Amnesia: Rebirth is considered a worthy successor to the original Amnesia: The Dark Descent, but it certainly does things very differently than the original that shook up the horror game genre ten long years ago. Horror games have come a long way since then, and while many have been inspired to varying degrees by Amnesia, any new horror game has to learn from all the successful and unsuccessful titles that have come out since. In an interview with Frictional Games, the creators of The Dark Descent and Rebirth, Game Rant got to ask some questions about what makes Rebirth unique and how the studio continues to shape the horror genre.
The most noticeable change in Amnesia: Rebirth is its setting, which holds a variety of environments where most horror games, including The Dark Descent, take place in a single, homogenous area to create a sense of oppression and claustrophobia. A horror game set in a desert sounds like a tough thing to pull off, so we asked plenty of questions about that, but our first query centered on Amnesia‘s lasting legacy in the horror genre: Are there any games that may have been inspired by The Dark Descent that have since informed Rebirth‘s development?
In one sense, I think that all games that have come after Amnesia have been an inspiration. When we did The Dark Descent, playing as a defenseless protagonist was quite uncommon and many players weren’t used to it. This meant we didn’t have to try that hard to make the game engaging as the experience was so novel. Now, however, countless games have done the same thing. So that means we have to try much harder in order to craft a compelling horror game.
As for direct inspiration, I have to be a bit selfish and say SOMA. The sort of storytelling we did in that game has had a huge impact on how we designed Rebirth. SOMA taught us that you can make players feel emotions that take hours of buildup to achieve. We’re trying to do this with Rebirth too, but using a more classic Amnesia-style gameplay as the foundation.
Those hours of emotional buildup tie directly into the design of the game’s various areas. The developers explained that having a wide variety of areas, times of day, and themes can actually add to the sensation of horror by eliciting emotion over time. As they had just stated, creating emotion over hours of gameplay was an explicit goal in Amnesia: Rebirth‘s design.
…we want to simulate a long and harrowing journey for Tasi. In order to do so, we can’t just have the game taking place in similar looking corridors for 10 hours. That will not give that sense of having been through a long trek. So by making sure every level takes place in a new setting or a new time of day or both, we can give a sense of a longer passage of time and longer distances covered. This increases the feeling of loneliness and just pure hardship Tasi goes through.
Another aspect is that in order for players to go through the more oppressive parts of the game, we need to make sure that there is a drive to progress. A good tool for that is to make sure that there is always some new setting to look forward to. You always need to have these sort of tricks in order to get a good balance of just pouring misery on the player versus giving them relief. Coming out the other side with a new setting to explore is a really good counterweight.
The developers believe that the story development they worked so hard to deliver is the true strength of Amnesia over other horror game franchises. One explained that his favorite part of the game is Tasi’s personal journey, and detailed that Amnesia games as a whole focus much more on delivering horror tied to “a more connected and emotionally deeper narrative.” He expressed that the deeper emotional weight of their games is what separates them from “jump scare generators.” Although there’s nothing wrong with making a purely heart-pounding spook fest, Amnesia: Rebirth certainly offers much more depth, which is exactly what many players are looking for this season.
Amnesia: Rebirth is available for PC and PS4.
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