Amnesia Land 3: Rebirth - A Reviews by the Myself
0Recently, rather unexpectedly, Frictional Games unleashed their first proper, in-house follow up to Amnesia. Namely, Amnesia Rebirth. Which is a terrible title, by the way.
Can they strike gold once again, and get back in touch with the subtlety and mechanical brilliance that made the original such an engrossing experience? Or is this just a 'not good game' that's not good? Look, if you're looking for competence, you came to the wrong channel. This isn't Civvie11. I mainly make these reviews as an excuse to play video games and paint...
You play as pregnant woman named Tasi Trianon. After her expedition crew's plane crashes in the middle of the Algerian desert. Despite waking up in that same plane, she quickly realizes that days, if not weeks have passed. And, she has no recollection of what happened since the crash or where the rest of her team is, including her husband Salim. There's also this strange device attached to her wrist, which she doesn't recognize. She quickly discovers a cave they've used as a temporary settlement, but no traces of anyone.
A letter left behind by Salim himself mentions the presence of strange creatures. And deeper into the cave are old pages from his own journal. Seemingly leading her on a trail... As a whole, Rebirth's story has to be its strongest point. I didn't expect the ending to bring me to tears, I'll say that much.
Nowadays, not having any weapons in your horror game is more so a sign of developer incompetence. There's tons of shitty, made in a weekend, 'escape evil grandma's house' android horror shovelware available today. Many of which feature Shrek, for some reason. So how does Rebirth manage to elevate itself above that?
Well, mainly, it's by offering the greatest level of production value in any of Frictional's games yet. With tons of varied and meticulously detailed environments. A plethora of mostly well animated cutscenes and far more varied enemy behavior and contextual animations. Not to forget Frictional's always exemplary sound design. The game isn't just a Resident Evil game without guns.
It's actually more like a Myst game with quality stealth and chase sequences. Visually, it even looks like the later Myst titles. Like a real time version of what early 2000s pre-rendered backgrounds used to look like. So, while it doesn't look quite next gen, it also doesn't look dated. It's very unique, if anything.
It mostly escapes the indie game aftertaste of Frictional's previous titles. For one thing, objects in the game look far more real and aren't as oddly proportioned as what we saw in SOMA. And the puzzles are far more legible, and far less fetch quest focused than their previous games. I did have to look up a guide for one of them, admittedly.
All in all, the game never reaches the heights of the first title's famous flooded basement.
That being said. I can't say that makes the game any worst. I think the level of horror in Rebirth is perfectly fine. It could, and should, have been scarier, for sure. But, there was more than a few hearth pounding sequences. Some of them being genuinely clever.
Scary or not, I found myself glued to my chair, through most of it. Which is a big compliment. I'd have to say that the overall experience is very strong. It's way better paced than Frictional's previous titles and I constantly found myself wanting to keep going forward and unveil the story.
There really is no studio that matches the harsh reality of Frictional's ambience and tone. And Amnesia Rebirth is no exception. There's something far more adventurous and urgent about it. So, while I can't say it's their best game. I would say it might be the best introduction to their games. This is probably the most well paced and approachable title they've made, so far.
Wario Land 3 is sort of an hybrid of a Metroidvania, a puzzle game and a standard platformer. The most unique feature in it has to be the fact that Wario can't die. Instead, standard enemy attacks will cause him to simply get stunned. But, non-standard enemy attacks will do a pletora of things.
Fire attacks will cause him to run away uncontrollably, until he burns to a crisp. Crushing attacks will flatten him into a pancake, and allow him to float like paper in the breeze. Some of them turn him into a balloon... There's just so much shit.
Depending on where you are. The same attack can either be a win state or a failure state. Many of the puzzles require you to use these attacks in clever ways. As a whole, every aspect of the gameplay is used with a level of genius that you'd only find in a Nintendo game.
A big part of the game's charm, comes from the quality of the animation work. Wario displays so much personality in how he reacts to each of these attacks. My favorite is the inflation porn one. He looks like something from a horror manga. And the game feel, in general, makes a perfect job communicating his smelly, lumbering presence. He just feels like such a greedy cunt.