Rayman 4: Darkness Returns

Rayman 4: Darkness Returns (also known as Rayman 4) is a 2024 3D platform game published by Ubisoft and developed by their Montpellier & Milan subsidiaries. It is the sixth mainline title in the Rayman series and is a direct sequel to Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc (even though plot-wise, it happened after Origins and Legends). The game was released for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, Microsoft Windows (through Steam and Mac) and Nintendo Switch. The game's story follows Rayman (on a path of redemption) and his friends as they travel through the Glade of Dreams and into the Nightmare Veil to stop the returning Mr. Dark and the new Seven Deadly Sins from taking over the Glade of Dreams and infecting their friends.

Rayman 4 was announced in E3 2023 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X & S and PC, and was planned for release during Holiday 2023. However, the game was delayed to March 2024 in order to finish the game on time, in addition, it was also made to run on last generation consoles and added a multiplayer mode like in Rayman Arena: Ultimate Multiplayer, a expansion of Rayman 2: The Greater Escape released the previous year.

Rayman 4 received critical acclaim upon release. Critics praised the game's story, visuals, level design, controls, soundtrack, overall gameplay and the large amount of content, with some calling it one of the best platforming video games ever made. Additionally, the game was nominated for multiple awards and sold 4 million copies.

Plot
See also: Characters of Rayman

Following their respective defeats from Rayman, Mr. Dark (in the original 1995 game) and The Magician (in Origins and Legends) tries to escape from the Nightmare Veil (a banishment area for Nightmares and villains). The latter failed once again, but accidentally opened a portal to another part of the Vale, which houses the Seven Deadly Sins and the Darklings, an evil race of Nightmares, who vow to spread despair and chaos everywhere in the Glade of Dreams. They make a deal to free themselves from the Nightmare Veil by using the power of the Magician and seven Deadly Sins, but the Magician unfortunately failed once again, leading to Mr. Dark thinking of another plan.

Meanwhile, Rayman has longed to live the glory days as a hero once again, but has been resting and hasn't done something greater, when suddenly, a group of Hoodlums and a Xowar have been spotted in the plains by Ly the Fairy (who hasn't talked to Rayman in a very long time, thus explaining her long absence throughout the series, outside of cameos). Rayman defeats them easily, but sees that a dark force up in the mountains, Ly warning him that it's a powerful source which only the Fairies can stop and he cannot stop them by himself. Rayman disobeys her orders and goes to the Mountains, finding a portal to the Nightmare Veil and accidentally letting out Mr. Dark, The Magician, Darklings and seven Deadly Sins into the Glade of Dreams after being tricked to let them free. After a short battle between the seven Deadly Sins and Mr. Dark, Rayman gets defeated and loses a majority of his powers.

He is then woken up by his friends Murfy, Globox and Barbara who tell them that people all around the Glade have been captured by the Darklings, coming clean and telling them that he caused them to escape. While Globox forgives him, Murfy (more so jokingly) and Barbara are more critical of him doing this. Despite this, Ly warns them that Polokus and the Nymphs are in danger from Mr. Dark's army in the Citadel of Wonders. They make it to the Citadel where the Darklings have already destroyed the entire Citadel, captured the Nymphs, Fairies & Teensies there, and having infected Polokus in a dark energy which is supposedly incurable, giving Rayman the Elemental Masks and a Silver Lum to aid him on his journey, and to also save the Nymphs across the Glade to open the Nightmare Veil. Rayman apologies for unleashing the Darklings, but Polokus forgives him, saying that everyone makes mistakes and should always rectify it no matter what and Rayman will do so no matter the sacrifice. Polokus tells the heroes goodbye and turns into a giant Nightmarish monster right shortly, unbeknownst to them.

The group explore the Glade of Dreams to find all seven Fairies while also encountering the seven Deadly Sins who are guarding the Fairies. At the start of their journey, they meet Clark the Giant who has once again been poisoned by the Darkling energy which turns them evil, just like Polokus. Rayman vows to find a cure for the infection, but told by his friends is incurable (even by Murfy who is reading the Dreampedia on his phone for anything and says there's nothing), being determined to save Clark and Polokus after having caused the mess.

The group first save Ly the Fairy from Wrath, who heard of the state both Clark and Polokus are in, and tells them that there is a cure, but is from her younger cousin, Tily the Fairy, who hasn't been heard from in quite a while after the events of Rayman Arena, as her last citing was in the deeper parts of the forest where supposedly the Robot Pirates have resided. Rayman and Ly go there and find her with the help of Sssam the Snake, who tells them that she's been captured by the Pirates. They make it into the largest pirate ship where Tily is being held captive, saving her after a run-in with Admiral Razorbeard. Tily (who is now a teenager) gives Rayman a Silver Lum that allow him and others to cure anyone under the dark influence through the use of energy orbs similar to his magic fist in the original version of Rayman 2. The two of them visit where both Clark and Polokus were in and battle them, using the orbs to cure two of them, who thanks Rayman, leading them to go on the journey to cure the infected, defeat the now remaining six Deadly Sins and save the Nymphs and Teensies scattered across the Glade of Dreams. During their journey, Rayman and Ly rekindle their relationship after left somewhat ambiguous at the start of the game, with the latter, Murfy and Barbara forgiving him for his actions. After the group have beaten at least three of the Deadly Sins, The Magician warns Mr. Dark that Rayman will foil his plans once again like the last time, but Mr. Dark assures the Magician that everything is going to plan, with the latter telling him he didn't turn to the dark side and got bullied for his name for no reason, revealing that he was secretly a big fan and admirer of him. Mr. Dark laughs and says he has another idea in mind, creating darker versions of Rayman, Globox and Barbara (latter two first debuted in Rayman Arena: Ultimate Multiplayer).

After saving all the Nymphs and defeated all the Seven Deadly Sins, six of them opened the portal to the Nightmare Veil and wished the group good luck as they venture into Mr. Dark's domain. They find out that they need four keys to open the doors to Mr. Dark's Castle, which are guarded by the Dark versions of the characters and the Magician. After beating them, they open the door to Mr. Dark's Castle and find him sitting on his throne, leading to a battle against Rayman and Mr. Dark for one last time.

Gameplay
Rayman 4: Darkness Returns is platform game in which the player primarily controls the series' titular character/hero, Rayman, on a journey of redemption to save the Glade of Dreams from the evil Mr. Dark, his arch-enemy back from the very first game released in 1995. The game's levels are placed throughout 3 different interconnected hub worlds; The Valley of Fantasy, The Citadel of Wonders and the Nightmare Veil. After a certain part in the story, players are free to tackle any level in any order, similar to a Mega Man game.

Players travel through each level, fighting enemies/Darklings, collecting Lums (more akin to Rayman Origins & Legends) and rescuing imprisoned Teensies (like in Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc). At the end of each level, the player fights one of the Seven Deadly Sins and save a Nymph, which will give the player a Silver Lum, which will allow them to grow a new branch on the skill tree. Certain segments also see players riding a Mosquito or any other vehicle, where players can shoot enemies or inhale and fire them. Completing any given level will unlock a Time Trial, in which the player must complete any segment of level as quickly as possible, once beaten players can unlock another Time Trial variant, Invaded, returning from Rayman Legends, which have enemies and gimmicks from other levels.

Rayman has all of his usual powers for almost the entire game. He can sprint for a short amount of time, use his helicopter hair to glide in the air, wall-jump or wall-run, strafe and shoot his telescopic fist, able to fully charge it to induce more damage, curve his shot, lock-on to enemies and quickly dodge their attacks or lunge towards them to get closer to them. There's also finishers which allow Rayman to beat the enemy in a short mini-game (or quick time event), but has to come up close to them and is a timed event. If the player doesn't initiate the mini-game in time or fails them, the finisher will not be available. Rayman can also grind on, hang off and hop across rails, as well as slide, use his hand to slam onto the floor and run along designated walls.

Lums, which first appeared in the original version of Rayman 2: The Great Escape, are once again collectible items in the game. However, the Lums in Rayman 4 are somewhat different. They don't appear in a specific amount the player has to collect (like in Rayman 2, where the player had to collect 50 in almost every level), but rather in different amount in every single level. By collecting a certain amount, Murfy ranks if you collected enough of them ranking from Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze at the end of each level. The player can obtain them by either find them floating around, defeating enemies, finding them inside bulb-o-lums or bushes, or by collecting Skull Coins. Lums are also akin to the point system in Rayman 3, where players can gain Lums through fighting enemies by using unique combos or not getting hit for a short amount of time. The game denotes this using a "Groovy!" Counter, which shows a system of how well the player is doing by using words such as:

"Groovy! Awesome! Outstanding! Stylish! Smooth! Great! Good! Solid! Substandard! Meh!", which are said by Murfy, depending on what the word is, the Lums will be gained from combat will have a multiplier applied on. Lums can be used to upgrade character's skills on the skill tree which can give players new abilities and upgrade pre-existing ones. Along with Lums, players can also collect Silver Lums, which unlock new branches in the skill tree when saving Nymphs, Skill Coins which can be used as a currency in shops to buy skins & power-ups. Teensies which can give players Skill Coins, a health increase or a large amount of Lums, and can open smaller and harder levels or single-player/multiplayer mini-games in the Citadel of Wonders, and Dark Crystals which warp players to the Nightmare Veil, giving them a short 2D pixel-art challenge similar to the original Rayman game and 2D sections from Super Mario Odyssey. Once players have completed a Dark Crystal segment, they collect the crystal and can trade it in for concept art, music tracks and bestiary throughout the series.

In three open hub worlds, players can explore the world and find the collectibles in the game along with fighting enemies, talk to NPCs, engage in side missions set from NPCs, battle enemies in the open world, play as other characters freely or go into levels (which are broken up in segments like Rayman 3 were the save in-between, however unlike Rayman 3, you can visit each segment individually) either main levels, side-levels being only one segment, a lot shorter ones and mini-games.

A new addition to the game is the Elemental Masks from Rayman 2: The Greater Escape, Rayman can put them on and use their powers in both combat and platforming. However, they have a meter which will be depleted once he uses them and will only come back once shortly. Unlike the remake, Rayman won't just wear the mask, but his entire attire will change. Fire allows the player to burn items and throw fireballs towards enemies, leading them to burn to a crisp faster than using fist-to-fist combat and can also him to air-dash and charge his sprint to become into a fast fireball for a short time. Water allows the player to breath underwater for longer and throw bubbles to enemies which will trap them. It also allows Rayman to perform the Rain Dance, which will grow plants and control the weather. Air will make a mini-tornado that shrinks down enemies and special platforms to access them, like the Vortex power-up from Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc. Rayman can also Spin Jump, which makes him invincible and glide a lot slower for a bit, but will completely deplete the meter. Earth will allow the player to carry heavy objects faster and can bring giant rocks from the ground to throw them at targets. Ice allows the player to freeze enemies and water, which makes Rayman capable of walking on them. Lightning allows the player to use electrical powers and a lightning grapple hook which will stun enemies when grabbing them, similarly to the Lockjaw power-up from Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc and Cole MacGrath from the inFamous games.

Rayman 4 also introduces the ability to control other characters in certain segments in the levels or the open world, such as Globox who is more focused on platforming, can inflate inside of hovering, use his tongue to stick on certain objects, stay underwater without drowning, drink Lum Juice to fly or to burp/fart bubbles out to trap enemies for platforming or combat, and can get his kids (who are spread across any segment he's present in) to do tasks for him such as fight enemies, form different structures, get items and more while Globox can throw them around as a projectile attack. However, Globox is very vulnerable to enemies and can die in fewer hits than most playable characters, in-turn while enemies are nearby, Globox will run significantly faster with a scared face.

Barbara, who is more focused on hack-n-slash combat with her Axe (which retains the same framework for Rayman's combat), using it as a boomerang which the player can control, she can use wings of her helmet to hover and has a variety of combos using light, ranged and heavy attacks similar to God of War. Additionally, players can find different weapons (such as a Spear, Bow, Ball and Chain, Sword and Shovel) Barbara can use and upgrade them. Ly the Fairy who is more based on Rayman 2's gameplay, involving on slower puzzle segments along with third-person shooter gameplay similar to the Ratchet & Clank series, using different energy orbs such as normal, fast (with a higher frequency, but lower damage), big (lower frequency, but higher damage) and elemental for combat. She is also very acrobatic, fast thanks to her feline-like traits and can fly freely for a short amount of time. The final playable character is Murfy, who has on-rails shooting segments similar to Nintendo's Star Fox series.

Development
Rayman 4 started development after the Rayman 2 remake was nearing completion and was directed by Davide Soliani, whose goal was for this installment to be his best work. He aimed to create a game that both allowed newcomers and returning players to have fun in terms of interesting world and level design, with also a more complex combat system by providing various difficulties and challenges while also acting as a send-off to the Rayman series. The development team also intended for the game to be a direct continuation and finale for the original trilogy in both narrative and gameplay.

The development team also wanted to take elements from the cancelled version of Rayman 4, more specifically the levels, having more of an art direction based on the UbiArt games but in 3D, similar to some advertisements for Rayman Legends. The team's previous experience with the Rayman 2 remake allowed them to settle on a direction defined by clear shapes, soft gradients and an off-kilter quality that gave the remake a whimsical and playful feel; the team then took this core direction and amplified it for Rayman 4 to create a more wild and chaotic aesthetic that better reflected the series' irreverent yet fantastical tone. The team's statement for the setting was to create a colorful and dangerous universe unrestricted by the hardware limitations of the original games. For the characters, they are mostly based on their incarnations from Rayman Legends, with Mr. Dark in particular based on his Rayman Mini design. Other characters such as Ly the Fairy, Tily, Nymphs and Polokus (known as the Bubble Dreamer in Origins & Legends) are slightly redesigned either to fully transition them into this new style or in the case of the Nymphs, make them more unique and transition them to 3D.

The plot was written by David Neiss, who returns from Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc and a newcomer, Tim Schafer (founder of Double Fine Productions and known for LucasArts' games like Day of the Tentacle, Monkey Island and many others; Psychonauts was influenced by Rayman 2: The Great Escape, with it and Beyond Good & Evil having been streamed by Double Fine's developers alongside Ancel a few years earlier). Both wanted to create a more cohesive world and a perfect balance between the comedic humour from Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc and the more dire, serious tone from Rayman 2: The Great Escape, while also writing a perfect finale to the series, but can still be open-ended if Ubisoft wanted the series to continue. The game's main theme is redemption and how everyone makes mistakes and should be at least have the chance to be forgiven. The team also used Mr. Dark as the main villain due to wanting having a villain that both old fans can regconise and new fans can be intimidated by due to his revamped nature.

The game was announced in E3 2023 with a full trailer and a demo present in the event. The trailer showed off a few of the environments, the story, the multiple playable characters and the combat with a Holiday 2023 release date for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X & S and PC. The demo allowed players to play three levels of the game; The Prologue, The Assault of the Citadel of Wonders and Finding Tily, both of these garnered a very positive reception among players and fans who praised the visuals in particular.

It was originally set to be released in the Holiday of 2023. However, in October, it was reported to be delayed to the first quarter of 2024. In December, a demo of the game was released on the digital stores, including PlayStation 4 and Xbox One stores. The official release date was revealed to be March 2024, with Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One ports coming later in the year.

The game serves as a tribute to the series' creator Michel Ancel, after he left the company and gaming industry to focus full-time on a wildlife sanctuary in 2020, whose final work was being one of the producers in Rayman 2: The Greater Escape alongside a new series director, Davide Soliani.

Reception
Rayman 4: Darkness Returns received highly positive reviews from critics and fans alike, highly praising the gameplay, depth of it's combat, portrayal of its returning characters, and handling of the narrative and story with the controls. Amount of content and replay value, visuals, music and voice-acting were also commended, though the open-world mechanics and multiplayer received criticism. The game succeeded sales expectations and managed to sell over 4 million copies worldwide.