https://www.cybersport.ru/games/articles/obzor-amnesia-rebirth-bespomoshnyi-khorror-slaboe-prodolzhenie

Ten years later, Frictional Games released a full-fledged sequel to that game – Amnesia: Rebirth, which takes place in the same universe almost a century later. Let’s see what has changed over the century.

Notes on napkins

A small plane with a group of scientists flies to Algeria, but for some unknown reason crashes. Among the passengers was Anastasia Trianon, for friends – Tasi. Waking up in the crashed plane, she realizes that the rest of the passengers managed to get out, including her husband Salim. And on her right wrist, from somewhere, a mysterious bracelet appeared with a device resembling a compass, the purpose of which is not entirely clear.

The first hours of the game in the eight-hour campaign provide a simple and clear goal: find the missing husband and the rest of the team. True, soon the goal changes to a new one: amnesia appears in the title for a reason, and, as in the first game, the heroine will gradually remember her personal problems. About which ones – a spoiler, so let’s not spoil the pleasure of those who nevertheless decide to go through the game.

The plot, despite all the assurances of the developers, came out rather bland. The main intrigue is read so early that it is not an intrigue at all, and in case the player missed something without reading, for example, an important note, Rebirth will helpfully retell it in Tasi’s words. Yes, Daniel in The Dark Descent was mostly silent, and therefore the game was covered with an atmosphere of loneliness and silence, while the new heroine talks almost incessantly. Ohe, screams, spoken memories and lengthy dialogues – all this could work great for a certain atmosphere, but in this case it rather destroys it.

An interesting nuance is that the story itself is not that bad: the central conflict is easy to understand and accept, but because of the chosen pace of the narrative and dialogues, the plot does not catch on at all. And thanks for that that Rebirth does not say directly whether the player is right in his final choice or not: there are several endings here, and all are open.

Rusty gears

The situation with the mechanics is even worse. The developers actively boasted that a completely new mechanic of fear, associated with a mysterious disease, had come to replace the system of reason, and that death in the game is dangerous, since this Tasi can harm his loved ones. All this again turned out to be a lie: in The Dark Descent, the user could also lose his mind as much as he wanted without affecting the gameplay, and it was only possible to die physically. The only thing that “threatens” the player in Rebirth is screamers flying right in the face, allegedly generated by the heroine’s sick mind. They are not scary, and they look as cheap as possible for a supposedly atmospheric horror movie.

In Rebirth, you can’t even die: after “death” Tasi throws back a little without loading, allowing you to replay the same passage, often in a more simplified form. It even has a plot rationale, but it doesn’t really save much. Against the background of how representatives of Frictional Games promised to surprise everyone, the techniques of ten years ago look, to put it mildly, weak.

At the same time, the basis of the game is still the same as before: wandering around locations, simple inventory management, solving puzzles and hide and seek / escape from monsters. Unless the wardrobe has now lost its status as a universal means of salvation, and the heroine has learned to lie down on the floor to become less noticeable. By the way, you cannot crawl. It becomes quite funny when Tasi says that monsters can smell her, while hiding almost behind the back of another ghoul. He, naturally, does not think to turn around.

With puzzles, the situation is better: they are usually built into the environment as logically as possible and do not knock out, working for a common narrative. The complexity is clearly reduced for the sake of the pace: you will never have to think about a solution for a long time, as well as engage in pixel hunting. And thanks for that.

Not a “button accordion”, but a classic

In “classic” moments with hide and seek or chases, the game sometimes seems so morally outdated that it becomes bad. Especially after you realize that running does not waste stamina, and the monsters are not able to keep up with Tasi. In most cases, it is much easier (and safer) not to hide in the corners, but to give a streak without looking back. In the worst case, the monster by some miracle will catch you, and you will fight off it with your bare hands and run further.

Moreover, the most common monsters – ghouls – also have certain problems with intelligence: during the passage I was locked in a small room by a monster that stood in the passage and did not allow me to get out under any circumstances. The only way to escape from him was to jump into the gap between the drawers and the table and sit there, thereby hiding from sight. The ghoul lost interest, but did not go beyond the door, and attempts to get out forced me to jump out, and the noise attracted the monster again. “Death” was the only way out.

The situation becomes somewhat more interesting when the game still goes on, albeit small, but experiments: one of the most memorable levels in the end is the shelter of sleeping ghouls shown in one of the trailers, where you need to quietly sneak between creatures. Alas, there are literally a couple of really interesting scenes with the participation of monsters.

But towards the end, the game will “delight” with a new type of monsters that are hard of hearing and catch Tasi with the help of light. It would be really easy to dodge them, if not for one thing: periodically they teleport. Therefore, unexpectedly to be face to face with the enemy simply because he decided to appear here, alas, reality.

Cornucopia

The survival genre assumes a lack of resources and detailed inventory management. And if The Dark Descent really often created situations in which the player was forced to think about whether to spend a precious tinderbox or put it aside for a more difficult area, then Rebirth gives the opposite feeling.

There are very, very many matches, and besides, they themselves work as a source of light and allow you to light several torches or candles at once. As if understanding their oversight, the developers introduced a restriction – no more than a dozen fit in pockets. Against the background of how Tasi carries with her liters of oil for the lamp, it looks a little tense, but perhaps the heroine also understands that there is no point in taking more – there are matches under every stone.

It’s the same story with butter: if you deviate even a little from the straight line along which the game is leading, and fumble in the corners, then you can go to the very end without experiencing a deficit in anything at all. In addition to the fact that you can’t die here, the gamer invariably comes to the understanding that there is simply nothing to be afraid of in the game. Which for the horror series, once considered one of the most creepy, can be considered a verdict.

beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Perhaps the only thing that is worthy of at least some praise is the location. The game successfully sorts out more and more new types, moving the user between dark caves, ancient ruins, the remains of a French colony and otherworldly temples, clearly inspired by Lovecraft. True, from the classic here, only the idea of ​​another world and the color scheme inherent in works based on motives: Amnesia has its own mythology, it does not smell of any Ancients here. The first game only gave hints and revealed in the notes the existence of another world, in Rebirth almost half of the time will have to be spent there.

The locations are worked out in detail: numerous notes and cylinders with memories reveal how and why the world fell into decay, as well as all the features of its current state. The same applies to the levels in our reality: some of them differ in interesting details, from various graffiti on the walls to smaller things like the position of dead bodies. The game does manage to tell stories through the environment, although Tasi’s constant commenting spoils the situation. But here it was not without its own problems: sometimes textures are loaded right before our eyes, and strange artifacts are observed on uneven surfaces. Fortunately, not very often.