RiME

RiME is the rare game that balances its spectacle and whimsy with a dose of quiet humanity.

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RiME is a single-player, open-world puzzle adventure game with a wholesome story and dense atmosphere. As a young boy stranded on a mysterious island, you'll explore enchanting landscapes, solve ingenious puzzles using sound, light, and time manipulation, and uncover secrets that reveal the island's forgotten past. With its outstanding gameplay, graphics, and soundtrack, RiME offers a captivating experience, despite minor optimization issues and some grinding.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

Reviews

83%

Audience ScoreBased on 1,434 reviews

story336 positive mentions

optimization56 negative mentions

Stunning visuals and art style that create a captivating atmosphere.
Emotional storytelling conveyed without dialogue, leading to a powerful ending.
Relaxing gameplay with simple yet engaging puzzles that encourage exploration.

Performance issues and frame rate drops, making it less enjoyable on some systems.
Puzzles can be too easy and straightforward, lacking challenge for experienced players.
Linear progression with limited exploration, which may disappoint those seeking a more open-world experience.

story
929 mentions
36 % positive mentions
62 % neutral mentions
2 % negative mentions
The story of *Rime* is a poignant exploration of grief and loss, conveyed through stunning visual and environmental storytelling without any dialogue. Players uncover the narrative gradually, piecing together its emotional depth through collectibles and gameplay, culminating in a powerful and often heart-wrenching conclusion. While some find the pacing slow and the story initially vague, many appreciate its subtlety and the impactful twist that ties everything together at the end.
- “The story is touching, well told even if there's no dialogue at all.”
- “Rime is a beautifully crafted puzzle-adventure game that takes players on a journey with a delightful soundtrack and a deeply emotional story.”
- “The story unfolds during the playthrough, and in the end had me in tears.”
- “The story is so shallow and kitsch.”
- “Then after hours of walking slowly, climbing slowly and doing the same puzzle slowly, the story just ends very anti-climatically.”
- “Ultimately not enough story or character to engage me to want to keep playing.”
music
475 mentions
67 % positive mentions
33 % neutral mentions
1 % negative mentions
The music in the game has been widely praised for its beauty and emotional depth, often described as a standout feature that enhances the overall experience. Many reviewers noted the soundtrack's ability to create a captivating atmosphere, with some comparing it to the works of renowned composers like Joe Hisaishi and Lindsey Stirling. However, a few critiques mentioned that the music can feel repetitive at times or lacks clarity in certain sections, but overall, it is considered a significant strength of the game.
- “The game's atmosphere, accompanied by its music and puzzle-solving mechanics, takes players on an emotional journey.”
- “Rime is a beautifully and truly special game that transports players to a breathtaking and immersive world/storytelling, crafted puzzle-adventure game that takes players on a journey with a delightful soundtrack.”
- “The music is beautiful and creates the atmosphere of the game sections combined with the visual aspect.”
- “The quality of the soundtrack is not very high.”
- “Some parts of the game have background music that is extremely quiet and is drowned out by the ambience and sound effects, leading to parts of the game feeling very empty and unfinished.”
- “The soundtrack for Rime is incessantly performing in the background in a way that felt like the game feared allowing the player to soak in the atmosphere without constant musical mood setting.”
graphics
447 mentions
64 % positive mentions
33 % neutral mentions
2 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are widely praised for their stunning, artistic style, often compared to titles like "Journey" and "The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker." While many players appreciate the beautiful visuals and immersive atmosphere, some report performance issues, including framerate drops and minor visual bugs, particularly in demanding scenes. Overall, the game's aesthetic and soundtrack significantly enhance the emotional storytelling, making it a visually captivating experience despite some optimization concerns.
- “The visuals are breathtaking, the mood is captivating.”
- “The graphics are beautiful, the music enhances the moods, and the storyline is unique.”
- “Absolutely stunning visuals and environments, as well as some interesting puzzles and unique mechanics.”
- “I played this game for the first time with a laptop GTX 1060, and the framerate dropped like a rock, even when the visuals don't look demanding at all.”
- “Shame because a game this old with an assumedly light graphics implementation should not stress a modern system this much.”
- “Even with the graphics turned down as low as possible, I had repeated framerate drops that completely broke any immersion I had in the game.”
gameplay
315 mentions
26 % positive mentions
69 % neutral mentions
5 % negative mentions
The gameplay in Rime is characterized by its simplicity and focus on exploration, with many players noting that it lacks depth and challenge. While the puzzles are generally easy and the mechanics can feel repetitive, the game compensates with its stunning visuals and emotional storytelling, creating an immersive experience. Overall, the gameplay is described as relaxing and forgiving, appealing to those who prioritize atmosphere over complex mechanics.
- “The gameplay is relaxing and forgiving if you make mistakes, but just challenging enough to keep you involved.”
- “The gameplay itself is very interesting and engaging.”
- “The gameplay flows smoothly as well.”
- “The gameplay is rather dull, and that the art isn't much to look at; I trod along with a growing itch to uninstall.”
- “The exploration isn't fun because it's slow but also requires no mechanical effort or skill.”
- “Gameplay is very repetitive and not in a fun or challenging way, to the point I stopped looking for secrets and just went for story in hope it would improve after some levels (didn't happen).”
emotional
234 mentions
100 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
The emotional aspect of the game is widely praised for its ability to evoke deep feelings through its touching story, stunning visuals, and evocative soundtrack. Many players report experiencing intense emotional reactions, including tears, particularly during the game's poignant ending, which is often described as a powerful gut punch. While some critiques mention a lack of character development and pacing issues, the overall consensus is that the game successfully delivers a heartfelt and memorable emotional journey.
- “Absolutely love this game, the emotional context and complex backstory left me happy and sometimes left me with tears in my eyes.”
- “The game is stunning, the soundtrack is phenomenal, and you really get emotionally invested in this game.”
- “Rime takes you on an emotional roller coaster ride with scenes in the game that range from confusion, wonder, joy, anger, sorrow, and grief.”
optimization
151 mentions
13 % positive mentions
50 % neutral mentions
37 % negative mentions
The game's optimization has received widespread criticism, with many players reporting significant performance issues, including frequent frame rate drops, stuttering, and overall instability, even on high-end systems. While some users noted improvements after patches, the consensus remains that the game is poorly optimized for PC, detracting from an otherwise visually appealing experience. Despite its artistic merits, the optimization problems have left many players frustrated and unable to fully enjoy the game.
- “I feel like the developer hit the perfect balance of keeping things visually appealing without compromising on performance.”
- “For a smooth experience, I played on max settings at a stable 60fps in 1080p, because the game has some performance issues, and it ran flawlessly and looked amazing.”
- “The newest patch made this game perform perfectly, with stable 60 fps, no stutter, no lag.”
- “Between the unrelenting camera issues and the totally random performance oddities, the game is basically unplayable, and that's a damned shame, because it's otherwise a sweet little experience.”
- “I wish I could recommend this game, but it is so badly optimized that it has constant stuttering and crash issues despite my system having a Threadripper 1950X and an RTX 2080 Ti.”
- “That said, the game suffers from poor optimization, creating a laggy experience with large frame drops in many areas.”
atmosphere
151 mentions
64 % positive mentions
34 % neutral mentions
2 % negative mentions
The atmosphere of the game is widely praised for its stunning visuals, evocative music, and emotional depth, creating a captivating and immersive experience. Players appreciate the whimsical and melancholic tones that enhance the storytelling, although some note that the gameplay can feel slow or aimless at times. Overall, the game's rich atmosphere is a significant draw, appealing to those who enjoy atmospheric exploration and narrative-driven experiences.
- “The game's atmosphere, accompanied by its music and puzzle-solving mechanics, takes players on an emotional journey.”
- “Rime is a truly beautiful game, atmospheric and rich; there's so much detail, I adore the music and the mystery, the wild feeling of freedom and tranquility that guides you so gently into one of the deepest and most moving stories I've ever experienced.”
- “The atmosphere is astounding, the story brought me to tears, the music is amazing!”
- “There is practically no story, besides the atmosphere that is, there are no characters to speak of, and the puzzles feel arbitrary and shoved in as required to make it a game, rather than because the puzzles are inherently interesting themselves, which they’re not.”
- “These might seem like small flaws, but when the entire game is based around atmosphere and platform-intensive puzzle solving, these flaws add up to a frustrating experience pretty quick.”
- “Summary: beautiful game, not too hard, only frustrating bits result from some unfortunate camera decisions, but the atmosphere is silent and melancholy and strange and ultimately quite sad.”
grinding
18 mentions
17 % positive mentions
-11 % neutral mentions
94 % negative mentions
Overall, players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and often frustrating, with excessive running and repetitive tasks that detract from the experience. While some appreciate the imaginative levels and emotional story, many feel that the gameplay becomes monotonous and lacks rewarding challenges, leading to a mixed reception. Despite its shortcomings, some players are willing to overlook the grind for the game's artistic and narrative merits.
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- “Grinding in this game is incredibly rewarding and keeps you engaged.”
- “The grind is satisfying and offers a real sense of progression.”
- “The game starts to degenerate into tedious platforming sections, lots of running between areas just to trigger buttons or events and becomes progressively more linear as you feel funneled through one area to another when earlier in the game you had some freedom to explore.”
- “You can see that they started off strong and then let the remaining 2/3 of the game become extremely mundane and tedious.”
- “Gameplay itself is a bit tedious and not very rewarding, but you want to play this for the highly emotional story.”
stability
17 mentions
24 % positive mentions
6 % neutral mentions
71 % negative mentions
Overall, the stability of the game has received mixed reviews. While some players report a smooth experience with minimal glitches, others have encountered significant issues such as camera bugs, freezing, and graphical glitches, particularly on PC. The game appears to run better on consoles, but users with high-end setups still face various stability challenges.
- “You're not going to be wowed by super complex textures or water physics, but the game stays beautiful from beginning to end and runs great.”
- “A 10/10 game, no glitches, beautiful story, challenging and inventive puzzles, and nice collectibles.”
- “No glitches or bugs found during my playtime.”
- “I've installed Rime on no less than three builds, from a Windows 10 system with an RTX 2080 Super and an i9 9900K, to an MSI GE66 laptop with an RTX 3080 16GB, 125 watt, and an i7 10870H... all of them have been buggy messes that defy every attempt at troubleshooting.”
- “The only downsides I can think of are that parts of the story (background) are locked behind aforementioned collectibles, the cut-scenes are unskippable, and the game occasionally stops responding (freezes).”
- “Originally when I played, the camera was super buggy indoors and would clip through walls, obscuring your view of the level and character.”
replayability
15 mentions
20 % positive mentions
47 % neutral mentions
33 % negative mentions
Overall, "Rime" offers limited replayability, primarily due to its short playtime and straightforward puzzles. While players can revisit the game to collect missed secrets and achievements, many reviewers feel that this does not significantly enhance the experience or justify the game's price. The lack of meaningful narrative variation after the first playthrough further diminishes its replay value.
- “It also adds to replayability that after the first playthrough, you'll realize that there are a lot of story elements that you missed the first time.”
- “There's some replay value in the game to go back and find all of the missed secrets and to get the achievements.”
- “Collectibles in conjunction with a chapter selection becoming available once you've finished the game lend it some replayability.”
- “Replayability: sadly there is little replayability in Rime.”
- “This was a wonderful puzzle game, but it lacks much replay value.”
- “The replay value is also very low since all of the routes become obvious after the first playthrough.”
character development
3 mentions
33 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
67 % negative mentions
Character development is noted for its elegant and meaningful progression, enhancing the overall narrative. However, some reviewers feel that a lack of depth in character arcs can lead to emotional moments feeling contrived rather than impactful, suggesting that the storytelling could benefit from more robust character growth. Overall, when executed well, character development significantly elevates the game's storytelling.
- “The character development progresses elegantly and meaningfully, contributing to the bigger picture.”
- “They want you to feel [spoiler] sad when characters die [/spoiler], but with no character development and a sudden jolt of perspective, it felt more like a 'see how tricky we are' instead of a 'see how good at storytelling we are.'”
- “On the harder-to-implement end of things, such as character development and storytelling, is where it truly shines.”
monetization
3 mentions
0 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
100 % negative mentions
The monetization aspect of the game has received mixed feedback, with some players feeling misled by vibrant advertisements that promised a captivating experience similar to titles like "ICO" and "Journey." While the game is visually appealing and features beautiful music, there are concerns about its overall execution and whether it lives up to the expectations set by its marketing.
- “I bought the game after having only seen a few bright, colorful, and cheerful advertisements about this kid solving puzzles and chasing after a spirit fox.”
- “It's a very pretty game and the music is beautiful, and all the ads and trailers had me excited for what seemed like another ICO/Journey-esque game.”
- “Nonetheless, I wanted to give the game the chance to stand on its own merits irrespective of what other people are advertising it as... and there are still quite a few problems with it.”
humor
3 mentions
100 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is described as both charming and effective, contributing to its overall appeal alongside its beauty and emotional depth. Players appreciate the lighthearted moments, even finding humor in minor bugs, which adds to the game's indie charm. Overall, the humor enhances the experience, making it memorable and enjoyable.
- “It's mesmerizingly beautiful, it's funny, it's sad.”
- “The game itself gets a solid 9/10 from me, the only issues being occasional problems with getting the kid to jump or stop when told, a couple minor bugs not worth really mentioning because they were actually pretty funny, and of course the iffy framerates; but hey, I played games on 20-30fps at best for years before I finally got an upgrade, so frankly I wasn't so bothered.”