In the (once in a while) tradition of me bringing to light series or games that don't seem to get much attention, I thought I'd make a post about the Rhem series. For the uninitiated, it's a point-and-click adventure series. Looking at some of the screenshots posted below should make you think of Myst quite quickly, as I'm sure your familiar with this. One of the top reviewers for a bundle of Rhem 1-3 on Amazon.com labeled the series as equal to the Myst series, which is a big shoe to fill. If anything could come close, that would be amazing. In comparison, Moby Games lists Rhem as being reminiscent of Riven.

A link to the group of games:

http://www.mobygames.com/game-group/rhem-series

Here's a "let's play" of Rhem 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiwG97748pQ

Here's the official site:

http://www.rhem-game.com/

Also, the following was part of an e-mail correspondence between me and Knut, who seems to be the developer of the games. I sent out the message this morning, and he already got back to me:

Hello Jesse,
I think all Rhem games are DRM-free.
Only the french version from Microapplication
has a DRM-protection.

But I send my publisher also a email
about GOG.com and maybe they find an
agreement.

Regards, Yours Knut

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If you'd like to support bringing this series to GOG for your own collection or for the benefit of others, please wishlist vote it below!

http://www.gog.com/wishlist/games#search=rhem

Thank you for your time!

I bought the RHEM Trilogy from GamersGate a long time ago. It's not DRM-free, it's using SecuRom.

I only played the first game, and find it hard to recommend. On one hand, it's impressive that this entire game is the work of a single person. On the other hand, it fails at so many aspects of basic game design that it probably won't be enjoyable for most people. The game basically consists of a set of tough puzzles which mostly make no sense in the setting they were placed into, and which give you no feedback whatsoever. Unless you use a walkthrough, gameplay mainly consists of endlessly running through the same desolate, lifeless, pre-rendered environments and solving crudely designed logic puzzles in hours of trial-and-error. This includes "solving" the same puzzles over and over again because you need to do this just to get around. The game's storytelling (the little there is) is extremely amateurish - the quality was so low that I really couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry about it, in the end I just shook my head. The little bits of writing look as if they were translated to English by a school kid. The graphics would have been excellent 20 years ago, and it's still impressive that the entire trilogy is the work of a single person, but they look really, really dated now.

I fully played through the first game and then started the second. When I noticed that the second game seemed to have the same basic flaws as the first game, I lost interest.

The games may be interesting for people who enjoy tough logic puzzles with unclear clues, and don't care much about story, setting, atmosphere, writing, or graphics. But there are so many much better games around ...

There's also much worse. This game is far from the bottom of the barrel. Most games on GOG could be called out of date or under par, but people love them regardless and even revere them, like I do. The reviews on average may be just average, but average to some is great to others. It also has a decent score on Moby, which is important to the way GOG accepts games.

There would be no loss to having these games on GOG. Only a gain. And if one store like GamersGate has the games using SecuRom I'm not sure if they're all sold like that or not, but Knut seemed to be under the impression that they are DRM-free. It's either his mistake, or every copy on every site, retail or digital is SecuROM.

That's just more reason to vote for it on the community wishlist, so we can have them DRM-free. And I'm just reiterating what he directly just told me by e-mail.

<laugh> Christ, what a recommendation.

Any recommendation is better than none. I'm not doing anything wrong here.

You definitely aren't - in fact, I very much like the idea of such a "community wishlist spotlight".

You happened to pick a game that I, personally, find hard to recommend, which is why I shared my experience with it. That doesn't mean that I wouldn't like what you're doing (just in case this might not have been clear).

I also agree that nothing would be lost if GOG offered this game, though personally I think that there are better candidates for the GOG treatment. RHEM, I think, appeals mostly to players who enjoy Myst-like games, but who think that Myst's puzzles were too obvious and easy, and that Myst's story/background was superfluous. That constitutes a niche within a niche though, and I think that most other people would probably not enjoy this game, due to the flaws described further above.

Well, I suppose a challenge can be a good thing. The only problem is that if the games go beyond too much logic then that breeds frustration and thus may bring down a GOG score if it was here. I understand that definitely. Having played through Myst and Riven myself I got frustrated at those a bit at times too (the first playthroughs years ago), but it's all solvable in the end without the need to cheat and look things up online. I also have played through a few Daedalic adventures and found some more logical than others to figure out, but they made up for lack of logic with a beautiful setting and good sound and so on. At least at a glance, the Rhem games seem to promise a similar trip as you'd see in Myst in Riven, albeit tougher puzzles and less detail in the world.

Thanks for the feedback, in any case.

Actually it was an opinion similar to yours that made me decide not to buy these games. And I do love Myst-style puzzles and truly thought I'd like these games (how I love logic puzzles!) but I suppose if they were to come to GOG in a drm-free version, I'd probably pick them up in a sale.

Well, you have said you quite enjoyed Riddle of the Sphinx. That was a fairly unclear game, iirc (it's been like 15 years, my mind is swiss cheese, maybe it's not as obtuse as I remember), so I'd think this might be right up your alley, Momo ^_^

I just had the same thought. I haven't played RotS myself (just the sequel, "The Omega Stone"), but from what hear (and saw in the sequel), I agree that RHEM will probably appeal to people who liked both Myth and RotS. The one caveat is the atmosphere - Myst and RotS have this archeological vibe, they give you the feeling to explore the remnants of and age-old civilization. RHEM lets you explore a decrepit water plant, which appeals more to your inner engineer than the archeologist.

But yep, I think Momo is pretty much the target group for RHEM. ;)

Well it never goes on sale on Amazon and I have the Myst series here which needs replaying - about every seven years seems to be the right amount of time. I guess if I start soonish I should be all set by the time Obduction rolls off the assembly line...

Amazon has the trilogy download available for $4.99 (if you live in the U.S.)
here

If it made it GOG, you could probably get it cheaper. But that's not bad for three games.

I started RHem (the orinigal) but never finished. All puzzle and no story is not my thing. Ironically, that did not prevent me from buying Rhem 3 several years ago. Still haven't played it.

Well, I had voted for Rhem already, but - in all honesty - I never finished the first one and didn't bother to track the rest, because by then I had heard about the basic fudge of a story. (I may have played a little of Rhem 2, but I can't be sure.)

Sadly, now that I think about, Psyringe is correct.

I like puzzle games, but adventure games are about stories, characters, and purpose, not just logical challenges in an environment. I like there to be a reason for my character's actions and a backstory to discover, some sense that there is a purpose for getting beyond the next door besides the simple fact that it is there. Puzzles are the basic friction of most adventure games, but very few people thrive on continuous diet of confusion and frustration.

Its been a few years for me too, but I didn't feel that Riddle of the Sphinx was all that similar to Rhem. You were an archeologist trying to answer some questions about the site, but also (if I remember rightly) what happened to colleagues who had arrived earlier. I think Alida was closer, but actually had a back-story, a reason for exploring, and better graphics. Schizm is a little like Rhem too. You simply wander around (as you unlock areas with puzzles) and try to learn more about this abandoned alien town - and about what happened to the expedition that arrived ahead of you... hmmm...that sounds familiar... maybe RotS belongs in this category after all. LOL

Personally, I would much rather have GoG add an updated Riddle of the Sphinx, Omega Stone, Eric the Unready, Freddy Pharkas, Schizm, Timelapse, Cameron Files, Riddle of Master Lu, Weekend in Capri....

So why did I vote for Rhem? Because I remembered the initial discussions over it with some vague affection. My basic thinking was - as JinseiNGC224 suggested - that they aren't actually bad games. I might play them sometime if they were more available. At least they aren't another dystopia/vampire thriller/serial killer adventure, which I feel (pardon the pun) have been done to death. I would like to see more adventures on GoG, and Rhem has 4 installments. I thought for sure they would have finally explained what the first two were about at some point. Maybe I was wrong about that. lol