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.