Thanks to numerous highlights from Dear Esther to What Remains of Edith Finch, the walking simulator genre has found a permanent place in the world of video games. The Suicide of Rachel Foster also uses this narrative form, but also wants to playfully challenge.
It is 1991. Nicole's father Leonard died and left the family hotel to her mother Claire. However, she transfers all rights of disposal to her daughter and asks her to sell the building. In this way, she should pay off her student loan and transfer the rest to Rachel Foster's survivors. Leonard had an affair with her nine years ago that tragically came to an abrupt end with Rachel's suicide.
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On the advice of lawyer Mr. Jenkins, Nicole drives to the hotel while a rough snowstorm is raging. Although it arrives safely, it has to wait several days on site due to the harsh weather conditions. Fortunately, she finds a bulky cell phone in her old children's room and contacts Irving Crawford of the Helena Federal Emergency Management Agency. He wants to take care of Nicole as best he can and stand by her during the unscheduled stay.
The hotel has been vacant for some time and is sometimes like a shack, as evidenced by moldy hallway walls or rotten food supplies in the pantry. In addition, you come across a few inexplicable events: Your car key has disappeared without a trace, and between all the dirt there is a barely used lipstick that Nicole instinctively associates with the said Rachel Foster. Consequently, doubts grow as to whether the girl is actually dead …
Run, talk, search
At first glance, The Suicide of Rachel Foster is a genuine walking simulator, in which you take on the role of Nicole and examine the hotel with Irving's verbal support on your cell phone. Most of the time you are running or talking on the phone – puzzles are rather in short supply. In one scene you should unscrew the L-angle of a locked door – for which you simply use a screwdriver.
Nevertheless, it is not always clear what to do next: Again and again you have to go looking for the next place or object (such as the screwdriver mentioned), which is not an easy task thanks to the winding and multi-storey hotel. You have a complete floor plan of all floors as well as a checklist that summarizes your current goal in a short sentence. But sometimes these instructions are not clear enough, which is why you have to consider: Where and how is it going to continue?
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What at first glance sounds like a welcome change from other walking simulators quickly turns out to be an annoying horse foot. Some clues are so vague that only a haphazard search remains and the fun rattles down steeply. A very particular chapter turned out to be particularly bad, in which all the items collected so far have been lost – including the telephone and checklist, which is why you no longer receive any tips and can only guess your current task.
Aim without a path
Fortunately, the story turns out to be a lot more interesting than the playful content, although the final resolution around Rachel Foster was even really successful. The game also deals with unusually serious topics that go beyond Rachel's suicide. Unfortunately, the developer studio One-O-One Games fails in the development of the story: Much of what you experience during the good three hours of play feels meaningless in the end. The twist would work the same way if you experienced it right at the start of your exploration tour.
Daedalic's The Suicide of Rachel Foster brings another narrative adventure to PC in February.
In addition, the narrative stalls regularly because the conversations with Irving can sometimes take far too long and you are not allowed to do anything during the process. Taking or using objects is usually not possible until the phone call has ended. For this reason, there is often nothing left but to stand still for minutes or to walk bored in a circle.
In general, the hotel looks graphically appealing, but looks sterile and empty compared to the seven-year-old gone home. Most of the plus points are collected by the English speakers from Nicole and Irving, who both do an impeccable job and bring their respective characters to life. In addition, the chemistry between the two is right, no matter in which direction the story moves.
