RiME: review

The young game developer Tequila Work, headquartered in Madrid (Spain), began its history in 2009, when former employees of Blizzard Entertainment, Mercurysteam Entertainment, Pyro Studios, Sony Computer Entertainment and Weta Digital joined its staff. Since then, the studio has released two unusual platform games: Deadlight and The Sexy Brutale, which have been well received by players and critics.

But the creation of a new promising project was delayed. Even in the early stages of the development of RiME, things were not going well for Tequila Works. A change in publisher, a staged video instead of a gameplay video, the cancellation of exclusivity for the PlayStation 4 console ... But every cloud has a silver lining: if it were not for the cancellation of the exclusive, the game might never have been released on PC.

On May 26, 2017, RiME was released on three major platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Let's see what she's hiding.

Game process

The new story began with a nameless boy stranded on a mysterious island. How he got on it is unknown: whether it was a shipwreck, or magic ... There was not the slightest hint of a plot in the opening video. The impression was that the game would be similar to the Dark Souls series, the creators of which did not bother with plot perturbations.

I was surprised by the complete absence of an interface: there were no bars of life, stamina and, possibly, magic, familiar to many RPGs. There was no mini-map or full-size map of the kind found in open-world games. The logical question arose: where to go and what to do in general?

Moving deeper into the island clarified two important gameplay components. Firstly, the hero could swim and even dive. This automatically expanded the zone of activity to the water spaces adjacent to the land. Secondly, the guy owned parkour a la Assassin's Creed Lite, which meant not only horizontal, but also vertical gameplay, familiar from the Assassin's Creed and Far Cry 4 series.

In the center of the island, a huge tower was discovered and not far from it a strange architectural structure in the form of statues of foxes. Meanwhile, pillars of light appeared in the surroundings, hinting at quests.

It turned out to be single statues scattered throughout the island. When approaching them, another feature of the boy came to light: with a cry, he could activate some kind of magic, which rushed to the architectural ensemble in the center of the island.

Activating the mysterious sculptures did not take much time and effort. The only hitch was a mother pig guarding her children at one of them. But this misunderstanding was resolved by feeding a large family with a fruit plucked from a nearby tree.

As we moved through the territory of the island, it turned out that in RiME there is a change in the time of day. In addition, we could find out that when a character fell from a great height, he was reborn near the scene of the tragedy.

Returning to the architectural ensemble, consisting of several statues of foxes, the boy activated the main statue. As a result, a little fox appeared, which became his partner and an important assistant during the game.

Gradually, new and more complex elements of interaction between the hero and the environment began to appear. For example, in order to open a magical door, it was necessary to stand in such a way that all three activated statues fell into the scream zone. Due to the fact that there is no training and any hints in RiME, it didn’t work out right away.

An important role here is played not only by the ability to think logically, but also by the player's attention. For example, in one of the darkened locations, I had to move a stone block for a long time - until I noticed a place where the boy from the block could climb onto the ledge of the column and then climb up.

In the future, another important innovation appeared - a sphere that enhances the cry. Installed in the right place, it is able to activate several obelisks, to which the protagonist could not shout at all desire.

Gradually, relatively simple logical tasks, which boiled down to opening magical passages, grew into a chain of quests that led to an epic magical action that affected an impressive piece of the island. The result was a grown tree.

Another interesting solution found during the passage of RiME was the ability to control the time of day. Rolling the golden sphere in a special chute, the boy was able to activate the magic mechanism that paved the bridge to the main tower of the island.

There, another non-standard element of the gameplay was revealed: in absolute darkness, the hero illuminated his path with the help of singing, and thanks to this he was able to go through an intricate labyrinth.

In the future, the calm and melancholic mode of passing RiME was violated by a flying creature, which actively interfered with the character and even hunted him.

The game has a new location with a hot desert, where we constantly had to hide in the shade from the scorching sun. The attacks of the winged monster also added complexity to the game, so you had to be careful when moving from cover to cover.

However, the monster was not so scary. After completing the quest chain, the boy managed to cause a natural disaster and end the monster. At the same time, the problem with the deadly heat was solved. True, not for long.

As you progress, the turn came to the underwater world. And in it, in order not to suffocate, the movement took place along a chain of air bubbles, with the help of which oxygen was replenished. The underwater world has become not just a small element of RiME, but an important part of the game, which is tied to part of the plot.

In the future, the hero visited two more, unlike the previously seen locations. In them, we were waiting for a lot of new puzzles and a second, very unusual assistant. But our readers will be able to find out the details of this story, as well as go through the whole game on their own. I have outlined the noticeable elements of the gameplay that appear as you progress through RiME, trying not to spoil the game itself.

Conclusion

RiME was a surprise discovery in mid-2017. Taking into account the fact that the Tequila Works studio had experience only in creating platform games, the fate of a new game with full 3D graphics (Unreal Engine 4), and even with an open world, caused reasonable fears. However, the developers did not lose face and presented a high-quality and interesting project.

RiME takes the player to a beautiful, sad fairy tale. The surrounding world is so elaborated that in just a couple of minutes it drags you with your head. Complete immersion in the universe contributes to a wonderful soundtrack that accompanies throughout the game. Separately, it is worth noting the work of artists who created beautiful landscapes. Although the graphics here are cartoony and rustic in places, some views of the world around you want to admire for hours.

Another advantage of RiME is the thoughtfulness and balance of the storyline. The full passage of the game takes about six hours, which at first glance is not much. However, this time is jam-packed with a variety of puzzles, changing locations that are absolutely different from each other, and the unhurried development of the plot. After the final credits, there is a pleasant feeling of satisfaction and the realization that the time was not wasted. A rare quality for most modern games.

But still, it was not without its downsides. In some places, the camera behaved so unpredictably that it made it very difficult to control the character. And the speed of movement of the protagonist left much to be desired. Despite the constant running, he covered the distance from one point to another a little faster than a pedestrian. Because of this, RiME was occasionally annoying, but as you progressed, such moments smoothed out.

Final grades:

• Game rating - 9.
• Graphics score - 8.

Dmitry Prilepskikh aka Phoenix

Thank you for your help in preparing the material for publication: donnerjack.

• RiME: performance testing
  Summary testing of eleven video cards and twelve processors in three resolutions and two modes of operation in the game on the Unreal Engine 4 engine.


• News dedicated to RiME on the site site:
• Former Blizzard employees showed a new video of their colorful project Rime.