Super game. The story centers around one of The Dark Descent's most compelling references. And it manages to keep its mystery until the last quarter of the game. The fear factor is quite enough, yes, it's not as dark as Dark Descent, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous. The only problem with the game is that the techniques it uses to tell its wonderful story are no longer sufficient for today. If this game had been released in 2010, no one would object, but I expected more effective presentations from Frictional Games, especially after a masterpiece like SOMA. Good story, mystery and suspense lovers should not miss this special game and patiently read the notes in the game. Unfortunately, it is difficult to reach the taste of the game without reading them.

⏰ In a rush? Don't worry, I gotchu'! ⏰

What Works:
✅ Ambitious Narrative: Amnesia: Rebirth delves into themes of colonialism, mental health, and motherhood, offering a sophisticated and thought-provoking story.
✅ Chilling Environments and Sounds: The game creates a palpable sense of fear through its atmospheric environments and sound design.
✅ Initial Fear Factor: The fear of the unknown lurking in the darkness contributes to a tense and immersive experience.

What Doesn't Work:
❌ Puzzles Lack Intuitiveness: Some puzzles are not intuitive, leading to moments of frustration and confusion.
❌ Unclear Objectives: At times, the objectives of the adventure can be ambiguous, detracting from the overall experience.

👻 Evolving Horror Experience

The terrors and nightmares crafted by Frictional Games in Amnesia: Rebirth deliver a more sophisticated and complete adventure when compared to previous titles. This time, the team's expertise emphasizes narrative and plot; an ambitious story that delves into various themes of colonialism, mental health, and even motherhood.

This, along with chilling environments and sounds, and, at least in the beginning, a great fear of what lies beyond the darkness, made the journey to the end challenging (in a good way). However, I felt that some puzzles were not very intuitive, and at times, the objectives of the adventure were unclear.

Nonetheless, that doesn't stop me from recommending this title to horror genre enthusiasts.

🌟 M I S C 🌟

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◻️ ✍️ Reviewed in European Portuguese, translated with A.I.
◻️ 📜 Review Number 136."

✨ F I N ✨

Review EN/PTBR

Pregnant woman horror
I found the game very beautiful but with a very unbearable and irritating story.

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Terror de mulher grávida
Achei o jogo muito bonito mas com uma história muito insuportável e irritante.

Quite an interesting entry to the Amnesia games. There are so many improvements from the previous games, but at the same times there are definitely some conflicting game design decisions too.

First off, the interactivity with the environment is back from TDD, and it is improved upon. The new inventory and resource management was way more immersive and I liked the concept of using matches or your lantern as a light source.
The setting and environments in the game are top notch as always for the Amnesia series, so no issues there either. And improved graphics are beneficial to the environment as well.

Here's where the game starts to fall a bit short for me.
First, the soundtrack is nowhere near as present as other games, which is such a shame since it adds so much to the horror, which I found to be a bit lacking.
The monsters also stopped being scary quite quickly, which is such a shame considering they have by far the most intimidating designs and move pretty fast too.
The story is way too all over the place until the end of the game. I know that's kind of the point, but none of the notes I found immersed me enough; the only ones that did were those that linked to previous games.

Overall, it was a solid experience but TDD is still the better horror game. Besides, I felt it was a few hours too long.

Not too big of a fan of this Amnesia entry.

TL;DR: not the best story (SOMA) or horror (The Dark Descent), I don't know what they ended up going for here ultimately.

The monsters do instill a sense of horror and anxiety when they are in your area but ultimately they look goofy and even if you die to them u just backtrack a few paces so it's not a big deal.

The lantern and matches lasting no longer than I do in bed are more annoying than scary. I do recall times when I was scared of the atmosphere and the darkness but eventually you get used to the mechanic and just deal with spamming WASD and moving your mouse frantically at 10,000 dpi to avoid being consumed by the fear.

However, the choices at the end were nice. There are 3 of them, 1 of them is absolutely ass, ain't no bitch getting my baby. The 2nd one is kinda just to piss off the ghost lady cuz you ultimately become a problem for everyone else and I'm okay with that. The 3rd one where you completely obliterate the immortal ghost lady and her inflated ego is the best, I mean, u and ur baby fking die but at least it's an honorable death.

The voice acting was decent, can't recall any highlights but it wasn't bad or mediocre.

Paying a homage to The Dark Descent with Herbert, Daniel, Alexander, The Shadow, Algeria, and The Orb was cool. Having the story fleshed out there was nice.

I'm gonna go watch some lore videos cuz I only read 60% of the tablets and entries so I'm missing out something probably.

I'll update this guide if anything cool was there, otherwise 2.5/5, you should probably skip this one.

A good few hours too long with two enemy types that don't land at all really set this up for abject failure on the horror front. But I can't say it was all disappointing because of the third omnipresent "enemy" which anchors this game in both nostalgia and quality to Amnesia The Dark Descent. Everything good about what's here is in part due to the groundwork done in that first Amnesia game - with some obvious assets from Soma and lessons learned in the writing it comes across as a more personal story which tries to attach you to events through your Amnesia to, at times, greater success than any other Amnesia (particularly A Machine for Pigs.) Too much emphasis on your passenger gives the game away on what's going on with the protagonist Tasi. Other aspects like her experience with loss and recalling what happened to her and her companions is very strong and I felt for her along the way in those moments. While at times the more personal story is told in awkward dream sequences, for the most part it did well enough to keep me going - some loading screens are better than hours of onscreen story. So while I wasn't as concerned as Tasi in the present the source of her Amnesia kept me somewhat intrigued till the end about her past.

Technically, I started this game in 2020. Played ~5.5hrs, got a little over half way, and stopped on 08 Nov 2020.

And I see why I stopped! God, I hate this game lmao. My least favorite of the amnesia games I've played. That being said, it isn't bad. There are puzzles I enjoyed and areas I liked exploring. But wow. Darkness in this game is oppressive, and the number of large, pitch black rooms they throw you into with zero direction.... evil. Also the sanity mechanic is annoying more than anything in this game, as well as the insanely limited light sources you are given. I appreciated that it added to the survival horror feelings, but it become cumbersome and annoying.

Also... what was even the point of laudanum? I don't think I ever used one or even picked one up after the start of the game. How did health even work? Why is button mashing what determines if you die or not if you get caught?

Just so many weird choices. I also didn't jive with the themes of this game. I just don't think it worked. At all.

Wish I had just watched a playthrough instead of picking this game back up three years later lol

Если вы в предвкушении ждали следующий проект Frictional Games после легендарной "SOMA", будьте уверены, это всё те-же ребята, однако, которые не смогли в должной степени повторить успех прошлого проекта. Главное, вы обошли ширпотреб под названием "Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs" от Chinese Room, который, кто-то смеет нарекать предвестником "SOMA"..

Начнём с того, что это лучшая Amnesia в которую мне довелось поиграть (без учёта "Amnesia: The Bunker") и ближайший сородич так горячо любимой мной "SOMA".

Сильно подросла детализация. Предметы мира стали завораживающе проработанными. Арт дизайн, местами, очень впечатляет и способен нарисовать ожившую картину. Персонаж на всё очень живо реагирует и даже слишком.

Где-то остаётся скудность из-за размеров игры, что ещё с первой части отпугнуло моего друга, однако, "Amnesia: Rebirth" определённо стоит дать шанс, даже с оговоркой, что в итоге, она не оправдает ожиданий.

Главное разочарование - сюжет и его подача.
Центральная тема с ребёнком раскачивается утомительно долго, большую часть времени ты с исступлением смотришь на сентиментальные скетчи с детьми во время загрузки. Даже когда тебе раскрывается причина, это не оправдывает замешательства с которым ты сталкиваешься столько времени подряд. На тебя упадает целая гора персонажей за которыми ты не успеваешь уследить в многочисленных записках и зарисовках. До того в конце разгоняется сюжет кидая нас в кромешную ментальную тьму, что, частенько задаешься логичным вопросом, а как главная героиня вообще находит время собраться с силами?

Подача основного сюжета осуществляется через довольно жирно выполненные чёрно-белые скетчи не самых больших размеров, это утомляет, но привыкаешь. Слишком много было брошено сил в попытках создать огромную историю, из-за чего пострадало качество.

..и как мы уже привыкли у FRICTIONAL GAMES финалы, зачастую, ударяют игрока в самое сердце, оставляя размышлять о сюжете. Здесь, он тебя так-же разочаровывает, при этом, не оставляя глубокого материала для раздумий.

"Amnesia: Rebirth" проводит нас через множество хитрых и не очень загадок, позволяя изучить в процессе каждую червоточину этого пострадавшего мира. Она способна нагнать на тебя жути и удивить своей красотой. Дайте ей шанс, даже, если у неё это не получится.

I feel very mixed about this. It's about as good as it is bad. The story, once again is a bit all over the place but at least you can get a sense of what's happening. There are a lot of "plot convenience" moments which got old very fast, but the visuals were stunning, the level design was interesting but confusing, and there were a lot of teleporting enemies in the first half of the game.

The second half of the game is where it gets a lot better. More scares, more lore, etc. I really liked the character interactions so it's a shame of how little there were. The monster design is really cool, similar to wendigos from Until Dawn, and the other world creatures were terrifying.

The puzzles really let me down though. Most were uninteresting and really confusing, several times I was stuck not knowing how to progress either because I didn't notice a small detail or I wasn't actually told what to do/where to go. Oh, and they gave you nowhere near enough lamp oil as it runs out so quickly. The matches burn too fast as well, so for a good portion of the game I was stumbling around in the dark, ESPECIALLY the beginning. Nowhere near enough matches. It was really bad.

The ending segment was really cool however, and my last few hours were probably my favourite. There is no real good ending, there's multiple and all are bittersweet. I chose the Iconoclast ending as I felt it was best overall.

If the story was more interesting and better paced, with better puzzles, this could have easily been 4/5 stars. Also I felt that Tasi talked a bit too much for my liking, and there were a lot of moments where I would be stopped or slowed to hear/see a flashback or drawing.

Frictional know how to make a great game what can I say?

Coming into this as a huge Dark Descent and SOMA fan, I was obviously curious what lessons they learned from the latter to apply to the former. The answer is subverting horror tropes about motherhood, but not quite as thought provoking as SOMA. Granted I can not bear children and wonder how someone who could would view this game, but while the gameplay carried me on a cruise to the end, the story hit its peak when you get to The Factory.
Anyway, one day it will get a proper assessment, but I'll need to wait.