Reliefs The Time of the Lemures Reviews

A game about swinging around on ropes and catching ledges with the occasional boring puzzle thrown in.

By far the hardest puzzle game I have ever played. More so than even a game like Mist. But also so rewarding when you finally do figure it out. At first I thought it was too challenging, but after nearly finishing the game I'm glad i push forward as the world is just amazing.

An eerily beautiful and immersive platforming / walking sim / adventure. It's steeped in Roman mythology and imagery, architecture, and inscriptions that add depth to the environments, in addition to the dynamic lighting, lush ambient particle effects, soundtrack, and generally rich atmosphere. A truly impressive masterpiece. Although minimal on story, characters, and dialog, I was still deeply drawn into the world and found it simultaneously exciting and meditative to navigate. The dream-like sequences added additional depth to the richness and texture of the game. Highly recommend!!

It doesn’t do anything never seen before, but its strength lies in perfectly mixing the ingredients it works with: the gorgeous semi-open world, the simple but effective traversal mechanics, the parkour-guided platforming sitting at the heart of its progression, the Ancient Roman mythology behind its minimalist storytelling (telling a Roman story based on something other than their military might or technological advancements is a breath of fresh air in the world of videogames!), the grandiosity of the world design (they had to compensate with something, of course, and that they totally did, Roman ruins never looked that imposing before!), the highly introspective exploration (you may not be knowledgeable of the Lemuria festival, I wasn’t before I played the game, but it was such an enlightening experience learning about it and seeing it masterfully transposed into game design). It’s also a highly personal experience. You don’t take a single step outside yourself the entire game, it’s just you and your horse (or not even your horse if you want to be all alone) on a solitary journey of soul-searching and self-discovery that may ultimately turn out to be something you, the [spoiler]lonely[/spoiler] man sitting in front of the computer, have in common with the [spoiler]lemure[/spoiler] protagonist on a deeper and more meaningful level than it initially appeared. The game is desubstantialized and hieratic enough that [spoiler]even if you don’t see it as the journey of a lost soul into the realm of the dead[/spoiler] you can also[spoiler]/still[/spoiler] take it as a spiritual experience: a pilgrimage to the statues of long forgotten Roman gods. Nobody does that kind of thing anymore, so we must, at the very least, thank Calepin Studio for the opportunity.

11 years in the making and you can definitely tell this was a passion project by a indie developer to the amount of care and scope that went into it. I really had a lot of fun with it! Some of the landscapes were MASSIVE to travel through to get from one point to another to solve a large scale puzzle so you'll need that horse in some areas. The only small bug I had was with the horse clipping and a patch is coming to fix it. There's about 7+ hours of travel, puzzles, and just chillin' enjoying the amazing structures/landscapes that the dev built. It was really relaxing, easy on the puzzles and worth the play though. The only tough puzzle is a single one involving bells and roman numeral math. There's very little story going in and throughout. No notes to read, etc. Just you and the environment to enjoy. :)

It is pretty janky, and it has a 'scenery helpers' feature on by default which kinda ruins the experience (thankfully it can be disabled). But, it has a very pure focus in the gameplay and a clarity in the vibe, which makes it a pretty memorable experience despite those issues. Good antidote if you're bored of conventional stuff, as I am.

When I purchased this game, I wasn't sure what to expect—because of negative reviews—but once I started playing, it far surpassed all my expectations. It's been in Early Access for a couple of years, but always showing good, steady progress, and now—when finally done and released—the wait has very much been worth it. If you ever played this while still in Early Access and felt a bit underwhelmed, I recommend replaying and see the game in its full glory. The game is like a mix of [i]Rhem[/i] (plus acrobatics), [i]INFRA[/i] (with a smaller scope), and what I always wished [i]Tomb Raider[/i] could have been like with only the actual tomb raiding, the environmental puzzles, the climbing, and the exploration (no combat nor any hostile NPCs). This game had everything I'm looking for in a good puzzle exploration game. Almost. A better told story would have been nice, although not required; I think the game is worth playing already with what's in there. I had a great time. The various climbing moves were easy to understand and get into. The keyboard shortcuts can be customized (I rebound "interact" to 'E' and "torch" to 'F' as I found that to be easier). Bonus points for giving me the option to turn off the HUD completely and also hide all the neon paint. For me, that makes the exploration so much more rewarding. I did miss interacting with one important item (because I hid the HUD), but that's (mostly) on me. I could have wished for no invisible walls and more exploration rewards—although I also get why these walls were added; as it is, the game has a reasonable scope for a one-person dev team. Had it been bigger, we might not have seen it released for long and the environments are already pretty big. Another thing I could have wished for is for a clearer end-goal and a more explicitly told story. The game apparently has a story, but it was never clear to me what that was—nor what my character's ultimate goal was. Every time I opened a chest, I expected something to read, maybe something to explain why I was here, but nothing; the chests offered nothing of value. Despite a few shortcomings, I am still fully recommending the game, because I had a lot of fun climbing, jumping, mantling, rope-swinging, riding around exploring, and solving puzzles. This is what the game was all about for me.

TLDR: Incredible game, I really enjoyed my time with it. 100% worth playing. Reliefs is a game for explorers. If you enjoy the exploration element of games like Myst, Shadow of the Colossus, and Assassin's Creed, you'll find a lot to love here. I found myself constantly looking around, awed by the scale and beauty of the environments that I was traversing. Gameplay and vibe-wise, Reliefs sits somewhere between Myst and Shadow of the Colossus. Don't expect any combat or Myst-style "I spent 2 weeks solving this" puzzles, instead the gameplay is mostly based around exploration and traversal. You'll search for ways to progress through the environment, jumping across ledges and swinging on ropes along the way. The paths are often cleverly hidden, requiring you to think hard about where the next step could possibly be. There are also some traditional puzzles that'll have you flipping switches and such, some of which are huge and impressive in their own right. The pacing is excellent. I often got stuck just long enough to get a satisfying feeling when I figured out the next step. If I ever felt a mechanic or puzzle was starting to outstay its welcome, it would soon be finished and something fresh would take its place. The music also deserves mention: the game is mostly silent except for ambient noises, but the soundtrack comes in perfectly during special moments, making them feel weighty and tremendous. Reliefs punches way above its weight class, with environments that rival AAA titles. There's certainly some indie jank to it, but it's a very solid game that never broke or crashed. I loved my time with it and I hope many more people get to enjoy it as I have.

tldr: The Talos Principle and a climbing simulator get married, settle down, and have a game who's not really all that into puzzles, but LOVES climbing all over temples to mythological gods. ★★★★☆ [hr][/hr] The developer has constructed a gorgeous world that's extremely entertaining and sometimes challenging to navigate; climbing all over the surroundings, swinging on ropes... the whole world is a massive jungle gym. [i]Reliefs: The Time of the Lemures[/i] has only a few puzzles, and they're easy to solve for an adventure gamer who often has to refer to guides. This time, no guide, no problem. (THANK YOU, developer!) Definitely recommend -- but don't expect Talos, no matter how much it resembles it visually.

Game started out rough and needed TONS of work. Glad I came back!!! It's taken a 180 and I give the Dev's cuddo's. Much more work to be done, but the game is definately on the right track. Keep up the good work Dev's!!!!! I'm following this game :)