Rime, review

Rime Image extracted from Xataka

Let's begin then, for those of you who don't like preambles:

SCORE: 3 CROQUETTES

• 10 out of 10 would wank:
• The soundtrack, a great reason to turn up the volume and walk mindlessly, enjoying the game visuals.
• Pretty cool stuff:
• Graphics, they are not the newest ones but the game has some really brilliant moments.
• Not so cool stuff:
• Mecanics of movement, it's incredibly tedious to move sooooooooo slow.
• Little innovation in the platform scenarios.
• Puzzle design, sometimes it's hard to recognise the interactive objects.
• Puzzles do not follow any difficulty curve.
• Personally, I felt like it wasn't really deep or touching story, it tries to be kinda like Team Ico or ThatGameCompany but...it isn't.
• Not cool stuff...AT ALL:
• Collectibles: it's not explained how to collect them. At the beginning of the game I found one, I tried every button around it and nothing worked. You could only make it work by standing in a determinate position, that I discovered mid-game, having left lots of collectibles behind.

For all this reasons, I can't give it any higher punctuation. The care and dedication put into this game is really noticeable, however, it isn't a remarkable game within its genre. The most memorable part of it it's the soundtrack, the mechanics are not at all innovative and that was a great letdown. Despite all this, it's an acceptable game.

For number haters:

I'll start this blog with a really loved game in Spain which was borned and raised there. It was internationally published not too long ago, brought by Tequila Works, with almost 4 development years on their backs:

The game was indeed shown pretty soon, it created quite a lot of hype, and that scares developers because they feel the need to satisfy all the dreams and stories fans create in their heads with nothing but a trailer of a game that wouldn't come out till 3 years and a half later.

EDGE gave it a 9 and it actually it made it to its cover twice. GameInformer gave it a 8, and GamesRadar a 4.5 out of 5.

In Spain, Meristation gave it a 8.8, HobbyConsolas a 9.1, IGN a 9 and 3DJuegos a 8.5...

From all the international press, barely a few magazines dared to give it a "low" punctuation: GameSpot gave it a 6 and Destructoid a 7. Finally, Polygon gave it a 6.5, and I agree with that grade.

Data obtained from Meristation and JuegosADN.

In the game we play a young boy who wakes up in an island and finds some objects that work when he uses his voice. To guide us through the island we rely on a fox's help, who will show the boy the right way to go.

The game starts in an unknown place and you have to discover the story and its aim. And that's a really good feature, we don't need any more overexplained videogames:

Assassins Creed Brotherhood: "secret" lair indicated in the map.

Max payne 3, the movie.

The game has been created with the premise not to tell, but to show, and to do that it uses paintings distributed over the walls in the game that enact stories about the island's past. In my opinion, it's a right guess showing instead of telling, but Rime hasn't been able to completely polish this idea, which is a very difficult task.

Rime's murals.

Rime's worst feature is the complete lack of fun, as a videogame, it is incredibly boring.
The mechanics are sloppy and, above all, slow. I've been the entire game pushing the R1 buttons as a placebo, as if somehow doing so the character would start to run. Also, it adds very little innovations as the game evolves: perspective puzzles, platforms and objects; it isn't more complex than the first Prince of Persia for PS2.

The story is shown bit to bit throughout the game, a story about the island's kingdom. The mechanics tell nothing about it, it's the environment who does and uses the last moment of the game to tell the whole thing. It finishes the story, however, the information it provides about the story has nothing to do with the character or the island. What's the use of having us moving around the island? That I would like to know.

You feel conned by Rime, like every puzzle you solved just led you to a cinematic with little to tell and, in my opinion, 0 original and, again, BORING.

About the technical part of the game, I played the PS4 section and it had a few dropped frames, I'm a PC player but this was no issue to me. I, however, hope that they fix this problem if they wish to launch a Nintendo Switch version.

I've been to some talks given by this game's developers such as the director, the game-designers...and it's a strong charming team, it's got great ideas but personally, I think they didn't find what they where looking for. Contrary to The sexy Brutale, made by this same studio, that has been an unfairly unnoticed game. I think this last one is quite brilliant and original, qualities expected from an indie game, which is why I would give it a completely deserved 9. I might analyze it some day.

In conclusion, Rime is kinda like that movie you'd watch once but wouldn't repeat despite putting its soundtrack in your phone. In spite of its flaws, its a complete game: it's got an experience, a beginning, and an ending. Also, it's been quite famous globally and that is a great step for spanish videogames in physical format. Hopefuly some day we will have lots of important studios.