Really disappointing game. Frictional usually doesn't miss, but this is easily my least favorite Amnesia game.

I usually take issue with first-person games where the protagonist talks, it ironically breaks immersion. I don't need to be told what I'm feeling, and here: when to be scared. Tasi yaps constantly and it detracts from the tension much more often than not. Daniel and Simon also talked, but it was much less frequent, and didn't ever feel like Dark Descent or Soma were constantly being interrupted. Flashbacks, long loading screens, and exposition dumps happen what feels like every minute in Rebirth.

And speaking of the title, this game completely mishandles its themes of motherhood. How does Bioshock 2, an action shooter, handle similar themes like fatherhood so gracefully and with such nuance... but Rebirth is so on-the-nose with its themes? It's just that I've come top expect nothing but great storytelling from Frictional, but I guess anything released after Soma would be hard to top. Another huge issue is showing rather than telling. Rebirth shows us the other world we hear so much about in Dark Descent, which honestly ruins a lot of its mystique.

So then how's the gameplay? Frustrating. Mechanics are introduced and then dropped with little to no reason. Hide from the sun for one section and then never again. Use this strange device to open rifts between worlds and then never again. There are so few actual times when you have to hide from ghouls, which is ridiculous considering that's most of the reason to play an Amnesia game. Sure, Machine For Pigs only had a few actual monster sections, but the story for that game is perfect, and the same cannot be said for Rebirth. So as a survival horror game, Rebirth also fails. It's often more confusing than scary. And since Soma, Frictional has developed this dumb habit of not having monsters insta-kill you anymore. I don't mind being killed if I get caught, that's on me! But the level design here is odd and doesn't lend itself to stealth. And oil/matches last mere seconds, so you'll often have to talk to your pregnant belly to avoid skipping sections of the game.'

Oh, that's right! In all of its convoluted glory, if you die the game will usually push you ahead. Through all the garish screen effects, you'll find Tasi somewhere completely safe if you ever get caught. Getting caught requires failing an odd QTE. Overall, this feels like a huge misstep for one of modern horror's most important pioneers. Luckily, they put out a masterpiece not long after this called The Bunker, so skip this slog and go play that instead.

I didn't like this game. It's Frictional Games's worst game by far. I came into this game with pretty low expectations due to the mixed reactions the game has received, and I must say that they are completely justified. Although the beginning was very slow, the game was strongest in the first half, at the fort. The tension and mystery were very palpable and the mystery was intriguing, and the fort itself was perfectly executed with regards to horror. I've played a lot of horror games over the years, having gotten to the point where horror games no longer scare me as much as they did back then, but that place was creepy as hell. This is the part that reminds me most of the quality of the studio's other games. The first half was a solid 4/5.

But then came the otherworld, and the quality took a complete nose dive and never recovered. The second half is devoid of any horror, consisting only of lame chase sequences reminiscent of Outlast and groping around in the dark (which were not scary at all, the atmosphere wasn't there). The mystery, suspense and tension are completely gone. The narrative elements expanding upon the the story of The Dark Descent are completely unnecessary and do not add anything to the main theme of the game. They feel completely shoehorned in, to make the game more marketable, I guess? I don't remember much about TDD's story (I remember it being good enough to serve the game, but not that interesting for me to want more), but by adding more lore, the mysteries of the first game are gone, too. Horror stories generally benefit from less, not more. Also, I could not connect with the main theme of the game. Since the game did not spend a lot of time giving personality to the main character (and anybody really), it felt very superficial, hamfisted, lacking depth and nuance (because again, the game was too busy with the info dumps about the otherworld).

Gameplay-wise, the game is pretty much the same as TDD, so no new things there. There is a slight regression, though: why does it take like half a minute to respawn when I die?

All in all, the game is like the studio's previous games but worse, with the horror lacking and the story not being that great.

Thankfully, the developers corrected course with The Bunker. Best game they've made so far besides SOMA.

quite spooky
enjoyable story
good game