Amnesia: Rebirth

 PC
Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 54 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 46 out of 54
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 54
  3. Negative: 0 out of 54
  1. Riot Pixels
    Dec 24, 2020
    70
    An enthralling sci-fi thriller mixed with a touching melodrama that captures the zeitgeist. Although, unlike Penumbra, it’s not even remotely scary.
  2. GameOver.gr
    Nov 13, 2020
    70
    Amnesia: Rebirth unfortunately does not live up to the quality writing which Frictional Games exhibit in SOMA. Even though it starts strong, by the end the plot does not hold any real punches and the main tragic nature of the protagonist feels rather forced. Nevertheless, it still retains the claustrophobic and restrained horror aspects for which the developer is known for, finding the perfect balance of stealth sections, exploration and riddle solving for the genre.
  3. Edge Magazine
    Nov 5, 2020
    70
    It captures the original's atmosphere of inescapable threat but struggles to engineer new possibilities within it, though its take on player death is worth a longer discussion. [Issue#352, p.110]
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  5. CGMagazine
    Oct 27, 2020
    70
    Amnesia: Rebirth offers a thrilling addition to fans of the original, but non-fans will likely face an uphill climb to enjoyment.
  6. GAMINGbible
    Oct 19, 2020
    70
    All in all, it's the experience of Amnesia: Rebirth that has oozed into my veins and into my memories of last week. The corrupted monsters whose wails reverberate in your skull, the hazy discovery of a world beyond our own, the pulsating vision as you step into the darkness not knowing who or what you will meet. Frictional Games has infused Rebirth with the lessons learned from SOMA and The Dark Descent, the new tools at its disposal, and its passion for this apocalyptic world. Throwing everything at the wall like this, it's understandable that some things might slide, yet its scares are something I can't shift from my mind. With Halloween approaching, maybe it's not so bad that we'll be stuck inside, if we've got Amnesia: Rebirth to send shivers up our spines.
  7. New Game Network
    Oct 27, 2020
    66
    Amnesia: Rebirth is a step back for Frictional Games. It offers little substance in the way of puzzles, exploration, survival, or psychological horror. Aside from an excellent sequence within a spooky fort, the rest is an uninteresting mess that relies too much on scripted detours.
  8. GameGrin
    Dec 21, 2020
    65
    Fitting my thoughts on Amnesia: Rebirth in a single paragraph feels like an impossible task. It’s an effective character-driven narrative with forgettable characters; a tense horror game with a distinct lack of horror. Rebirth is exactly what the developers set out to create, which was not the Dark Descent clone that some people were hoping for.
  9. TheGamer
    Oct 27, 2020
    50
    With a tighter script and more polish, this could've been a fantastic game that paralleled the trauma of child loss to the evil enterprise of colonial expansion. Instead, it's one that insincerely mines trauma from a colonizer's perspective... then asks you to do a half-hearted physics puzzle.
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  1. Rock, Paper, Shotgun
    Oct 19, 2020
    I trust Frictional implicitly to do very interesting things, but though Rebirth takes a run at a bunch of cool and alarming concepts, it feels like it’s juggling too many to do any one of them full justice. Rebirth hasn’t haunted me since closing it in a way that Soma did, for example. I kept waiting for the take on pregnancy anxiety to become something more than what it always is. I could feel it straining to against the ropes of previously established bullshit lore about orbs. Amnesia: Rebirth isn’t bad at all. You just get the sense that if it was called Rebirth it would have been better.
  2. The Verge
    Oct 19, 2020
    Amnesia: Rebirth doesn’t reinvent horror games the way The Dark Descent does. But it refines one of the genre’s greatest entries into something more awe-inspiring and deftly designed, without abandoning its highest goal: making you shiver as you take your first step down a pitch-black tunnel.

Awards & Rankings

62
#62 Best PC Game of 2020
50
#50 Most Discussed PC Game of 2020

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
6.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 253 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 114 out of 253
  2. Mixed: 73 out of 253
  3. Negative: 66 out of 253
  1. SentiWoosh
    Mar 2, 2021
    2
    Wow, this game was bad. You want an Amnesia game that forgets about everything that made the first one amazing? You want an Amnesia game whereWow, this game was bad. You want an Amnesia game that forgets about everything that made the first one amazing? You want an Amnesia game where the main character constantly talks and ruins the immersion? Then Amnesia: Rebirth is for you.

    It seems that people are somewhat split on this game, but from what I’ve seen and discussed pretty much everyone generally thinks the opening to the game is bad. Me? I think it’s the worst opening to a game, period. The main character never stops talking and the game is constantly interrupted by unskippable flashback sequences one after another, sometimes not even 3 seconds apart!
    The game tries both too hard and too little to make you like the characters around you. Too hard with all the constant flashbacks, too little because the writing and dialogue is just, in the end, meaningless and has no character development.
    The main character is boring, annoying and generally unlikeable. (And selfish as well in the later part of the game) And you’re stuck with her for the next 9 hours.
    The puzzles were good, not as good as the Dark Descent but I still enjoyed them. The rest of the gameplay however is just plain annoying. You have matches and an Oil lamp as your sources of light and both of these run out ridiculously fast, I’m talking 3-5 seconds for the matches and maybe 20-30 seconds for the Oil lamp when it’s FULLY LOADED with oil.
    Amnesia: Rebirth has a “fear meter”, it’s like the sanity meter in Dark Descent except worse in every way. If the room you’re in is just a bit dark, not even completely dark, then you IMMEDIATLEY start to breathe fast and within seconds you start to panic and have to spam W A S D and move the mouse around to get back up on your feet. This becomes an issue when you’re hiding from a monster, obviously you want to turn off your oil lamp and hide in a dark corner or something but the game forces you to have the oil lamp on or light a match unless you want to start having a panic attack on the floor.
    Speaking of the monster: there’s barely any monster encounters! I can remember two. Two in the entire 9-hour game. The rest of the (very few) encounters were scripted.
    The ending isn’t anything special either you feel so empty at the end after spending 9 hours listening to someone constantly explaining how they’re feeling and thinking. You never get to be scared or react to something, it’s always the main character that does it for you.

    In conclusion: The puzzles are good, the general gameplay is bad and the immersion is non-existent.
    It’s shocking and sad to see Frictional Game go from Amnesia: The Dark Descent and SOMA to… This. I still very much respect their work and adore them because it’s obvious a lot of care, passion and talent went in to this game, but it just doesn’t work. If you’re in the mood for some Amnesia I recommend you just replay The Dark Descent or give SOMA a try if you haven’t already.    … Full Review »
  2. Dynako
    Oct 21, 2020
    4
    Not really in love with the story this time around, the game gets extremely repetitive, there is hardly any scary moments, everything thatNot really in love with the story this time around, the game gets extremely repetitive, there is hardly any scary moments, everything that made Dark Decent great this game lacks in or just changed for no real good reason. I was really hoping it would hold up to the first amnesia given its the same devs but it just missed the target IMO. Art/Sound/Environment is top-notch but the rest is well below sub-par - The price is the only reason I'm giving this a higher score if not it would be a 2-3… Full Review »
  3. xZippy
    Oct 21, 2020
    6
    I wouldn't call this game "the worst", but oh my dear sweet Christ is it sloppy. It's a game where the pieces are there, but they don't clickI wouldn't call this game "the worst", but oh my dear sweet Christ is it sloppy. It's a game where the pieces are there, but they don't click together very well. This is the same fate that A Machine For Pigs suffered.

    At the time of this review, the game has the WORST optimization (which I'm not factoring in my rating). No. I'm not some guy with a bad computer venting his rage to make myself feel better. I can play Doom Eternal with max settings, so this game having choking, crappy framerate in an empty cave while I'm looking at the ground at low settings is a problem. The story is... passable, but nothing great, and it feels uninspired in some places and awkwardly stitched together.

    The gameplay is the biggest negative for me. The first Amnesia had an amazing atmosphere and everything else in the game worked off of it so beautifully, which is why that game is my favorite horror game ever, and may stay that way for some time. Rebirth's horror element is just horribly lazy, and everything about it just feels rushed and boring. I kept saying to myself, "Please, something scare me already." And... that didn't seem to happen very often. The characters in the game might as well be name-dropped cardboard cutouts, because you'll never find yourself remembering or caring about ANY of them, 80% of them have no development whatsoever. The game has flashback sequences, but are hardly interesting in the slightest.

    The horror element is watered down beyond words. And the "fear" mechanic comes off like something that wasn't balanced very well. You'll be standing one step away from a lit area and and the player character panics like a child. The "sanity" mechanic in the first game added more fear to an amazingly scary game, Rebirth's fear mechanic is just uninteresting and obnoxious, and it even leads to idiotic WASD button mashing. Just... no.

    The game's endings also blow hard. You're just stuck sitting there thinking, "Uhh, that's it..? Well, there goes my $30!" It's worth $20 at most. 6/10, the game overall feels like a lazy DLC with a massive amount of missed opportunities. I'm so sorry Frictional, I wanted to love this game, but I don't.    … Full Review »
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