I do not understand how Amnesia got Devolved from a Horror game that makes you fear the dark, to a Story based game that says you should fear the dark... Amnesia Rebirth is too linear and too heavy on cutscenes to live up to the awesome horror of the first Amnesia. Although, Rebirth does do a few things right from Dark Descent. The match stick gameplay I think was pretty cool, I also liked being subjected to jumpscares as you go more insane. But The Dark Descent already had good sanity play with some visual tricks and loss of control.

Rebirth opens up with a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Jumpscare, and 3 openings, this instantly made me realize how the developers actually did not understand why their previous games were good. Probably the best location of Rebirth is the first building in the Fort. The lurking Ghoul I think will not pop out, but him appearing at random location is kind of genius. Or at least, thats what I think the game does there. Most scares are tropes reminiscent to movies, and when you are in a situation with an enemy, there is easy ways to meneuver around it. I would say it is better than The Dark Descents "hide in a closet and wait for enemy to despawn". But the situations at which the enemies appear here are way too damn easy to avoid. In The Dark Descent, I was so afraid I hid myself in a closet for the despawn to happen! There arent that many encounters in Rebirth Either.

Whenever something from The Dark Descent, either its the sound or characters re-appear, its usually the better part of the game. But not that great.

I feel very dissapointed to see Frictional Games put a lot of effort into Rebirth. Rebirth is not a Terrible game or anything, it has quality. But the amount of effort put into the graphics, visuals, story, scripting, voice acting etc came before the Gameplay!!! Looking back at The Dark Descent, there was a lot of freedom from the game, and we let ourselves be scared... right? Rebirth mostly takes that away with being a story based horror game.

The story comes in the form of a protagonist who talks to themselves, is pregnant and meets/talks to other characters. Literally the fort is the scariest bit of Rebirth because... You, Were, ALONE!

The theme here also does not help the horror, setting or gameplay. The Dark Descent had you going down, down and down to greater dark and scarier places. Fitting for the name. Rebirth does not have a cohesive theme, nor do the places that you visit feel nicely designed. By that, I mean The Dark Descent took place in a Castle... Rebirth goes crazy with Africa, then the OtherWorld, then a dream sequence, then Africa+OtherWorld mixed, I also teleport everywhere, I dont know where I am actually moving, like... give me a break!

Heavy spoilers Edit: Also, How did Tasi get back to the plane and why? Whats with the pregnancy speed up? Maybe I missed a few things, but these are good questions...

I also do not feel like wanting to replay this unlike The Dark Descent. It has a lot to do with the freedom of gameplay. Most of places you got to was in your own doing. But in Rebirth, something always goes wrong and delays you... Edit: You literally make a bullet to have a shot at a door with the tank just for you to fall through the floors. You walk over a bridge, it brakes and you fall etc... I have to give Rebirth credit with more physical intereactability. Making me shuffle through items to find matches or Oil and etc.

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Rebirth is not a BAD game, but I cannot recommend an Amnesia game that does not live up to its name. I wanted to be as scared as I was in The Dark Descent. But Rebirth clearly gave up on that idea and went mostly at their story. The story is OK. The delivery of it is pretty good, but the story itself is meh, balancing out at an OK story.

Game: Meh
Story: Ok
Looks: Alright
Sounds: Cool
Music: Forgetable
Horror: Meh

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Here is where they need to learn:
Leaving the player at their own responsibility burdens them to have to think. This is what TDD did. The freedom to explore each hubworld and figure out how to progress were simple but very effective motivators to be scared and keep playing.

Been a while, but I replayed TDD, being my 10th+ time I replay it and despite knowing all the scares, I found stuff that I have either completely forgotten about or the effects kicked in and I finally noticed it. Slappy footsteps coming closer and faster made me stop in my tracks and actually expect the worst, but it was actually nothing. TDD still holds up!

It took TDD less than a minute to start playing, and about 5 to 10 minutes to get to the first explorable area.

Do not learn anything from SOMA. Soma had a pretty damn good story, but please go away from the "Story first" format! The gameplay was lacking, and I see Soma gameplay Design decisions in Rebirth. Keep it at Penumbra levels of game, do not entertain the player with stories. Scaring, making them play should be the entertainment. Story is simply an intrigue that keeps the player going. And because of Focus on Story, the game turns out to be a lot more expensive to make. Voice acting, art, script/writting, so much of it is unappriciated because im mostly on a rollercoaster ride rather than actively giving those aspects my own attention. Being put into cutscenes is like being cradled for a moment. Why should the sequel to the most scary game have that?

Anyways, Rebirth is dissapointing.

You know... I do find this game relaxing for the most part. The logistical challenge of partaking in deliveries across difficult terrain is fun when it gets difficult. But a lot of what you need comes later in the story, but only little by little. They drip feed you the equipment that you need incredibly slowly, and it feels like a never ending tutorial happening.

Give me everything, closer from the start. Absolutely everything... and then, give me the challenges that make me choose the tools.

Because you dont have everything from the near-start, you essentially have a lot of boring terrain that is just trivial. The most fun parts of the game is up at the mountains, when traversing the lands becomes difficult. Most other terrain and difficulties are predictable. Setting up an easier path between the ends is also fun, albeit ziplines do make the game boring.

Anyways, what pisses me off is how there is

Lets say sam does some kind of a Get-up animation, this animation takes 2 seconds to complete. You are not allowed to switch equipment, or do anything other than move. Moving sam during this animation cancels this 2 second wait. So you press to make the get up animation cancel and end faster so that you can switch equipment, but wait! The turn animation kicked in! Ok, so you have to wait 1 second now instead... NOW you can switch equipment.

This becomes IRRITATING in intense situations. Simply switching over to your Strand Knot takes a good while, switching equipment, turning, trying to climb, picking something up. Its not fluent, not at all. You would think it is fluent, but it bathes itself in these animations too much for you to be able to do anything.

Literally, sam will do some kind of gesture when in the private room, and because of this gesture, you arent allowed to press anything until the gesture is completed. This is SO bad.


Ive already had my thoughts about things being the way they are LONG before the characters themselves figuring them out. But then there is also just too much symbolic magic happening. I love the general theme of connectivity, even by internet, postal service, letters, dog piss sniffing, tracing everything from something else etc. The theme is AWESOME! Something I do not think has been properly put togheter in a medium until now.

But the story is actually just falling apart as you go deeper in it.

Too many cutscenes, and too much cinematic unbelivabilities. How can the bad guy have so much control over you, but when you fight him, he does not do what he previously did to you in the cutscene? I know this is a videogamey thing, but if you are grounding us to the ground literally with these animations, realistic animations and a sci fi world, why not give the same treatment to the cinematics? The cinematics are absolutely theatrical and disconnected from the game world.


Anyways, I CANNOT say that I do not recommend it. With some patience, there is a relaxing game behind all this, and it is a logistical one about solving the problem of hauling stuff from A to B as effectively and safely as possible. The themes are great, although the Sci fi imagery looks bland here and there. Many ideas are great. The overall gameplay is actually great, it is simply not well challenged or emphasised due to the unending tutorial feeling, dripp feeding of tools, and as such, the enviornment is mostly easy until near the end where you have all the tools, but there is not much of the end... Know what I mean?

Good experience, kind of annoying due to animation blocking actions. Wish the game was more bold, it felt hesitant many times.