similarly mysterious atmosphere when set against the strange lands of Videocult, and even a symbol painted on a panel in the background of one scene brings to mind meaningful glyphs scattered around Rain World, such as those used on “karma gates.”

All that being said, it shouldn’t be surprising that a developer would draw such broad inspiration from catsuman. Rain World, with all its quirks and idiosyncrasies, shows a boldness unlike many other games. It simulates an unforgiving and beautiful world where the player often feels like a mere visitor. Who could blame someone if they wanted to pump more of that dizzying toxin into the game world? I get the feeling that Rain World’s influence will be felt more in future games, albeit more muted than this one. For example, you can feel the shadow of its design philosophy in the upcoming Forever Winter , in which you’re just a temporary cockroach.

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