DIVE or DIE - Children of Rain Review — A Sunken Roguelike of Sacrifice and Sanity
A tense, Lovecraft-tinged mixture of base management and breathless dives — DIVE or DIE asks you to gamble days, people and sanity to stop the final Flood.
I didn’t expect to feel so tense while clicking a flashlight on and off, but DIVE or DIE’s blend of claustrophobic diving and desperate camp management hooked me fast. The game throws you into the Abyssal Pool where oxygen, monsters and a doom-clock called the Black Rain conspire against your little band of survivors. Fans of Dave the Diver’s exploration and Darkest Dungeon’s grim decision-making will find familiar beats, but Drop Rate Studio layers a melancholic atmosphere and hard choices that feel uniquely their own. It’s equal parts cozy base-building and stomach-dropping plunge into the unknown.
Plunges That Make Your Heart Race
DIVE or DIE’s core loop is gloriously simple but brutal in execution: equip a diver, descend into the Abysmal Pool, collect loot, relics and materials, manage oxygen and sanity, then return before the air runs out. Each dive is a tense timer that rewards knowledge — you’ll quickly learn choke points, sounds monsters make and which ruins hide relics. Combat exists but often feels like a last resort; many encounters are designed so that evasion, timing and the right gadget beat brute force. Between dives you shuffle survivors into roles, patch wounds, assign craft stations and make morally awful choices at altars. The day clock is merciless: lose a diver and you lose precious days toward the final Flood.
When the Depths Force Difficult Choices
What sets this game apart is how the meta decisions land on you. Sacrifices at the altar, choosing who dives and who stays to fend off madness, and upgrading camp structures are meaningful because time is limited. The progression isn’t purely gear-based — knowledge of maps and enemy patterns is a resource of its own. Permadeath for individuals, sanity mechanics and role perks (some hilariously overpowered) give each survivor personality and weight. I loved discovering tiny synergies: a perk that reduces daily food use can completely change my recruitment choices, while turbo-like mobility perks turn some dives from panic-fests into surgical strikes.
A Soundtrack of Drips, Groans and Whispered Warnings
Presentation sells the tension here. The 2D art is gorgeous in a somber, hand-painted way: murky palettes, glowing relics and silhouettes that make you squint. Sound design is exceptional — distant splashes, metallic creaks, and muffled creature calls ratchet your anxiety before you see anything. Voice bits and narrative events between dives add melancholic flavor and dark humor. Performance is mostly solid on my Windows rig, but I’ve seen reports of V-Sync oddities and microstutter on some configurations; luckily there are quality-of-life options and controller rebinding that make play comfy on gamepad or keyboard. Accessibility could use a few more in-game map features early on, but the later library unlocks ease that pain.
DIVE or DIE - Children of Rain is a clever, sometimes cruel hybrid of base management and tense diving roguelike. It rewards patience, map knowledge and ugly-but-necessary choices, and its atmosphere alone is worth the price of admission. I recommend it to players who like their cozy base-building cut with horror and consequence — but be ready to die, learn, and laugh nervously at the abyss.
Pros
- Tense, atmospheric Lovecraftian setting with excellent sound and art
- Satisfying loop: risky dives feed meaningful base upgrades and decisions
- Deep, character-driven choices—sacrifice, permadeath and perks matter
- Replayable roguelike systems with clear risk vs reward
Cons
- Steep learning curve—requires memorizing maps and many deaths early on
- Occasional control quirks and reported V-Sync/performance hitches
- Some QoL features (early dive map) are missing until later
Player Opinion
Players praise the mood, art and the addictive ‘one more dive’ loop — many compare it to Dave the Diver’s exploration mixed with Darkest Dungeon’s grim meta-decisions. Reviews frequently applaud the writing, random events and the satisfying camp progression through sacrifice and role assignment. Criticisms repeatedly mention the unforgiving early runs (one-shots and cornering enemies) and the need to learn maps by heart; some players also reported control awkwardness and minor performance glitches like V-Sync microstutter. If you like atmospheric roguelike loops, tension-heavy dives and moral trade-offs, the community says this is a must-try.