Rime

This month's free PS Plus game was 'Rime'  - a 2017 game from Tequila Works. I'd just come out of 'Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice', so I was in the mood for something a little more colourful, and maybe a little less full of misery and death.

Colourful it certainly is. Bright and vibrant, the game has a sort of Disney aesthetic which at first put me off. It seemed like it might be insubstantial, and that's not generally my thing. But I was wrong. It's good, and fun, and - crucially - quite short.

You play a small child in a cape, running about a beautiful island populated only by pigs, birds and a little red fox thing that acts as a guide. Crumbling architecture hints at previous inhabitants, but there is no human life to be found.

Gameplay is simple, but develops a number of enjoyable and interesting mechanics as you get further in. There is no combat to speak of. Genre wise I guess it's a kind of 3D puzzle/platformer, if that makes any sense.

It reminded me of a few other games. The island full of puzzles which must be unlocked to explore further brought to mind The Witness (though Rime is more about art than intellect). The way the mechanics build and progress through the game felt a little like Portal at times. And the climby-jumpy environment navigation was a lot like Uncharted, though without the wisecracks and murder. Oh, and it's a little bit like Monument Valley here and there, which can't be a bad thing.

Narratively, the whole thing is carried by environment. Which I like, so hurrah for that. There's no language at all: our protagonist does not speak, unless you count going "Laaaa!" when employing the game's singing mechanic. A lot is communicated through imagery, sound and body language. This makes the game a very immersive aesthetic experience.

There is story, but I'm not going to go into that too much here. Safe to say, though, it's a refreshing change from conventional game narrative - free of gunfire, revenge or treasure hoarding. You can safely add this to the list of games which are gently pushing the industry into new and interesting narrative directions.

I finished the game in about seven hours or so, which is pretty good for me, as I'm one of those gamers who likes to wander about cluelessly, wondering what I'm meant to be doing and enjoying the scenery. It was a gentle, absorbing experience - satisfying on a gameplay level while also being very emotionally engaging.

One of the things I like about games in general, and Rime in particular, is how encouraging they can be. Each chamber in Rime has a series of mechanics for you to play with. Glowing orbs, lenses, levers, giant stone blocks that you can move about - that kind of thing. Each of them has a function. And everything is there for a reason.  You stand and observe the elements in the room, knowing that somehow these things will combine to help you escape.

There's something wonderful about looking at a seemingly impossible situation, where everything seems stacked against your chances of success, and yet knowing that there is a way out. That if you can just be creative with the things at your disposal, there'll be a moment when you get it right. Everything will click into place. Gears will turn, levers will heave into motion, and the shape of the world will change around you.

It's not often like that in real life, is it? And maybe it's a little daft to assume that there's always a way out. Sometimes that's not the case. But I think there's something to be said for a game that looks at a hopeless situation and says, "This might not be the only way to be." It's a message that sits at the heart of Rime's narrative experience, and that theme is reflected in its excellent gameplay.

A beautiful little game, well worth your time.