I admit that I mostly agreed to demo The Suicide of Rachel Foster to broaden my PAX West gaming experience. See, most of the titles I played weren’t adventure games, so I figured I might as well try one out. It didn’t hurt that the publisher was Daedalic Entertainment, who are pretty much known for story heavy adventures like the Deponia series of games. Which isn’t to say that’s all they publish, just the vast majority of what I’m familiar with. So I went into The Suicide of Rachel Foster to see what they were cooking up.
The demo pretty much let me wander about an estate my character had inherited after a death in her family. It was a hotel complex, and I was seemingly returning to sell the estate after 10 years on the last wishes of her mother. She plans to use that sale money to compensate Rachel Foster, who got involved with your father and committed suicide thereafter. I played Nicole, who seemed to be haunted by regret and dismay over a great many things. There was an air of anxiety that permeated the whole experience, as prevalent as the ever present flakes of a powerful snowstorm. Thankfully, I talked with one of the exhibitors and they confirmed that there are no jump scares or cheap gotcha moments in the game, just a growing sense of menace and rising drama.
Graphically the game was very realistic and full of small details I was at my leisure to investigate. Likewise, the voice acting and sound effects did their respective jobs well. The controls were pretty intuitive, and all I could really do was wander about, examine items and check my map for a better handle on my location. My goal was to find a key to get started, and I walked all about, with Nicole reminiscing as I went. I was enjoying myself until the game hit a random bug that had affected the person ahead of me in line, completely stopping the game, and I didn’t want to start over from scratch. That said, what little I was able to experience was emotional and evocative, so I have a feeling the final build for The Suicide of Rachel Foster will be a fascinating adventure.
If you’re a fan of Daedalic or just like the occasional adventure game, you should check out The Suicide of Rachel Foster. It’s slated to release later in 2019 for PC, PS4 and Xbox One. Hopefully the bug that stopped my demo will be fully dealt with by that point.
