Rime

Game Title: Rime
Released: May 26, 2017
Game Length: 6 Hours
Grade: B-

Expectations: How many free games has the Epic Game Store given out? Looks like we are approaching 170 games in 2 years. There are plenty of games to choose from and Rime so happened to come out for free in May 23 - 30, 2019. It looks innocent enough. The following is printed in the description: "Explore the beautiful, rugged world of RiME. Armed with your wits and a will to overcome—and the guidance of a helpful fox—you must explore the enigmatic island, reach the tower's peak, and unlock its closely guarded secrets." It shouldn't be too bad.

Reality: Exploring the island isn't exactly interesting. There are 5 different chapters, with chapter 4 coming out rushed with a small little epilogue constituting as the fifth chapter. It was nice going through all the different settings. You initiate your fox friend to help guide you when you get lost, you "turn on" some windmills to fight off a giant vulture, reboot some robots so you can get past some doors, and finally reach the tower. The more I played the game, the less it felt like any sort of real place. Most of the puzzles involve shouting at weird objects, delivering energy globes, teleporting things, or finding the right way around the place. Most of the time, you will be looking out for the white stains dripping off the edges of the land. What's sad is the game didn't run too well for buildings with barely any texture on them. Energy tends to bleed into the frame-rate even on the lowest settings. Perhaps I missed out on some patch along the way, or it could be simply a bad port. I also wished they would have automatically placed the cursor on "continue" instead of "new game" whenever you return to the game.

Opinion: Rime is an "artistic" game where everything you do is symbolic in some way. It never defines who the people are or what happened to the island. The abrupt ending explains the "real" circumstances of what you went through, and the secret ending doesn't change the final result. I don't feel like the developer's explanation behind the game was ever properly conveyed in my playthrough. However, the landscape is nice to explore and they actually did put forth some effort in developing the puzzles. In the end, I don't recommend this game.

 

1-2-2021