The Suicide of Rachel Foster Review
Release Date: February 19th, 2020
Developer: ONE-O-ONE Games
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC (Reviewed)
Price: $17.99
Whether facing the notion ourselves or having experienced the unfortunate circumstances of mental illness indirectly, suicide is a topic that can be overwhelming for most. Having the gift of life but living in such egregious conditions that one is willing to give it all up to have everlasting peace as the only option can be difficult to comprehend for a lot of people, but we all face challenges and, while I don't condone it, sometimes it can feel like the whole world is crippling outside of you, while the weight of your mind collapses your body within. What could we have done differently? How did we not see this sooner? Why didn't they simply reach out for help? These questions never truly get answered, and we're left with blaming ourselves and trying to put the pieces back together, either for the sake of understanding what led to the tragic fate, or for some sort of closure ourselves - emotionally especially. The Suicide of Rachel Foster focuses on the teenage girl of the same name, and while you don't play as her and instead are the protagonist Nicole Wilson who recently inherited a hotel from her late father and are looking to sell it, newspaper clippings and more begin to pique your interest on a case that happened years prior. Why is this here, though? Slowly but surely the story of Rachel Foster makes itself known, as well as an ominous call simply saying, "don't sell the hotel".
Nicole Wilson can't remember the last time she's been to the hotel in the mountains of Montana. After all the turmoil she went through growing up between the incident regarding Rachel Foster, her parents divorcing, the town reaching a depressive state, and more, it had been nearly a decade up until this point since she had left. Now after the recent passing of her father, she's inherited the hotel that she's wanted nothing to do with. She doesn't hesitate to put it up for sale as she doesn’t intend on carrying out the family business, but during her commute there to help tidy up and recover anything that may be of value to her, a dangerous snowstorm causes her to stay indoors as the icy conditions make it near impossible to drive or even walk outside. With conditions worsening, she gets a call from a man named Irving from FEMA looking to make sure she stays safe and has someone to talk to given the large plot and lack of really anything else given how long the hotel has been vacant up until this point. As the days go by waiting for the snowstorm to pass, what was initially a trip to a hotel to gather any belongings turns into a spiral down a case of mystery and secrets that have been kept from her. Interestingly, Rachel Foster ties into all of this in a clever way that keeps you on the edge of your seat thanks to the stellar writing. I had lots of moments where I was reminded of the likes of The Shining, Blair Witch, and The Conjuring because of the sequence of events that occurs throughout your playthrough. From the extremely large hotel that you're freely able to explore and the dust covered rooms and halls, to the random noises and lights flickering, the atmosphere can become incredibly overwhelming as you keep telling yourself to breathe and that it's "probably just rats" to convince yourself that everything is OK. You definitely get into the shoes of Nicole Wilson as she would echo my thoughts of "it's probably nothing" and "how did I end up here?" along with a lot of witty and snarky comments that ease the tension a little bit. One of the unfortunate things about The Suicide of Rachel Foster, however, is that while the atmosphere tends to become extremely heavy and feel overwhelming at points, nothing really ever happens. The build up and tension became so large over the course of my roughly 3 and a half hour playthrough that even something like a knock on the door, doorbell, or stubbing my toe onto something would have caused me to become incontinent. Ultimately, though, it's a quiet hotel where most of the issues arise because of both the player and the main character, and not because of some supernatural events or horrific sequences that could have been utilized extremely well in a setting like this.
Most of the narrative is told through a phone call between Nicole and Irving as she survives the next few days in a hotel that's short on non-expired food and other utilities like hot water, and while, as previously stated, the writing is great and carries itself naturally also thanks to a tremendous job by the voice actors, it almost becomes too reliant on it as the gameplay outside of that can feel shallow. Yes, you get to walk around the hotel freely and there are lots of rooms to look at, but interactivity in most of the hotel is minimal, and there aren't any collectibles or anything to really see outside of key points of the hotel - of which felt like only four or so rooms and locations - so it's all mostly window dressing with not much in the way of environmental storytelling since it's a hotel most rooms are going to be identical to each other. During many conversations I found myself at where I needed to be next but unable to proceed or activate any prompts because Nicole was still on the phone, and sometimes the dialogue can be extensive so you're left waiting until the next action becomes highlighted after the conversation is over since there's little else to do other than take another lap around the hotel. Small little things like seeing a glowing semi translucent figure quickly pass in the distance and hearing what sounds like whispers behind you keep you on your toes, but moments like these are few and far between. Any items you do gather have very little use and are meant for some scripted moments, like a flashlight, a polaroid, and a microphone meant to amplify more discreet sounds. You can whip these out at any moment, but lighting in the hotel is fair, even when the power goes out, so the flashlight and polaroid (meant to flash light rather than take photos before acquiring said flashlight), are ultimately meaningless. On top of that, the flashlight only stays on for a few seconds at a time, even while holding down the button required to turn it on, so other than a more consistent ray of light, it doesn't serve much better than the polaroid flashes did. You'll essentially just be going from key point to key point listening to Nicole talk while trying to put the pieces together yourself until the credits roll. By the end, I felt like this is a story that could have been told just about anywhere, and the hotel really just served as a place of interest to have an environment to take place in. I couldn't help but feel that while listening to the conversations that it would have been more interesting to have flashback moments to high school or even revisiting old places in the town, having much more depth to smaller buildings rather than one large shallow building—something akin to KONA or 35MM. Nicole can only really use one hand at a time for some reason, so even if I had to do something simple like pick up a screwdriver, I couldn't even do that until the conversation was over, and usually there was one ready to begin immediately afterwards.
It's without a doubt that The Suicide of Rachel Foster tackles a heavy topic that we all have either gone through indirectly or face personally in our lives. It's a game that isn't so dissimilar from the likes of Firewatch and Gone Home in the way it tells its narrative and ultimately plays out, having the game create more questions as you go through trying to unravel the secrets and life of the deceased for more closure before things unwind and try its best to answer all that you have in its final acts. In the case of The Suicide of Rachel Foster, it's a good game that's extremely well written, but unfortunately having such a large focus on its dialogue impairs the overall gameplay and can cause things to become sluggish. The atmosphere is incredible and it nails the feeling of unease and trepidation as you make you way through your newly inherited hotel in Montana, but this is a story that could have been told just about anywhere. The hotel itself tries to stay relevant, but with only a few key rooms to explore the rest becomes window dressing that doesn't do much for environmental storytelling other than "this is an old hotel and your father used to run it". The hotel is much bigger than it needs to be given the lack of interaction, but I guess this was done to help the player not feel so claustrophobic, despite its size, while being trapped in because of a snowstorm. As things reach the zenith, you begin to realize that while the story is poignant, a lot more creativity could have gone into flashbacks or playing through multiple areas described in the story, rather than running around aimlessly spending the bulk of your gameplay having a conversation over the phone. What makes it even more jarring is you can tell a lot of work went into The Suicide of Rachel Foster, you just have to be the attentive type to really see and appreciate what the game has to offer. I do have to commend the developers on being able to tell the story they did, though, executing something that reminds me of Buried where the film takes place in one place throughout its runtime and uses the character's psyche and also dialogue through phone calls to figure out the how, what, and why's. It's just a bit of a disappointment that from a gameplay perspective there wasn't much to do, and you can't even qualify it as a walking simulator because you're mostly standing around waiting for the conversation to finish up.
PROS:
Really great storytelling told mostly through a phone call.
The hotel is well designed, feeling like a visual theme park (but closed)
The Shining meets Firewatch
CONS:
Even when things begin to pickup, nothing really occurs.
The hotel tries to have a purpose but by the end feels meaningless.
Its heavy topic lightens up by the end but because of loss of traction rather than coping
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
1-800-273-8255
Thank you Daedalic Entertainment for providing us a copy of The Suicide of Rachel Foster for the purposes of this review