That willingness to unravel what exactly is going on also plays into the minimal gameplay functions that are on offer here. Better still, as its latter half invests more in finding one’s self attracted to the paranoia and anxiety of distant/nearby sounds upon the game’s diving into more horror-lite territory. But if there’s one thing One-O-One Games do get right here, it’s the idea of being drawn into the environment.
#THE SUICIDE OF RACHEL FOSTER STORY EXPLAINED FULL#
The game doesn’t always grant players full liberty however - some areas available to access long before later chapters deem them relevant to the plot, while other routes are seemingly locked off for much the same reason.
Some charm in how authentic the level design plays out - how secret routes and such all connect to one another. While it’s not the focus of the game, The Suicide of Rachel Foster does garner positivity in simply exploring its prime setting. To the point you could even picture it functioning as an actual hotel - reception lobbies running alongside pubic rooms, staff-only spaces and corridors that stretch and twist within the confines in-between. The idea of a mountainous hotel retreat in all its clashing aesthetic choices and visual designs, still meshing sufficiently well together.
An environment that, on its own, lends itself to modest curiosity in its more genuine infrastructure. It’s a shame that Rachel Foster falters (though doesn’t outright fail in its delicacy) where it does, for One-O-One games clearly have a knack for building a setting brimming with potential, albeit not quite capitalizing on such an opportunity.
Marks for the intention perhaps, even if the end result falls way short of what this complex, case-for-case subject matter deserves in this day and age. A suggestion of veering into territory few may want to talk about. Perhaps that’s why the pre-release descriptor of Rachel Foster being a game focusing on themes of suicide was so heavily marketed. Especially for a game lasting only around three to four hours - though maybe can be stretched to five should you want to pick up every interactive object, regardless of relevancy. It’s a strange, but also deflated, approach to take. Hoping instead players are reminded of other games (better games) and that that rekindling will somehow mask its clear shortcomings. Outside of initial appearance, outside of reminiscing on those past successes - on a game like Firewatch that managed so wonderfully to break from out the stigma of its proposed genre stereotypes - The Suicide of Rachel Foster clearly isn’t in the business of giving its brief, story-driven efforts any sense of unique underpinning. In rather, haphazard, forcibly-dramatic circumstances I might add. This then is exactly where the deviation in quality begins and sadly doesn’t end until the closing scene and accompanying end choice is laid out to the player. An introduction, in Firewatch‘s case, that brilliantly set the stage while offering some opportune sympathy with its main protagonist. Right from the get-go - the literal first minute-or-so - shifting back-and-forth between expository, on-screen text and slow-crawling gameplay via the most-cliche of funeral scenes - is reminiscent of Campo Santo’s own “walking sim”-fashioned, first-person adventure. Firewatch will automatically be the first name people will clamber to when it comes to drawing comparisons with One-O-One Games’ latest, The Suicide of Rachel Foster. Nor should they be mistaken or interchanged for one another when it comes to comparing two specific creations - in this case, two specific video game releases. “Inspired by…” and “replicating” are never the same thing.
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