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Amnesia: Rebirth - sequel to Amnesia: The Dark Descent set in the desert of Algeria

MichelMohr

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I had no idea this was a thing, glad I came to check out the adventure forum.
I really enjoyed the Penumbra games, and the first Amnesia. Looking forward to this.
 

Scarlet Lilith

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I really enjoyed the Penumbra games, and the first Amnesia. Looking forward to this.
I was puzzled by this comment since I actually completely forgot that Amnesia got a sequel by the Dear Esther devs lol. I was like, does he mean Justine? That was pretty dope, no idea why you'd dislike it. As for A Machine for Pigs it wasn't that bad honestly, just not very good either.
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/amnesia-rebirths-setting-will-offer-a-different-ki/1100-6477450/

Amnesia: Rebirth's Setting Will Offer A "Different Kind Of Horror" For The Franchise
After a decade, Frictional Games returns to the Amnesia franchise with Amnesia: Rebirth--this time, the devs are utilizing the lessons learned from working on SOMA.

Amnesia: Rebirth is releasing into a very different world than its predecessor, 2010's Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Developer Frictional Games' first Amnesia--and, to an extent, The Chinese Room's indirect sequel, 2013's Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs--is the most noteworthy precursor (and perhaps even inspiration for) the streaming trend that saw content creators visually reacting to survival horror games in exaggerated ways. This trend popularized first-person, jump scare-focused horror games, such as Outlast, Five Nights At Freddy's, and the playable teaser for Silent Hills.

However, this is not the legacy that Frictional Games wanted--the studio hoped mainstream audiences would gain a more introspective interpretation from The Dark Descent, and that they'd see a game that's deeper than just a scary experience to react to. Conveying a deeper horror experience is something the team is now attempting to do with Amnesia: Rebirth, relying on the lessons they learned from developing 2015's SOMA. The new Amnesia will take place in a brand-new setting for the franchise and explore a different kind of horror.

"We could have just gone, 'Oh, let's take this let's play thing that started with Amnesia and run with that,'" Frictional Games creative director Thomas Grip told me in an interview. "But that doesn't feel like what we wanted to do. There are a bunch of things that we thought that people liked with [The Dark Descent] and then there's a bunch of stuff that we felt we could do better and there's a bunch of stuff that we learned from SOMA and we also felt like we wanted to put all of that together."

Grip went on to say that "getting back to Amnesia has not really been about appealing to let's players," citing that if the team had tried to capture the same magic as The Dark Descent and make "the next big thing on YouTube, [they] would have failed miserably."

"So, when we started out with [The Dark Descent], one of the things we wanted to do was to have a certain thematic subject at its core," Grip continued. "We wanted it to be about a human evil. It feels like that sort of got the back seat and the focus was instead on, 'Oh, I'm so scared--the monster is coming!' So we wanted to give that another shot--not the exact same subject matter, but make something where horror is not just on this very short-term time scale of just seeing a monster and being scared, but something that grows over time."

With Rebirth, Frictional Games is exploring the theme of survival. The team also wants to distance Rebirth from survival games that primarily explore the act of surviving through optimization--finding the right tools to solve specific problems and overcome certain adversities in order to escape a precarious situation or transform it into an ideal one. "We wanted to get at the emotional core," Grip said. "So we've had to add a few things and tweak a little bit about exactly what it is the player should care about. Why do they want to get out alive? Those sorts of questions have been the driving force of finding the thematic core and making the whole game work."

It's not just the theme that's different for an Amnesia game. Rebirth will take place in the desert--a far cry from the oppressive, enclosed spaces of The Dark Descent's castle-like setting. When I spoke with Frictional Games executive producer and creative lead Fredrik Olsson, he said, "If you look at SOMA and [The Dark Descent], I'd say [Rebirth] is the game that the studio has made that has the most variety in the environments. So, hopefully you'll feel claustrophobic throughout the game but there might be other aspects explored outside the closed-in environments. The vastness of a desert could give you a different kind of horror."

"Of course, it's all how you frame it, but deserts are not intrinsically scary as opposed to a cave or spooky castle," Grip added. According to him, early builds of Rebirth seemed to be set on the beach and even once the environment looked more desert-like, it wasn't very scary. So Frictional Games is leaning into that, utilizing the occasional moments of beauty that a desert can provide to contrast against the horror of the story--creating an unnerving sense of dread that fluctuates but continues to steadily build.


"Set in the desolate landscape of the Algerian desert, [Rebirth] will focus on new character Tasi Trianon as she sets out on a harrowing journey through devastation and despair, personal terror and pain, while exploring the limits of human resilience." - Frictional Games

Rebirth is not a complete departure from The Dark Descent, however. Though this sequel explores different themes and takes place in a very different setting, it has several direct narrative connections to its predecessor--"A lot more than A Machine for Pigs," Olsson said. Grip added that, since Rebirth is not a direct sequel, you don't have to have played The Dark Descent in order to enjoy this new game. However, long-time fans will likely pick up intriguing connections. "[Rebirth] takes place in a desert," Grip said. "And, in The Dark Descent, there are in-game diaries of a dig in the Algerian desert. You're going to visit some of those places that you heard about it in the dig. So for people who are into the lore and may be wondering, 'What happened to that person,' you're going to be able to see what happened or see some clues as to what might have or might not have happened to that person. And then there are other aspects mentioned in The Dark Descent that are brought up in [Rebirth] as well."

This story will be told in the present--another departure from The Dark Descent's formula. Rebirth's main narrative will be the player's journey, unlike The Dark Descent, which told it's story through text-based collectibles. "So there's going to be a lot of backstory and lore to take in but the important story doesn't happen in past tense, the important story happens in present tense," Grip said. "I think that's the important thing, and it's something that we did in SOMA as well and I think that's one of those narrative things that we're bringing over. In [The Dark Descent], nothing happens, narrative-wise, in the present tense. You're running around in a castle finding diary entries. But in Rebirth, there's going to be a lot of things happening to the player character and you're going to learn a lot of things just going around in the game."

According to both Grip and Olsson, you'll understand what's going on just by playing through the game. That said, both assured me that collectible diary entries will be present for players looking to gain further insight into what transpired prior to the events of the campaign. "Players coming out of the game will have a different view of things if they have paid attention and sought out information throughout the game," Olsson said. "Hopefully, [they] come out with a different view--again, without spoiling it--of how they would have acted or how they would perceive the player journey."


"Retracing Tasi's journey and pulling together the fragments of a shattered past will be the only chance to survive the pitiless horror that threatens to devour you. Time is against you. Still, you must continue, step by step, knowing that if you fail you will lose everything." - Frictional Games

With this narrative, Grip hopes Rebirth is remembered for being more than "your typical jump scare, spook-fest." Frictional Games isn't trying to be revolutionary in the types of scares it uses, but it does want to instill a type of fear into the player that they may not have experienced before. The team is aiming for a revelation similar to SOMA, a game that manages to capture the horrifying otherworldliness of a Lovecraftian story with a narrative about human consciousness. "Thinking about it, the strongest connection between Rebirth and SOMA is that we try to put players into a persona, into a situation, and we spend a lot of time just convincing them that [they] should take this situation that [they're] in seriously," Grip said. "In terms of when the strong impact is going to come, I think that's going to be--similar to SOMA--mid-way through the game. That's where [Rebirth] really grabs hold and really shows what it's got."

"Hopefully this is the thing you guys will write about our game one day," Olsson said, laughing. "I don't know many games that do a new take on what we're doing and how we try to make the player's actions--what they do in the game and how they do it--and actually tie that into the overall narrative. I think that is the thing that stands out and I'm a guy who likes to think of new things as often as I can, and I think this is the thing that brings the most joy and what will be fun to see when streamers play the game and react to this thing. It's one of the key things--I can't say what it is, again, I can't spoil it. But it's in that space between narrative and mechanics--that's where I think we're revolutionary."

Amnesia: Rebirth is scheduled to release for PS4 and PC sometime in Fall 2020--Grip said the team will "hopefully soon-ish" announce a more precise date. "Next-gen is not something that we're focusing on--the main release is going to be current-gen consoles," he added. However, he also said that the idea of next-gen ports for Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 is still a possibility.
 

Wirdschowerdn

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https://gamingbolt.com/amnesia-rebirth-interview-building-a-deep-dread

Amnesia: Rebirth Interview – Building “A Deep Dread”
Creative director Thomas Grip and writer Ian Thomas speak with GamingBolt about their upcoming psychological horror title.


Posted By Shubhankar Parijat | On 22nd, Jun. 2020 Under Article, Interviews

amnesia-rebirth-cover-image.jpg

As the people who made Amnesia: The Dark Descent – considered to this day one of the best and most impactful psychological horror games of all time – Frictional Games have an enviable legacy in the horror of genre, and with 2015’s incredible SOMA, their stock only went up even further. The future, however, is looking even more exciting for them and their fans. 10 years after creating the Amnesia series, they will be returning to it with Amnesia: Rebirth later this year, and with the experience of The Dark Descent and SOMA to guide them, they are looking to craft a horror game for the ages.

We recently got the chance to pick their brains over just how they plan to do that, asking them about what fans can expect from Rebirth’s storytelling, mechanics, atmosphere, style of horror, and more. You can read our full interview with creative director Thomas Grip and writer Ian Thomas below.



"We’ve built the game by evolving the systems and mechanics of the old one, and we’ve approached it as a completely new story, but have kept going back to the original game to sync up on the atmosphere and feel. Hopefully we have struck a nice balance."

Amnesia: The Dark Descent is a landmark game in the horror genre for so many reasons, and still stands as one of the best games in the psychological horror space. In light of that, what’s your approach been to Rebirth during its development, in terms of sticking close to what the first game did so well, but also paving its own path with new ideas and directions?

Thomas Grip (Creative Director): I think there are two aspects to this. One is that we have been trying to keep the things that worked in the first game and to retain the essence of the atmosphere. The second is that we have done our best to make sure that players will be surprised, and feel that they won’t know what’s coming next. So on one hand you want the game to feel as if it is Amnesia, and on the other you want something that feels new and fresh. We’ve built the game by evolving the systems and mechanics of the old one, and we’ve approached it as a completely new story, but have kept going back to the original game to sync up on the atmosphere and feel. Hopefully we have struck a nice balance.

What prompted Frictional to return to Amnesia after a decade of not having worked on it?

Thomas Grip: The main reason is that we felt there were a lot of interesting places and concepts to explore in the Amnesia universe. Especially locations that you only read about in the earlier games, but you’ve never got to actually visit. We’ve also been going through a transition into a two-project studio, and letting one of the teams concentrate on an existing property such as Amnesia, where a lot of the overall direction was already established, felt like a good idea.

Clearly, Amnesia: Rebirth is going to have close connections to The Dark Descent, but how much of a connective tissue is there with A Machine for Pigs? Frictional didn’t develop it, and as it is it was a pretty self-sufficient story, but should fans of the game expect to see narrative connections to it as well?

Ian Thomas (Writer): The Dark Descent, Rebirth, and A Machine for Pigs are all set in the same universe, and there are common elements that thread through all three. However, there is a much more direct connection to the original game.

What can you tell us about Tasi, and the arc that she will have through Amnesia: Rebirth?

Ian Thomas: The short answer is – not much, as we wouldn’t want to ruin it for you! Perhaps unlike The Dark Descent, Rebirth is very much focused on the here and now of Tasi – while she is making discoveries about the past, the story is about her present. She is an ordinary person thrown into extraordinary circumstances and much of the game is about finding out how she copes with that.


"The main lesson we learned in SOMA is to have build-up and narrative pay-off that spans many hours of gameplay. We are making full use of this in Rebirth where the biggest horror will not come from moment to moment scares, but a deep dread that slowly builds up as you play the game."

SOMA was an incredible game that really took your storytelling style to new heights. Obviously, Amnesia is a different series, but are there any lessons you took from it and are applying to the development of Amnesia: Rebirth as well?

Thomas Grip: The main lesson we learned in SOMA is to have build-up and narrative pay-off that spans many hours of gameplay. We are making full use of this in Rebirth where the biggest horror will not come from moment to moment scares, but a deep dread that slowly builds up as you play the game.

Ian Thomas: We’re also drawing a lot from the feeling of embodiment and immersion that really helped us in SOMA, to try and build up a visceral connection between the player and our main character.

SOMA put a much greater emphasis on storytelling while somewhat deemphasizing other aspects that players usually expect to engage with a lot in survival horror games, such as inventory management. What kind of a balance will Amnesia: Rebirth strike between those two?

Thomas Grip: I think Rebirth is the game where we have best managed to tie together gameplay and the narrative. There are a bunch of mechanics that directly drive the narrative and vice versa. We had a bit of this in SOMA; but it is much stronger in Rebirth. In certain aspects Rebirth is also more of a traditional survival horror than SOMA was, with a strong focus on mixing puzzles and monster encounters. What I think makes Rebirth special is just the sheer variety of these activities and how deeply they all connect to the story.

One of the standout aspects of Frictional’s horror games has been that they each have a very slow, palpable style of horror, which slowly builds up and keeps players on the edge of their seats, even if there’s nothing particularly “scary” happening in the immediate moment. Is that something that you’re going to stick with for Amnesia: Rebirth, or should players expect to see it being taken in new and different directions?

Thomas Grip: I think that this kind of horror is a defining feature of all good horror. For me it is really a core feature of what makes a scary narrative good. So it is definitely part of our approach. That doesn’t mean the game will start out at a snail’s pace though, quite the opposite. There will be mysteries, scary environments, and so on right from the beginning. What it means is that the more long-lasting horrors will take a few hours of gameplay before they start to fully emerge.

With its desert setting, Amnesia: Rebirth is looking like it will look very different from the likes of The Dark Descent and SOMA, but can you talk about how it makes use of that setting from an art design perspective to contribute to the game’s overall atmosphere?

Ian Thomas: Again I wouldn’t want to spoil too much here, but a good comparison is with SOMA. There, the crushing pressure of thousands of meters of water is always lurking at the back of your mind behind every other aspect of the game. In Rebirth, the bleakness and isolation of the desert is behind everything – the sheer loneliness of the world for Tasi. She is forced to take chances and make decisions in a place where she has no one else to rely on.

Roughly how long will an average playthrough of Amnesia: Rebirth be?

Thomas Grip: It depends a lot on your playstyle. I played it through recently and as someone who knows where everything is and how to overcome each section it took me almost 7 hours. So I think that it might take up to 10 hours, or possibly more, for a first time player. But as I said, it depends a lot on the player.



"In Rebirth, the bleakness and isolation of the desert is behind everything – the sheer loneliness of the world for Tasi. She is forced to take chances and make decisions in a place where she has no one else to rely on."

What new methodologies are you using to enhance the horror mechanics this time around? Is there a new pursuer enemy?

Thomas Grip: The new stuff mostly relates to the higher level story telling. We have a few mechanics that are all there to tie into certain narrative aspects of the game. I think these will make the game feel quite unique, but unfortunately we want to keep these secret for now.

Can you talk about why Amnesia: Rebirth is launching as a console exclusive for the PS4? Do you have any plans to launch on the Xbox One down the line?

Thomas Grip: For various reasons, having PS4 as our only console release (we are still coming to PC on launch day!) made a lot of sense. We will work hard to make sure an Xbox One release follows, but it will take a few months before it does.

Will the game will feature PS4 Pro-specific enhancements? Is 4K/60 FPS on the cards?

Thomas Grip: We haven’t really decided. Our focus is currently just on making the plain vanilla game run as smoothly as possible. After that we will look into any possible PS4 Pro enhancements.

How is the game running on the original PS4, in terms of frame rate and Resolution?

Thomas Grip: The game runs as well as SOMA did. Rebirth contains bigger and more varied environments though, so we’ve had to work really hard for it all to run smoothly. We will lock at 30fps just like SOMA and aim for any dips below that to be really rare.

Given that next-gen consoles are right around the corner, have you given any thought to next-gen ports for the game?

Thomas Grip: We will see! A lot of the new features are really exciting for our upcoming games too and it is more fun to think about that than ports. We will definitely try and have our games on as many platforms as possible though.



"The game runs as well as SOMA did. Rebirth contains bigger and more varied environments though, so we’ve had to work really hard for it all to run smoothly."

What are your thoughts on the PS5’s custom 3D audio engine Tempest? How much of a difference do you think tech like this will make to how immersive games can be?

Thomas Grip: While I think sound are really important for good immersion, I think that narrative and gameplay mechanics are way more important. So I am more interested in how we can use any new tech in that space.

How are you ensuring that your engines/framework/tools are up and running for PS5 and Xbox Series X?

Thomas Grip: I think the hardest part is to figure out which platforms to focus on. If we want to release on both PS4 and PS5 that means we need to design things so they can still run on a PS4, and yet take advantage of the PS5 and so forth. So there is a lot of thinking here. I don’t really see that more computer power will cause us any issues – if anything, they are opportunities. The big problems arise when there are a variety of different platforms you want to support at the same time.
 
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Wirdschowerdn

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https://frictionalgames.com/2020-09-amnesia-rebirth-release-date-reveal/

Amnesia: Rebirth – Release Date Reveal

After five years of work we are finally able to announce that Amnesia: Rebirth will be released on 20th October 2020!

Check out the latest trailer here:

You can pre-order the game now, with a 10% discount, from:

Playstation Store EU (discount for PS+ only)
Playstation Store US (discount for PS+ only)
Steam
Epic Game Store
GOG


When we first started on Amnesia: Rebirth, the idea was to work on a fairly straightforward and simple project. Our first plan had the game being released in 2017 or 2018. Obviously, that didn’t happen.

defense-1024x576.jpg

Instead the game grew in size and ambition. It went from being a game with a small scope to being the biggest and most ambitious game we have produced to date. Why so? The main reason is that as we worked on the game, we realized that we couldn’t make our own sequel to The Dark Descent a mere “side-project”. We wanted to make sure we incorporated all the lessons that we’d learned over the years and to expand on the loose threads from the first game.

The past 10 years has also seen a flood of new horror games, and we wouldn’t allow a new Amnesia game to simply be lost in the crowd. It had to stand out and to pave new ground. We couldn’t allow it to be anything less.

rift-1024x576.jpg

This sort of change in scope wasn’t without issues, especially as we were working on another, currently secret, project at the same time. But, finally, we got through it, and created a game of the quality we wanted. We’ve got to be honest, though: it took longer than we expected. So, to finally have an official release date nailed down feels damn good.

We’ll be giving out more information on the game over the coming weeks. In the meantime there are a bunch of hints that can be gathered from watching the trailer carefully. Uncovering those is left as an exercise for the reader, though…

So – we hope you enjoyed the trailer! Stay tuned for more information soon!
 
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Starwars

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The trailer didn't really get me excited unfortunately. I feel like the horror genre is so saturated by now that it's hard to stand out. SOMA managed it because it focused on other things and tried to set itself apart from the more "pure horror" experience of Amnesia but I wonder how this will fare.
 

Mark Richard

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The trailer didn't really get me excited unfortunately. I feel like the horror genre is so saturated by now that it's hard to stand out. SOMA managed it because it focused on other things and tried to set itself apart from the more "pure horror" experience of Amnesia but I wonder how this will fare.
It's because of SOMA that I'm optimistic about this. Amnesia: The Dark Descent came out in 2010, SOMA in 2015. A lot changed in those five years. There's no guarantee the creative minds behind a good idea would know how to take it to the next level. I expected SOMA to fall short next to other recent titles like Outlast (2013) and Alien: Isolation (2014), treading water in much the same way DayZ did by failing to capitalize on the genre they redefined while other studios built on their initial success. Instead Frictional Games managed to produce something that truly stood out. Now here we are another five years later, and their announcement post is saying all the right things.

Frictional Games have surely proven by now that they're not a one-hit wonder.
 

agentorange

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You're more optimistic than I am. To me this screams "SOMA didn't do as well as we hoped, so we are aiming for a slam dunk by retreading to our most popular title."

Also visually speaking this seems to look significantly worse than SOMA, especially that terrible hand model. It looks almost exactly like Amnesia did 10 years ago.
 

Pyke

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You're more optimistic than I am. To me this screams "SOMA didn't do as well as we hoped, so we are aiming for a slam dunk by retreading to our most popular title."

Also visually speaking this seems to look significantly worse than SOMA, especially that terrible hand model. It looks almost exactly like Amnesia did 10 years ago.

SOMA sold upwards of 500 000 copies, and Frictional is a pretty small studio. Steam Revenue Calculator alone puts their revenue at $25 000 000, with profits in the $7 500 000 range from Steam alone. Considering they self publish, that's a hugely profitable game for them. Obviously enough to let them run multiple projects, and float a company for 5 years without needing outside investment. Hell, if 2020 has taught us anything, its that most companies are always a few months away from bankruptcy - most people only a paycheck away from failure. For a company to keep going for 5 YEARS - that's impressive, and SOMA was the game that let them do it.

Its always a risk with 3D games - because you're always going to be compared to games with budgets that are easily 50 times yours.
Personally I'm happy that they haven't sprung for UNREAL and made a game that looks like every other UNREAL First Person game out there. Their engine may be dated - but they know it well, and have enough control over it to really make it sing the songs they want.
 

orcinator

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This story will be told in the present--another departure from The Dark Descent's formula. Rebirth's main narrative will be the player's journey, unlike The Dark Descent, which told it's story through text-based collectibles. "So there's going to be a lot of backstory and lore to take in but the important story doesn't happen in past tense, the important story happens in present tense," Grip said. "I think that's the important thing, and it's something that we did in SOMA as well and I think that's one of those narrative things that we're bringing over. In [The Dark Descent], nothing happens, narrative-wise, in the present tense. You're running around in a castle finding diary entries. But in Rebirth, there's going to be a lot of things happening to the player character and you're going to learn a lot of things just going around in the game."

I feel nothing but revulsion towards a dev who thinks "instead of just collecting logs, you'll have actual events happen in the present!" is something that needs to be said.


But the whole
The team also wants to distance Rebirth from survival games that primarily explore the act of surviving through optimization--finding the right tools to solve specific problems and overcome certain adversities in order to escape a precarious situation or transform it into an ideal one. "We wanted to get at the emotional core," Grip said. "So we've had to add a few things and tweak a little bit about exactly what it is the player should care about. Why do they want to get out alive? Those sorts of questions have been the driving force of finding the thematic core and making the whole game work."
quote makes me somewhat optimistic there will be more to the gameplay than hiding from the invincible guard but they could just mean you'll have some scripted choices to make every now and then.
 

Wirdschowerdn

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https://www.pcgamer.com/amnesia-rebirth-trades-sanity-for-a-strange-illness-inspired-by-soma/

Amnesia: Rebirth trades 'sanity' for a strange illness inspired by Soma
By Andy Chalk 19 minutes ago

The more frightened Tasi Trianon gets, the worse her symptoms become—and they threaten more than just her.

dxZQkCqXPXC9kjnitsqFdS-320-80.jpg


Yesterday we got our first look at gameplay in Frictional's upcoming 1930s horror adventure Amnesia: Rebirth. Today, Frictional creative director Thomas Grip revealed some of the ways the studio has updated Amnesia: The Dark Descent to make it feel like "a fresh experience."

The action in yesterday's gameplay trailer looks very Amnesia-like, with too much darkness, horrific things hiding in it, and doors that just will not open quickly enough. But small changes to gameplay can have "a lot of benefits" to the overall experience, Grip wrote on the PlayStation Blog.

Instead of using tinderboxes to light torches, for instance, the player will use matches, which enables multiple light sources to be lit at the same time. They can also be used in a pinch, briefly, as an additional light source. But that opens the door to all sorts of interesting and fun (well, "fun") new twists.

"For instance, when you are in a dark tunnel, players need to choose whether to use their precious matches in order to easier find your way or save it for a light source further ahead," Grip said. "Matches will also blow out faster if you move quickly, so the player is forced to slow down and think hard about their next move.

"A match might also go out at the wrong moment—just when you hear menacing footsteps approaching. This also allows us to simulate, without using scripted events, the player lighting a match only to stand face to face with some sort of horrible creature. A moment straight out of a Poe story, but all built by dynamic gameplay."

The sanity system from The Dark Descent is being updated to make it "more reactive," and also to change how it impacts the player: Instead of simply blacking out and falling to the ground, heightened fear will increase the symptoms of a mysterious ailment that lead character Tasi Trianon is suffering from. Grip said that approach drew on lessons learned from slow-burn horror of Soma: Trianon's worsening condition is built around "core narrative motivation," although naturally details on that aren't going to be revealed.

Her condition also ties into Amnesia: Rebirth's "failure system," which determines what happens when the player is overcome by a monster. In The Dark Descent, players were teleported back in the level a little bit, the environment was changed slightly, and the action resumed. That eliminated frustrating repetition, but it also fell apart to an extent once the player figured out how it worked—and, more specifically, that they could just power their way through it.

In Rebirth, failure is tied to the fear system. "If Tasi becomes too frightened, her affliction will take a harsh turn for the worse," Grip said. "There will be very visible changes to her appearance, and worse still, it will have immense narrative significance. If the affliction goes too far, not only will it threaten the life of herself, but also of her loved ones."

That's vague, but Frictional was cagey about Soma too, for obvious reasons, and it paid off brilliantly. I'm still not sure that I actually want to play Amnesia: Rebirth, but I have no doubt that I will. It comes out on October 20 on Steam, Epic, and GOG.
 
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