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BillieJoe91 has The Suicide of Rachel Foster

Nov 5, 2020 @ 3:02pm

What a waste of potential… (Spoilers!)

This is more like a review, but since I couldn’t do that without spoilers, it ends up here. Maybe some people experienced the same frustrations.
I actually really liked playing the game for most of the time. But then it ended, and I’m left to wonder what could have been.

The atmosphere and the setting are amazing. There are no stupid jump scares but just the right amount of creepiness to keep you on the edge. And the story is mysterious and intriguing ( at least until the final quarter or so ).
But there is so much wasted potential.

First, the great atmosphere is destroyed in multiple ways. Immersion is regularly killed when a day ends. Most of the times very abruptly. I don’t get why this has to be stretched out for 9 days. It could have easily fitted into 3 (actually less, but with the weather factor 3 is more reasonable). Some of those 9 days only take like 5 minutes to play through. Creepy stuff happens, then fades to black. Are we supposed to believe that Nicole just goes about doing nothing, or putting up Christmas decorations while she is alone in a big hotel where something is obviously wrong? This would have been much more realistic and intense if it had been more of a real-time experience.
Then there’s the phone. I actually liked the interactions between Nicole and Irving per se, but she takes up the phone so often, it quickly gets annoying. I often found myself reaching my next goal with him on the line, and then just walking in circles, waiting until they finished prattling.

Also, the gameplay – or lack thereof. I’m not that familiar with walking simulators and understand that this is kind of the point of those games. But you actually don’t get any chances to solve something on your own. You either get advice from Nicole’s To Do List (which are sometimes very random), or by Irving. Why not let the player investigate a little, puzzle things out on their own? Best example is the scene when Nicole once again starts a new day having combed her father’s room for hints and presents them neatly ordered for the player to just observe. This should have been a task for the player, so that they can discover the background story on their own and draw their own conclusions. Same about the overall plot. Too much is just told, nothing really shown. I definitely don’t need point-and-click like riddles where you fit random things together to create some ridiculous gadget, but I want to solve story puzzles, get involved. Granted, this is supposed to be a novel you kinda play – in a good mystery/thriller novel you also get opportunities to solve things while reading, together with the protagonist. This simply isn’t the case here.
There’s also a tremendous waste of opportunities when it comes to the hotel itself. It’s really large, there are so many rooms – only some of them can be entered (which I don’t criticize), and only a handful really is used. The dining hall, the entrance, the fireplace, the arcade, the museum, the skiing supply room, the office? Not relevant. The overlook? Just there for a short scare and the obvious reference. You can enter only a small number of guestrooms. In each of them is at least one thing that’s creepy or mysterious. Sure those things have to mean anything…? Na, they don’t! This could have been so much more. Why don’t use the immense space you got in the hotel to fill it with something meaningful... stray hints about the main plot for example?

Talking about the plot… Apart from the unsettling way the game portrays Leonard’s relationship to Rachel – the plot makes little sense and seems totally half-baked. To me this started way before the final twist: when you were led to believe that Nicole killed Rachel. That Nicole hated her never comes up before halfway through the game, not even implicitly. It almost seemed as if the developers had the setting and the idea, then midway came up with the idea of Nicole as the murderer without really laying the groundwork, and finally decided to scrap that too for something even more ridiculous – which you also had no way to figure out on your own. Same goes for Irving. While it’s pretty obvious from the beginning that he is involved in the backstory (and that he’s present in the hotel), you have no opportunity to figure out he is Rachel’s brother. There could at least have been hints. It’s also very unrealistic that his name does not ring a bell in Nicole’s mind. They try to retcon that by him saying, he always had been invisible… but seriously? The dynamic between Irving and Nicole also shifts way too quickly in the end – and their flirting becomes really strange in retrospect. Also, do they seriously suggest that Irving lived in this hotel for 10 years with the creep who (supposedly) got his teenage sister pregnant? Come on…
And finally, the suicide – or not-suicide, as I did not at all understand why Nicole (who presented herself as tough and sassy over 90% of the game) has a total breakdown and sees no other way in the end. I gave the game props for refraining from cheap scares, but apparently they had to make it up by inserting that final scene just for shock value.
It’s actually quite sad. This could have been so much more.

Last edited by BillieJoe91; Nov 5, 2020 @ 3:06pm

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Showing 1-6 of 6 comments

The_McRib

Feb 5, 2022 @ 6:41pm

Fully agree and, if you check my review, you'll see I've basically reiterated your points before I even read this. I'll also add that the few puzzles that the game does have don't even work properly. The microphone one in particular lead me to the second floor when the panel was on the ground floor.

I've seen a few various defences of this game on here too, but funnily enough, they all seem to resort to defending what the father did, just like the game ended up doing, to the point where one thread started quoting age-of-consent laws.

zaphodikus has The Suicide of Rachel Foster

Feb 19, 2022 @ 1:13am

@billieJoe , nothing stops you writing a review and using spoiler tags in it as far I recall.

I liked this game, it was not one of the best, though... in fact I've played dozens of walking sims and found some segments of this one a tad frustrating. But I have never thought of myself as a game designer or even less as a game critic. As a software engineer myself I am often frustrated by technical choices that limit what you can do, and then by constant script or storyboard outline or requirement changes mid-project. Which makes it more frustrating is that it is hard to give players all of the hints in the same order the writer lays them out in because players make choices. I must say, for me, the plot did make perfect sense and within my context and choices it unfurled perfectly logically and took me through the textbook format of Exposition, Rising , Climax, Falling, Denouement. BUT, the whole "stretching out" thing is something common to DAEDALIC, and why I end up hating most of their games too.

Stoomkracht has The Suicide of Rachel Foster

Mar 30, 2022 @ 6:21am

@zaphodikus any suggestions for 'better' games? The ending was really meh and not fitting with the character. Seems like she was possessed. Anyway, did not even really use the flashlight and microphone. In retrospect the way Irving talked compared to his plan did not make much sense. Seemed he really liked Nicky. Also why keep it in the trunk all those years... yeah plot holes. Also very passive. Everything happened through the radio dialog.

Agree with this review: https://cogconnected.com/review/the-suicide-of-rachel-foster-review/?msclkid=8cd2537eb02c11ec93f95ce2976f00df

Still worth playing through, good atmosphere, just unused potential.

Last edited by Stoomkracht; Mar 30, 2022 @ 6:26am

The_McRib

Mar 30, 2022 @ 6:59am

@Stoomkracht I'm not the guy you asked, but try Gone Home, Dear Esther, or What Remains of Edith Finch (which is the best of the three IMO).

I played Gone Home immediately after playing Rachel Foster, and while it is short and IMO overpriced, the believable story and the great way in which it's told made this game's faults even more glaring.

Last edited by The_McRib; Mar 30, 2022 @ 7:11am