Need to create an air of sadness and melancholy in your video game? Then you’ve gotta make it rain, baby. Similar to movies and television, developers use rainy weather to evoke a certain mood. They’ve been doing so since the earliest days of video games. Want to make Spider-Man or Nathan Drake’s moments of despair that much more dramatic? Then use a little precipitation falling from the sky. And throw in a little thunder and lightning for good measure. It usually does the trick.
A YouTuber by the name of Jez Burrows recognized the prevalence of rain in games and has put several soothing and sometimes moody scenes together. Jez collected the rain scenes from some 30 different games for an epic supercut style compilation. There’s a good chance one of your favorite games is included here, like Batman: Arkham Knight, Uncharted, L.A. Noire, and several others. You can watch or just listen to the entire 30-minute long “It’s Rain in Games: Part I” above.
Sony
The video’s name inspiration comes from the ’80s dance floor hit “ It’s Raining Men.” You can hear a sample of that disco classic in the intro. Burrows describes his video as “a supercut of video game characters taking a break from solving crime or shooting people to enjoy a meditative minute of miserable weather.” For a lot of folks, the droning sound of falling rain is actually very comforting. Naturally, a fair bit of rain’s gloomy comfort goes away with the happy accompanying music of games like Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
A ton of rainy scenes in video games didn’t make the final edit for this particular supercut of course. There are too many. And remember, the video has the label of a “Part I.” Let’s be honest, this is a video series that can probably have many, many sequels. We’re looking forward to several more hours of wet weather sounds and forlorn characters.
Featured Image: Sony