The Suicide of Rachel Foster

A haunting and deeply disturbing story told by slow and careful exploration of a beautiful locale. Over time you really get to know the place, with all its little nooks and crannies. The sense of presence is outstanding. The atmosphere is pretty much perfect. I have never played a game that calibrates detail and the sum of all details so well, so much so that I dare call it a masterpiece in this respect.

I would classify it as "psychoanalytical horror". There are no unfair jump scares, but your heart will definitely be racing at certain points in the game. It's creepy more than scary, but ... very creepy indeed.

You'll notice a lot of negative reviews here focusing on a "bad story". I'm here to provide an opposite opinion. I found the subtlety and moral ambiguity progress cleverly and well. Nobody comes out a hero. Everyone comes out deeply flawed, deeply damaged, and deeply damaging to each other. The more I think about the story—and it definitely stays with you long after you play—the more I realize the horrors of what was left unstated in the game.

I will readily agree that this is not for everyone. If you're looking for satisfying closure, you won't get that here. So, yes, read the negative reviews and take them into consideration. But I hope my different point of view will encourage some curiosity. For those of us who appreciate being disturbed, this game is literally breathtaking.

Some negatives: performance is, indeed, miserable. So, go for "low" graphics settings if you must. I didn't feel like it detracted anything. Also, you absolutely want to enable vsync to avoid screen tearing. Unfortunately, for me vsync got turned off every time I reloaded the game. So just make sure vsync is on every time you start playing.

Also, in spite of all the attention to detail, I felt it was too bad that the world was not more interactive. All you can do is pick up very specific things up and look at them and there was rarely anything interesting to learn from doing that. In short, the gameplay does not match the ambitions of the storytelling.

Another negative: if you've ever played Firewatch, it's hard not to notice the conceptual and thematic similarities. I think this game stands strongly enough on its own, but ... this kind of "borrowing" makes me uncomfortable. Is it really so hard to come up with truly original ideas? This game dances on the line between homage and rip-off.