Amnesia: Rebirth in my eyes is a criminally underrated horror game. Sure, the puzzles and level design can be awkward and the story can feel a bit all over the place.
However, the core of this game is rock-solid and really engrossing. I was scared shitless at many points throughout and I always had the feeling of barely making it. I don't know how much of the tension was just an illusion but it absolutely worked - and using matchsticks for light that quickly burn away and can be hard to come by is a cruel but brilliant mechanic.
It doesn't just get the scares and atmosphere right though, no: Tasi Trianon, the protagonist of this story and its beating heart, is such a wonderful and fascinating character. I love how much the game grounds you in her experience both as a pregnant woman as well as someone who's suffered a terrifying loss. The actress absolutely nails the performance too.
So much of one's enjoyment hinges on whether or not you can empathize with her and I certainly did.
And honestly, even though the puzzles can feel awkward, I never felt like they were too obscure to solve - just requiring you to patiently experiment.
This was my first Amnesia game, and especially towards the end I was pleasantly surprised, baffled at the ratings too.
7,5/10
However, the core of this game is rock-solid and really engrossing. I was scared shitless at many points throughout and I always had the feeling of barely making it. I don't know how much of the tension was just an illusion but it absolutely worked - and using matchsticks for light that quickly burn away and can be hard to come by is a cruel but brilliant mechanic.
It doesn't just get the scares and atmosphere right though, no: Tasi Trianon, the protagonist of this story and its beating heart, is such a wonderful and fascinating character. I love how much the game grounds you in her experience both as a pregnant woman as well as someone who's suffered a terrifying loss. The actress absolutely nails the performance too.
So much of one's enjoyment hinges on whether or not you can empathize with her and I certainly did.
And honestly, even though the puzzles can feel awkward, I never felt like they were too obscure to solve - just requiring you to patiently experiment.
This was my first Amnesia game, and especially towards the end I was pleasantly surprised, baffled at the ratings too.
7,5/10
Early in the game, Rebirth takes you through a free-roam fort occupied by a single creature that, while very scripted, haunts you as you venture from blinding desert light into dark structures around a central courtyard - almost Resident Evil like in nature. Unfortunately nothing else really lived up to this sequence for me.
Frictional’s Thomas Grip describes their ‘SSM framework’ approach to horror games as the overlap and interaction between systems, story, and the player’s ensuing mental model of these. Via removal of any ‘fun’ combat interactions, randomizing difficulty after each death, limited inventory management and prioritizing narrative, this has worked well for them so far (and unfortunately spawned clones that didn’t do the formula justice). After SOMA (which I found to be their strongest work to date) Amnesia Rebirth dwindles in repetitive monster encounters and a world always in movement, that constantly discards any sense of place or natural geography. Upon this they've layered a heavily scripted sentimental narrative that suffocates the gameplay - with Tasi’s constant comments, taking away control of the player and often placing full-screen illustrated flashbacks over your view.
I really wanted to immerse myself in the events occurring in the present, which is something SOMA succeeded at. Instead the focus was on collecting matches, hiding in monotonous caves and enduring your screen flashing shit at you as you lose your sanity, while the narrative slowly crept in, gnawing away in the background. The finale was great though, allowing you to make choices entirely through gameplay, that highlights how most games only allow for choices to be made through dialogue selection. Hopefully this will be further fleshed-out in future (though I understand the consequences this would have on budget/labour etc.).
Frictional’s Thomas Grip describes their ‘SSM framework’ approach to horror games as the overlap and interaction between systems, story, and the player’s ensuing mental model of these. Via removal of any ‘fun’ combat interactions, randomizing difficulty after each death, limited inventory management and prioritizing narrative, this has worked well for them so far (and unfortunately spawned clones that didn’t do the formula justice). After SOMA (which I found to be their strongest work to date) Amnesia Rebirth dwindles in repetitive monster encounters and a world always in movement, that constantly discards any sense of place or natural geography. Upon this they've layered a heavily scripted sentimental narrative that suffocates the gameplay - with Tasi’s constant comments, taking away control of the player and often placing full-screen illustrated flashbacks over your view.
I really wanted to immerse myself in the events occurring in the present, which is something SOMA succeeded at. Instead the focus was on collecting matches, hiding in monotonous caves and enduring your screen flashing shit at you as you lose your sanity, while the narrative slowly crept in, gnawing away in the background. The finale was great though, allowing you to make choices entirely through gameplay, that highlights how most games only allow for choices to be made through dialogue selection. Hopefully this will be further fleshed-out in future (though I understand the consequences this would have on budget/labour etc.).
severely frustrating. somewhere within this i can see the game that is far and away my favorite in the Amnesia series up to this point. the settings are wonderful, the heavier puzzle elements are back, the story with the characters within are the most interesting they have been and so on. the issue comes when the execution of all of these elements are botched almost every step of the way, usually in the most baffling fashion.
if i were to try to get to the core of the issues with the game, a line could be drawn from a majority of them to a sense of excess. we have an interesting story and set of characters as previously mentioned but its tarnished by constant interruptions, forced flashbacks, slow walk cinematic bits, and anything of the sort to rip you from playing the game. complaints about the lack of monster/enemy interaction in A Machine for Pigs seems to have been addressed but you soon realize how much they overdid it. not going to be scientific or exact in my estimate but it truly feels like you are dealing with enemies (whether that's by hide and seeking or in a scripted chase sequence) a good 30-40% more than in The Dark Descent. add in that the game generally feels like it's an hour or two too long on top of these things and it's just too fucking much.
i appreciate that they were trying some new things here but it feels like more of a half step than i was wishing for. maybe if this swung for the fences a bit more with massive changes it could've come together. The Bunker looks to be more along those lines, hopefully.
if i were to try to get to the core of the issues with the game, a line could be drawn from a majority of them to a sense of excess. we have an interesting story and set of characters as previously mentioned but its tarnished by constant interruptions, forced flashbacks, slow walk cinematic bits, and anything of the sort to rip you from playing the game. complaints about the lack of monster/enemy interaction in A Machine for Pigs seems to have been addressed but you soon realize how much they overdid it. not going to be scientific or exact in my estimate but it truly feels like you are dealing with enemies (whether that's by hide and seeking or in a scripted chase sequence) a good 30-40% more than in The Dark Descent. add in that the game generally feels like it's an hour or two too long on top of these things and it's just too fucking much.
i appreciate that they were trying some new things here but it feels like more of a half step than i was wishing for. maybe if this swung for the fences a bit more with massive changes it could've come together. The Bunker looks to be more along those lines, hopefully.
Amnesia sempre foi um jogo que eu gostava de ver as pessoas jogando e não de jogar
Agora no Game Pass, eu fui em busca de me aventurar no terror psicológico que é disparado o estilo de terror que eu menos gosto.
Após terminar o jogo e pesquisar minimamente sobre, descobri que Rebirth se passa mais ou menos 100 anos após The Dark Descent e mesmo sendo uma verdadeira sequência, possui uma história própria e pode ser interpretado de forma independente. Então, se você está lendo essa resenha e tem interesse pelo jogo, talvez seja legal visitar The Dark Descent primeiro, fica a seu critério.
Uma história entre dois mundos: Em Rebirth, o jogo conta a história de Tasi, uma desenhista que está em uma expedição com seu marido Salim e uma equipe de exploradores que estão em busca de tesouros na África. Chegando próximo ao destino, o avião começa a passar por turbulências e, ao olhar pela janela, Tasi tem visões de um outro mundo muito estranho até que... o avião cai.
É aí que a jogatina e o começo da história se dão. Tasi acorda no meio do deserto e vê que está sozinha, pois toda a tripulação e, principalmente o seu marido, simplesmente sumiram. Sem lembrar ou saber de nada o que resta é partir para a exploração. Com o tempo, Tasi vai descobrindo que muitas coisas são familiares em muitos locais que ela passa pelo deserto, pois ela já esteve ali. Além disso, as passagens para o outro mundo e tudo que existe nele, o motivo dela já ter estado ali e o aparente sumiço da tripulação, tem a ver com ela mesmo e com o que ela carrega dentro de si.
A história é profunda e emotiva, com as descobertas sendo bem motivadoras para se manter no game. Sem dúvida alguma é o que tem de melhor aqui, mas infelizmente faz ser bem legal até a metade, pois dali para o final, nós já tomamos conhecimento de tudo e o pace geral do game vai ficando cansativo.
O medo está em todo canto: As premissas básicas de Amnesia são o escuro e o medo e em como sofrer a consequência disso faz com que a sanidade do personagem fique totalmente perdida. Aqui em Rebirth a explicação para não ficar no escuro foi muito boa, pois a Tasi possui uma doença que a impossibilita de sentir medo e, quanto mais ela sente, mais o medo a consome e isso traz notórias consequências ao corpo dela e a narrativa em geral, então basicamente, não sinta medo.
Mesmo com esse meu conselho de não sentir medo, é extremamente difícil fazer com que Tasi não se impacte por nada do que acontece na tela. Embora as aparições de monstros não sejam tão grandes até a metade do jogo, de lá para o final a parada começa a ficar séria. Existe uma parte onde você precisa resolver um puzzle labirinto (mas os monstros podem de te ver pois o labirinto é feito de espinhos então fica tudo aberto) ao mesmo tempo que foge de um monstro e é MUITO tenso, pois não tem lugar para se esconder e acender luz ou correr, chama atenção dele para você, então é muito desesperador.
Além disso, como mencionado da segunda parte do jogo, você vai passar por muitas cenas de perseguição e de inimigo stalker que você precisará contornar para avançar. Serão momentos de constante montanha russa entre tensão e alívio.
Gameplay leve, gerenciamento de recursos e puzzles: Simples e extremamente precisa, achei que os comandos encaixaram muito bem para o controle e a forma como você obtém itens e tudo mais no jogo, colaboram muito para a tensão e atmosfera geral. Uma lanterna e a impossibilidade de carregar mais do que alguns potes de óleo e a capacidade de carregar apenas 10 palitos de fosforo.
Durante a minha jogatina eu consegui gerenciar bem os itens e em momento nenhum eu fiquei sem combustível ou fosforo, mas fique atento ao medo de Tasi e as várias salas extremamente escuras, pois você pode ficar sem. Meu conselho para um fosforo bem usado é: acender 3 tochas para um fosforo usado. Vão ter momentos onde você não vai conseguir realizar essa matemática, mas está tudo bem, o importante é tentar fazer ao máximo para gerenciar bem os seus recursos.
Sobre os puzzles, eles estão em basicamente todas as sessões do game ou quase que a cada sala, variando entre grandes e pequenos puzzles. No geral, eles são bem fáceis de resolver e os documentos vão ajudar bastante e resolvê-los, isso quando eles não forem totalmente intuitivos.
Apesar de escuro, belos cenários e apesar do terror, ótimo som: Não pense que apesar de ser bem escuro o jogo não seja bonito, pois ele é... e muito. Sem dúvida alguma a parte do deserto foi a que mais me chamou a atenção em termos de beleza e detalhes, pois o jogo é escuro por si só, mas o deserto se passa de dia então traz um contraste bem interessante. Agora, a parte do outro mundo, já é escura por natureza e com o jogo dark, pode ser difícil de notar algumas coisas, mas no geral é muito belo também.
Sobre a parte sonora, aqui o destaque vai para todos os sons de atmosfera que dão o tom mesmo. Quase não há música e isso é ótimo para a proposta do jogo, então você vai conseguir perceber a nuances de objetos que você ou seu inimigo esbarra, as pegadas, o som da respiração que é importante quando você está se escondendo e por aí vai. No fim, apesar da música não se fazer tão presente, quando ela aparece, é bem encaixada com os momentos, principalmente nas fugas.
Agora, bom mesmo da parte de áudio é o excelente trabalho dos atores na atuação, com destaque para a atriz que faz a Tasi. Durante todo o jogo, mas principalmente no final, quando um acontecimento em específico parece mudar totalmente a vida e trajetória dela no game, foi muito bom.
Conclusão: O jogo não decepciona, porém não encanta. Para mim, ele se manteve no meio termo como um jogo legal e uma ótima experiência de terror para se jogar. Há quem diga que a história no final possa parecer clichê, mas eu achei que a construção dela foi interessante. Para mim, o que pegou foi a forma como o pace da metade para o final ficou e o game foi conduzido com o inimigo stalker sendo bem chatinho e tomando grande parte dos confrontos.
Agora no Game Pass, eu fui em busca de me aventurar no terror psicológico que é disparado o estilo de terror que eu menos gosto.
Após terminar o jogo e pesquisar minimamente sobre, descobri que Rebirth se passa mais ou menos 100 anos após The Dark Descent e mesmo sendo uma verdadeira sequência, possui uma história própria e pode ser interpretado de forma independente. Então, se você está lendo essa resenha e tem interesse pelo jogo, talvez seja legal visitar The Dark Descent primeiro, fica a seu critério.
Uma história entre dois mundos: Em Rebirth, o jogo conta a história de Tasi, uma desenhista que está em uma expedição com seu marido Salim e uma equipe de exploradores que estão em busca de tesouros na África. Chegando próximo ao destino, o avião começa a passar por turbulências e, ao olhar pela janela, Tasi tem visões de um outro mundo muito estranho até que... o avião cai.
É aí que a jogatina e o começo da história se dão. Tasi acorda no meio do deserto e vê que está sozinha, pois toda a tripulação e, principalmente o seu marido, simplesmente sumiram. Sem lembrar ou saber de nada o que resta é partir para a exploração. Com o tempo, Tasi vai descobrindo que muitas coisas são familiares em muitos locais que ela passa pelo deserto, pois ela já esteve ali. Além disso, as passagens para o outro mundo e tudo que existe nele, o motivo dela já ter estado ali e o aparente sumiço da tripulação, tem a ver com ela mesmo e com o que ela carrega dentro de si.
A história é profunda e emotiva, com as descobertas sendo bem motivadoras para se manter no game. Sem dúvida alguma é o que tem de melhor aqui, mas infelizmente faz ser bem legal até a metade, pois dali para o final, nós já tomamos conhecimento de tudo e o pace geral do game vai ficando cansativo.
O medo está em todo canto: As premissas básicas de Amnesia são o escuro e o medo e em como sofrer a consequência disso faz com que a sanidade do personagem fique totalmente perdida. Aqui em Rebirth a explicação para não ficar no escuro foi muito boa, pois a Tasi possui uma doença que a impossibilita de sentir medo e, quanto mais ela sente, mais o medo a consome e isso traz notórias consequências ao corpo dela e a narrativa em geral, então basicamente, não sinta medo.
Mesmo com esse meu conselho de não sentir medo, é extremamente difícil fazer com que Tasi não se impacte por nada do que acontece na tela. Embora as aparições de monstros não sejam tão grandes até a metade do jogo, de lá para o final a parada começa a ficar séria. Existe uma parte onde você precisa resolver um puzzle labirinto (mas os monstros podem de te ver pois o labirinto é feito de espinhos então fica tudo aberto) ao mesmo tempo que foge de um monstro e é MUITO tenso, pois não tem lugar para se esconder e acender luz ou correr, chama atenção dele para você, então é muito desesperador.
Além disso, como mencionado da segunda parte do jogo, você vai passar por muitas cenas de perseguição e de inimigo stalker que você precisará contornar para avançar. Serão momentos de constante montanha russa entre tensão e alívio.
Gameplay leve, gerenciamento de recursos e puzzles: Simples e extremamente precisa, achei que os comandos encaixaram muito bem para o controle e a forma como você obtém itens e tudo mais no jogo, colaboram muito para a tensão e atmosfera geral. Uma lanterna e a impossibilidade de carregar mais do que alguns potes de óleo e a capacidade de carregar apenas 10 palitos de fosforo.
Durante a minha jogatina eu consegui gerenciar bem os itens e em momento nenhum eu fiquei sem combustível ou fosforo, mas fique atento ao medo de Tasi e as várias salas extremamente escuras, pois você pode ficar sem. Meu conselho para um fosforo bem usado é: acender 3 tochas para um fosforo usado. Vão ter momentos onde você não vai conseguir realizar essa matemática, mas está tudo bem, o importante é tentar fazer ao máximo para gerenciar bem os seus recursos.
Sobre os puzzles, eles estão em basicamente todas as sessões do game ou quase que a cada sala, variando entre grandes e pequenos puzzles. No geral, eles são bem fáceis de resolver e os documentos vão ajudar bastante e resolvê-los, isso quando eles não forem totalmente intuitivos.
Apesar de escuro, belos cenários e apesar do terror, ótimo som: Não pense que apesar de ser bem escuro o jogo não seja bonito, pois ele é... e muito. Sem dúvida alguma a parte do deserto foi a que mais me chamou a atenção em termos de beleza e detalhes, pois o jogo é escuro por si só, mas o deserto se passa de dia então traz um contraste bem interessante. Agora, a parte do outro mundo, já é escura por natureza e com o jogo dark, pode ser difícil de notar algumas coisas, mas no geral é muito belo também.
Sobre a parte sonora, aqui o destaque vai para todos os sons de atmosfera que dão o tom mesmo. Quase não há música e isso é ótimo para a proposta do jogo, então você vai conseguir perceber a nuances de objetos que você ou seu inimigo esbarra, as pegadas, o som da respiração que é importante quando você está se escondendo e por aí vai. No fim, apesar da música não se fazer tão presente, quando ela aparece, é bem encaixada com os momentos, principalmente nas fugas.
Agora, bom mesmo da parte de áudio é o excelente trabalho dos atores na atuação, com destaque para a atriz que faz a Tasi. Durante todo o jogo, mas principalmente no final, quando um acontecimento em específico parece mudar totalmente a vida e trajetória dela no game, foi muito bom.
Conclusão: O jogo não decepciona, porém não encanta. Para mim, ele se manteve no meio termo como um jogo legal e uma ótima experiência de terror para se jogar. Há quem diga que a história no final possa parecer clichê, mas eu achei que a construção dela foi interessante. Para mim, o que pegou foi a forma como o pace da metade para o final ficou e o game foi conduzido com o inimigo stalker sendo bem chatinho e tomando grande parte dos confrontos.
Being a boring as fuck cis woman simulator
its not a bad game by any means - the fact that darkness feels like even more of an obstacle than the first is pretty cool and the monster encounters feel genuinely dangerous.
however, this just doesn't feel like it was made by the same team behind SOMA and Amnesia: TDD. this game has the last tangible atmosphere out of either of those - and though i'd consider it to be scarier than SOMA - the story kinda falls very flat in comparison. SOMA has, in my opinion, one of the most well written stories to ever be in a video game. this game's story is definitely not bad, i'd even say it's quite good, but it just doesn't feel nearly up to par with frictional's more recent output.
on the gameplay side of things, the game feels way too linear minus some small more open ended parts (the highlight being that first fort area in the desert). i also felt there was a huge overuse of the indoor alien temple settings, which all look nearly identical to each other. it looks cool and is surprising the first time but i much prefer the desert setting, which i felt went underutilized. if you couldn't tell, i just finished the game so my thoughts are kind of scattered, but being a huge fan of frictional games and following every little thing they do - i was kinda disappointed by this game. i'm still gonna play every game they make as soon as i can though.
however, this just doesn't feel like it was made by the same team behind SOMA and Amnesia: TDD. this game has the last tangible atmosphere out of either of those - and though i'd consider it to be scarier than SOMA - the story kinda falls very flat in comparison. SOMA has, in my opinion, one of the most well written stories to ever be in a video game. this game's story is definitely not bad, i'd even say it's quite good, but it just doesn't feel nearly up to par with frictional's more recent output.
on the gameplay side of things, the game feels way too linear minus some small more open ended parts (the highlight being that first fort area in the desert). i also felt there was a huge overuse of the indoor alien temple settings, which all look nearly identical to each other. it looks cool and is surprising the first time but i much prefer the desert setting, which i felt went underutilized. if you couldn't tell, i just finished the game so my thoughts are kind of scattered, but being a huge fan of frictional games and following every little thing they do - i was kinda disappointed by this game. i'm still gonna play every game they make as soon as i can though.
Playtime: 7 Hours
Score: 4/10
I really didn't enjoy this at all. I've become a big fan of Frictional Games as they have become my exception when it comes to playing horror titles with no combat. I have never been a fan of run, hide or die horror games but Frictional have always intrigued me with the atmosphere's of their games and their storytelling.
To start with the good, this game brings back the inventory and resource management that was absent in both A Machine for Pigs by The Chinese Room but also in Soma by Frictional. I love the return of these mechanics and it keeps the game from just being a walking simulator with spooky monsters. The resource management I felt was a bit more tougher then The Dark Descent, as matches and lanterns seem to run out a lot quicker, which I think is good and bad. It can definitely get annoying when your light source runs out so quickly and there were sections where I ran out, and I had to walk around in endless darkness.
And in terms of accessibility the game does add in an adventure mode similar to Soma's safe mode, so you can play the game without worrying about death if you want to. I like this mode and its cool that its there for players who want it.
However I honestly struggled to get through this game and I eventually just decided to abandon it. The story was just really boring and I didn't really find the main character that interesting. The areas were mostly unappealing to me aside for a few. And compared to Dark Descents Brennenburg Castle, or Pathos-II in Soma, it just really felt dull. I still love Frictional games but to me this is my least favorite game from them.
Score: 4/10
I really didn't enjoy this at all. I've become a big fan of Frictional Games as they have become my exception when it comes to playing horror titles with no combat. I have never been a fan of run, hide or die horror games but Frictional have always intrigued me with the atmosphere's of their games and their storytelling.
To start with the good, this game brings back the inventory and resource management that was absent in both A Machine for Pigs by The Chinese Room but also in Soma by Frictional. I love the return of these mechanics and it keeps the game from just being a walking simulator with spooky monsters. The resource management I felt was a bit more tougher then The Dark Descent, as matches and lanterns seem to run out a lot quicker, which I think is good and bad. It can definitely get annoying when your light source runs out so quickly and there were sections where I ran out, and I had to walk around in endless darkness.
And in terms of accessibility the game does add in an adventure mode similar to Soma's safe mode, so you can play the game without worrying about death if you want to. I like this mode and its cool that its there for players who want it.
However I honestly struggled to get through this game and I eventually just decided to abandon it. The story was just really boring and I didn't really find the main character that interesting. The areas were mostly unappealing to me aside for a few. And compared to Dark Descents Brennenburg Castle, or Pathos-II in Soma, it just really felt dull. I still love Frictional games but to me this is my least favorite game from them.
Still quite fun and sometimes really creepy, but I believe they went a little overboard with all the physical and mental pain the protagonist has to go through... Also, I preferred the gothic/steampunk setting of the previous two installments.
Shook at how many stupid ass notes n disruptive cutscenes u gotta read and watch. They were so excited to cook up that boring ass story that they forgot to make it an actual game. Fuck. I'm not against reading n notes n cutscenes in stuff but video game narratives can be so strong bc of how you personally interact with them thru the gameplay. Get OVER urself
I think it's quite funny that being an Amnesia game is what ends up dragging this game down. Some cool story concepts that present themselves so damn slowly that the game ends up feeling an absolute slog. Puzzles, darkness, stealth sequences, chases, everything that belonged to the series core feels like an annoying ass obstacle, either because they're that badly done (it's attempts at scaring you feel like a joke) or because the plot takes sooo long to develop that you end up tired of repetition. Game takes every chance it has to take you to a giant ass puzzle room because, idk, it's Amnesia I guess. The lamp is basically a legacy object because it has almost no use, it drains so quickly and oil is so scarce. Matches aren't that good but they can light torches and stuff and that makes them miles better. There's no mystery or anxiety about the monsters, there's just a few of them actively chasing you and they're easy af to avoid. It never really gets to be atmospheric because Tasi can't shut up about the little one. Nothing about Dark Descent works here because the game is way too centered in the protagonist and her journey, even the flashback format of telling you stuff doesn't work here because there's so much to tell you that you get one every 5 seconds.
God I got so bored playing this.
God I got so bored playing this.
At best the atmosphere is as great as ever, but it was let down by the writing. Overly talkative protagonist, hard to follow plot and a big cast of faceless characters just did not work. Needlessly linear as well.
Do I recommend it...? Yyyyeahhhh I GUESS. It's polished, and plays pretty nicely. It's very SAFE and comfortable. But it's scares aren't really there, the game constantly pulls you away from gameplay with flashback cutaways, the enemies are kind of whatever, and overall I just don't think there's anything standout about it. I still think about SOMA, but I can barely remember this one now.
The game finishes a lot stronger than it begins, which is just what you’d hope but not at the cost of making the beginning super unengaging and rote like I thought it was. Honestly, for the first half of this game I was very bored and frustrated. But by the time you get to the Catacombs, a later area set in a Roman style excavation site, the game really stops withholding the fun. I just finished TDD last week so I knew going in that Frictional’s horror philosophy is to make you think you’re in greater danger than you actually are, so going into the encounters with enemies and chase sequences I was struggling to let myself feel actually harassed by the horrors.
But despite that cynicism which is so undermining to horror, basically every single encounter managed to make me feel like I just barely survived.
I think a big part of that is with so many of them, and the parts in the catacombs especially, the level design shifts from being completely linear to offering you a shocking and disorienting amount of choice for navigating these parts. The difference is extremely slight, but having just one more option than normal to make a wrong turn and end up in a small room with nowhere to go, or being deprived of a clear and obviously delineated path through is really freaky when the game is otherwise so clear about how you’re supposed to move through the space. It’s like the game suddenly dials back the handholding at just the right parts, and it was really effective for inspiring doubt about probably the one thing the game has basically trained you to never really question. Suddenly it seems very possible to completely miss the correct way to safety, you actually have to seek it out and it just the worst moment too. So despite never dying until like pretty much the last stealth section I had several moments where I thought “oh shit, this is the end.”
That’s not the same as being dumped into a maze with patrolling monsters like the Choir part in TDD, which I love, but it’s honestly maybe even better. I changed my mind from thinking that Frictional just seemed to forget how to make a scary game after TDD (SOMA was not very scary imo) to that, actually, they seem way more confident and refined in their tricky designs. They play the long game of queuing your expectations and building your confidence up to effectively disorient you later on. Unlike many horror experiences, I thought that contending with the confusion of navigating these levels was essential and, miraculously, never actually frustrating. I made it out alive of some locations, but I probably couldn’t tell you what that level actually looked like to help you navigate yourself.
It was luck! Sheer survival!!
But despite that cynicism which is so undermining to horror, basically every single encounter managed to make me feel like I just barely survived.
I think a big part of that is with so many of them, and the parts in the catacombs especially, the level design shifts from being completely linear to offering you a shocking and disorienting amount of choice for navigating these parts. The difference is extremely slight, but having just one more option than normal to make a wrong turn and end up in a small room with nowhere to go, or being deprived of a clear and obviously delineated path through is really freaky when the game is otherwise so clear about how you’re supposed to move through the space. It’s like the game suddenly dials back the handholding at just the right parts, and it was really effective for inspiring doubt about probably the one thing the game has basically trained you to never really question. Suddenly it seems very possible to completely miss the correct way to safety, you actually have to seek it out and it just the worst moment too. So despite never dying until like pretty much the last stealth section I had several moments where I thought “oh shit, this is the end.”
That’s not the same as being dumped into a maze with patrolling monsters like the Choir part in TDD, which I love, but it’s honestly maybe even better. I changed my mind from thinking that Frictional just seemed to forget how to make a scary game after TDD (SOMA was not very scary imo) to that, actually, they seem way more confident and refined in their tricky designs. They play the long game of queuing your expectations and building your confidence up to effectively disorient you later on. Unlike many horror experiences, I thought that contending with the confusion of navigating these levels was essential and, miraculously, never actually frustrating. I made it out alive of some locations, but I probably couldn’t tell you what that level actually looked like to help you navigate yourself.
It was luck! Sheer survival!!
It's not nearly as terrible as A Machine for Pigs, but it is a far cry from the masterpiece that is Soma. After 7 hours I couldn't stomach playing for what I assumed is another few hours.
It seems like they doubled down on my least favorite parts of Soma, which is sadly the actual "gameplay": the monsters. I don't think I was able to hide successfully from a single monster, they always seemed to find me. I literally could not tell if my game was bugged or that's just how the game works, but I groaned every time I ran into a monster. which was often. Not only was their AI complete bullshit, but apparently they just disappear once they get you; you cannot die from getting captured. The biggest punishment in the game is having to sit through the, uh, "revive" animation where Tasi looks at herself for 20 seconds.
I was genuinely intrigued by the story, it all worked for me. The theme of motherhood, the quickly growing fetus, the increasingly dark and distressing flashbacks, stumbling upon an alien world, the mystery of what I seemingly did to my crew days ago, it's all great stuff.
But it's simply not fun to play. My tipping point was a portal puzzle that was poorly explained and obtusely completed, which was followed by what seemed like an hour of being chased by scraggly monster men. Once that part of the game amounted to nothing, I threw my hands up and uninstalled.
Frictional games have made two great masterpieces: Amnesia the Dark Descent and Soma. The first is genuinely fun to play and solve puzzles in, the second has one of the best stories ever told in video games. But so far these are the only 2 home runs from this studio. I hope they learn more lessons in their next game. Maybe I'll find out on a sale.
It seems like they doubled down on my least favorite parts of Soma, which is sadly the actual "gameplay": the monsters. I don't think I was able to hide successfully from a single monster, they always seemed to find me. I literally could not tell if my game was bugged or that's just how the game works, but I groaned every time I ran into a monster. which was often. Not only was their AI complete bullshit, but apparently they just disappear once they get you; you cannot die from getting captured. The biggest punishment in the game is having to sit through the, uh, "revive" animation where Tasi looks at herself for 20 seconds.
I was genuinely intrigued by the story, it all worked for me. The theme of motherhood, the quickly growing fetus, the increasingly dark and distressing flashbacks, stumbling upon an alien world, the mystery of what I seemingly did to my crew days ago, it's all great stuff.
But it's simply not fun to play. My tipping point was a portal puzzle that was poorly explained and obtusely completed, which was followed by what seemed like an hour of being chased by scraggly monster men. Once that part of the game amounted to nothing, I threw my hands up and uninstalled.
Frictional games have made two great masterpieces: Amnesia the Dark Descent and Soma. The first is genuinely fun to play and solve puzzles in, the second has one of the best stories ever told in video games. But so far these are the only 2 home runs from this studio. I hope they learn more lessons in their next game. Maybe I'll find out on a sale.
5/10
Great graphics, pretty good story. Too many notes and crew members to keep up with. Monster encounters didn't require much thinking and what happens when you're caught is just bad design. Gave too much information away about the other world IMO - this is not a Lovecraft-esque game as there is no mystery left. I wish the ending gave the player a meaningful dilemma. All in all, pretty good but not great.
Great graphics, pretty good story. Too many notes and crew members to keep up with. Monster encounters didn't require much thinking and what happens when you're caught is just bad design. Gave too much information away about the other world IMO - this is not a Lovecraft-esque game as there is no mystery left. I wish the ending gave the player a meaningful dilemma. All in all, pretty good but not great.
I just don't think I'm the target market for Amnesia games to be honest. I just don't vibe with the design or gameplay of these games, and they always feel like they drag on way too long for me to actually enjoy. I never managed to finish the original Dark Descent because of this, even though I've tried to complete it at least 3 times. I only just managed to scrape through SOMA by virtue of its great story, and the fact that you can just turn enemies off if you want to - which I did at some point while playing that game to try and get through it quicker. This game is very much like the Dark Descent, but with more set pieces and better graphics, and even though the story was interesting, I just couldn't bring myself to slog through it. I'm sure it's great, but I'm not gonna be the one to see it through. I think I'm done with Frictional Games.
it's called amnesia because everyone forgot this game came out
i made a whole-hearted attempt to revisit this for halloween '21. my first pass of this game was noteworthy for how quickly my opinion of it dropped; i cannot say that a second play through changed that. if anything, it solidified what a disappointment i found amnesia: rebirth to be.
it's worth noting that, i think, the biggest problems with rebirth are it's genre (cosmic horror) and the lack of, to be frank, scares. i have some personal gripes with it, but at it's heart, rebirth is a true gothic horror story. there's only one monster that poses any kind of threat to you through out the game: the ghost of grief. it's a somber walk through tasi's memories, unraveling her trauma and loss. after a while, it felt exploitative at best. i get it, something very sad happened to her and salim. this, combined with how the game shows it's cards early and disappoints on delivering it's scares, served me a slice of frustration pie very quickly. there's a few segments that feel like the dark descent, but twice as many that feel like imitators released on steam for $1.99.
it's a polished game with a lot of love in it. i admit that much. i appreciate the bold choices in it, too. i think the setting was a lovely, unique place to take survival horror. the pregnancy related mechanic was an interesting way to update the sanity meter. i just don't think this had any business being a mainline amnesia title. i have to wonder how it would have looked as a standalone title, allowed to breathe in it's own space.
it's worth noting that, i think, the biggest problems with rebirth are it's genre (cosmic horror) and the lack of, to be frank, scares. i have some personal gripes with it, but at it's heart, rebirth is a true gothic horror story. there's only one monster that poses any kind of threat to you through out the game: the ghost of grief. it's a somber walk through tasi's memories, unraveling her trauma and loss. after a while, it felt exploitative at best. i get it, something very sad happened to her and salim. this, combined with how the game shows it's cards early and disappoints on delivering it's scares, served me a slice of frustration pie very quickly. there's a few segments that feel like the dark descent, but twice as many that feel like imitators released on steam for $1.99.
it's a polished game with a lot of love in it. i admit that much. i appreciate the bold choices in it, too. i think the setting was a lovely, unique place to take survival horror. the pregnancy related mechanic was an interesting way to update the sanity meter. i just don't think this had any business being a mainline amnesia title. i have to wonder how it would have looked as a standalone title, allowed to breathe in it's own space.
Opening with a pregnant female hero, Tasi, whose plane crashes into a scorching desert, it's clear that Amnesia: Rebirth is a step away from its Gothic predecessors. It is still a more faithful sequel than A Machine For Pigs in terms of its return to anxiety-inducing nyctaphobia in tight spaces, now with the aid of the world's shittiest matches. Much like the original Dark Descent, Rebirth is most terrifying when you're stuck in these shadows with ancient monsters, but eventually tips slightly overboard into Lovecraftian cosmic horror towards the third act, which even evokes the art of HR Giger - not a bad thing really.
I actually found Rebirth's greatest strength to be the empathy felt with Tasi, who couldn't be any more vulnerable in her nightmare situation. I felt an equal amount of desperation in getting this poor unborn baby to safety, and was incredibly tense with every unfortunate plunge into deeper horrors - some of those chase sequences left me gasping. There's also some fun puzzle gameplay, involving assembling a cannon and making ammo for a tank; all of this absolutely necessary in punctuating those more terrifying moments typical of an Amnesia game.
The only thing that bummed me out was 'dying' only to regain consciousness back at a checkpoint with an easier or even totally absent foe, taking away the reward of beating something on a repeated attempt. This is especially frustrating when all you did was go 'the wrong way' in a desperate chase.
In these moments however, at least it felt like the stakes were high, unlike much of Machine For Pigs, which plays like a spooky walking simulator.
Whilst the Dark Descent undoubtedly has it's legacy and influence backing it, I can't help but find Rebirth's balance of horror, adventure, puzzles and character driven narrative greater refined and all the more satisfying as a package. It's really all can ask for from a survival horror sequel.
I actually found Rebirth's greatest strength to be the empathy felt with Tasi, who couldn't be any more vulnerable in her nightmare situation. I felt an equal amount of desperation in getting this poor unborn baby to safety, and was incredibly tense with every unfortunate plunge into deeper horrors - some of those chase sequences left me gasping. There's also some fun puzzle gameplay, involving assembling a cannon and making ammo for a tank; all of this absolutely necessary in punctuating those more terrifying moments typical of an Amnesia game.
The only thing that bummed me out was 'dying' only to regain consciousness back at a checkpoint with an easier or even totally absent foe, taking away the reward of beating something on a repeated attempt. This is especially frustrating when all you did was go 'the wrong way' in a desperate chase.
In these moments however, at least it felt like the stakes were high, unlike much of Machine For Pigs, which plays like a spooky walking simulator.
Whilst the Dark Descent undoubtedly has it's legacy and influence backing it, I can't help but find Rebirth's balance of horror, adventure, puzzles and character driven narrative greater refined and all the more satisfying as a package. It's really all can ask for from a survival horror sequel.
It’s difficult to think of a game I’ve played in recent memory that comes closer to being something I really love while also simultaneously being a deeply flawed mess. There are elements here that rank among the creepiest in the Amnesia series, but after a strong opening third or so, I just couldn’t really find my bearings.
First, the good. The opening 3-4 hours of this game are quite tense and frightening, in a way that reminded me of The Dark Descent. As in that game, the combination of expertly tuned sound design and disturbing imagery (that shows just enough to create dread while also maintaining a sense of mystery) is very effective early on. For me, this climaxes in a terrifying collection of sequences set in an abandoned French fort. This section of the game, from the beginning through the fort, functions as quality horror on both a conceptual and a visceral level.
Another improvement from earlier games in the series is that there is a significantly deeper level of character development, both for the protagonist (whose impending motherhood serves as a method of generating emotional investment in the story while also acting as source of deep-seeded apprehension) and for her fairly well-sketched cadre of former companions, who are mostly presented in flashbacks. Whereas Daniel from The Dark Descent was largely silent outside of reciting journal entries, the protagonist in this game is quite chatty - and while this talkiness isn’t always welcome, the voice actress does strong enough work that I largely bought the character and their motivation.
Sadly, it was the narrative around the protagonist that just straight-up didn’t work for me. There are a few reasons for this. For one, the pacing in this game is just awful. After I completed the section in the French fort, I figured that I was moving toward a climax of some kind…but instead, the game just goes on and on, with very little interesting plot development to justify some of the rather boring levels. Seriously, you will have to traverse every kind of subterranean environment you can think of - tombs, catacombs, mines, and so on - and they all feel just as bland as one might expect. This isn’t a particularly long game (maybe 9-10 hours), but I ended up feeling that at least 30% percent of it should have been cut.
The pacing issues are intimately connected to problems with the narrative, which is very unfocused. The main thrust with the protagonist recovering memories of a deeply upsetting moral quandary is fine, but it is weighed down by a bunch of unnecessary subplots that go nowhere. Which is unfortunate, because some subtlety might have made these dead-end subplots function as interesting Easter eggs. Instead, everything’s forced down the player’s throat. Even an inattentive player would likely be able to use environmental details to infer a connection between the alien dimension of this game and the plot events of The Dark Descent, but instead of leaving it at that, the game insists that you hunt down notes that clumsily and unnecessarily underline this same point. Throughout the game, elements of the story that should have been left ambiguous are rendered painstakingly obvious. Given that the Amnesia games rely at least partially on an element of mystery and fear of the unknown to draw the player in, the heavy-handed storytelling method on display is a major problem.
I also had a mechanical objection, which is that they ruined the brilliant sanity mechanic from The Dark Descent. In that game, losing your sanity messed with the interface in a way that triggered panic and anxiety in the player. But it never halted the play or took away control. In Rebirth, sanity is replaced with fear. My problem is that when your character is overcome by fear, it effectively shifts the game into a quasi-cutscene - the screen slowly begins to black out and a short jump scare sizzle reel plays as you try to button mash your way out of it. I hate how this takes control away from the player and seems to basically freeze whatever is going on in the game world at that moment. There is a plot element that explains why fear works like it does, but it just didn’t justify the mechanical downgrade from the sublime sanity mechanic for me.
As a huge fan of the work of Frictional Games, I went into this expecting greatness. I ended up disappointed, but also happy that I played this. There is a great game rattling around in here somewhere - it’s just buried under some clunky storytelling and a bunch of unnecessary chaff.
First, the good. The opening 3-4 hours of this game are quite tense and frightening, in a way that reminded me of The Dark Descent. As in that game, the combination of expertly tuned sound design and disturbing imagery (that shows just enough to create dread while also maintaining a sense of mystery) is very effective early on. For me, this climaxes in a terrifying collection of sequences set in an abandoned French fort. This section of the game, from the beginning through the fort, functions as quality horror on both a conceptual and a visceral level.
Another improvement from earlier games in the series is that there is a significantly deeper level of character development, both for the protagonist (whose impending motherhood serves as a method of generating emotional investment in the story while also acting as source of deep-seeded apprehension) and for her fairly well-sketched cadre of former companions, who are mostly presented in flashbacks. Whereas Daniel from The Dark Descent was largely silent outside of reciting journal entries, the protagonist in this game is quite chatty - and while this talkiness isn’t always welcome, the voice actress does strong enough work that I largely bought the character and their motivation.
Sadly, it was the narrative around the protagonist that just straight-up didn’t work for me. There are a few reasons for this. For one, the pacing in this game is just awful. After I completed the section in the French fort, I figured that I was moving toward a climax of some kind…but instead, the game just goes on and on, with very little interesting plot development to justify some of the rather boring levels. Seriously, you will have to traverse every kind of subterranean environment you can think of - tombs, catacombs, mines, and so on - and they all feel just as bland as one might expect. This isn’t a particularly long game (maybe 9-10 hours), but I ended up feeling that at least 30% percent of it should have been cut.
The pacing issues are intimately connected to problems with the narrative, which is very unfocused. The main thrust with the protagonist recovering memories of a deeply upsetting moral quandary is fine, but it is weighed down by a bunch of unnecessary subplots that go nowhere. Which is unfortunate, because some subtlety might have made these dead-end subplots function as interesting Easter eggs. Instead, everything’s forced down the player’s throat. Even an inattentive player would likely be able to use environmental details to infer a connection between the alien dimension of this game and the plot events of The Dark Descent, but instead of leaving it at that, the game insists that you hunt down notes that clumsily and unnecessarily underline this same point. Throughout the game, elements of the story that should have been left ambiguous are rendered painstakingly obvious. Given that the Amnesia games rely at least partially on an element of mystery and fear of the unknown to draw the player in, the heavy-handed storytelling method on display is a major problem.
I also had a mechanical objection, which is that they ruined the brilliant sanity mechanic from The Dark Descent. In that game, losing your sanity messed with the interface in a way that triggered panic and anxiety in the player. But it never halted the play or took away control. In Rebirth, sanity is replaced with fear. My problem is that when your character is overcome by fear, it effectively shifts the game into a quasi-cutscene - the screen slowly begins to black out and a short jump scare sizzle reel plays as you try to button mash your way out of it. I hate how this takes control away from the player and seems to basically freeze whatever is going on in the game world at that moment. There is a plot element that explains why fear works like it does, but it just didn’t justify the mechanical downgrade from the sublime sanity mechanic for me.
As a huge fan of the work of Frictional Games, I went into this expecting greatness. I ended up disappointed, but also happy that I played this. There is a great game rattling around in here somewhere - it’s just buried under some clunky storytelling and a bunch of unnecessary chaff.
Uma história chata pra desgraça que desmistifica toda a história do Dark Descent porque "Haha olha que inteligente a gente explicando tudo". A gameplay é o Dark Descent só que sem a parte de estar num jogo bom. Ruim que só a porra
Colonialism and its cyclical bloodshed, dying civilizations and crumbling empires, eternal darkness and the suffering that exists within it, primitive regression, fertility and motherhood. Amnesia: Rebirth runs the symbolic and thematic gamut of fragmented ideas that tie in to the over arching theme of insanity in its different connotations; moral and ethical, mystic and cosmic, inner and outer and the intertwining of all these.
Had a mental flash of this game before going to bed and now here in the dark I can’t stop thinking about it. It’s something that’s only going to continue growing in my mind and I believe public stature over time. Let down by the expectations of those either looking for another Soma or another Amnesia, this forgoes both the existential dread of the former and the stream-ready scares of the latter in lieu of something slower and more intimate in scale. It is unfortunately shortsighted at times in regards to its match mechanic which felt like a cheap way to drum up tension in an already effectively claustrophobic and fear inducing setting but it nonetheless contributes to the game’s endlessly frantic pacing. It is exhausting to play this but seeing as we are playing a pregnant woman (Tasi, stunningly performed by Alix Wilton Regan) it may be entirely the point for it all to feel so laborious. And how invigorating to see something so indebted to its main character and her feelings and reactions to the world around her. The internal monologue is at once anxiously realistic as it is frequently silly. What I love about this game is how it sets itself up so slowly and yet plunges the player head first into a plethora of heady concepts and outlandish imagery. While it may not all seem cohesive at first, it is in the patient unveiling of subdued details that Frictional Games’ mastery at world building shines through. This is probably their most confident effort yet even if some age old problems slip through the cracks (janky controls and some dated graphics). It didn’t quite hit me as hard as Soma initially did but the finale where the answers are eventually found and the haunting final shot (“Iconoclast” ending) has propelled this into special territory for me. Despite my doubts that gameplay and story elements of the game would fully come together or function to the best ability, I was won over by how streamlined and varied the overall experience was. Not particularly scary, but had my heart leaping out of my chest through pure intensity. Many times I thought I was doomed, only for that sliver of hope to appear. It is easy to feel maddened by this loop but it truly is Tasi that keeps it all grounded in bittersweet optimism.
Had a mental flash of this game before going to bed and now here in the dark I can’t stop thinking about it. It’s something that’s only going to continue growing in my mind and I believe public stature over time. Let down by the expectations of those either looking for another Soma or another Amnesia, this forgoes both the existential dread of the former and the stream-ready scares of the latter in lieu of something slower and more intimate in scale. It is unfortunately shortsighted at times in regards to its match mechanic which felt like a cheap way to drum up tension in an already effectively claustrophobic and fear inducing setting but it nonetheless contributes to the game’s endlessly frantic pacing. It is exhausting to play this but seeing as we are playing a pregnant woman (Tasi, stunningly performed by Alix Wilton Regan) it may be entirely the point for it all to feel so laborious. And how invigorating to see something so indebted to its main character and her feelings and reactions to the world around her. The internal monologue is at once anxiously realistic as it is frequently silly. What I love about this game is how it sets itself up so slowly and yet plunges the player head first into a plethora of heady concepts and outlandish imagery. While it may not all seem cohesive at first, it is in the patient unveiling of subdued details that Frictional Games’ mastery at world building shines through. This is probably their most confident effort yet even if some age old problems slip through the cracks (janky controls and some dated graphics). It didn’t quite hit me as hard as Soma initially did but the finale where the answers are eventually found and the haunting final shot (“Iconoclast” ending) has propelled this into special territory for me. Despite my doubts that gameplay and story elements of the game would fully come together or function to the best ability, I was won over by how streamlined and varied the overall experience was. Not particularly scary, but had my heart leaping out of my chest through pure intensity. Many times I thought I was doomed, only for that sliver of hope to appear. It is easy to feel maddened by this loop but it truly is Tasi that keeps it all grounded in bittersweet optimism.
You wouldn't scare a pregnant lady, would you?
Frictional does it again because they're really good at what they do. A shockingly horrifying game with great visuals and even better sound design. I like the gameplay improvements from Dark Descent, matches instead of tinder boxes and more variety in oil quantities, the monsters are much smarter than the servants from DD. There is something about the ghuls that I find horrifying and I can't put my finger on it. I would've liked if this game spent more time in desert as the 2nd half of the game is mostly in Otherworld locations, the map design felt lacking in those parts. Good story too with excellent performances, I really felt for Tasi and her journey.
Frictional does it again because they're really good at what they do. A shockingly horrifying game with great visuals and even better sound design. I like the gameplay improvements from Dark Descent, matches instead of tinder boxes and more variety in oil quantities, the monsters are much smarter than the servants from DD. There is something about the ghuls that I find horrifying and I can't put my finger on it. I would've liked if this game spent more time in desert as the 2nd half of the game is mostly in Otherworld locations, the map design felt lacking in those parts. Good story too with excellent performances, I really felt for Tasi and her journey.
Atmospherically and scenically really good horror game but the story doesn't make any sense at all and it's once again the clichéd, unlucky protagonist.
After the armory you can probably drop the game because it's the highpoint of the game, there's kinda only 1 type of monster stalking you most of the game, the story is really not that good or interesting as the first game, the characters you hear about in cutscenes are not interesting, the idea of the game having flashback each 3 minutes was fuckin terrible and yo why the fuck the protagonist doesn't ever shut up, it ruins the immersion with her bad dialogue during the entire game.
Someday Frictional will make the connection that their narrative and horror successes exist exactly where they don't overlap with the adjective 'Lovecraftian'. In this one, particular, it is gut-wrenching to see a unique and terrifying horror setpiece - the desert fort - thrown away for a bunch of space temple triangle puzzles in the name of... uh... aliens, cosmic horror, or something.
The atmospheric power present in The Dark Descent is here, but while there's nothing about the narrative that's inherently a failure, it's a burden. You can just make a game and focus on it being scary.
Striking the little match feels great though.
The atmospheric power present in The Dark Descent is here, but while there's nothing about the narrative that's inherently a failure, it's a burden. You can just make a game and focus on it being scary.
Striking the little match feels great though.
Amnesia: Rebirth does some cool things, but also irks me other ways. It has some dope ass visuals, it can be tenser than previous Amnesia entries, and the lore is kind of cool; but i think it runs a little long (making it a little more frustrating), and the sanity system is disappointing.
Yeah for one, this game puts stunning visuals in front of you. The vast desert (also with sundown), run down adobe fort, an entire ancient alien empire that is somewhat still running but very much decayed, and a gigantic tower with tubes running into it with the face of a once powerful queen on the top. Thats not even the extent of the cool shit you see, they just went ham with visual ideas in this game.
Once I started noticing they were trying to explain lore that was present in Dark Descent, but not really too elaborated on I was kind of suspicious about it. I was expecting the worse of a series coming back years later and explaining stuff that did NOT need to be explained at all. The Dark Descent introduces these ideas of orbs, the Shadow, vitae, torture, and an other world. When I first started seeing the word "vitae" and started seeing other world stuff I was thinking that this was just here so it could tie itself to the first game, just shiny words to make you remember. Rebirth, however, did explore these with much more depth. The Shadow is very much a cosmic horror thing that should not really be explained too much, and thankfully they don't, the only real lore they add to it is has destroyed an entire civilization (makes sense). The vitae and the other world were expanded in such a cool way that it makes Dark Descent a little cooler.
I do feel quite slighted by the promise of more involved sanity system however. Maybe it is me setting higher expectations, but before the game released they said that sanity would be more involved and have long running consequences (it says that early in the game.) I think the only long running consequence is your model will look slightly more ghoulish with each "fail state," and that is such a disappointment to me. It doesn't affect endings, it doesn't affect gameplay, again, maybe i was expecting too much, but I imagining something cooler. I mean, in Dark Descent, having low sanity makes you hear things, hallucinate enemies, and even changes some enviromental stuff. Rebirth does tie sanity to you narratively through your illness, and makes enemies detect you more (Dark Descent also does this), but thats it.
So yeah, its a good game with some weird things to me and super fucking dope ancient alien shit
Yeah for one, this game puts stunning visuals in front of you. The vast desert (also with sundown), run down adobe fort, an entire ancient alien empire that is somewhat still running but very much decayed, and a gigantic tower with tubes running into it with the face of a once powerful queen on the top. Thats not even the extent of the cool shit you see, they just went ham with visual ideas in this game.
Once I started noticing they were trying to explain lore that was present in Dark Descent, but not really too elaborated on I was kind of suspicious about it. I was expecting the worse of a series coming back years later and explaining stuff that did NOT need to be explained at all. The Dark Descent introduces these ideas of orbs, the Shadow, vitae, torture, and an other world. When I first started seeing the word "vitae" and started seeing other world stuff I was thinking that this was just here so it could tie itself to the first game, just shiny words to make you remember. Rebirth, however, did explore these with much more depth. The Shadow is very much a cosmic horror thing that should not really be explained too much, and thankfully they don't, the only real lore they add to it is has destroyed an entire civilization (makes sense). The vitae and the other world were expanded in such a cool way that it makes Dark Descent a little cooler.
I do feel quite slighted by the promise of more involved sanity system however. Maybe it is me setting higher expectations, but before the game released they said that sanity would be more involved and have long running consequences (it says that early in the game.) I think the only long running consequence is your model will look slightly more ghoulish with each "fail state," and that is such a disappointment to me. It doesn't affect endings, it doesn't affect gameplay, again, maybe i was expecting too much, but I imagining something cooler. I mean, in Dark Descent, having low sanity makes you hear things, hallucinate enemies, and even changes some enviromental stuff. Rebirth does tie sanity to you narratively through your illness, and makes enemies detect you more (Dark Descent also does this), but thats it.
So yeah, its a good game with some weird things to me and super fucking dope ancient alien shit
The best game in the series imo. Irrational took the lessons they learned from SOMA and while this doesn't reach that narrative peak, it offers something beyond the excessive lore dumps that cursed their previous main-line game. It suffers from some major bloat and unfortunate game design that lacks consequence but the emotional narrative keeps everything engaging. It's nothing mindblowing but it's far more effective than it gets credit for. Bloober Team should take notes.
Shit was not scary. Only really remember one section where a monster showed up
Full of really fantastic stuff despite its flaws. I was interested to play through this after seeing the mixed reception it had (Frictional even wrote a post-mortem on their site going over how surprised they were by some of the push-back) and, minus a few significant caveats, I ended up mostly loving it.
When it comes to the good stuff, the story here is absolutely the star. It's a bit overstuffed in places - the expedition cast definitely needed trimming - but Frictional managed to find a solid balance between the dual plotlines of what happened to the crew and exploring the world of the Gate-Builders. I was afraid that the game would reveal too much about that second piece and rob the franchise of its opacity, but I think they mostly nailed it in terms of explaining elements of the bigger picture without robbing the setting of too much mystery. I also love the alien world aesthetically - that first image of the crumbled statue holding the orb next to an ever-eclipsed emerald sun is gonna stick with me for a while, I think.
Gameplay-wise, the results are mixed. Tasi's fear mechanic isn't a bad idea per se, but the lack of a death mechanic defuses the tension too often, especially in some of the later levels. The level design also feels like a misguided compromise between TDD and AMFP - I prefer the hub-based vibe of TDD's world, but beyond a handful of excellent sections, it feels like Frictional followed the example of AMFP and went with a more linear design. It does work for a few levels, but the back half of the game definitely could have used a better balance between the two styles.
With that in mind, as a horror game, I'm not sure it totally works. There's plenty of wonderful atmosphere and tension in its best moments, but I actually found a few of the later sequences to be more frustrating than scary. The stealth sequences aren't all bad - I especially liked the Hunting Grounds setpiece - but every time I think about the end-game sections with Ghosts I can feel my jaw clench in remembered rage. The Ghouls work for me just fine, even if they aren't too interesting visually, but the Ghosts have an infuriating teleportation mechanic that borks the player's ability to navigate those sequences safely. If those segments had been redesigned/reconfigured, I wouldn't have as much of an issue, but they ultimately took the experience down a notch or two for me.
Now, on to the greatest point of contention for this game: Tasi Trianon. The general direction of someone's feelings toward Rebirth seem dependent on whether they found her and her plight empathetic. Personally, I think she's fantastic - I teared up a few times learning about the backstory of her family, and seeing how that informed her decisions in the main plot helped to make her one of the best written horror protagonists I've seen in a while. She's clever, driven, and I never felt like her dialogue became so frequent as to be annoying like some other folks have stated. I admit that the "rub your pregnant belly to not be scared" mechanic was goofy, but at the same time, I felt like it did ground me much more fully in her physical experience as the game progressed. Not to be too galaxy-brained, but I get a lot of casual misogyny vibes from the reviews that virulently despise Tasi. Part of it is probably because playing as her requires a willingness to engage with a game that doesn't shy away from what being a pregnant woman in these circumstances would feel like. Other women protagonists in horror games can feel interchangeable with male characters sometimes - i.e. Ripley in Alien: Isolation or Jill Valentine in Resident Evil - and Frictional seems much more committed to fully embracing the interiority and physicality of Tasi's pregnancy in ways that other developers would shy away from. Has there been another game that includes a breastfeeding scene that's as tasteful as the one here? Have any other games had you play as a woman desperate for help after her water breaks? Maybe it's just me, but I wouldn't be surprised if the gaming sphere's inherent sexism is part of what led to this game's reputation being as contentious as it is.
In short: it's not perfect, but this deserves a hell of a lot more credit than it gets in the Amnesia discourse. I'd love to see Frictional take the more hands-on storytelling here and mix it with The Bunker's gameplay evolutions whenever they get back to this series. They've built up the foundations for a truly special experience down the road, and I can't wait to see it.
When it comes to the good stuff, the story here is absolutely the star. It's a bit overstuffed in places - the expedition cast definitely needed trimming - but Frictional managed to find a solid balance between the dual plotlines of what happened to the crew and exploring the world of the Gate-Builders. I was afraid that the game would reveal too much about that second piece and rob the franchise of its opacity, but I think they mostly nailed it in terms of explaining elements of the bigger picture without robbing the setting of too much mystery. I also love the alien world aesthetically - that first image of the crumbled statue holding the orb next to an ever-eclipsed emerald sun is gonna stick with me for a while, I think.
Gameplay-wise, the results are mixed. Tasi's fear mechanic isn't a bad idea per se, but the lack of a death mechanic defuses the tension too often, especially in some of the later levels. The level design also feels like a misguided compromise between TDD and AMFP - I prefer the hub-based vibe of TDD's world, but beyond a handful of excellent sections, it feels like Frictional followed the example of AMFP and went with a more linear design. It does work for a few levels, but the back half of the game definitely could have used a better balance between the two styles.
With that in mind, as a horror game, I'm not sure it totally works. There's plenty of wonderful atmosphere and tension in its best moments, but I actually found a few of the later sequences to be more frustrating than scary. The stealth sequences aren't all bad - I especially liked the Hunting Grounds setpiece - but every time I think about the end-game sections with Ghosts I can feel my jaw clench in remembered rage. The Ghouls work for me just fine, even if they aren't too interesting visually, but the Ghosts have an infuriating teleportation mechanic that borks the player's ability to navigate those sequences safely. If those segments had been redesigned/reconfigured, I wouldn't have as much of an issue, but they ultimately took the experience down a notch or two for me.
Now, on to the greatest point of contention for this game: Tasi Trianon. The general direction of someone's feelings toward Rebirth seem dependent on whether they found her and her plight empathetic. Personally, I think she's fantastic - I teared up a few times learning about the backstory of her family, and seeing how that informed her decisions in the main plot helped to make her one of the best written horror protagonists I've seen in a while. She's clever, driven, and I never felt like her dialogue became so frequent as to be annoying like some other folks have stated. I admit that the "rub your pregnant belly to not be scared" mechanic was goofy, but at the same time, I felt like it did ground me much more fully in her physical experience as the game progressed. Not to be too galaxy-brained, but I get a lot of casual misogyny vibes from the reviews that virulently despise Tasi. Part of it is probably because playing as her requires a willingness to engage with a game that doesn't shy away from what being a pregnant woman in these circumstances would feel like. Other women protagonists in horror games can feel interchangeable with male characters sometimes - i.e. Ripley in Alien: Isolation or Jill Valentine in Resident Evil - and Frictional seems much more committed to fully embracing the interiority and physicality of Tasi's pregnancy in ways that other developers would shy away from. Has there been another game that includes a breastfeeding scene that's as tasteful as the one here? Have any other games had you play as a woman desperate for help after her water breaks? Maybe it's just me, but I wouldn't be surprised if the gaming sphere's inherent sexism is part of what led to this game's reputation being as contentious as it is.
In short: it's not perfect, but this deserves a hell of a lot more credit than it gets in the Amnesia discourse. I'd love to see Frictional take the more hands-on storytelling here and mix it with The Bunker's gameplay evolutions whenever they get back to this series. They've built up the foundations for a truly special experience down the road, and I can't wait to see it.