I played Rhem when it first came out, and bought the Steam special edition recently. Unlike later games in the series such as Lisssn, you do not get a map at the start but have to eventually find it. I feel that if I just had the map at the beginning, it would have saved several hours of stumbling around getting familiar with the game world. In fact I seem to recall the CD edition of the game had a small partial map in the manual to help get you started.

The following map is the one you find in the (REDACTED) area. It is not a total map to Rhem, and there is no labelling of puzzles or other hints on the map. By the time you finish the game, you'll have gone back and forth so much that you probably will be more familiar with Rhem than with your own neighborhood. But this map will help you navigate the landscape and connectivity much quicker.

You will still need to keep a map and a notebook of puzzles (for an added challenge, stick to a pad of graph paper and pencils!) But I hope you find the game less frustrating with the map below.

Like all the Rhem games, sometimes you feel railroaded when walking around, with a limited choice of movement options. And other times if feels like you're walking a long way looking for the clue that you need to get into the next area. But if you look everywhere at the world around you, then you'll eventually find your way. The railroading actually helps cut down on the aimless wandering -- there's only so many different paths, and if all the rest are dead-ends, then you need to explore what's left.

What's frustrating about this is that many clues are for puzzles that you will encounter later in the game. You will find yourself compiling lots of clues on things that (it turns out) are beyond a bottle-neck puzzle and not relevant until you are past it. But you have no way of knowing which clues are relevant this until you are through the bottle-neck. Compare this to Rhem II-IV where the game world branches alot and you have lots of different puzzles to look at, and it feels like there are fewer limits. This is one of the reasons I recommend people try Rhem II before Rhem I. The games are only loosely connected by a storyline, so it doesn't matter which one you start with.

If you are running on Windows10, make the scaling of fonts and such either 125% or 150%. You need to restart to have this take effect, and you might also need to scale down your screen to FHD. The game had low-res graphics even for its time (2003).

The Steam SE does not support in-game screen shots. Just use the Win key and the PRNT SCRN key to get one. I highly recommend recording images, since there are even subtle differences in places that are key clues.

A smartphone/tablet camera with a stylus is a quick way to keep notes.

When interacting with buttons in the game, you can press and hold the button sometimes.

Look at the pipes and the wires. Make a note of where they go.

Look at the backside of every single door.

And absolutely, whatever you do, be sure you don't blink!