Preview - Rhell: Warped Worlds And Troubled Times
Rhell: Warped Worlds and Troubled Times is a semi-open world puzzle adventure game, developed by solo developer, Slug Glove. The game is presented in a retro 4:3 aspect ratio to replicate the GameCube era, which can be turned off in the menu.
Set in a vibrant, hand drawn world with unique animations, you play as the sassy, quick-witted mage Rhell, who we first meet locked in the dungeon of the Empress's castle. But when a damaged spell book falls from the cell's ceiling pipe, Rhell is able to use her knowledge and the magic within the book to escape.
Not long after does she learn that a mysterious catastrophe has befallen the land and caused all but twelve people to vanish. She quickly finds the Empress alone on her throne and undertakes the quest of figuring out what's happened to everyone, to save the world before it's too late.
The gameplay loop consists of Rhell collecting quests, exploring diverse biomes, all whilst discovering the forty magical runes needed to solve smartly designed environmental puzzles. The developer slowly builds into the mechanics, starting with two simple runes: one to propel objects away, and one to rotate them. Rhell's first challenge is to escape her cell. You do this by either pushing the gate from its hinges, or rotating it so that Rhell can shimmy out. It's a basic example of how player choice drives the emergent gameplay during every puzzle.
Image: Rhell - Slug Glove - Piano
Solutions grow in complexity as Rhell finds more runes and is able to combine up to five runes to strengthen or create bend new spells. She's able to combine fire and ice to create a water spell, or summon an automaton that continuously fires whichever spell you've chosen, such as gooey blobs that helps Rhell bounce up to once unreachable platforms.
The developer herself states that with all 40 magical runes, there's over 102 million possible spell combinations - the key component to make a unique, emergent focused puzzle game with lots of replayability. Each of the game's nine areas contain puzzles that grow in difficulty and require more inventive solutions. Failure through trial and error isn't punished, it's encouraged with a reset stage function that lets you experiment to your heart's content.
Also, there's a good amount of challenge rooms that focus on different runes and a really smart randomiser function. The randomiser is meant for veteran players and can be selected when you launch a new game. It randomises all item locations, to essentially create a whole new experience.
The ingenious spell mechanic should make Rhell stand out from the crowd. But it's in depth and thoughtful puzzle design won't gel with everyone because it is mostly unguided and the controls are a little fiddly. But for those who enjoy exploration and puzzle solving free from hand holding, Rhell might be the game for you.
Image: Rhell - Slug Glove - Bridge
Like every puzzle game, you'll inevitable get stumped from time to time, which is why Slug Glove has included a hint system. You push in the left stick and Rhell vaguely describes the objective of the room. It's a vague description that doesn't often give you a direct solution or tell you what runes to use to accomplish your goal. Many players will prefer this, and some will want more feedback. I definitely believe an optional additional hint would help players if an area feels too much of a challenge. Although, once the game is out, I can see its community sharing enough helpful tips and tricks to alleviate this.
Within the first four hours or so, I solved puzzles using a basic push, pull, a form of magnetism, fire, ice, and much more. But what impressed me was how you combine runes to make new game changing spells like using goo and the downwards rune to shoot spells at the ground to change their material. But Rhell can also sprint by holding down a button, and jump to traverse the environment.
Beyond the puzzles, Rhell can find coins, collectibles and memory gems around the map. Many that require using the free camera mode to search around the room for out of sight secrets. I found the memory gems the most valuable, as they allow to record and store your most used spells, instead of manually selecting them from the spell book or using the quick select cheat book of spells.
Image: Rhell - Slug Glove - Beach
If there's ever a point where you get stuck on a room, you can use the map's fast travel function to speedily revisit locations to complete puzzles that you previously couldn't, now you've acquired new runes. It's during her exploration where Rhell introduces herself to new characters that give her quests and offer her tips on where to go. Although I didn't experience it during my play time, these interactions and completed questlines are supposed to soften Rhell's personality, so she grows as a person alongside her evolving spells.
However, Rhell does have a few frustrating issues. I found jumping between platforms and aiming my spells to be a touch too finicky, due to the limited aiming angles and camera perspectives. Even pushing the right stick down to keep Rhell still didn't completely solve the problem. I also found it a little tough to push blocks and experienced a few minor frame drops from time to time, but nothing major.
But I must highlight the fantastic artwork and impressive animations. Everything is drawn in a distinct art style that instantly draws you into Rhell's colourful world. For a single developer to have drawn so much must've taken a painstakingly long time and immense effort.
Image: Rhell - Slug Glove - Magnet
After spending four hours with Rhell: Warped Worlds and Troubled Times, it's another indie title that focuses on an inventive core mechanic and pushes it to the limit. To allow players the freedom to find their own solutions within Rhell's vast toolset of spells, is reminiscent of larger emergent gameplay focused games like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. A smaller scale indie that feels like it has the potential to really resonate with certain puzzle minded players. It's a unique puzzler where each puzzle has countless solutions; a video game for those who appreciate the less hand holdy games of the past, that reward exploration and experimentation - a title where you'll get out of it whatever you put into it. But if you're uncertain, I would suggest trying the demo first to see if it's your kind of thing.
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*Game provided by publisher Yogscast Games.
