Reviews - Dune_Jumper

Fun short mod.

Rebirth is a great experience overall, although different from The Dark Descent. The chief differences are that the gameplay is even more linear than it was in the first game, and the story is presented different such as using a voiced protagonist and cutscenes. The game may be more or less scary than the first depending on who you ask.

The story is awesome and weird with twists you won't really expect. It ties in and expands on the original game's plot in a few ways. The voice work is as perfect as it was in the first game, especially the protagonist. It's fun (or scary) to explore the many different environments from a bright desert & creepy fort, to terrifying catacombs and alien landscapes. The mechanic where you have to use matches that burn out quickly is fun and scary. There are some sequences that are far more thrilling than anything the first game had. The puzzles are straightforward as always. The graphics are gorgeous and will keep you immersed, either giving you eye candy or creeping you out. I only encountered one major bug where a door got stuck.

The more game-y parts are unfortunately lacking. There is no health meter because instead of "dying" you get a cutscene where you run away in a fugue state, making failure "canon" to the story. A neat idea, but it makes the game less scary. There is no sanity meter, standing in the darkness simply has an immediate effect and if you stay too long you start getting a jumpscare hallucination which is just annoying. The lantern burns out so fast that it's a chore to keep it fueled. As for the plot, it gets a little heavy-handed in a few moments. Those are the only gripes I have with this game.

Rebirth is an excellent game through and through, but if you're specifically looking for more of The Dark Descent you are going to be disappointed. All of the people that played the game for less than two hours and left a negative review are certified morons and should be ignored.

Overall it is a big improvement. The textures look amazing with the upscaling and parallax. The lighting is generally better, especially with the improved lighting and reflectivity all the textures and objects have. There are a lot of small added details.

There are just a few things holding it back. Parallax being too extreme and obvious if you look at a texture from the wrong angle. Lighting can look kinda broken in a couple small places, such as the flashback when you touch the orb the rest of the room is supposed to be pitch black but in this mod you can kinda see the black texture the ceiling uses. My framerate kept dropping on my RTX 2080 Ryzen 5 3600 PC.

It does what it sets out to do. Everything feels fresh.

yes

This is the best Half-Life 2 remaster out there.

I've been playing HL1 mods pretty much my whole life, and this is one of the best I've ever played. The fact that someone can make such a phenomenal mod for a twenty year old game amazes me. The fantastic level design, graphics, and especially the cinematic scripted moments are going to leave an impact on me. Never before has a scripted sequence in the GoldSrc engine left my mouth hanging open like this mod's sequences.