When I first looked at list of subsystems, I hoped this one be the long play. And couple of moments after game ends. In my opinion story could go further, making game more interesting and long enough. Single issue is controls. You either run or go with gun ready. Nothing special except the only way to interact with something is when you holster gun and use flashlight. Gun/flashlight controlled by mouse but no cursor is on screen. It really annoying at the begging.
Good puzzles, unusual mechanics, nice art. And all this spoiled by broken int pieces story and unsuitable controls. What does the story about? How it develops and where it leads? Requiring precisest action with little way to control character. Ability to rewind doesn't provide big help, it only angers.
The game requires further and deeper development. Controls are bad, camera works atrocious, story almost boiled down. Trade system... strange: first time I see how sellers went out of stock on health potions and there is no other way to get bigger health potions than thoroughly scavenge through map. Strange choice of locations to place save points.
Camera - is your enemy. It uses advanced AI techniques to select angle where don't see a thing you really need. You are stealth - camera looks right at you not enemy. You try to use gyrodisk and camera look in opposite direction requiring a lot of time to position right. Also meaning of movement direction changing with changing camera angle. Sometimes camera could be controlled with mouth, sometimes mouse control direction too. Control could be and should be remapped in SettingsApplication, coming along the game. Main problem is a lag in response, you couldn't just stop your combo against thin air to switch attack or sometimes Space/Shift acts like toggle and other like switch. Game mechanics are carefully underthought. You doesn't get enough feeling on how to use them and you right at the final boss and... It hurts. Unskipable cutscenes you forced to watch time after time while proceeding with quest adds pain too. All these while story is ok (could be better, much better) and graphics is good enough.
I'm not a particular fan of such games, but this one is amazing. It amazingly balanced and feels complete. There are some interface issues though: some boxes want not open, some with reason, some just silently stay closed, Some quests could be easily broken if you use gem of recall. I don't get it why you need to confirm attack on all enemies when selected such skill. And why you should scroll/click on Defend when your character paralized. Besides that it is awesome game.
I've bought this game after playing Hob and Epystory, games that really touched me. But in RiME story unwinds too slow and it is stretched beyond the limits, so I almost forget it when game suddenly ended. I was hardly remember anything bright and emotional about it. And puzzles: main problem with them is to find them and understand what you exoected to do, after that nothing to think just push the buttons.
First of all this game force you to think and be aware. It's irritating in the beginning but ok after couple hours (yes, eject/reload stuff). Next this game force you to be online: some classes are not playable on their own with low speed and slow reloading/recharging weapons. And after several runs game become boredom: start each time from level 1 (they are different but level 1) and even saved character level doesn't help. May be story could save this in single player mode, but I don't know. It looks flat and almost abstract.
Good idea, bad implementation. Transitions from between real-time and turn-based sometimes are... surprising (not in a good way). Using hook - hard, use the force, Luke. Jump targeting is not that easy too: using vertical mouse movement while targeting horizontally... well, it's definitely innovative plus you unable to target where your cursor located. Checkpoints they are silent and surprising too (at last level especially). Necessity to use both keyboard and mouse during combat in way precise but obscure don't add a joy. I've managed to collect all skill scores and sometimes you need not to rush into battle, some times you need to find the right spot. After game I've got that filling that there is indeed only one right path to play each level. But I don't regret money spent. At least three days to fill.
This game genre should be: Crashing - Hitting - Rolling - Twisting. But not racing. It really annoys me that I cann't just race. Player is forced into crashing/hitting/rolling/jumping, you name it, but not race and all with visuals. I personally hate such visuals distracting from game play and turn it off, but here it's not an option. Broken physics adds more frustration. I didn't expect realistic simulation, but I expect continuous one: at the same place with same speed on the same car the result should be the same. Also, this was first title where I've get kick back on (or even while) steering which throws car in opposite direction with all the consequences. Graphical part mostly obscures picture: you will see direct sunlight, you will see flying trash, smoke and dust behind opponent's car or just other cars but not the track. And the thing is all of this could easily be ignored if interface was just a bit more responsive: you can't just reset car back on track - push button and WAIT, try to restart race... and you cann't just do it in one-two clicks. I first tried it back 2008 and considered fun enough. Well, I've should play it for longer back then.
