I'm going to be casually cataloguing my experiences with Amnesia Rebirth. I finished A:TDD a long time ago, and in the last few days, I've played through A Machine for Pigs and did a single successful playthrough of Justine. Now I want to play Rebirth and document how it goes. I made sure to wait until it got dark, and I lit up a few candles and placed them around my monitor for lighting. https://i.imgur.com/SqkSGtC.jpeg

Getting into it, I'm amazed that they're going with a well-lit desert as the starting location. A seriously ballsy move for a horror game. Very confident, to start you off in a well lit location, it knows it can scare you.

I'm in the caves now. I love the atmosphere. I love the lighting system - it's an improvement on original Amnesia, and dear god is it an improvement on AMFP - I didn't realise how bad their lighting system was until I played Justine and realised original Amnesia had darkvision (which humans do have ofc).

I moved into the little shrine sanctuary the game gives you and found a statue and a piece of paper that says a prayerful phrase and has "Tin" at the end, which isn't transcribed. Judging by the look of the statuette and the "Tin" on the paper, I'm almost certain that it's referring to Tin Hanan, a figure mentioned in every previous game. In fact, this could very well be the tomb of Tin Hanan that has been mentioned in the previous game, I'm pretty sure Daniel's orb hails from that tomb. In fact, the mask that is the central motif of the game so far is most likely a mask representing Tin Hanan herself. I wonder how it plays out, and what that thing her forehead is. Maybe an orb? Maybe where Daniel's orb came from, and the reason why the Shadow is chasing him? Maybe the Shadow is Tin Hanan? Or aligned with Tin Hanan - maybe the shadows portrayed behind the mask represent the Shadow.

I'm going deeper into the caverns right now and I'm already shitting myself. This is not going to be fun. The sound design of AMFP was very good (even though the gameplay and the lighting weren't) - and Rebirth is doing as good, if not better. It's using less cheap tricks as well.

I really don't want to cross that plank, something awful is gonna happen... YEP, that wasn't a fucking rock formation, that was a creature.

I wonder what's up with the fact that she has memories of these places and being in them, yet she started off in the plane, as if after the crash. There has to be some weird time related stuff going on, and if not, did she crawl back to the plane just to wake up again? Hmm. Maybe she dies and comes back to life.

What the actual fuck is up with the vibrating rocks? That's certainly new, I'll say that.

https://i.imgur.com/f7kWDGd.png That's an interesting portrayal of a praying person or something. Either way, I don't think it's just a shape. Hmm.

Just had the big reveal with the weird... sky thing. The Revealing that I'm not in proper reality. This is some PROPER Lovecraftian shit. I really hope they keep going with it, and explore more of Lovecraft than just "haha tentacles go wiggle wiggle". They already are, with the weird unreal spaces and such.

God I hate those violin notes. They're always coming from a specific direction and it makes it seem like something is there, even though they're literally music.

https://i.imgur.com/2dknkEb.jpeg Even if they're worn, I recognise these sigils nonetheless. They're sigils describing demons from Ars Goetia of the Lesser Key of Solomon. The upper one is the sigil of Flauros. "He gives true answers of all things past, present and future, but he must be first commanded to enter a magic triangle for if not he will lie, deceive the conjurer, and beguile him in other business. But if he enters the triangle he will answer truly, and gladly speak about divinity, the creation of the world, himself, and other fallen angels. He can also destroy all the conjurer's enemies by burning them up. If the magician requests it, he will not suffer temptations from any spirit or in any form. Commonly people represent him as a humanoid leopard with big claws. Flauros is depicted as a terrible and strong leopard that under request of the conjurer changes into a man with fiery eyes and an awful expression. Flauros can also supposedly be called upon when a mortal wishes to take vengeance on other demons. This is likely included in his capability to destroy the conjurer's enemies." Of course, they're likely just using the sigils because they look cool.

Of course the ruins are Roman, and there's a Mithraeum inside. All my predictions have been totally vindicated so far - it IS the mound of Tin Hanan, and it does have to do with the orbs, as the members of the Mithraic faith were the only ones who were able to use the orbs without retribution from the Shadow, according to the lore of the last games.

I swear, there's an occasional flash of light coming from somewhere, and I don't know if it's the game, the candles, or outside the window. It feels like I'm going mad.

I feel like the baby and womb motifs could be related to Tin Hanan being a corpulent fertility goddess. Maybe I'm reading into it too much though.

OKAY, YEAH, SHE'S PREGNANT, LMAO. I was right. I wonder if it's some weird shit like her carrying the orb in her womb, or maybe a monster. Or some extra weird shit like carrying a reincarnation of Tin Hanan, or herself or some crazy shit.

I seriously hate these holes in the cave walls. They always have some sort of meat or bones in there, even beer cans. And next to them are stones with shadowy things drawn on them. I bet they're going to end up being where monsters are hiding.

So far every single assumption I've made has been correct - which is a good thing, it means the game is putting down clues that are very much possible to figure out. And it means that every piece of paper I see is very much useful information.

So I'm in the fortress right now, and I'm fucking hating life. The ghul "djinn" that are chasing me are beyond horrifying, and I don't even mean their appearance, they're just legitimately terrifying in how they behave and the way they scare you. The holes in the walls have been 100% confirmed to be ghul holes and I despise it. The long arms, the rapid movement, the tendency to fuck with you... I hate them so much. Harvesters from The Dark Descent are puppies compared to these awful things. And the thing is, they've never even attacked me, even when I totally froze. I guess they attacked me during the chase sequence but it could very well have been scripted. I desperately want to google how their mechanics work so I can try to make them less scary, but fuck, maybe I shouldn't.

I finished with the ghul section and now I'm peacefully making my tank shell. I actually triggered the explosion of the grenade while trying to take it for myself. I figured that would happen, lol. I just ran into the corner and was fine. Tasi got pretty damn stressed, though. I'm also not sure if I picked up a second bottle of Laudanum or not, but it doesn't seem to register two bottles. I hope I didn't accidentally lose one to wonky game mechanics.

Anyway, I have to say, even though I despise how scary it is (way scarier than AMFP), the gameplay is actually really good. I didn't realise how much I missed a good puzzle after playing AMFP. Also, I find it hilarious just how much my logic shut down from fear - I had to google where the second cannon wheel was even though it was so obvious - in the cannon room.

Going back into that accursed place with the ghul now, to get the last ingredient - saltpeter. Fuck.