Video Game Review: Amnesia: Rebirth

Amnesia: Rebirth

Frictional Games

Genre: Horror

PlayStation 4

2020 has been a rough year for just about all of us. It’s only right that one of the best genres in gaming this year is horror. 2020 wasn’t scary enough, so some of us feel the need to add some extra terror to our lives. Resident Evil 3, Visage, and The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope are just a few solid horror games to come out of this year. Now, a classic franchise is born anew with Amnesia: Rebirth.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent came out 10 years ago. The game is well known for its atmospheric horror and constant use of tension. It’s still regarded as one of the scariest video games of all time. Its sequel, Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs is solid, but never achieved the heights that the classic did. The company’s most recent game, SOMA, made up for the disappointing sequel with a stellar narrative. Now, the third game in the Amnesia series has a chance to achieve new heights for the franchise.

In Amnesia: Rebirth, the player controls Tasi, an archeologist who finds herself stranded in an African desert. Of course, she also has amnesia. As the player helps Tasi find her lost companions and the lost pieces of her memory, they must also avoid spooky alien creatures.

Those who have played the original will feel right at home playing this entry. Players will navigate through tons of dark environments, including caves, tombs, and the desert at night. Dark environments raise Tasi’s fear levels, which can lead to hallucinations that aim to scare the player. The scares are effective early in the game, but they don’t carry as much weight as the player progresses. Fortunately, Amnesia doesn’t just rely on cheap jump scares to frighten the player.

As mentioned earlier, Tasi is being stalked by otherworldly monsters, and players have no true way to defend themselves. Running and hiding are the only options. Running for your life is always thrilling, and the encounters are easily the game’s strongest moments. There is a constant fear of what’s around the next corner, even if it won’t jump out at the player. As the game progresses, the encounters will become a bit less scary, but the sequences are at least always enjoyable.

What isn’t enjoyable about Amnesia is everything outside of the things that go bump in the night. The puzzles in Amnesia are uninspired, and often frustrating to work through. Player objectives are also too vague sometimes, leaving players haplessly wandering around with exhaustion. At its worst, Amnesia is an awfully outdated experience when it comes to design. Still, the great scares and the decent story keeps the game afloat.

The environments in Amnesia look great, and all of the sunlight is a pleasant change of pace from the moody castles that the series usually puts players in. The enemies don’t look as great, with bland textures that drain anything scary about them when they are up close to the player.

It comes with many flaws, but Amnesia: Rebirth is still an enjoyable experience. The short campaign has some great scares that fans of the series will find delightful. It’s unfortunate that the game feels so dated because this could have been another classic for Frictional Games.