DYING: Reborn Reviews
Despite its interesting puzzles, DYING: Reborn struggles to be much more than a poor example of horror; the scares are few and far between, the plot and its characters are horribly played out and given how generic it can frequently be, it's alarming how seriously it takes itself.
Dying: Reborn isn't a particularly scary game, especially since you can't die. But it does possess a delightfully odd atmosphere and lots of fun puzzles to solve. This style of game, with all its indie seams and quirks, won't be for everybody. But if you can attune yourself to its quirky presentation (or just want those easy Achievements), Dying: Reborn won't kill your good time.
Dying: Reborn is a textbook example on how to set up the groundwork for an 'Escape Room' experience, but it largely feels unfinished and content is repeated in order to fill in those gaps.
On a system bursting with great horror games, you can safely side-step Dying: Reborn. While we appreciate the attempt, the production values just aren't in place to create the tension that's intended here, and even though there are a couple of decent puzzles on display, there's not enough meat on this murder mystery's bones to make it worth the price of admission.
Despite this generous clutch of problems, there is an odd charm to the game. Its schlock is part of its allure, and each time I loaded the game, I felt as though I was returning to a well-thumbed piece of pulp horror trash or sliding an old VHS B-movie slasher into the machine – its cheap ghouls awash with scan lines.
Dying Reborn is an escape room game with some creepy elements to it. The story has an interesting premise, but quickly becomes uninteresting and confusing. Some puzzles feel rewarding, while far too many feel obscure and annoying.
I wasn't compelled by the story, the characters, or the atmosphere. I didn't feel any sense of tension or immersion with Mathew and his plight. The presentation of the game from graphics to on-screen font to voice-acting was very generic and lackluster too, making the whole experience a struggle and not very enjoyable. Without a walkthrough, I probably would not have pressed on because I just was not finding the experience worth my time and effort.
Ultimately, Dying: Reborn is a halfway competent puzzler, but a failure as a horror game.
If you like a good puzzler, then Dying: Reborn is the champion of the conundrum, with twists and brain scratchers that will keep you occupied throughout.
Perhaps the only good thing that can be said about Dying: Reborn is that you can easily get a Platinum trophy from it, provided you only backtrack after finishing the game. It's faster if you use a guide for the more obtuse puzzles, but the whole endeavor takes only a few hours to accomplish. If you aren't into Trophy hunting, however, there's nothing of value in this title. Poor puzzles that repeat often, dodgy presentation with worse audio, and a story with too many plot holes are all wrapped up with a price tag that's too expensive for what you're getting. On a system that already has plenty of good horror games, there should be no reason for anyone to pick up Dying: Reborn.
There isn't much reason to revisit the Last Harbour Family Hotel, but I enjoyed my stay.
The focus in DYING: Reborn is on its puzzles, and their difficulty is right up there with classics such as MYST. The visuals get the job done and the game even features a full trophy list with a Platinum trophy! So if you're looking for a puzzle/adventure game on PS4, you might want to check this one out!
Dying: Reborn is an interesting enough puzzle game that falls short of making any kind of impact at all. A cash-in game for the VR age, skipping this title would be recommended.
DYING: Reborn is a flawed game with good intentions. Gameplay feels clunky and outdated, and the voice acting, unfortunately, fails to put you into a terrifying experience. But the game did keep me busy and won me over with its smart puzzle design, which is the core of the game and the most important part.
A wasted opportunity. Some decent graphics and a couple of engaging puzzles aren't enough to save Dying: Reborn. The overreliance on safes, keypads and combinations highlight the developer's lack of imagination. This feels like a step backwards from the older low-fi titles from Konami and Capcom, who figured out how to make interesting and fun puzzles in horror games. While this version of Dying: Reborn is a better buy than the PSVR edition, it is not better by much.
Despite being "horror-themed", I was honestly laughing way more than anything during the game. The fish-head villain isn't particularly scary, just kinda dumb looking, the characters and their motivations are either shallow or unexplained, the interface was occasionally extremely aggravating, and some of the puzzles can be extremely unintuitive, given a certain mindset. Honestly, I've seen better "escape" style games for free on my phone, and even the paid ones are better and cheaper. I really can't recommend this game unless you're in dire need of an escape game that isn't for your phone.
DYING: Reborn had the potential to be a decent game. Nevertheless, with its lack of real horror elements, bad translation issues and nowhere near enough good puzzles, all of the things you would want, it is hard to recommend.