This is a fun and challenging game...very challenging. Until you get in plenty of practice and start learning the secrets this game holds, you may only make it 2 or 3 floors at best before you find yourself starting over. So this is not a game for the casual gamer. You will need to put in the hours to gain skill and be able to play with any real competency. All of my prior experience playing this game is with Afterbirth+ on the Switch, so keep that in mind. I'll update my review when I have more experience with this particular release of Rebirth on GoG. But that actually brings me to why I wanted to post this review. My only complaint is that this is only the Windows version. Yes, Linux support was dropped with the Repentance DLC, but that really shouldn't be a reason to hold back the Linux native versions of Rebirth, Afterbirth, and Afterbirth+. You can run this game under Wine, and it seems to run great under Wine except for there being no sound. So please be aware of that issue if you plan on running under Linux.
I bought this game because I enjoyed Unepic, another game by the same author. I have not yet beaten the game, but I have put quite a few hours into this game so far. The game has a decent level of challenge without being insanely difficult. The first boss was actually the hardest I've fought so far. I couldn't beat it until I obtained all the powerups in the first section. So yes, there is some grinding involved -- particularly in the 'alarm rooms". The grinding is to get obtain the in-game currency for purchasing powerups. It does take some time to get used to the controls, but after an hour or two the controls feel pretty natural. I used an Xbox controller to play; I haven't tried a keyboard and mouse. But a game like this lends itself well to a gamepad. There will be some backtracking through the game to access areas passed by earlier in the game after obtaining the necessary abilities or items to access those areas. But since there are warp locations, it does alleviate some of the tedium of backtracking. There are plenty of secrets throughout the game which are often obtained by reaching hard-to-access places in rooms. So revisiting old areas to jump into an obscure corner may result in a reward of some kind. The reward may be kind of small, but it does provide some motivation to explore. Unless you want to make the game more challenging, you'll probably want to obtain powerups as soon as possible. The game does start to get much easier after powering up. Speaking of making the game more challenging for yourself, there are some skills in the skill tree that actually make the game harder. Apparently the game rewards you if you beat it by maxing out these skills. In any case, I'd definitely recommend this game for it's action, storyline, and reasonable challenge.
I'll keep this review short and to the point. This is a survival game where you re given three characters to start. Gradually two other crew members will join you to help out. There are four skills: gathering wood to burn in the stove so you don't freeze to death, growing food, repairing/managing the power station to power your equipment, and gathering electrowaste (basically scavenging parts to repair your equipment). The characters have varying levels of skill in each area, but any one of them can be trained in each of the skills. I personally found that maxing out at least one in wood gathering, then one in growing food, and then the rest in scavenging electrowaste is the best order to do things in. I was able to beat the game on my third attempt after learning the game mechanics. Once I got the hang of things, it probably took about 2 hours to finish the game. although there is a survival mode, I don't know if I really want to try it, though. The game was grueling, and I was just glad to get it over with. The game is basically an exercise in micromanaging every activity of your crew members. Rule number one is to heal your crew members after every visit outside to gather resources. This is very tedious. The characters have a deathwish and, like proverbial lemmings, will die without constant supervision. The constant scrolling back and forth to watch your crew members gets old fast. The game is an exercise in tedium. A single mistake can make the game unwinnable. There is really no sense of accomplishment even after winning. I can't say I enjoyed the gameplay at all.
