REVIEW – Waking up shoreside with visuals that could be reminiscent of something like The Witness, especially due to the cel-shaded graphical style. However, you’ll play a pacifist game, which could be another direct comparison to Jonathan Blow’s game, and you’ll also progress without words, with the companion of a fox.

We haven’t heard much from Tequila Works, the developers, although they released three games. After Deadlight in 2012, they also made The Sexy Brutale earlier this year. Now, we got an adventure where we’ll… how to say it… be almost handheld to our next direction, as there will always be an adult character in the distance that shows you where to go next in this enjoyable looking world that was first shown in 2013 (!) at Gamescom. Well, the time has indeed passed since then!

Nature

RIME‘s one of the high points is how varied the island is. Even though the pre-release footage mostly showed the sunny, happy parts of it, there’s way more under that layer, and it’s worth looking around, as maximalists will have to look around for 100% completion, as developers have hidden a few items. Meanwhile, the story slowly rolls out, and as RIME doesn’t use any words, you’ll just have to look around to see certain paintings and other various things that relate to the plot. Each part of the island ends with a short, interactive cutscene, which could help you understand things. (However, it remains to be seen if it’s worthy to fight to see the pieces of the puzzle click together for you.) There’s no HUD, don’t expect anything like that.

There would be issues if there were no background music – true, the fox sounds can be annoying, especially if you stray away too far from your next location. The music is excellent – have a listen, and yes, it does have a bit of Spanish touch:

Terrible

RIME runs like garbage at the moment on the Nintendo Switch. It already had issues on the PlayStation 4 (as well as the PlayStation 4 Pro), but they were nothing similar to the Switch performance. No matter if you use a portable or a docked mode, you’ll see drops way below thirty frames per second, and it’s going to ruin your fun. You’ll already notice long loading times. LONG. Loading. Times. There’s no excuse here. Super Mario Odyssey, a significant game, runs flawlessly at 60 FPS. Even DOOM runs in a respectable way. RIME, it can’t keep up the pace. Even with the toned down colors, making the graphics look worse and washed out than on the other consoles.

RIME divides players because admittedly, this is an artistic experience, but they might have gone too far towards the art from the gameplay, and might not pay off in the end! The plot at least takes a solid twist right at the end, making the end a little sad. I didn’t expect that to happen to say the least.

Do not buy

…on the Switch, at least. You can beat this game in four, yes, FOUR hours. This information might already make you consider not buying the game, especially how it’s slightly more expensive on the Nintendo platform than on the other three. Unfortunately, this might be another reason for you to skip RIME‘s portable solution.

RIME is a good game, don’t get me wrong, but the frame rate and the significantly washed down graphics ruin the score altogether. It’s already a dividing and short game, and therefore, I’ll have to sadly give this title a below average score. Yes, that’s a 4.5/10. Until the frame rate chugs, not hiccups, get fixed, don’t buy RIME for the Switch. Otherwise, I’d give it a 6.5, without a doubt. The end plot turn boosted the score for me!

-V-

Publisher: Grey Box/Six Foot

Developer: Tequila Works

Genre: Puzzle, platformer

Release date: November 14, 2017