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Early reviews for Amnesia: Rebirth have recently come out in preparation for the game’s upcoming release in just a few hours. According to many of these reviews, Amnesia: Rebirth remains true to its name, marking a great addition to the Amnesia series of games, and another solid horror game in Frictional’s portfolio.
What is Amnesia: Rebirth?
For anyone not in the loop, Amnesia: Rebirth is another addition to the Amnesia series which began a decade ago with Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Amnesia: TDD was revolutionary at the time of its release, and sparked a deluge of horror games inspired by its gameplay and success. If you’ve played any horror game after 2010, whether by a major studio or a small indie group, you’ve almost certainly played something directly inspired by Amnesia.
The second entry into the series, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, was developed by the indie modders at The Chinese Room. While this studio was small, they were influential in their own rights after having developed the Dear Esther mod-turned-standalone game, which inspired its own spiritual successors in time. As a result of this change in developers, however, A Machine for Pigs felt very different from Frictional’s own work.
Which takes us to Amnesia: Rebirth. According to the early reviews, Amnesia: Rebirth plays much more like a true successor to The Dark Descent, with its emphasis on managing light and darkness, sanity, and running from horrific creatures that lurk in the dark. With a decade’s worth of iteration, Amnesia: Rebirth looks more focused than The Dark Descent, something which the developers had stated as one of their goals.
What is Amnesia: Rebirth about?
While obviously most of the details about the game will be unknown until its release date, we do know the basics surrounding Amnesia: Rebirth. The game’s summary on Steam reads:
“In Amnesia: Rebirth, you are Tasi Trianon, waking up deep in the desert of Algeria. Days have passed. Where have you been? What did you do? Step into Tasi’s shoes and guide her through her personal terror and pain. While you struggle to make your way through a desolate landscape, you must also struggle with your own hopes, fears, and bitter regrets. And still you must continue, step by step, knowing that if you fail you will lose everything.”
Reviewers praised the game’s storytelling and narrative as what stands out most to them. Most of them also praised the game’s puzzles as well, however some acknowledged that the best puzzles come fairly early in the game. A couple of reviewers also noted that Amnesia: Rebirth may be a little light on the horror side, although this may have more to do with what each person believes is scary or not.
Notably, Frictional Games stated that their goal was to do for Amnesia: Rebirth what they had done with Soma. Their aim was to tie in the gameplay with the story better than they had with The Dark Descent, something which they believe they had done well in Amnesia: Rebirth. Given that every reviewer brought up how good the game’s narrative was, it’s fair to say they likely achieved this goal.
Conclusion?
Amnesia: Rebirth is shaping up to be another excellent addition to the series, but there are still plenty of considerations about whether or not the game is right for you. If you appreciate narrative experiences coupled with a bit of light puzzle solving then Amnesia: Rebirth is perfect. How scary you find it, however, will vary based on what exactly scares you personally, with some reviewers saying the scares are great and others saying they weren’t scary at all.
The game is also not too long, coming in at around 7-8 hours depending on how you play. However, it does have multiple endings that seem to be based on how well you play to encourage multiple playthroughs.
If you want a new game to dive into this Halloween, Amnesia: Rebirth looks like it will be another great addition.
