Amnesia: Rebirth has new monster-free ‘adventure mode’, new puzzles, and more lights

If you like puzzles and weird deserts, but not gruesome darkness and ghouls, Swedish studio Frictional has a new version of their game. Amnesia: rebirth for you. A less stressful “adventure mode” is added to Renaissance today via GOG, Steam, and the Epic Store. The PlayStation version of the game will get Adventure Mode in the coming weeks.

Amnesia: rebirth, released last year, is a strong sequel to the notoriously spooky Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Adventure mode removes encounters with Renaissancemany monsters, as well as special effects that damaged the mental state of its protagonist Tasi. It also adds light to the game’s scariest levels, so players don’t have to ration matches or face the dark. And Frictional says it’s adding bonus puzzles to Adventure Mode, so even if you spend less time sneaking around and hiding, you’ll theoretically have more classic adventure game mechanics to make up for that.

Friction games

As Amnesia: rebirth Creative chief Fredrik Olsson describes it: “The game still has its very serious theme and sometimes baffling vibe, but the new mode is a lot more like a Indiana Jones type of adventure in places where it would otherwise be a horror experience. “

Adventure mode is comparable to the safe mode that Frictional added to its 2015 horror game. Soma. But Safe Mode was a relatively straightforward mod that kept monsters from attacking players, broadening the appeal of a world where failure can be seriously frustrating. Games like Underworld and Celestial have adopted similar systems, giving a boost to players who wish to enjoy the standard game at a lower difficulty level.

Adventure Mode looks like a larger aesthetic change to a game that was already helping players progress if they “died”, albeit at a subtle narrative cost. It aims to make the general atmosphere more accessible or, as Frictional says, to remove “the anxiety-provoking and very painful elements present in the original game”. It looks a bit more like Origins of Assassin’s Creed‘ the educational mode, which swapped combat for a museum-style tour – though Frictional still keeps players focused on Renaissance original story.

Friction expressed ambivalence about Renaissance a “safe mode” before launch, indicating Vice that removing monsters “wouldn’t make historical sense.” Adventure Mode can get around this problem by modifying the entire game world – not just the parts that can kill you.