Amnesia: Rebirth

Quite often negative reviews are wrong. More often than not overwhelmingly positively reviewed games are absolutely terrible. This is unfortunately a case where the negatives are correct. To sum it in one word would be "tedious". The slogging pace isn't unacceptable for a horror adventure, that's easily overlooked, the constant arresting cutscenes however are unacceptable. Why did they not just have the dialogue narrated while you continued to explore? Or just allow you to create the scene for yourself in your mind from the text? It feels insulting to constantly be peppered with unavoidable elements to the point that I started avoiding picking up papers. I felt like I was being forced to watch an amateur play while trying to make myself a sandwich, just completely irritating. The characters are drab and unengaging from the outset. The whole asthetic feels like someone tried to create a 2002 console game in Unity. If this is not Unity, they've done a fine job of making it seem exactly as limited, generic and uninteresting to look at. The whole feel in general does not seem like Frictional Games, in fact if it wasn't for that name pushing me on I wouldn't have given this half the time I did. Ultimately it was when I became hopelessly glitch-locked into the floor while trying to explore an open area that I gave in. I appreciate maybe it becomes better later on, but I'm too old now to slog through something I'm not enjoying just-in-case. Disappointing as I've playing every single one of these games since the beginning.

Overall, I have mixed feelings about Amnesia: Rebirth. It isn't a bad game but when compared to SOMA and previous Amnesia titles, it does feel like a step back in some areas. For fans of the earlier games, I would still recommend it as it is still very much a Frictional Games game. For everyone else, my recommendation depends a bit on whether you can connect with the unusal theme of birth/mother-child relationship in a horror video game. If this sounds boring to you, you may still enjoy the other horror parts of the game but be aware that the child theme comes up very often during the game. Pros: + Fair number of interesting, unnerving and unique monster encounters that all work very well + A couple of excellent action/chase sequences which felt as good or even better as in previous games + Very good voice acting + Fair number of back-references to Amnesia: The Dark Descent with some additional story bits + Matchsticks work great as a variation of the tinderboxes in The Dark Descent Neutral: * The many different environments in the game allow for a lot of variety but since the player moves between them several times, you loose the feeling of making progress and it feels a bit forced. * The quality of graphics varies throughout the game. For the large majority of the game, graphics are good to very good for an indie game. It is mostly in outdoor areas where they look a bit dated, however, and at times even seem worse than the graphics in earlier games. * The "death" mechanic is very similar to the one in Amnesia: The Dark Descent and SOMA but it has been augmented with minor new elements that some players strongly dislike. * The puzzles are mostly okay but nothing special. Cons: - The story is not interesting/did not work for me personally (but this is very subjective!) - The first few hours of the game feel a bit boring until monster encounters become more frequent. The second half of the game was much more enjoyable and interesting.

Frictional really released an unfinished game, thank god I try to stay away from modern games. The beginning is a walking simulator and constant interruptions, boring story and character, no atmosphere. Come on guys.. I will try to force myself to the boring beginning as I see the people say it will get better later

For me this game came as a surprise out of nowhere, and so I did not get hyped too much. Which was a good thing. The game is not bad, but it's lacking the same feel and extremely dark atmosphere from both previous instalments; "Amnesia: The Dark Descent" and "A Machine for Pigs". (Yes, I know that last one is technically not made by Frictional). The positives are very good graphics, nice sound and a solid game play experience. I never found myself annoyed with the - sometimes constant - interruptions with audio flashbacks. Also the lack of monsters (for the large part) only heightened the immersion for me. I don't care for games where you have to hide and confront these kind of creatures all the time. But when they do emerge from the shadows I find the game isn't that scary. For some reason I confronted most of the creatures or ran away. They - or the situations I found myself in - were never that frightening. This is something I never really experienced with A Machine for Pigs. Or in the absolute masterpiece "S.O.M.A.", for that matter. It's also a shame that you don't always get time to take in the stunning visual settings around you. when getting chased by monsters. And speaking of visuals, what I found also didn't sit right with me was the abrupt change from our world and "the other world". To me it was a distraction from the narrative to jump from the dessert to the absolute hell of the alien world. As in the original game and in the Steampunk Machine for Pigs it felt more cohesive and more to the point. But in the end, not a bad game. Can recommend it if you don't put your expectations to high. And in true S.O.M.A.-fashion, they really know how to make the ending darker than dark... oh my word. Did I have nightmares after finishing the game? No, but close to it...

It's got a lot of that spooky atmosphere from the first Amnesia. It's a pity that it loses it later in favour of showing you the monster and being chased at around the halfway mark. At this point the game is more like A Machine for Pigs. The sound & visuals are all great; they make me go 'wtf is that????' every now and then. This was partially lost in the second half of the game, with the monsters just being all out there. The story is great...... until the ending choice. It's kind of a stupid you-lose or you-lose kind of thing. The light availability is often ridiculous... either super short on the time you can have a match lit or super short on the amount of time you can have a lantern lit. I believe the max time a lantern can stay lit with 10/10 fuel is about 1 minute, while matches are around a maximum of 10 seconds. The levels differ a lot, depending on the environment... caves are cramped, the desert is fairly wide open. However, as others have mentioned, the levels are all basically a linear trek, regardless of the side paths available. Still, when I was done, I went 'good game!'. I recommend buying this, though maybe on sale.