With Amnesia: Rebirth and Riverbond, Epic is giving you something both scary and (co-op) relaxing this week.
It’s hard to believe it’s been 1.5 years since the return of the legendary horror series Amnesia – how time flies! If you’ve been rather suspicious of the late sequel so far, now is the perfect opportunity to compare the creepiness factor yourself with its predecessors.
Because this week Epic is giving you Amnesia: Rebirth, which may not quite reach the level of its legendary predecessors, but is still an excellent game.
If you don’t feel like being spooked, then the second free game might be of interest to you: Riverbond. In the cuddly little couch co-op title, you adventure alone or with friends through cute voxel worlds, beat up monsters and collect treasures.
The most important information about the free games
How long are the games free? From 21 to 28 April at 5pm, Amnesia: Rebirth and Riverbond can be unlocked for zero euros with your Epic account. After that, you can keep them permanently and play them anytime.
What’s in it? You get the complete games for which there are no DLCs anyway. So you don’t have to worry about missing out on content or hidden costs.
Is this something for you? In the rest of the article, as usual, we rank who this week’s free game is for
How to play Amnesia: Rebirth
The third part of the infamous Amnesia series wants to reinvent itself a bit according to its name and relies more on adventure than horror gameplay in the first half. We decipher messages, solve physics puzzles and follow an exciting story around well-known Middle Eastern myths.
You slip into the skin of the technical draughtswoman Tasi Trianon, who crashes over the Algerian desert with her husband on an archaeological mission in 1937. Alone and, as is typical for the series, without a memory, you must then get to the bottom of the secrets of your past and your surroundings.
You can get a good impression of the game and its creepy factor in this gameplay trailer:
Late comes the time-honoured Amnesia experience of sneaking and panicked fleeing that series veterans love so much. What is a disadvantage for some could become an advantage for newcomers, because you don’t need any previous series knowledge to have fun with Rebirth.
The many dark passages remain, in which you always have to decide whether to use the rare light sources such as matches or lamp oil, which you really wanted to save up.
What is Riverbond?
Riverbond is a shallow hack and slay game that looks a bit like Minecraft, but is a dungeon crawler at heart as you fight your way through nine different worlds and collect legendary treasures. You can see Riverbond in action here:
A wide range of melee and ranged weapons are used to smash everything in the cute environments. Each world also presents you with a task that beckons with additional rewards. These include numerous skins, some of which come from crossover collaborations with other indie titles such as Enter the Gungeon, Guacamelee, Bastion, Shovel Knight and Psychonauts.
The relaxed adventure in the charming voxel look can be played alone or with up to four players. As it is quite easy, we would also recommend recruiting at least one teammate for local split-screen co-op and thus enjoy the title together until the end.
For whom are the free games suitable?
Amnesia: Rebirth is suitable for both series connoisseurs and newcomers, as it doesn’t overwhelm the latter or confuse them with constant allusions, yet still generates goosebumps throughout and picks up veterans with the familiar Amnesia gameplay in the second half at the latest.
Riverbond, on the other hand, is suitable for those who just want a bit of non-committal adventuring. Co-op reinforcements can jump in and out of an ongoing game at any time and the low difficulty level lets you temporarily switch off your head. Those who like it challenging, on the other hand, might be better off with the exceptional roguelike Hades.
