How Amnesia: Rebirth Beats Its Two Predecessors
Rebirth is the best of a highly acclaimed series
The third installment in the Amnesia horror series, subtitled Rebirth, had huge clown shoes to fill in following on from the much-loved Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Released at the end of 2020, developer Frictional Games delivered the goods. Rebirth’s perfect balance of puzzles, stealth, and narrative is a major improvement upon both A Machine for Pigs and the first game in the series, The Dark Descent.
Puzzles are more reasonable
The Dark Descent’s puzzles are maddeningly byzantine, hogging much of the cognitive RAM necessary to enjoy the narrative and atmosphere, while its stealth is dismissively superficial. Many of The Dark Descent’s puzzles involve obtaining items and activating puzzle objects without knowing what those items and puzzle objects do. This isn’t a problem if one seeks a puzzle game. I’ve willingly donned a straight jacket and curled into a fetal position over Portal and Myst, but The Dark Descent definitely focuses more on puzzles than on stealth or narrative.
Rebirth corrects the following two oversimplifications of the first game’s stealth: Hiding places are obvious constructs like closets or cabinets, and waiting for the Shadow to disappear is all one has to do upon reaching a hiding place.
In Rebirth, puzzles are more manageable because the protagonist, Tasi Trianon, offers suggestions as one completes puzzles. “I should do this or that,” she says. As immersive as first-person games can feel, all video games appeal only to sight and sound. One can’t smell, touch, or taste anything in a game, so Tasi’s help compensates for the fact that one can’t be present in that world. She often elaborates that, “This smells awful,” or, “This feels like it’s about to break.”
Best stealth in the series
Rebirth’s stealth mechanic is unequivocally better than the stealth mechanics in both of its predecessors. Escaping from the Shadow is a thrilling, dynamic complement to one’s immersion in the game’s horror. The odd closet is too full of shelves for Tasi to fit. One must distract the Shadow by throwing plates or vases and exhibit enough bravery to bolt immediately behind it while it’s not looking. The shuffling around a monster one must perform in Rebirth is more like Outlast than Amnesia. As a horror buff who prefers the fast-paced stealth of Outlast, I appreciate this mechanic more than the average bear. In part, this is because bears don’t play video games.
Excellent cohesion with The Dark Descent
In contrast to The Dark Descent, A Machine for Pigs is almost exclusively a narrative experience. Its puzzles are less complex, and its stealth mechanic calls more for nerves than for skill. The protagonist, Oswald Mandus, doesn’t have to worry about fueling his lantern or carrying enough tinderboxes. He doesn’t even have to mind his sanity level. Many enjoy a casual game that focuses more on narrative than on gameplay, and Frictional’s abandonment of all survival mechanics was most likely in favor of a focus on narrative. Rebirth makes for the best of both worlds, remaining better on the narrative front while employing the original survival mechanics.
A Machine for Pigs repeats lore instead of exploring it. Oswald’s story doesn’t accomplish much apart from mirroring Daniel’s. In both The Dark Descent and A Machine for Pigs, the protagonist engages with or performs something so horrible that he must drink an “amnesia” potion to undo his guilt and acquire the nerve to fix some horrible circumstance. Rebirth revisits the content of The Dark Descent by flying Tasi from Paris to Algiers, where Daniel absconded with the Orb to Castle Brennenburg before the events of the first game.
In Rebirth, Tasi ventures into the Lovecraftian homeworld of the Orb and the Shadow. This is what makes the game so incredible to me, as being in the creepy “other” world feels almost futuristic. Rebirth elaborates upon why one would want to harness the power of Vitae, and Tasi has to make difficult decisions about the future of her world as well as that of the “other” world.
Zero context required
A final strength of Rebirth’s narrative is that it benefits from context without requiring context. One can have a good experience by playing Rebirth exclusively, though playing through the first game allows for a greater enjoyment of the third installment. Unlike many third installments, Rebirth is an excellent addition to Amnesia, though this is not to say the former two bring nothing to the table. The Dark Descent sets up the interesting concept upon which Rebirth expands, and it’s a challenging puzzle game regardless of its narrative. A Machine for Pigs is so independent of the other two that one can enjoy it as a complete narrative experience, especially if one wants a casual game.
Ultimately, if you want a great horror story with the perfect balance of solving puzzles and weaseling among terrible beasts, then Amnesia: Rebirth has earned its right to gloat among the same ranks as other greats like Outlast, Alien: Isolation, and, of course, The Dark Descent.
