User Reviews (1 - 11 of 22)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

Fantastic one person effort

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 23, 2008
Author: Amazon User

The Rhem series is an intriguing, atmospheric suite of games containing excellent puzzles. The navigation is difficult, as one turns around several times in a multidimensional maze. It is a huge environment with interesting areas. The ambience is of a decayed industrial landscape, rusty and forlorn.

Even though the graphics are somewhat basic (compared with the Myst series), and perhaps more akin to early Myst rather than the sequels. The scens are certainly evocative and mysterious, with appropriate ambient sounds. The high contrast lighting is good and adds to the feeling of desolation.

I cannot fault this game and it is particularly remarkable that it is created in its entirety by one person. That is amazing in itself. Narrative is not important here. For me, this game is a work of art and should be praised for what it is.

RHEM

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 39
Date: November 20, 2003
Author: Amazon User

YOU NEED TO BE A MAGICIAN OR A COMPUTER GEEK JUST TO DOWNLOAD THIS GAME INTO YOUR COMPUTER. I BOUGHT THIS GAME TWO MONTHS AGO AND HAVEN'T THE FOGGIEST IDEA ON HOW TO GET IT TO RUN AND I HAVE A TOP OF THE LINE COMPUTER WITH LOTS OF POWER.

Terrible

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 8
Date: October 13, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Every scene in this game looks the same so it's too hard to navigate. The best grafic in this game is the one on the box, the ones in the game are unimpressive at best.
The Myst games are awe inspiring, this game is nowhere close to that.

Pitiful!

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 15
Date: August 15, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game, the minute i put it in, was horrible...i wish that i hadnt paid 29.99 for this! Myst, Riven, Exile, Riddle of the Sphynx and Omega Stone are so much better!

DONT WASTE YOUR TIME AND MONEY!

Didn't work

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 6
Date: December 19, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The game told me to use 600 screen resolution, my monitor doesn't even go down that low. I installed the game, and tried playing it. I clicked "new game" and I got an error message telling me it could not find "Intro" file. Now I know why it was a $9.00 Staples game. Never buy games at Staples on the buget shelf. I'm 0 and 2 there. By the time the games end up there, they're too outdated for any computer built in the last few years. Rhem can't even be played.

Major Confusion

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: May 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I haven't been able to figure out any of the puzzles. There's so many paths to take that it's easy to get turned around or lost. It would have been better if there was a way to "mark" the paths already taken and a way to get hints on solving the puzzles. It's just way too much thrown at you all at once.

Clues scattered everwhere!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: June 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

What struck me first about Rhem is that is has very little color. It is a metal pipe, brick, and dirt world. There's a bit of blue water here and there, but even the huge reservoir is dried up mud. Still, like the desert, it does not have to be seen as unattractive...just different.

Having said that, the graphics are done very well. Attention to details, such as views from afar, are done with great care. There are some sounds, but it is very simple and repetitive. You meet one other character, briefly, and the voice-work leaves much to be desired. Fortuneately, the character leaves and you don't have to listen to him anymore. Unfortuneately, he takes the tramcar you rode in on, leaving you stranded.

While the pathways may seem daunting at first, if you roam around a bit, you will soon recognize landmarks. Or, you can use the map provided in booklet or a more detailed one found online. Getting from one place to another, plotting out the routes, was more fun for me than most of the puzzles. After while, I did not have to refer to the map.

I used hints pretty freely in this game since not all puzzles are straightforward. Still, they are not so far-fetched to make no sense at all. I just needed a nudge. More experienced gamers might not.

This is a point and click game, however you can look down nearly everywhere and that gives you the feeling of a 3D world. I soon didn't even notice.

Overall, Rhem has puzzles ranging from easy to moderately difficult. The graphics are well done, but lack interest. It is worth playing, but do not expect a plot- there is none...other than to escape (and that's rather anti-climatic.)

Unpolished and not worth it.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 8
Date: August 05, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Rhem is clearly a home effort. I bought this in a store for $25, and I expected the gem the reviews promised, but I was greatly disappointed.

Firstly, the resolution of pictures in the game is tiny, and there's no way to change to even a 1024x768 mode. Since my monitor doesn't even have a resolution low enough to full screen the images, I was stuck wincing at a tiny image centered in a black screen.

The graphics are sub-Myst, even 11 years later, and further make the exploration of the 'world' difficult.

The story isn't altogether enticing---I never got far enough to learn more than to see a character basically tell me, "this is Rhem; I'm leaving; you're stuck."

The puzzles, as was mentioned in another review, also make little sense in the context of the world, with the exception of some of the water puzzles which were fun.

Don't buy this game---at least not until it costs about $7 max.

Logic at its Best

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: July 25, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Rhem offers a stimulating challenge in a maze like environment. The game's origin seems to be driven by the success of Myst. While the game compares itself to Myst, it falls a little short. However the game was very challenging and fullfilling. The puzzles made sense, and the game delivered in its promise to send me on an adventure similar to previous games. I would highly recommend Rhem.

Bleh!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 7 / 12
Date: July 22, 2003
Author: Amazon User

The first warning I got that perhaps Rhem was not going to set any records for standards was on installation. "You will need QuickTime 4!" it informed me. "Here is the website to get it!" A quick search confirmed it: they require QuickTime (an older version at that) but don't supply it. You have to go to the Apple website and download it yourself. Is that impossibly hard, does it mean the game is useless and mean? No, but it's a flashing red light all the same: the game is not going to be helpful. You want a shortcut, something on the Start menu, access to the game in any fashion? Go get it yourself.

Rhem feels and plays like a 1992 attempt to be Myst, with the bad graphics, cheap memory-stingy movement, and dull storyline that we've come to associate with the era. The scenery is machines, machines, machines. I lost patience with it in record time and hope I never get bored enough to go back to it.

If you played the original Myst and haven't used your computer for anything but spreadsheets since then, you might find Rhem mildly diverting. Otherwise don't bother.

Review Page: 1 2 3 Next 

Actions