Absolutely awful. I'm shocked. Frictional made this? Really? The makers of SOMA? To get it out of the way: Graphically it's very beautiful. Mechanically, it's also very streamlined and polished. Gameplay is jank-free and well thought out. But the game ruining flaw is that there's just way, way, way too much forced exposition in the form of unskippable cutscenes and flashbacks. Perhaps you think I'm exaggerating but it's worse than you expect.
We're talking a flashback or a cutscene every ten to fifteen seconds or less. Not just at the beginning of the game either, this density/frequency of flashbacks and cutscenes keeps up into the caves. It just never. lets. up. On top of this the main character is very talkative. Normally a good thing when that's the sole or primary mode of exposition but on top of everything else? She never shuts up, commenting frivolously on every little thing she does, like finding matches. Who is she talking to?
Why is it like this? SOMA wasn't like this. The flashbacks were optional, you activated them by using the data recorders. Simon talks much more than Philip or Daniel did before him but it's still mercifully infrequent. The exposition is mainly "show, don't tell" in the form in in-world interactions with the mockingbirds, in-world physical clues, conversations with Catherine, stuff you (voluntarily!) read on computer monitors and so forth.
Has Frictional gotten up their own ass? Are they so impressed with their own writing that they see Rebirth as a story first and a game second? One which makes absolutely sure you don't miss even the smallest detail of the plot, even though the constant exposition is very intrusive and immersion breaking? This is Hideo Kojima or Square territory.
Frictional should make a movie if they want to tell a story without gameplay getting in the way. Or they should make a game, which necessarily entails balancing gameplay with exposition, and (as SOMA did) finding unobtrusive means of communicating the plot. Clues, notes, conversations. Not unskippable info-dumps unrelentingly foisted on the player.
I am heartbroken that such a small, simple miscalculation has ruined what otherwise looks to be a very competently made game for me. And from my absolute favorite developer, no less. How, in between SOMA and Amnesia: ReBirth, did they forget how to handle exposition without breaking immersion? It was done so perfectly in SOMA. This is a tremendous step backwards for Frictional. I regret I will never enjoy what the rest of the game has to offer just because of the constant, intrusive exposition.