When Amnesia: Rebirth was announced, I was really looking forward to it and I was glad that the series was back. So I bought it on the day of release and I played it, after I was done, I personally was not satisfied with the end product. Although this was when I did not touch SOMA, now I have, so did anything change? No, nothing has changed at all and I am even more disappointed in this game than I was before.
Normally I don’t replay games that I don’t like but I never actually went and reviewed this game yet, so I made an exception. I did replay the game for a tad bit but I just couldn’t complete it and I did try but Amnesia: Rebirth does everything that a horror game should not do.
Pros and Cons
Pros
References to the previous game Amnesia: The Dark Descent, were nice
The graphics are really beautiful
Cons
The story is not interesting at all, with nothing interesting being shown
Puzzles aren’t really fun
You are not punished for your mistakes
The game is just flat-out, not scary, and is just outright boring
Story
Set 98 years after the events of The Dark Descent in the year 1937, you play as Tasi Trianon, after waking up from a plane crash, you find that your crew, your husband Salim has disappeared and has been struck with amnesia. Tasi later discovers that she has a Traveler's Amulet with her, which lets her walk between different dimensions. She also later finds out that she is six months pregnant after waking up.
The story for Amnesia: Rebirth is something, my major issue with the story is that it’s uninteresting and boring. On top of that, the developers decided to answer questions or things from the previous game, which is fine but the whole mystery with the orbs and other stuff was what made it interesting. Having those questions answered here takes away something that made me love the first game so much. As a matter of fact, A Machine for Pigs also does this right as well. It leaves the player in the dark about everything.
The characters I also just flat out do not care for, there is no one interesting and none of them really make an impact on the story. Tasi is not an interesting main character, she talks too much in the game and it feels unnecessary. The previous two games did it right and one of those said games has nothing to do with the series as a whole.
Gameplay
The gameplay remains the same but has been downgraded, one of the new mechanics the game has is matches, you can light these up to guide your way through darkness. It’s like a portable lantern that won’t last as long but can light up places like torches. There is a lantern you can get your hands on but it’s not great. I thought I would never say this but I prefer the one from a Machine For Pigs.
There is puzzle-solving, but they aren’t that fun the whole game is boring. This is probably the worst offense this game has, as games should be fun. I honestly really have nothing else to say on the puzzles either as there is not much to them. Yeah, you may have to think for a bit when solving them but that’s all that there is to it.
But now I can talk about two other issues that I had, that are combined. You are not punished for your mistakes and the game is just flat-out not scary. Which besides being boring, is another problem for a horror game. There is no suspense, no sense of dread or fear, and you aren’t giving the feeling, that a lot is against you. If a monster catches you, you are sent back to a spot in the area you are in. The encounter may not be repeated anyway either so you don’t even get a chance to learn what you did wrong.
The only horror that the game will give you, are these white flashes when monsters chase you but the issue here, is that they are pretty much jump scares. This is honestly quite disappointing, as Frictional Games went with a very lazy way of trying to scare the player. Although it did use to be worse, as these flashes with the loud noises appeared every few seconds, that’s since been patched to no longer do that though.
The monster's designs are creepy though, there are also a few different enemy types that will chase you. Something I will give the game credit for is having a good enemy design and I think Amnesia: Rebirth takes the cake on something like that. I also did like the references from the first game, I liked them a lot as it was one of the few moments that made this game an Amnesia game.
But that’s really it in terms of positivity for the gameplay. There is so much wrong with it that I am just disappointed with the end product.
Graphics and Performance
The graphics for Amensia: Rebirth is actually very nice to look at, I found the areas very beautiful and atmospheric. I tested the game on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, AMD Ryzen 5 1500X Quad-Core Processor 3.50, and 16 GB of RAM, I had no issues while playing and the game ran really well.
Final Verdict
When I first saw Amensia: Rebirth, I was really excited for me to only be met with disappointment. A Machine for Pigs at least had some good moments in it like its story and atmosphere and the atmosphere here is fine too but everything else is just a mess. I actually had more of a good time in A Machine for Pigs which is something I thought I would never say ever. I am aware I am in a minority here but I know for a fact, I am not the only one having these kinds of issues in the game. Only get this game if you are curious but if you are someone who really enjoyed the first game, skip out on this one.
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