Worth: $11.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
NA
Intro:
While it has its charms they don’t extend for the length of the entire experience.
Rime feels like a fairy tale, or some half-remembered dream. You play as a small boy who wakes up on the beach of a mysterious island. You have vague memories of a boat crashing into rocks and falling into the sullen depths of the sea but it’s all fragmented, confused.
Once you leave the beach you’ll soon come to a series of puzzles that you’ll need to solve without hints, save for the occasionally cryptic help of a magical fox companion. The puzzles get harder, and the stakes higher, and you’ll slowly solve the mystery of who you are and what secret the island holds.
Rime is an attempt to ape the dream-like quality of the excellent Journey and the clue-free puzzle solving of games like The Witness. It’s certainly a laudable goal, and when the game succeeds it’s mellow and cathartic. The problem is, stretched over a six-hour playthrough it feels a little thin.
Journey succeeds so well because you can knock it over in 90 minutes. The Witness succeeds, and frustrates, because its puzzle solutions are increasingly obtuse. Rime, on the other hand, never really ratchets up the tension. The puzzles get a little harder, sure, but it’s ultimately a series of repetitious climbing or exploring followed by samey puzzle-solving.
It is charming, mind you. The animations, the music, the art style are all top notch… but one can’t help but feel there’s something missing here. Perhaps it’s the slightly clunky controls, or the fiddly camera but ultimately, you’ll probably persevere just to see the ending.
The ending, which we won’t spoil, is sure to be divisive and it certainly makes a statement, it’s just a pity the game before it feels so familiar and executed better elsewhere. Rime is… fine, but a little rote and while it has its charms they don’t extend for the length of the entire experience.
