Rhem (PC)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 2.0 stars Mediocre
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 4.8 (2.0 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Scott Osborne
• Reviewed on: 08/31/2004
• Originally published on GameSpot: Rhem (PC) Review

It's fitting that Alida was created by a developer called Dejavu Worlds, because this point-and-click adventure will make you feel like it's 1993 all over again--the year when the seminal adventure game Myst was released. Reminiscent of Myst, Alida unceremoniously plops you down on a deserted island filled with puzzles composed of strange and elaborate machinery. In Alida, you're expected to solve the puzzles not for any compelling reason, since story and character get short shrift, but rather simply because the puzzles are there. Not only is Alida built around one of the most tired clichés in the adventure genre (the deserted island filled with Rube Goldberg machines), but also Alida's game engine is woefully dated to boot. While old-fashioned, the graphics are nevertheless finely crafted and attractive, making them the game's one saving grace.

Alida opens with a blank screen, which is quite fitting, considering how often you'll be figuratively stumbling around in the dark. An image of the island of Alida slowly appears, accompanied by the disembodied voice of a woman with a cryptic message. She tells you that you're going to the island to look for her missing husband, Arin. This intro doesn't bother to tell you who this Arin fellow is or why on Earth you should care about him. In fact, the game never makes any successful effort to involve you emotionally or to make you feel like an integral part of a compelling drama.

At least you learn up front from the game box that the island of Alida is supposed to be an uncompleted theme park--in the shape of a gargantuan guitar--that's been financed by a hugely successful band, which is also named Alida. This actually doesn't sound quite so preposterous when you recall Michael Jackson's Neverland or Dolly Parton's Dollywood. Then again, the island of Alida doesn't remotely resemble an actual theme park with working rides and so forth, but rather, it's just a giant guitar with lots of caverns and walkways for holding needlessly obscure and arbitrary puzzles. The implausible, scanty story is slowly revealed in the driest, most uninvolving way possible--through just a few diaries and papers left lying around by the members of the band. A few, little integrated full-motion video sequences with a live actor add nothing of interest or impact.

Alida's game engine is as old-school as you can get, barring a return to text adventures. The island is presented in slide-show fashion as a series of fixed, low-res 2D scenes with occasional animations rendered in QuickTime. Today, even relatively old-fashioned adventures often let you freely pan around each discrete area for added immersion and realism.

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