"RiME" is a third-person adventure puzzle game developed by the Spanish studio "Tequila Works" and published by "Grey Box" and "Six Foot". Released on May 26, 2017, for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, the game was later released for Nintendo Switch in mid-November of the same year.
In "RiME", we will play as a teenage boy who has somehow found himself on a mysterious island. He has no memory of his past and no other goal than to move forward toward the white tower rising in the distance. However, reaching it is not easy. Along the way, players solve numerous puzzles, mainly of two types: related to parkour and to moving and activating objects and elements in the environment. In addition to land areas, there are also water locations where players must swim and dive.
At first, the island’s world is peaceful toward the hero, but after a while, our protagonist encounters some areas inhabited by hostile creatures. They cannot be defeated outright in direct confrontation – players must hide and avoid them until the narrative provides an opportunity to deal with them.
The boy also has guiding allies. One of them, a little fox, appears almost at the very beginning; others – a mysterious figure in red and a spotlight sphere on stone legs – appear a bit later. They do not hold the hero's hand throughout the game, nor do they interfere with exploring the world at a leisurely pace, but they are almost always nearby when he reaches a key point in the current area, indicating that he is on the right path.
Throughout most of the game, gameplay in "RiME" prevails over the story. The actual story of the boy is delivered very sparingly in small cutscenes between chapters. The narrative is conveyed without a single word, solely through visual means. The plot twist that gives meaning to everything that has happened earlier in the game and puts all the dots over the "i" is placed at the very end, and it will surely leave few indifferent.