Amnesia: Rebirth is the new game in the Amnesia saga and is the third installment of this brand. The first title in the saga was Amnesia: The Dark Descent, followed by the spin-off A Machine for Pigs.
With Rebirth, Frictional Games intends to bring the atmosphere of the first game back to the screens, which was a real success and is still remembered today as one of the best exponents of the horror genre.
A horror adventure with different colors than in the past
Amnesia: Rebirth is a first-person survival horror just like previous titles in the series. In this official sequel, however, we will not impersonate Daniel, but Tasi Trianon, and the game is set temporally almost 100 years after the events of The Dark Descent.
At the beginning of Tasi's adventure, the protagonist wakes up without memories of what appears to be the site of a plane crash in the middle of the desert. Tasi's goal is to find out where all the other members of his expedition have ended up, gradually trying to reconstruct the pieces of his memory.
The game has an istronger narrative imprint and felt compared to the first Amnesia, even if the plot is a little hard to get started and it never seems to be able to press as it should.
During the course of the game there are more successful moments (and also quite disturbing to tell the truth) and others less successful, which turn out to be more flat. In any case, Rebirth maintains a good level of involvement e the sinister atmosphere is more than apt.
In some moments of history, there are also scenes that are unlikely to leave you indifferent. The development team has certainly tried to create a significant emotional involvement in this adventure. Even the issues addressed are not taken for granted and are presented in a very intelligent way.
However, it is natural to compare the settings and the atmosphere of this chapter with the previous The Dark Descent, and in this comparison the new game unfortunately comes out defeated. The mysterious caves hidden in the desert in which Tasi has to immerse himself, cannot match the mysterious and terrifying castle of Brennenburg which turned out to be in a certain sense the real protagonist of the first chapter.
This does not mean that the work done on Rebirth is not valid, given that even here the development team has been able to create a distressing environment and also claustrophobic in some situations, but unfortunately the levels of The Dark Descent have not been reached.
Classic and immediate gameplay
Just like in the first chapter, the gameplay is enough here too simple and immediate, on the other hand, the adventure was not structured to be complicated in the mechanics.
Tasi will be able to move freely during the various phases of the game, can collect useful objects, notes, use the lantern and activate a particular amulet. These few actions, however, are adequate to experience this adventure that is intended to terrify the player.
We will have no way to fight or defend ourselves from enemies, so we will have to escape and / or hide to get back to safety. The feeling of being completely vulnerable it will surely help the player to immerse themselves in the role of Tasi.
The level design does not always stand out, and in some cases the situations to be faced turn out to be a little too similar to each other, causing a feeling of repetition.
A scary sound sector
From a technical point of view, just like in the first chapter, the best work was done from the point of view of sound compartment. Terrible creaks, voices, disturbing noises and more accompany us during all phases of the game in a beautifully chilling way.
Played with headphones, Amnesia: Rebirth gives its best from this point of view, for this reason we strongly advise you to use them in case you want to try the game.
As for the graphics, the title does not stand out, being only sufficient, but we do not feel like considering this aspect a real flaw given the small development team behind the production. We could certainly have done better from the point of view of stability, given that the frame rate tends to go down in some stages.
Conclusions
Amnesia: Rebirth è un survival horror pleasant to play and certainly capable of being creepy and scary in places. The title fails to reach the atmospheric levels created in the first Amnesia, which has now become a classic of the genre, but still maintains a high standard.
Technically, something more could be done in terms of stability on consoles, but the sound sector manages to prove to be excellent as in all the productions of this development team. Too bad for a dubbing that convinced us very little.
The title is anyway highly recommended for lovers of the genre, which in this sequel to the classic The Dark Descent will find bread for their teeth.
