The Suicide of Rachel Foster doesn’t try to hide its muse. Anybody who has seen Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 hit classic, The Shining, will certainly see similarities between both properties’ settings and pieces. But The Suicide of Rachel Foster never crosses the line into mere derivation. Its story is wholly it’s own. While the Timberline lacks the impossibility and character of the Overlook, some degree of respect is owed knowing where to tastefully walk the line between imitation and inspiration. By its conclusion, however, The Suicide of Rachel Foster will leave a bad taste in your mouth.
Developer: ONE-O-ONE GAMES
Price: $18
Platform: PC (Reviewed), PS4, Xbox
MonsterVine was supplied with a Steam code for review
Players take the role of Nicole Wilson, who, after her father’s death, has returned to her family’s shuttered Montanan hotel. Nicole is estranged from her father due to his romantic involvement with teenage Rachel Foster, which ultimately led to Rachel’s death. As such, her homecoming is expected to be a short stay. But when a snowstorm confines her to the Timberline hotel, she’s forced to confront the past that permeates the hotel’s halls.
The Suicide of Rachel Foster has the typical trappings of paranormal horror. Floorboards creak, disembodied voices whisper, and unseen doors slam. While a tad cliché, these invisible forces, for the most part, were capable of maintaining a steady tension. I sometimes even faltered for fear that a ghost or ghoul may be lurking down the Timberline’s dark corridors.
But neither ghost nor ghoul ever revealed itself. The developers made it a point to provoke fear without the jumpscare shoddiness that plagues the horror walking sim. As a whole, The Suicide of Rachel Foster isn’t too formidable. The horror is a pleasant and mite modesty relative to the genre at-large.
Its practices in mystery aren’t so unadulterated, however. Several clues found in the Timberline amount to nothing more than red herrings meant to steer you towards false conclusions. The real solution to the puzzle is something you’ll never guess with what you’re given. Instead, the final act vomits up a plot twist so incredulous and nonsensical that even the game’s characters don’t buy it. The Suicide of Rachel Foster cares more about getting to the climax than it does building it up.
Like the story, the setting lures you in with all the bang of a captivating mystery but with none of the payoff. It was impossible to ignore the competing religious and scientific iconography as I wandered the Timberline’s myriad rooms, lounges, and hall. Rachel, a preacher’s daughter; and Leonard, Nicole’s astrophysicist father, are themselves pieces within this dichotomy. But these motifs don’t correlate to any noticeable theme by the game’s conclusion. All those books, magazines, and crosses littered through the hotel are just set dressing with no intrinsic meaning.
By far the worst offense, though, is the grotesque and problematic moral of the story. A narrative revolving around a romantic relationship between an adult and a teenager is sure to address unsavory topics. But the lesson to be learned isn’t that Nicole’s father took advantage of a young girl. By the end, rather, he’s a victim of bereavement. The love between Rachel and Nicole’s father was pure, as the game puts it. We’re meant to feel sorry for him when we should be condemning the premise altogether.
It’s for this problematic consequence alone that I can’t in good faith recommend The Suicide of Rachel Foster. Ethics aside, its plummet from a mostly decent horror mystery to an absolute miscarriage of the genre makes it just as difficult to support.
The Final Word
Reverence for great horror cinema and tropes don’t make up for a deteriorating mystery with problematic morals.
– MonsterVine Rating: 1.5 out of 5 – Terrible
