RHem 2

A review of the Rhem 2 Adventure Game

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IT'S A VERY BIG CAVE

Do you like puzzles?

If you do then imagine a vast underground complex: huge caverns, underground railways, towers and tunnels, machines and control panels all linked inextricably in one massive continual puzzle.

But to discover the secrets you will first have to wander through this hidden world noting conduits and controls, posters and notes, mapping the locked doors, switches and levers. And as is often the case in games such as these, the accumulated knowledge will make no sense at all until you stumble upon the one clue that brings it all together.

Rhem 2 - The Cave is not just a collection of puzzles - it is one huge puzzle.

MAKING IT WORK

The game begins very simply (and I'm not giving anything away by telling you this) with Zetais requesting that you find the 3 parts of a 7 pointed star.

A train now carries you into the cave to begin your search. Getting out of train requires a little thought - but being the experienced traveler that you are, you should have no trouble finding and using the swipe card to open the door.

You can now go anywhere you like. Some doors will open and others remain locked. You will see all sorts of familiar objects, buttons and controls but the clues on how to use them are hidden away in nooks and corners or in some cases behind the locked doors themselves.

And that really is all you need to know about the game. The story such as it is becomes irrelevant, your quest is reduced to the solution of one gigantic puzzle. And it is gigantic - there is no one part of the game that is not linked to the next.

Many of the puzzles themselves are quite simple - note down a pattern and replicate that pattern on a control pattern. But the strength of the game is the way the puzzles connect.

I tried to count up the number of individual puzzles and got lost somewhere above 150.

MOVING ABOUT AND GETTING LOST

But it is very simple to play. Move your pointer to the edge of the screen and click to turn. Go to the centre to move forwards and click on things to turn them on or off. And turning things on and off is the key to everything since everything is connected - electricity rules in the cave - find the correct circuit and the doors will open.

So keep lots of notes, map the conduits and connections and you will be able to solve every single puzzle - no guess work required. And no timed puzzles or slider puzzles anywhere!

As mentioned before, the game space is massive and it can get a little tedious moving from one location to another - but not so much that it becomes monotonous. There are none of those endless walks from one location to another like there was in Rhem.

LOOKS GOOD FROM HERE

There is no music (which I prefer - there is no music in real life) just a whole bunch of ambient sounds. When sliding doors open they have a Starship Enterprise like sound. Switches click with a good solid clunk and machines operate with an oiled engineering quality. Things sound the way that they should.

And in general things look and behave the way they should as well. OK so the graphics may not be up to the standard of 'photorealistic' games but the strength of this game is its puzzles not the imagery. And there is some animation but it is only there to provide some depth to the game's rendering.

And even better, it will play on just about any computer - only needs 16Mb of graphics and less than 1GB of disk space to install.

In conclusion, If you like puzzles then Rhem 2 is not one to be missed. A real gem.