3.5Cats_AndHalfAFish

Note : Please take these game reviews with a good chunk of salt. They are about my personal experience with a game ; yours might be very different.
Also, I have a professional interest in figuring out what works in a game and what doesn't. I know from experience how hard they are to make !

Yesterday evening, I finished Rhem 4 for the first time ever (not that I haven't tried before =)) ! What a feeling !

Rhem 4 is every bit as good as Rhem 1. Lots of great puzzles and, for the first time ever, my brain had no trouble at all understanding the 'lay of the land'.
Of course, I did need to take a peek or two at Louis' walkthrough (especially towards the end of the game), usually because I failed to notice something.

Below are some of the puzzles that I'll always associate with Rhem4 (for good or for bad). I'll try to keep it spoiler-free ... =)

Devious puzzles :

These puzzles took me a long time to figure out (no cheating required), but they were worth all the time it took. Very high 'aha !' value.

• All the puzzles in this area are great. I especially loved the one for the panel in the back of the hut (right side).
  
• This one took me -forever- to figure out ! But I did it ! =)
  
• I understood the top clue pretty quickly, but it still took me some time to actually solve the puzzle itself.
  The bottom clue took me much longer to place. The puzzle itself was easy to solve, once you knew what to do, but the clue was more of a 'I know what this is meant to represent'. Not so much a clue as to how to actually solve the puzzle.
  
• Figuring out the roundabout puzzle after realizing there's more to it than meets the eye.
  A great moment !
  
• This is a great example of a puzzle where I had to cheat to find out where I could find the clue ... after almost literally being told where to find it.
  I can't believe I never noticed it ! Big facepalm moment.
  
• This part of the puzzle is -devious- !
  It is solvable without further clues, -if- you're being observent. Which I was not.
  But once you see the clue (in a nearby location in the game), the solution is obvious.
  Except ... it's not.
  These are the best kinds of puzzles, I think.
  
• This isn't really a puzzle, but it is rather devious, and I appreciate the feeling of nostalgia it invoked. A real throwback to the early point&click games on the web.
  In fact, there are multiple moments like this in Rhem 4 !
  

Good idea ; didn't like the execution :

• I think the idea for this puzzle is great, but I had to take screenshots to solve it (things were looking too similar), and that breaks the immersion in the game.
  
• The portrait gallery. I felt that the last step was perhaps 'too much'. I had to look at the walkthrough to even consider the fact that there might be another step to the solution ...
  

Not a fan of these puzzles :

• I solved this puzzle without cheats, but it didn't do much for me ...
  
• Mmm, no ... just not a fan.
  
• I couldn't figure this one out without a hint.
  The fact that the letters were grouped in sets of 4, was a bit misleading (it suggested to me that the values had to be unique within a group) ...
  
• This is the only puzzle in Rhem 4 that I truly hated : a timed puzzle.
  I'm sure there's a way you can use the information given to predict 'stuff' and give yourself enough time to 'do what needs to be done' ... but : argh !
  I'll show you how I managed to beat this puzzle at the end of this page (in case you're stuck here too).
  
• Just as in the previouse Rhem game I played, I had sound problems towards the end (57 hours of gameplay). I also had a couple of crashes.
  Not much to be done about these, I think, and also not a big problem : restart the game and continue from the last save.

So. Some bits and bobs to finish off this review ...

1) Rhem SE.4 is a wonderful game for people that love point&click puzzle games (games that require observational skills, patience, logic, a love for map making, and a big sense of adventure).

2) My go-to game walkthrough site for point&click games (by Louis Koot).

3) My solution to the dreaded timed puzzle (SPOILER !) :

• Pick a set of numbers you like (or use the ones you end up with after clicking countless times and never getting small numbers =) )
• Do some math.
  • For instance, I calculated all the numbers for when the 3 hands end up on the same spot :
  • I also calculated a couple of numbers for when any 2 hands stick together :
• Now, just sit and wait. =)

4) Great timing !