One of the most prominent features of the Epic Games Store is the bi-monthly selection of free games on offer, which range from indie games like Among Us and Celeste to AAA titles like Saints Row: The Third and the entirety of the Batman: Arkham Collection. Currently, users of the game launcher can redeem Insurmountable and XCOM 2 for free between April 14th to April 21st.
Epic Games Store changes its selection of free games every Thursday at 10:00 AM CT and announces the games players can look forward to obtaining on a monthly basis. On April 21st, horror game fans can rejoice, as Amnesia: Rebirth is among the two games that can be claimed for free during the next rotation and will be available until the end of the month.
Amnesia: Rebirth Free on Epic Games Store from April 21st
Amnesia: Rebirth is the third installment to the Amnesia series, with Swedish studio Frictional Games again spearheading the game's development after skipping A Machine for Pigs and its release of the 2015 sci-fi horror Soma. Launched in October 2020, Amnesia: Rebirth received generally positive reviews and serves as a direct sequel to the first game, The Dark Descent.
The game takes place 98 years after the events of the highly-successful Amnesia: The Dark Descent, and players take control of the French archeologist Tasi, who suffers from memory loss after being involved in a plane crash. Tasi is separated from the rest of her team in the middle of colonized Algeria, and the goal of the survival horror game is to reunite them.
Amnesia: Rebirth reintroduces the sanity system missing from A Machine for Pigs but is renamed to "fear". Similar to The Dark Descent, Tasi's fear level increases whenever she is left in the dark, caught by a monster, or witnesses a horrifying event. Players can reduce her fear levels by keeping her in the light, which is done by refilling her lamp with oil, lighting candles and torches with matches, or seeking refuge in "safe rooms". However, unlike in the first installment of the series, Tasi's health will regenerate automatically over time, removing the need for healing items like laudanum.
Where players of The Dark Descent only had one location to explore – the Brennenburg Castle – one of the most welcome changes to the game is the ability for players to traverse multiple ominous locations throughout the deserts of colonial Africa during Amnesia: Rebirth's multiple hours of gameplay. Through balancing oil and matchstick reserves, successfully evading monsters, and solving puzzles, players can advance through ancient ruins, abandoned villages, and vast underground caves to achieve Tasi's goals.
Non-horror gamers can also choose to obtain voxel art co-op adventure Riverbond from the Epic Games Store, but should still consider grabbing Amnesia: Rebirth. In March and April 2021, Frictional Games released an update for Amnesia: Rebirth featuring "Adventure Mode" for the PC and PlayStation versions of the game. The new mode completely removes all horror elements of the game, such as the "life-threatening encounters" and "harrowing sound and visual effects," allowing players to purely focus on the story. This has made Amnesia: Rebirth far more accessible, enabling non-horror game lovers to enjoy other aspects of the game without its core fear element.
This update marks the first time the game studio has offered the option of playing an Amnesia game without its renowned horror elements – believing that there's more to its games than the horror. Regardless of which mode new players decide to play, Amnesia: Rebirth's multiple endings should prove interesting for those that make it through the game.
Amnesia: Rebirth is available for PC and PS4.