DYING: Reborn

On to game number two in the shitty games series and introducing DYING: Reborn, a game that has some kind of weird premise that doesn’t make any sense, and a character with a fish for a head.

In terms of comparison, this game is almost a copy of Your Toy, except Your Toy had an identifiable premise. In DYING: Reborn, your character wakes up in a room complaining of headache. The idea is to… you know what, I have no idea what the purpose or story is about. But you go around picking up all manner of items and solving all manner of ridiculous puzzles. There are TVs which give you some ideas as to what may or may not be going on, but it’s all blah and it gets even more blah when the man with the fish for a head turns up (this is not a spoiler, look at the cover image for the game.)

The gameplay is frustrating and not just because of the unsolvable-for-normal-people puzzles. The control interface is a pile of garbage. It took me a while - and having to press every button going - to work out how to open the inventory. And that was after I picked up around 5 items and couldn’t figure out how to use them. To sum it up, it’s unintuitive.

Looks and sounds wise, both are offensive. The whole game feels like it’s trying to be scary and edgy but the voiceover from the protagonist just seems whiney rather than scared or angry. The whole environment is made to look like what I can only describe as standard faire for attempted, ‘look how scary it is, everything is either broken or covered in blood/red pen.’ This environment construction is not scary when poorly thrown together and it’s clichéd.

Achievements – 1,000 Points – 19 Achievements

In terms of achievements, it’s almost a relief that the majority can be earned just for following the ‘story.’ Outside of these, the other three are for getting all memos, watching all TVs and solving all password puzzles. There is chapter select too so that means you don’t need to worry about missable achievements.

I will confess to using a guide for this. The game is only two hours long max and as soon as I realised it was garbage, I wasn’t going to waste too much time puzzling over garbage.

Downloadable Content – N/A

Something else horribly off-putting about the game is the price. It’s currently retailing for £15.99. Considering its length and horrendousness, I got it in a sale for at least 50% off. To be honest, I wouldn’t pay more than £5 for it. It’s an easy completion though, you just won’t have much fun other than laughing at the shitty dialogue.