Amnesia: Rebirth Review (PS4)

We can arguably say that Frictional Games created a new genre, ten years ago with Dark Descent, but it is without a doubt that The Amnesia series set new standards in horror games, especially when it comes to player expectations. Now the developers return with a new setting, a different approach, and a much more polished experience. Still, Amnesia: Rebirth has to face a pretty high challenge and the new direction may not be the best way to tackle it.

The leap from the Penumbra series to Amnesia: The Dark Descent was a significant one, on every level. The horror story that unfolded among the cold walls of an ancient castle become an instant hit, mainly because the adventures of the amnesiac protagonist had so many memorable moments in it. The basic recipe that traded jump scares for a constant gloomy and heavy atmosphere, and added to the mix a heightened level of pressure by taking away any means of self-defense, also gave birth to the second episode developed by The Chinese Room.

A Machine for Pigs was a fine game but did not have the impact of the first. Now the original developers from Frictional Games return to the franchise hoping to repeat the leap they once made by Rebirth, by further refining the original formula in the third installment of the series. The new episode takes a very different approach, only keeping the plot element of the amnesiac protagonist and the fear level mechanism. The medieval castle setting is replaced by the Algerian Desert, while the story itself is taking place 100 years after the original events.

This time around you will control Anastasie Trianon, or Tasi, who awakes after a plane crash with no real memories of what happened. During her trip to puzzle together the horrors that resulted in her current situation, you will have to go through an underground maze, mix the conventional reality with trips down memory lane, and even escapades in other dimensions, collect journal entries and hide from the monsters that seem to be just near no matter where you travel.

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One of the new gameplay mechanisms is the mysterious amulet you wield on your bracelet. This tool has a double function: first and foremost it lets you detect and open dimensional rifts so you can travel through them. Quite early in the game, you will use this function, the mysterious interdimensional travel being an important part of the story. Its second function lets you use it as a compass to navigate through the strange realms, giving you an advantage over your former travel companions from the plane, many of them have found their untimely demise in the weird lands of the foreign dimensions.

The addition of this sci-fi element further enhances the mystery of the story and contributes to the overall heavy atmosphere, especially the scenes where you have to deal with the monsters in this alien landscape. Although the experience is indeed more polished, just as the developers promised, some of the old shortcomings are still present. The hide and seek you will be forced to play with the hostile creatures is clunky at best. The control scheme is still not as sharp or precise as we would have expected.

Things are made even worse by the seemingly arbitrary rules of player detection: sometimes even if you are convinced you are out of sight, the monster will find you without wasting a second. You can increase your chances by sticking to the shadows, but as usual, this process leads directly to insanity. Too much darkness will increase your fear level, just as looking too long at monsters, resulting in you being able to rely less and less on your senses, up to the point when you are seeing flashing images and visions.

Again you will have some handy tools to battle the darkness. First and foremost you can find matches, a handy replacement for tinderboxes. The flimsy sticks although do not have a long lifetime, are extremely useful in lighting the surrounding lamps. In terms of game mechanics, it is interesting that the faster you move, the sooner your match will go out, so you have to plan your steps carefully.

Fortunately, there are plenty of matches laying around, so you can lit your surroundings to solve the puzzles. As such, the limitation that does not let you have more than 10 matches at the same time is more of a nuisance, rather than a real inconvenience. Unfortunately, this mechanism also makes the game a bit more predictable: if you are in an area with no matches, you just know you have to prepare for an upcoming scare.

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Pretty early in the game, you will also find a lamp, that offers much more light and is powered by oil, a resource that you will have to scavenge for. The drawback of the lamp is that it cannot be used for surrounding torches or candles. Another new mechanism is the soothing of your character through means derived from her motherhood, another important element hinted at by the title of the game itself. Although an important gameplay mechanic and a rich source of monologues, this feature will need to be discovered by each player for himself, because it could be considered somewhat of a spoiler.

Scared or calm, you will need to replace darkness with light to solve the puzzles and also to discover the journal entries that reveal the story. Rebirth seems to follow the tendency we could see in the previous games developed by Frictional Games, by moving the emphasis from jump scares to the story. The atmosphere is still really heavy and although the story is much more important, the encounters with various monsters, although less in number, are still as frightening as ever. The terror element comes more from the hints of danger and possible harm, rather than the monsters themselves. Although their design has clearly evolved, their looks are ominous rather than downright scary.

But the change in pace is unmistakeable since you will read a lot more journal entries, that will cause flashbacks, jogging further and further the memory of our protagonist, that this time around finally has a voice. You will spend more time hunting down clues and less running away from danger. Also, you will encounter more puzzles in the game.

These are more varied, but most of them are also being pretty straightforward. The solutions require you mainly to thoroughly explore your surroundings and use certain items in the manner envisioned by the developers. If you manage to get lost the game will offer plenty of hints, both in your journal and your inventory. In your journal you can also track all your regained memories, once again showing the importance the developers placed on the story.

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The graphics offer a mixed experience. Although there are places when the game is looking absolutely stunning, in most areas it is just lacking polish and shows its age. The dark corners tend to have awful textures, but also the different objects you can interact with within the game world could have been done with more care. It is not a design fault, rather the consequence of the developers choosing to use the original game engine, that is almost 10 years old.

As mentioned already, this time around Tasi is voiced, and the voice acting in the game is just spot on. All the memories, conversations, and monologues have soul, while the ambient noise will make you jump out of your chair. The entire sound design is a big part of the atmosphere, making the constant gloom, and anticipation of something bad happening, much more efficient than any jump scare.

The Good

The Bad

Conclusion