Their ability to marry deeply personal, relatable fears with cosmic horror is nearly unparalleled in games. The breathtaking story payoffs are well worth putting yourself through the ordeal, too. Parts of the in-universe story even spell out how they do this in a way that is both openly self-referential and self-congratulatory-it comes close to breaking the fourth wall, but it feels earned. When I realized that wasn't the case in Rebirth, it was one of the most terrifying moments of all.įrictional has mastered the art of building tension using imagery, music, level design, and sound mixing. The Dark Descent lacked any real consequences for failure other than losing progress. Without spoiling too much, you still can’t exactly die for good, but there are certain endings that seem to become locked off if you allow yourself to succumb to the resident monstrosities or your own fear too many times in a given playthrough. Compared to the brilliant AI work and nail-biting sneaking in a game like Alien: Isolation, these baddies don’t quite make the cut.Īt least getting caught is now more than a minor inconvenience. My strategy was generally limited to run, hide, and pray. But on the other, you're not going to feel like you came up with a clever solution to get around them. On one hand, if you never really understand how the creatures work or how to avoid them, they are much scarier than if they're predictable. A lot of the more tense chases through cluttered caverns and crumbling ruins feel like trial and error. But their behavior doesn’t present any new surprises and stealth still feels as clunky and random as it did in the previous Amnesia games. The fleshy, chittering monsters often lurking just at the edges of your sight are visually horrifying, using clever design, animation, and sound to get your hairs standing on end. I found myself really wishing for a way to turn it off. It’s not scary so much as it is stressful and irritating. But in a series known for unsettling you by getting inside of your head, these stingers feel cheap and manipulative. It certainly motivated me to find some light, immediately. At high fear, you will be periodically afflicted by jump scare-style visions of disturbing imagery, accompanied by a horrible, screeching sound cue. I absolutely hated the new way succumbing to these dark thoughts is handled, though. The very limited amount of each you can carry serves to build tension, but both are abundant enough that if you’re tenacious about exploration and stingy with your resources, you’ll almost never run out. You’ll be scrounging for matches, which can be used to light torches and candles, and eventually oil for your portable lantern. But it’s just a re-labelling of the idea that if you hang out in the dark or look at disturbing scenes or creatures for too long, you’ll eventually lose control of your faculties. The concept of “sanity” has been replaced with “fear”, reflecting a more modern and thoughtful understanding of mental illness. Given how much bigger and more ambitious the story is, I was a little disappointed that the basic gameplay is almost entirely unchanged from The Dark Descent. In a world where inflicting anguish on others can give you actual magical powers, what would be the implications of doing so on an unthinkable scale? The allusions to real 20th Century history are a little on-the-nose, but the presentation is superb so it never comes across as preachy or groan-worthy. ![]() It mainly distinguishes itself by how far it gets to run with its predecessor’s themes. Rebirth also creates new questions along the way. If you had unanswered questions about previous protagonist Daniel, or Alexander von Brennenburg, or the mysterious Shadow, chances are some diligent exploration will find you the answers you seek. ![]() This is very much a direct follow-up to The Dark Descent, both in terms of story and game mechanics. (Image credit: Frictional Games) Unforgettable
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