RiME Review

Riming bland?

Journey was a huge, smash hit, and it’s no surprise to see a number of games trying to emulate its success. Games like Abzu have generally provided a similar experience, without necessarily the sales to back it up. Can “RiME” break through and provide quality and success?

Story:

Rime certainly doesn’t break much from the genre tropes though. There’s no audio logs, no significant cut-scenes, just a world to explore. Early on in the game you awaken a fox which helps to serve as a guide, although it’s hardly hand-holding or checkpointing, as the wily beast will disappear for fairly long stretches at a time. Whilst the world is undoubtedly beautiful, I still found Rime often lacking a hook or drawing me along. The leisurely, relaxing pace may suit some, but I found it went too far in the opposite direction, and I’d get bored about every thirty minutes of play and need to come back later.

Gameplay:

Rime has five main worlds to explore, that will take anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes to explore, depending on how quick you are with the various puzzles that are littered across them and how much you stray from the main path. Unfortunately, neither option is as good as it should be.

Meandering around quickly gets dull – there are some collectables and achievements to be found this way, but for the most part the best vistas are to be found on the main paths. It’s also annoying that a few of the secrets require costumes found in later levels, which means they can only be found by using the chapter select, which is a) annoying and b) requires sitting through an overly-long load screen.

Then you have the puzzles, and they generally repeat pretty quickly. There’s no other gameplay mechanics that come in at the late game either. None of the puzzles are particularly complex, but some of them do require a level of timing or platforming skill that seems at odds with the otherwise chilled pace of the game. Journey certainly had a significantly better balance of play.

Presentation:

The best thing about Rime is undoubtedly the presentation. Even on Xbox One, at (what feels like less than) 1080p and 30fps, this is a stunning looking game. At 4K, 60fps, it’s also incredibly sharp, crisp and fluid.

The art style reminds me of (but isn’t derivative) of games like Wind Waker, with a semi-cell-shaded approach. The levels have been designed brilliantly, and there’s also plenty of visual variety to both the landscapes and in the buildings of whatever ancient civilisation laid down the temples which you end up climbing and exploring. Topping everything off is an absolutely majestic orchestral soundtrack, which is just fantastic.

Rime has a really cinematic feel to it at times, and the score is completely central to this. It’s so good I may just buy the soundtrack now I’ve completed the game.

Conclusion:

“RiME” looks and sounds amazing, but the game doesn’t have enough of a story hook or interesting enough puzzles to make it as compelling as say Journey or Ico. There’s no compelling reason to keep playing onwards, and the puzzles don’t change things up much beyond the first thirty minutes or so. Rime isn’t a bad game, but I can see it getting somewhat lost in an increasingly crowded market.