Amnesia: Rebirth is a terrifying game, and even its save system is devoid of remorse. It’ll liberally create checkpoints for you, sure, because no one likes losing hours of progress to an overly aggressive monster. But, if you had a mind to save-scum your way through Amnesia: Rebirth then you’ll need to leave that expectation behind.
Amnesia: Rebirth saves at checkpoints throughout the game, and whenever you exit the title.
Amnesia: Rebirth does not allow players to manually save the progress. This has been the case for both of Frictional’s last two titles – SOMA and The Dark Descent – and nothing’s changed here. If you’ve played those two games then you know what to expect here: a healthy amount of checkpoints, but no way to go back to create a save of your own.
If you choose Save and Exit from the menu you’ll create a small save and resume from the nearest checkpoint, but you won’t start from the exact place you left off. On the flip side, you can load an older save, but the game only preserves the last 25. In other words, you can retreat a bit if you don’t like your current predicament (too low on matches, maybe?), but you won’t be able to fall far back.
This design decision around saves in Amnesia: Rebirth makes sense when you consider Frictional’s desired method of play for the horror game. It’s a horror-narrative first, game second. They want you to immerse yourself in the nightmare, and game-ifying it neuters the fear-factor. Think of the monsters in The Dark Descent: once players figured out their paths, reactions, and spawns the game lost much of its luster. Preventing save-scumming and forcing players to move forward keeps tensions high, and allows Amnesia: Rebirth a chance to genuinely terrify. So, while the save system won’t handicap you, don’t expect to utilize it to your advantage.
