RiME

A visually beautiful, constantly eye-catching adventure. [Issue #33 – May/June 2018, p. 75]

Tequila Works has just about squeezed this beautiful game from other home consoles into the smaller form of Nintendo's Switch. Despite the chronic performance issues that are found throughout in this iteration, it all just about holds together well enough, and, thankfully, the core adventure shines through so brightly that gamers preferring to sample this on-the-go, whilst they are not getting the smoothest version, will be satisfied enough with the sacrifices made to make Rime work in the first place.

While it’s an indie game with issues that stem from a lower-than-average budget for its size and the bugs that come with it, RiME still captures emotion and beauty as it tells a heartwarming story. The bugs can be frustrating at times, but aren’t reason enough not to play it. Rime will run you $39.99 and takes about six to 10 hours to complete. In the same vein as Journey, RiME is a capable entry into the ranks of these emotional and heartfelt types of games.

We’ve been waiting for this version for a few months, and it’s disappointing to find that technically it’s not meeting the expectations. RiME is a great game, but if you can, play it on another platform.

Rime on Switch is a game filled with qualifiers. The visuals are great, but the framerate’s awful. The puzzles are fun, but some are duds. The story borders on impactful, but falls short of making a consistent positive impression. Even with all those issues, Rime is enjoyable, but the Switch version makes it a lesser overall experience. I can’t speak to specifics, but if the framerate and graphics are better elsewhere, seek those versions out in lieu of this release. The allure of portability doesn’t make Rime a better game, especially with the compromised graphics.

Ironically, just when we received patches for RiME at 4K, this port arrives, one of the worst we've seen and that does not do justice to the level demonstrated by Tequila Works the last month of May. Late, bad and expensive.

Overall, RiME is a delicately-constructed experience sprinkled with beautiful moments, on the proviso you play the game exclusively docked to the TV. However, you should consider playing RiME on another platform to avoid the myriad technical and visual issues that come with the Switch port.

Although RiME retains the charming artistic value and its emotional factor, the Switch conversion is very unstable on a technical level, a fact that affects the gameplay.

RiME on Switch is a disappointing experience, despite the obvious quality of the game itself. As a puzzle-led adventure RiME is enjoyable, atmospheric and at times deeply moving; all of these qualities are undone by spotty performance, low resolution visuals and a frame rate which sputters along like a battered car engine. When played docked things are just about passable, but in handheld mode the game's technical problems sap away the satisfaction of playing it. If you have any other means of accessing the game on other systems then you should pick those over this port; while enough of RiME's magic remains on show, the Switch version of the game is almost crippled by technical problems which unfortunately rob this captivating quest of its lustre.

Rime is one of those games that has all the potential to be one of the all-time greats, but falls short at the last hurdle. Choppy framerate and poor visuals in handheld mode hold it back from being a day one recommendation, but it's also an adventure that, one day - despite the flaws - you'll be glad to take.

Quotation forthcoming.

It remains - it is true - an intense, enigmatic and fascinating work that fits perfectly with the portability of the console and enjoys the pleasure of the HD Rumble. But, overall, lower graphics yields and so many (too many) frame rate drops impoverish the emotional reach of a game that, by virtue of its artistic extravaganza, would surely have deserved better treatment.

RiME is a symphony of colors and music that deserves to be lived in depth. However the Switch version is full of flaws and bugs.