RiME

I don't know when, or why I got this game, but It was installed, so I thought I'd give it a go, not knowing what it actually was. It is surprisingly well done, while staying very simple. A full playthgouth is available here (a little over 5hours in length): https://www.twitch.tv/videos/417737330 The game (unlike my bad jokes on the stream), is not for kids. It starts pretty cute and fluffy, but very quickly, a sharp mind will know what's coming, and what's going to happen. This is a little underrated gem. You'd better love puzzles though, I think you've got every single kind of puzzles available, most of them being pretty simple in essence. I only got stuck a couple of times, but not longer than a few minutes. Spoiler&Hint: if you're stuck, just try running forward :)

Playing v1.04 on Garuda Linux w/ Wine Staging 8.20, 11th Gen Intel integrated GPU, 32GB RAM. No crashes, no problems; soft-locked one very single time, safe reset via menu. Needed to turn graphic settings to between low and medium using graphics menu. Texture might not be top notch, cartoony but all animations are polished. Good QA. Solid controls and gameplay concept, it works well. No useless repetitions, you continue right where you die. No annoying game over or health management. Players need to solve puzzling situations via mechanisms, little to no logic thinking required, although not instantly clear. Difficulty is capped. In the middle, situations become more stressful. They tried to make it interesting for a broad audience. Another strong point is the ending. Realizing what the game and story is all about at the end, and the specific visual presentation is surprisingly touching, rare for me. Linear level-design. There is always only one way to proceed. One ending. For the sake of preference, consider - little to no hand-holding. No initial explanation. You need to figure out, what to do, much at the start. Directions and explanations are provided via key hints, paintings in the environment and hidden collectibles. - no fixed time limits - ambient music only. Builds up dynamically during progress, has real orchestra instruments. - hybrid between adventure and platforming. Free 3D movement. Main Gameplay concept is striving through large levels + some exploration for collectibles. "Combat" is mostly triggering mechanisms. Goes further than classic adventure. - story makes only sense at the end - a single long loading time before each big level - No HUD or screen stats. They likely thought it improves immersion. More annoying for me than helpful. I must guess how much time's left before deaths. Harder to predict, more stress (unwanted immersion). Personal criticsm to devs: - UE rendering sometimes too dark - stressful sections work against the exploration

Once I started playing the game, my first thought was it's amazing. My second thought this is Tomb Raider. So if you liked the Tomb Raider series, you might like this one. What I mean by that is it's a third person game where you run around jump, climb, shimmy, and pick up objects, or use your "voice" to activate puzzles. The music is haunting, and amazing. The visuals are top notch, breath taking at times. I have a GTX 1080 card with an older i7 processor. The game ran flawless on my system with every graphic option turned on. I had never heard of this game, but it looked amazing, so I grabbed it. I'm not disappointed. I rarely play many of the games I purchase right away. I just finally played Torchlight and Torchlight 2. After buying them about 5 years ago. But this one I tried and I've play it for about 2 hours so far. I'll finish it soon I imagine. So far I would say the game is pretty kid friendly.

Rime has some wonderful visuals, atmosphere and music, but the experience is ruined by the TERRIBLE optimization, frustrating sloppy movement, and shallow busywork puzzles.

Certainly one of the most boring games I have ever played. My enjoyment of these short exploration puzzle games that seek to wow you with music and visuals is pretty mixed. I think Journey and Shadow of the Colossus are great. I like ICO. Didn't play Last Guardian. I disliked ABZU and I dislike this game. It is essentially one big tease, a bunch of repetitive simple puzzles, uncharted climbing indie edition™, moving incredibly slowly from place to place with a shallow emotional payoff at the end that is not worth it. I guess you can grab some collectibles for added backstory through pictures that they didn't bother to put in the actual game. The visuals are the only reasonably good part of the game and still appear outdated with the weak character models and minor effects being outdone and out of place. Speaking of out of place, the music is really hamming on that piano and violin when literally nothing is occuring on screen. Feels about as forced as whenever the boy goes "wow" when the game expects you to be impressed. I have several other big criticisms that would be spoilers so I will spare you in case you still want to try it after reading all the reviews from people who think this is some kind of masterpiece. I think they are easily impressed. I think this game doesn't hold a candle to stuff that has been done over a decade ago.