Rhell: Warped Worlds & Troubled Times Review

Curiosity often takes the reins in my playthroughs, leading to my random gameplay experiments that typically don’t amount to anything. In the case of SlugGlove’s Rhell: Warped Worlds & Troubled Times, a spontaneous idea almost always yields something more surprising than I could’ve imagined, which is pretty cool. This is a 2.5D narrative puzzler designed for your creativity to flourish, giving you a wand, runes, and plenty of freedom to craft fun solutions. Honestly, I’ve never felt more like a mage.

Rhell’s opening is delightfully storybook-esque, as we learn about the beautiful, yet almost empty world we’re about to drop into. Though you’ll notice the touch of magic is evident in each area you explore, it’s unlikely you’ll run into another person, as nearly everyone has disappeared, and you’re one of the few remaining inhabitants. As one NPC puts it early on, it is “mere luck” that Rhell (the player character) hasn’t vanished, too.

The “why” behind this odd catastrophe is up to you to discover throughout your playthrough; it’s a premise with enough mystery to keep me invested, and I couldn’t help but love how sassy and snarky Rhell is about it all. In fact, most dialogue in the game is silly, humorous, and charming, fostering a lighthearted tone that absolutely fits with the whimsical gameplay, music, and visuals. It’s really quite easy to enjoy Rhell’s witty remarks and side characters’ quirky vibes.

Breaking out of a dungeon cell is your first task, introducing how to use magic and, more importantly, how you can get over an obstacle in many ways. With Rhell’s book of runes, I could cast either push (to shove away what my spell hits) or twist (to rotate an object clockwise), or I could combine the two and see what happens. The game gives you up to five runes for a single spell, and the more you use, the stronger the effect; for example, five push runes will be far more forceful than one. Sometimes you only need a small nudge and other times a strong move, so the ability to adjust the power of a spell offers you good versatility.

I won’t lie, I had a very childlike-wonder moment when I decided to forgo pushing a stool to the dungeon cell’s gate to jump over it (a valid solution), and instead, combined push and twist runes to force the entire gate to turn 180 degrees. That was when I had the lovely realisation that my silly ideas were absolutely welcome in this world, and it was only the first of many satisfying “aha!” moments to come. I want to gush about the others, but I don’t want to spoil too much, so I’ll just say that metals, electricity, elemental forms, magnets, bouncy goo, and much more come into play.

The best part is that there are many unique spell combos you can make, since there are 40 runes to find across the game, so with each new tool at my disposal, I found myself pondering what other methods I could employ to grab hard-to-reach items, get around locked doors, and more. I’ve discovered that if you think a spell combination is possible, it likely is, and when you’re stumped, chances are you can be more experimental (or cheesy) with your magic. My number one tip for newcomers is that your “stupid idea” will probably work. That freedom to be creative is the heart of Rhell’s fun, and I think any puzzle-loving gamer would enjoy the do-it-your-way solutions.

Rhell was graphically crafted with nostalgia in mind, as SlugGlove opted for a 4:3 aspect ratio, inspired by the GameCube. I enjoyed the retro look, and the art style was reminiscent of the Paper Mario series, which I love. That said, I was less enchanted with the movement and aiming, often wishing it were more polished. Aiming, in particular, is almost always a pain, leading to a lot of objects getting hit with my spells when I didn’t mean for them to. As for movement, it bugged me that walking and jumping felt rather heavy, though running alleviated that a bit; even so, it was often difficult to move Rhell precisely, and, similar to my aiming woes, that caused some frustration.

Though there are some elements that could use refinement, there’s a lot you can do in Rhell with ease, such as resetting an entire area for a fresh start or simply removing some items you’ve placed down. The freedom to fast travel is great as well, especially when you’re stumped and want to try a different obstacle elsewhere.

It’s been a while since I’ve played a game with as much whimsy, magic, and clever puzzles as SlugGlove’s Rhell: Warped Worlds & Troubled Times. I appreciate how much nostalgia I felt while playing this game, as the multitude of rune combinations you can create reintroduced me to a level of wonder and awe that I remember feeling when I was a child, discovering games for the first time. I’m not saying they are easy puzzles, though, as there are some genuine head-scratchers, but thankfully, it’s just so fun trying to solve them. Plus, it feels like you can endlessly replay it, searching for new, strange spells that somehow work or taking advantage of the game’s Randomizer mode for an extra challenge.