Rimelands: Hammer of Thor

Genre: Dungeon Crawler / Turn-Based RPG

Players: 1

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Review:

Rimelands: Hammer of Thor is a Dungeon Crawler and Turn-Based RPG first released on mobile devices in 2010 and ported to Nintendo Switch in 2019. This game takes place in a world that combines elements of medieval fantasy and steampunk elements with Norse themes, and follows a young woman seeking to uncover the secret her parents were killed for and get revenge for their murders.

Given the age of Rimelands and its mobile roots, it undoubtedly does not come as a surprise that this game is not exactly visually-impressive. It makes use of clean-looking but extremely simple 3D visuals for its world and characters, backed by a forgettable soundtrack with themes suitable for the fantasy setting. I suppose it is at least a departure from the pixel art visuals many games within this genre tend to use, but there’s nothing in the presentation that’s particularly compelling.

The same holds true for the writing and story – this game does a decent job setting up the mystery of what happened to the protagonist’s parents, but the characters themselves are archetypal, generally one-dimensional, and not very well-written. No, if there’s anything in Rimelands that will be compelling, it is in the gameplay.

Thankfully, that gameplay is pretty solid, with some good core mechanics that combine the standard turn-based Dungeon Crawler gameplay with some well-crafted dice roll-based gameplay and a skill tree that provides some solid choice and progression. In addition, both melee and ranged combat are handled fairly well here, with either providing good options to the player.

Unfortunately, Rimelands lacks both a good variety of loot and a good variety in its combat. Once players find the approach they want to bring into combat, they will be repeating those same actions throughout the rest of the game with little deviation. Meanwhile, loot is rarely interesting enough to shake up that pattern.

I should mention that this game retains the option to use touchscreen controls that were clearly designed with the mobile release of the game in mind, but traditional gamepad controls are here as well, and work just fine. In fact, I think I prefer the precision of the gamepad controls, as using the touchscreen makes it far too easy to mis-click on the wrong spot.

It’s a shame that the lack of depth and variety restrains Rimelands: Hammer of Thor as much as it does, because the core gameplay is well-made and quite enjoyable. Unfortunately, we may never see developer Kyy Games build on his solid foundation, as the company has not produced anything in the years since this port was released. As-is, Rimelands is still enjoyable, but the lack of depth means that you’re better off seeking out other games in the genre.

tl;dr – Rimelands is a Turn-Based Dungeon Crawler combining elements of medieval fantasy and steampunk with Norse themes. The core gameplay here is solid, but there’s just not enough depth or variety to make the game truly compelling, and the presentation and story are too lacking as well. This is by no means a bad game, but you have better options within the genre.

Grade: C+

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