Dive or Die: Children of Rain was one of our most anticipated games, and it's the gem we hoped for

We waited for it with a slightly unreasonable impatience, the kind that scares you, because too strong an anticipation often ends in disappointment. Dive or Die: Children of Rain had sat at the top of our list since its demo, and we launched the final version with knots in our stomach, ready to watch the dream collapse. Good news, and a real surprise: it's not a disappointment. It's even exactly the tense, atmospheric and anxious gem we hoped for, the one that keeps you holding your breath far longer than your diver.

The context

Dive or Die: Children of Rain is an atmospheric roguelite developed by Drop Rate Studio and published by Dear Villagers, available since 21 July 2026 on PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store. The pitch installs a chilling tension right away: for years, a Black Rain has drowned the world and decimated humanity. The Rainmaker, an eldritch divinity, leaves the survivors one final choice: recover its sacred idols hidden at the bottom of the Abyss in under forty days, or vanish in the final Flood. The countdown is on, and every dive is a deadly gamble. The game won over its demo, with more than 90% positive reviews, and the enthusiasm wasn't stolen.

The gameplay: the dive, that vertigo

The heart of the game, its real reason to exist, is the dive into the Abyss, and it's a success. On each descent, you sink ever deeper to glean resources, fighting underwater threats and, above all, the relentless management of your oxygen. That air gauge is the metronome of all the tension: every second spent exploring, gathering, fleeing, is oxygen running out, and the constant dilemma between pushing a bit further or surfacing while there's still time creates a dread of fearsome effectiveness. You advance holding your breath, literally, and that simple mechanic turns each dive into a little thriller.

What elevates the whole is the atmosphere, woven by superb visuals, oppressive music and a darkness that works the imagination as much as the fear. The Abyss is a place you dread and yet want to explore, peopled with eldritch horrors that remind you the depths aren't made for humans. The roguelite loop does the rest: you dive, you recover, you upgrade your gear, you recruit and sometimes sacrifice, and you dive again, each run a bit better armed but never truly safe. That tension between progression and constant danger is the game's addictive engine, and it runs beautifully.

Two facets, an honest reservation

We have to be fair, because the game isn't limited to its dives. On the surface, a second layer of management asks you to look after your camp, your survivors and your resources, between two expeditions into the depths. That duality gives rhythm and stakes to each dive, since what you bring back directly keeps your little community alive against the Flood countdown. It's a well-thought structure, where the abyss feeds the surface and the surface justifies the abyss, and it gives the game a real narrative and strategic backbone.

That's also where our one real reservation hides. The dive part is by far the most exhilarating, the most original, the one you launch the game for, while the surface management, though solid, generates a more administrative stress, less thrilling. Some will love that alternation between the tension of exploration and the calm thinking of the camp; others will find the surface slows down the real pleasure a little, that of holding your breath in the dark. It's not a flaw, more a balance that won't suit every temperament, and you should know it before diving. The game asks you to like both disciplines, not just the more spectacular one.

What we take away

Dive or Die: Children of Rain does what few highly anticipated games pull off: it keeps its promise. Its dive mechanic, carried by the oxygen management, is a dread-generator of rare effectiveness, its Lovecraftian atmosphere is superb and coherent, and its roguelite loop, fed by the Flood countdown and your camp management, grabs you run after run. It's a tense, immersive and intelligently built game, exactly the kind of gem we hoped for, and its excellent feedback confirms we weren't alone in waiting for it. For the atmospheric roguelite fan, it's a no-brainer.

Our only nuance lies in its duality: the surface, more administrative, doesn't provide the same vertigo as the depths, and depending on your taste, that alternation will be a perfect rhythm or a slight brake on the main pleasure. But it's a minor reservation given the success of the whole. Dive or Die is proof that a game can carry the weight of anticipation and come out with its head held high, or rather, here, magnificently submerged. We dive back in without hesitation, oxygen in the red and a smile on our lips.

Verdict

A tense, gorgeous Lovecraftian roguelite where every dive is a breathless gamble: the highly anticipated game that keeps its promise, despite a slightly less thrilling surface management.

Strengths:

• The diving and oxygen management, a fearsome dread-generator
• A superb Lovecraftian atmosphere, visuals and music included
• An addictive roguelite loop, carried by the Flood countdown
• A clever structure where the abyss and the surface feed each other

Weaknesses:

• The surface management, solid but more administrative than thrilling
• A duality of rhythm that won't suit every temperament
• The difficulty proper to the genre, which demands perseverance

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Tested on PC.