Amnesia: Rebirth was announced earlier this year, but in the timewarp that is 2020, it’s already October and almost time for the release of Frictional’s next horror game. The development studio behind the Amnesia franchise, the delectably chilling SOMA, and the mind-bending Penumbra series, has released a new, 5-minute gameplay trailer for Amnesia: Rebirth.
And it’s everything we’d expect it to be.
Though there’s a disclaimer at the beginning of the trailer stating that the footage shows a work-in-progress build of the game, it’s a safe bet that with Rebrith‘s October 20 release roughly two weeks away, a lot of what we see here is in the final product.
Moody, atmospheric, and starting out scary as all hell, the trailer shows off classic genre gameplay and a terrifying enemy that’s all kinds of nope. On top of that, there’s crafting, traps, and loads of lamp lighting. There’s a good smattering of gore heaped on for good measure.
Frictional explained on the PlayStation Blog that Amnesia: Rebirth is a survival horror game that’s learned from its predecessors, paying homage to their systems while carving a new path. This is especially true for the sanity system and failure system.
Thomas Grip, Frictional Games’ Creative Director, said that it was necessary that those systems and mechanics evolve with Rebirth to best immerse players in the world and narrative.
When reimplementing [the sanity system] for Rebirth, the major updates were not just on a systemic level, but also on a narrative one. While we did a lot of tweaks in order for the whole system to be more reactive, the major change was how it affected the player. Having some generic idea of ‘sanity’ that got lower also felt a bit simplistic to us.
In Rebirth, the protagonist Tasi is afflicted by a mysterious disease, which is all part of the story. The more afraid Tasi becomes, from darkness or terrifying sights, the worse the symptoms get. This means that we now give players a much more visceral reason to care about the fear.
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We knew we had to make some changes to [the Dark Descent version of the failure system]. The solution was to tie it into the fear system. If Tasi becomes too frightened, her affliction will take a harsh turn for the worse.
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.
We’ll have to wait and see how it all works out, but from the gameplay trailer above, Rebirth looks like more Amnesia, something we’re here for — especially during the witching season. Amnesia: Rebirth releases on October 20 for PC (Steam, GOG, Epic) and PS4 via the PlayStation Store. Stay tuned for our full review.
[Sources: IGN, PlayStation Blog]
