Dying: Reborn

This is an average horror adventure game at best with decent but unimaginative puzzles. Those who like "escape room"-style games (in real life or in a video game) might enjoy the horror twist on the classic point-and-click puzzles strewn throughout this relatively short adventure. Most of the puzzles involve finding objects, placing them in your inventory, perhaps combining them to make something new, and then using them somewhere else on the level. Other puzzles are standalone challenges, such as figuring out a pattern on a machine to pass through a locked door, often with a hint placed elsewhere. Oddly, you don't need to complete all the puzzles in an environment to proceed through the rooms. Puzzles include numeric puzzles, finding keys, playing specific notes on a piano, matching patterns, and the like. It's perhaps a little like the classic Myst in play and Resident Evil in atmosphere (though there's no combat in Dying: Reborn).

Visually, the first-person game is OK, between the rundown hotel and objects you need to pick up and use, but the poor voice acting does take away from any suspension of disbelief achieved through the high-definition visuals. Even at $20, Dying: Reborn isn't worth the relatively low price tag. Plus, the entire game can be completed in an hour and has an anticlimactic ending and little reason to play again. But fans of the movie Saw or adventure gamers might consider wandering these darkened halls.