You’re on a rail car slowly winding its way toward a locked gate at the entrance to RHEM – a very large and rather drab city. You exit the car and find only one way in. Once there, you find that your task is to recover four parts of a letter which will enable you to exit the strange city – from the other side of that same locked gate. Your journey to the other side of that locked gate is rife with locked doors, switches, valves, ladders, catwalks, shapes, number combinations. The journey is long – this is a gigantic game! Sound familiar? It reminded me a lot of Myst or Riven. If you enjoyed the puzzle challenges of these those games, you should really enjoy RHEM. The navigation is very similar, but the graphics don’t quite measure up. For instance, the water pools you’ll see in RHEM are motionless – no ripples. The sound effects are good, but minimal; and there is no music. There are only a few rather grainy Quicktime cut scenes. But the puzzles – ahh, the puzzles – this is where this game really shines! Mr. Knut Mueller has offered up a vast array of very interesting and challenging puzzles which will have you adventuring for a very, very long time. Trust me, you will need a few hints here and there, and maybe a quick walker peek.

When I started the game I was aghast at the size of the presentation on the monitor screen – small! But shortly after your rail car ride ends, the game expands to cover about 80% of the screen and feels very comfortable. The game is played in first person mode and is very non-linear. A small morphing “hand cursor” moves you about Rhem. There is no pixel hunting here, just puzzle solving in order to progress and find those four pieces of that letter which is your exit ticket. Whew! Levers, shapes, colors, water level controls, rotating bridges – this game has it all. Okay, I’ll admit it – I’m not a rocket scientist and did peek at a hint every now and again; but I did sometimes find myself lost! Thank goodness for unlimited save games! Thanks, Mr. Mueller!

I enjoyed this game a lot. Although the engine and interface are quite antiquated and there’s no innovation here; for you Myst and Riven fans, I’d like to stress the positives. There are unbelievable opportunities for exploration. The game is truly gigantic. The many puzzles are varied and very challenging. I hope we soon see more offerings from Mr. Mueller!

Final Grade: B-

Note: This game may be purchased via mail order on the official game site: www.rhem-game.com or in retail outlets once published by Got Game Entertainment.

System Requirements:

Windows:

• Windows 95/98/2000/ME/XP
• PC 300 MHz Pentium or faster
• 32 MB RAM
• 20 MB free hard disk space
• 12 x CD-ROM
• 640X480 display mode
• 16-bit color
• QuickTime 4 for Windows or higher

  Macintosh:

• PowerPC 200 MHz or faster
• MacOS 8.5.1-9.2/OS-X Classic
• 32 MB RAM
• 20 MB free hard disk space
• 12 x CD-ROM
• 640X480 display mode
• 16-bit color
• QuickTime 4 or higher