Posted October 25, 2020
So first sorry that I post my review here, but it was not possible for me to write it in the official review section, because of the limited letters. My review is around 4.500 letters too long, but I can't make it shorter, because everything I have to say here is important.
My honest review of "Amnesia: Rebirth" to the developer
I love horror games and movies when they are very well done. Something I absolutely hate are jump-scares, because they are cheap. If you use some very few decent ones it is okay, like for example in "Amnesia: The Dark Descent" you open a drawer and skulls coming out or like in "Silent Hill" when you open a locker and a cat jumping out. This is okay, because this are believable things and not generic special effects which were thrown at you. A game which handles very well with jump scares is "Pineview Drive" the first original installment. But in general jump scares are cheap and you should use them only very decent or completely avoid them. Intelligent made horror should not use them.
And Frictional Games knows that very well, so I really don't understand why they broke their rules and use tons of them, everywhere in "Amnesia: Rebirth". I felt like being in a disco with all these fast and loud picture effects which shows you creepy images for half of a second, come on, it's so cheap looking, sometimes, I've had a feel that the game was done by some TDD custom stories creators.
During the first 2 hours some time I died and I didn't even know why ... I haven't seen a monster. They are some kind of invisible which is not scary, just frustrating. You only hear them and they kill you without a sense. Also, the death animation (animation + after death "cutscenes") is just too long including even more fast pictures throwing in your face. But I never really died, okay this is part of the game, but If you understand that you cannot really die, you will lose fear. After "death" you get teleported to another place. The section skipping is really weird. It's like "damn, we made something so hard to navigate, ok, just skip the section after death lol". TDD has a vanishing enemies mechanics, but at least it didn't teleport you who-knows-where. I know Thomas Grip said he wants the player not to die (really) instead he prefers when the game continues after death, but hey, this system is contra-productive in the case of immersion if you ask me. The old Amnesia was not overloaded with special effects throwing in your face all the time. It was a chilling slow-burn nightmare! I hate these "ghost flashes rollercoaster effects" and I don't think it's scary. In contrary, it's cheap and it breaks the immersion and the atmoshpere!
After the first 2 hours there was not even one single puzzle at all! The first puzzle was *spoiler* to push the cannon onto the floor *spoiler end*. You have such a great physics based engine with interactions. You could have used its potential more - especially in the beginning.
I really love how you have upgraded the visuals in HPL 3.5 engine. But the locations doesn't create the powerful impact to me like the castle areas in The Dark Descent. When I remember the Back Hall, the Cistern Entrance or the Machine Rooms in Amnesia TDD, they are pure atmosphere! While the caves of Rebirth are a bit boring, the portals don't fit into an Amnesia game. It is too much science-fiction stuff. A game like Amnesia should be steam punk, but not science-fiction. Also these portals we have seen in too many other games aswell, it's kind of boring now.
I even liked the physics & interactions in the old HPL engines more, where it handled more precise when you put boxes or other objects over another. In the new engine the physics behavior are by far too sensitive. Also when you just rotate an object with mouse.
Another important aspect to criticize is the way you tell the story. The game breaks every minute to show you flashbacks in sort of "mini-cutscenes" that stop the game while you completely lose the control ... where has gone the professional story telling of SOMA? Thomas always said how he hates when cutscenes break the flow. But this happens continuously here! The story get forced in flashbacks that breaks the game 3 times in a minute! You completely lose control of what happened in game. I really can't believe what they've done - because it's the opposite of what Frictional Games design ideology normally stands for! Thomas always write blog articles about game design lessons and what they learned from previous games. If you ask me they have nothing learned. This is a step backwards! But this problem happens to all developers who started with perfect games and then wants to add more "innovation".
When I saw the first monster ... oh no! You have done it like in "Outlast" or "Alien: Isolation" where monsters show their faces in front of you! Do NEVER force the player to show in the face of a monster!!! In early 2010 Frictional Games said "The most fear is the unknown" or something like that! And what do they now? They break all high quality game design rules that has made them to the best horror game developer around the world. And what sould I say? The monster face does not look scary at all. And please get rid off from these stupid teleporting and flying monsters. It is so much better when monsters do have real walking paths instead of this unlogical behavior.
Rebirth feels more like a conventional horror game of which we have a lot these days and that's very disappointing, because I think this should not have been the goal. Something went wrong during development. This is not the quality I expect from Frictional Games! I even assume Thomas Grip was no longer the head of the studio. For me it feels like he was absent most of the time and let new people working on Rebirth. Yes, the game doesn't feel to be from the same company. Even Mikko Tarmia has not composed a good music.
Please don't understand me wrong. Rebirth is not a bad game, but it's bad when you compare it to Frictional's previous masterpieces. I'm very disappointed and nothing will change that until you improve the game with future patches by removing all these annoying jump scares and death animations or "fear flashes" which you have already toned down a bit. Please remove them completely or make at least an option to turn them off. Without this 0815 gimmick the game would be quite good. I'll give it a chance. I still believe in it and in your studio. But you must go back to the roots. If you want to create something new, it's okay, but new should not mean worse. I wish Rebirth would have been a slow, subtle, psychological horror experience instead of an action rollercoaster for the mainstream audience which is easy to scare.
Thanks for reading and sorry for my negative words, but this is my honest opinion.
.
My honest review of "Amnesia: Rebirth" to the developer
I love horror games and movies when they are very well done. Something I absolutely hate are jump-scares, because they are cheap. If you use some very few decent ones it is okay, like for example in "Amnesia: The Dark Descent" you open a drawer and skulls coming out or like in "Silent Hill" when you open a locker and a cat jumping out. This is okay, because this are believable things and not generic special effects which were thrown at you. A game which handles very well with jump scares is "Pineview Drive" the first original installment. But in general jump scares are cheap and you should use them only very decent or completely avoid them. Intelligent made horror should not use them.
And Frictional Games knows that very well, so I really don't understand why they broke their rules and use tons of them, everywhere in "Amnesia: Rebirth". I felt like being in a disco with all these fast and loud picture effects which shows you creepy images for half of a second, come on, it's so cheap looking, sometimes, I've had a feel that the game was done by some TDD custom stories creators.
During the first 2 hours some time I died and I didn't even know why ... I haven't seen a monster. They are some kind of invisible which is not scary, just frustrating. You only hear them and they kill you without a sense. Also, the death animation (animation + after death "cutscenes") is just too long including even more fast pictures throwing in your face. But I never really died, okay this is part of the game, but If you understand that you cannot really die, you will lose fear. After "death" you get teleported to another place. The section skipping is really weird. It's like "damn, we made something so hard to navigate, ok, just skip the section after death lol". TDD has a vanishing enemies mechanics, but at least it didn't teleport you who-knows-where. I know Thomas Grip said he wants the player not to die (really) instead he prefers when the game continues after death, but hey, this system is contra-productive in the case of immersion if you ask me. The old Amnesia was not overloaded with special effects throwing in your face all the time. It was a chilling slow-burn nightmare! I hate these "ghost flashes rollercoaster effects" and I don't think it's scary. In contrary, it's cheap and it breaks the immersion and the atmoshpere!
After the first 2 hours there was not even one single puzzle at all! The first puzzle was *spoiler* to push the cannon onto the floor *spoiler end*. You have such a great physics based engine with interactions. You could have used its potential more - especially in the beginning.
I really love how you have upgraded the visuals in HPL 3.5 engine. But the locations doesn't create the powerful impact to me like the castle areas in The Dark Descent. When I remember the Back Hall, the Cistern Entrance or the Machine Rooms in Amnesia TDD, they are pure atmosphere! While the caves of Rebirth are a bit boring, the portals don't fit into an Amnesia game. It is too much science-fiction stuff. A game like Amnesia should be steam punk, but not science-fiction. Also these portals we have seen in too many other games aswell, it's kind of boring now.
I even liked the physics & interactions in the old HPL engines more, where it handled more precise when you put boxes or other objects over another. In the new engine the physics behavior are by far too sensitive. Also when you just rotate an object with mouse.
Another important aspect to criticize is the way you tell the story. The game breaks every minute to show you flashbacks in sort of "mini-cutscenes" that stop the game while you completely lose the control ... where has gone the professional story telling of SOMA? Thomas always said how he hates when cutscenes break the flow. But this happens continuously here! The story get forced in flashbacks that breaks the game 3 times in a minute! You completely lose control of what happened in game. I really can't believe what they've done - because it's the opposite of what Frictional Games design ideology normally stands for! Thomas always write blog articles about game design lessons and what they learned from previous games. If you ask me they have nothing learned. This is a step backwards! But this problem happens to all developers who started with perfect games and then wants to add more "innovation".
When I saw the first monster ... oh no! You have done it like in "Outlast" or "Alien: Isolation" where monsters show their faces in front of you! Do NEVER force the player to show in the face of a monster!!! In early 2010 Frictional Games said "The most fear is the unknown" or something like that! And what do they now? They break all high quality game design rules that has made them to the best horror game developer around the world. And what sould I say? The monster face does not look scary at all. And please get rid off from these stupid teleporting and flying monsters. It is so much better when monsters do have real walking paths instead of this unlogical behavior.
Rebirth feels more like a conventional horror game of which we have a lot these days and that's very disappointing, because I think this should not have been the goal. Something went wrong during development. This is not the quality I expect from Frictional Games! I even assume Thomas Grip was no longer the head of the studio. For me it feels like he was absent most of the time and let new people working on Rebirth. Yes, the game doesn't feel to be from the same company. Even Mikko Tarmia has not composed a good music.
Please don't understand me wrong. Rebirth is not a bad game, but it's bad when you compare it to Frictional's previous masterpieces. I'm very disappointed and nothing will change that until you improve the game with future patches by removing all these annoying jump scares and death animations or "fear flashes" which you have already toned down a bit. Please remove them completely or make at least an option to turn them off. Without this 0815 gimmick the game would be quite good. I'll give it a chance. I still believe in it and in your studio. But you must go back to the roots. If you want to create something new, it's okay, but new should not mean worse. I wish Rebirth would have been a slow, subtle, psychological horror experience instead of an action rollercoaster for the mainstream audience which is easy to scare.
Thanks for reading and sorry for my negative words, but this is my honest opinion.
.
