Raw Danger

"in the flooded city, everyone's fate crosses"

Raw Danger is quite a unique experience. From the start, the premise sounds simple but fun, and even at its worst, could probably be entertaining. What we get instead is a game where the actual disaster takes a backseat to an unexpectedly spectacular story. That’s not to say the actual “Raw Danger” and gameplay aren’t good too, but they most certainly take the second priority. Whether this is a good thing seems to be highly divided among players, but what is there, even if to some it feels like the focus is improper, is great.

 

Moving onto the gameplay, it’s certainly easy to pinpoint as the game’s weakest aspect. That doesn’t make it bad, but it is rather odd, and occasionally frustrating. The main gameplay consists of surviving the harsh disaster around you, and it always looks and feels nice, due to some excellent set-pieces. Alongside this are some adventure elements, and then perhaps the most important piece of the game: the dialogue options. Those will be gotten to later.

The adventure elements of the game do a good job of building atmosphere and immersion into the world, but can occasionally be frustrating in their obscurity. A few times in the game, you'll wonder where a specific item is or how to progress. Luckily enough, these setbacks are quite a ways apart, and don't do much damage to the excellent pacing of the gameplay.

Without doubt, the largest reason the game is so fascinating is that the six playable character’s stories are all woven together seamlessly. It’s all one big story, just with six different pieces, and it's pretty damn thrilling to see. There’s a huge sense of progress when you see something you did to a character earlier come up again, and it’s part of what makes the game unique.

 

The most excellent aspect of Raw Danger is still its story. Irem could’ve set people in a disaster, made them escape, and called it a day, but the game instead houses an interesting and satisfying story, all set amongst a flooded city to keep things moving and interesting. What would otherwise be a fairly simple mystery-adventure game becomes something much more fun and memorable due to the urgency and scale of the setting. In Raw Danger, the flood and disaster are part of the environment, not the main course. How the game manages to weave its story and gameplay together like this still impresses me to this day, and hopefully it does the same for someone else.