Amnesia: Rebirth Review
By: Anthony Wright
Tags: Horror, Features, Review, Gaming, Halloween

Amnesia: Rebirth Review

Was the decade long wait worth it?

Can you believe that it’s been over a decade since the release of Amnesia: The Dark Descent? It was a real tour de force, not just for the horror genre but for internet culture as well, inspiring content creators across YouTube to start uploading footage of themselves screaming in terror, spawning the “Let’s Play” genre of videos that have now taken over the website.

Now 10 years later, those beautiful Swedes over at Frictional Games have returned to the dark, twisted universe that put them in the spotlight all those years ago…

Amnesia: Rebirth puts you in the shoes of Tasi, who joins a mining expedition to Algeria in 1937. From the opening of the game, Tasi finds herself waking up from the aftermath of a plane crash in the desert and it is up to her to find her friends, leading her from one horror to the next.

It was surprising to see just how different Amnesia: Rebirth feels compared to its predecessor. The Dark Descent was focused on relentless visceral horror whereas Rebirth is a much more narratively focused slow burn of horror that slowly creeps up on you. Rebirth isn’t really worried about how much time it spends building it’s world and characters, trusting the player to immerse themselves as a message appears at the beginning, “this game should not be played to win”.

Rebirth feels like a much more refined version of The Dark Descent, at least in terms of its mechanics. Without diving into spoilers, we learn fairly quickly that Tasi has some serious issues involving her fear of disturbing images and the dark, leaving the player to constantly try and keep her calm by staying near the light and looking away from ghastly sights.

Tasi’s problems prove to be a massive obstacle for the player, especially when there’s a monster involved. Trying to avoid an enemy whilst lighting up a match every now and then just to keep Tasi calm is exhausting but in the best way possible. Instead of just sticking to a corner and letting the monster walk away, Rebirth forces the player to press on and keep moving which creates some fairly terrifying situations.

The problem that players may have with Rebirth is that it’s monster encounters are very far and few between. If you go into Rebirth expecting a rehash of its predecessor in terms of relentless horror you may find yourself disappointed. That’s not to say Rebirth isn’t scary, because when it wants to be it can be downright terrifying, with one area even leading me to scream out loud and I honestly can’t remember the last time a horror game managed to make me do that.

Rebirth’s massive focus on narrative does sometimes feel like it pushes it’s horror roots to the side, but when it finally decides to scare the player, it does so in some of the most spine-chillingly ways possible.

Rebirth also does an excellent job of leaving the player to scare themselves. Watching the last match slowly burn down to nothing or accidentally knocking something over to attract a monster lurking nearby never failed to freak me out.

It’s as if the developers wanted the players to do their job for them, as I often found the scripted scares to be less frightening than the scares I would mistakingly create for myself. It’s psychological horror at its finest. What I went through on my play-through may differ from someone else’s but that’s what makes Rebirth so immersive and special. It feels like a very personal journey and I found myself at the end of the game feeling mentally exhausted.

Rebirth also has some incredible variety in its world design, from pitch black caves to ancient ruins, Rebirth constantly switches up its appearance to keep the player from becoming comfortable with their surroundings. Unfortunately, Rebirth does suffer in its final hours in terms of its setting and at one point it felt more like I was playing a sequel to SOMA (Frictional’s last game) rather than a sequel to Amnesia. That’s not to say that it wasn’t still effective, but it did feel as if the developers went a little off the rails towards the end.

The same could be said for the plot which feels like it’s building up to something fantastic only for it to abruptly end. Unfortunately, Rebirth does suffer from fatigue, with its plot being stretched thin up until the last hour where everything suddenly happens at once and it feels incredibly rushed towards the end.

Aside from Tasi, I couldn’t connect to any of the other characters as the majority of them are subjected to only being seen in flashbacks. This is a huge problem as Rebirth puts a large emphasis on making the player feel emotional, something which Frictional Games perfected with SOMA. Thankfully the voice acting is superb and I did find myself quickly becoming attached to Tasi and her situation, so at least I found a reason to keep Tasi alive and push forward.

I was initially disappointed with Rebirth’s variety of monsters, as the first half of the game is subjected to a generic-looking ghoul that stalks the player. Thankfully, however, Rebirth’s second half introduces a few twists and surprises with monsters that all have different abilities and weaknesses. There was a monster introduced late into Rebirth that genuinely frightened me and even after the credits rolled, I still couldn’t shake the absolute state of fear and dread that I felt in that particular section. Again, as stated before, Rebirth can be extremely frightening at times, it just takes it’s time to do so and the scares are very far and few between which may disappoint players looking for a cheap fix of scary entertainment.

There’s plenty of horror games that suffer from either the player becoming comfortable with their surroundings or feeling overpowered, so it was a relief to find that Rebirth takes away the player’s ability to fight back, leaving them only to run and hide from whatever monstrosity is hunting them. Rebirth constantly keeps you on your toes throughout it’s 7–8 hour campaign by very carefully balancing how much supplies it gives you. Every time I found a few more matchsticks or some more fuel for my lantern, I felt relieved only for my stomach to drop once I had run out of supplies once again. It’s not easy trying to balance giving the player enough to survive but not too much to take away the fear of vulnerability, so it was fantastic to see that Rebirth captures that balance perfectly.

Rebirth’s sound design is absolutely phenomenal as well, especially since it’s coming from an indie studio. Every time I would hear a monster’s footsteps or voice get increasingly louder it never failed to put me in a frenzy of panic. Pair that with Mikko Tarmia’s extremely haunting score and you’ve got the perfect mix of audible terror.

Amnesia: Rebirth may disappoint anyone looking for a cheap and fast way to get scared, but if you take your time and immerse yourself, Rebirth proves to be genuinely frightening at times, with certain moments staying with me long after the credits had rolled. Frictional Games have proven once again that they are masters of psychological horror. Whilst it lacks the emotional impact of SOMA and the relentless fear of The Dark Descent, Rebirth manages to create its own unique spot in Frictional Games’ intense library of horror titles. There wasn’t a second in Rebirth that felt wasted and even with some of its shortcomings, I found myself fascinated with just how effective Rebirth managed to be at times. It’s a fantastic horror title and it truly does deserve having a place alongside its predecessor.

Amnesia Rebirth is available now to purchase on PS4, Steam, Epic Games Store and GOG.