The Suicide of Rachel Foster (PC)
As its title would imply, The Suicide of Rachel Foster is a game that tackles many tightropes when it comes to sensitive subjects. It is certainly a game that can explore the dark corners of human behavior, and approaching it with an interpretive mindset and critical eye feels important to not completely pulling the wrong messages from the ideas it explores. However, despite such a preface being necessary, The Suicide of Rachel Foster is not overbearingly morose and doesn’t spend its entire runtime dwelling on the depravity of man and the tragedies born from sin, and its attempts to balance out its heavier subjects with humor and personality certainly help it avoid being emotionally draining.
The Suicide of Rachel Foster begins many years after the titular event, a woman named Nicole heading to her late father’s old Montana inn in the mountains to fulfill the last wishes of her mother. While she only needs to evaluate the condition of the building for the purposes of reselling it, a freak snowstorm leads to her being locked into the hotel much longer than intended, and the memories of her past begin to rise back up as her need to survive in this building takes her to places filled with memories. Some of them are fond reflections on a past she had to leave when the dark truth of her father’s illicit relationship with the teenager Rachel Foster came to light, while others scratch at the old wounds left by such a life shattering event. As she spends more time in the hotel though, she soon learns there may be more to her family’s old shame and Rachel Foster’s death than anyone realized, and it quickly becomes Nicole’s goal to find whatever information she can to get the true story of what happened ten years ago when Rachel seemingly took her own life.
An important part to disarming the heavy subject matter comes in the form of a man named Irving who calls Nicole to warn of the coming snowstorm. Irving begins as a man who is seemingly just doing his job as a FEMA agent checking in on Nicole to make sure she’s safe during the shift in weather, but much like many people in the town near the hotel, he is all too aware of the controversies surrounding Nicole’s family and even has a history with the hotel itself. Using his knowledge of the place he is able to assist her in survival and soon begins to join in the theorizing and search for the truth, his professional demeanor slipping away as the two develop a friendship through an old-fashioned cell phone. Nicole’s initial desire to be in and out of her father’s inn means she’s standoffish and terse when first talking with Irving, but as she lets down her guard and accepts her situation, the two begin to have a fairly good repartee, the game certainly evoking Firewatch with the natural sounding dialogue relayed over radio. It’s not quite on the same level of script-writing quality as Firewatch, but hearing the two talk and grow their relationship is certainly one of this game’s strongest points and one that helps the exploration of the hotel be more interesting than just reflecting on hidden secrets and strange rooms.
The Suicide of Rachel Foster is a narrative exploration game, meaning you spend the adventure walking around an area and learning the story by finding key areas or notes to grow your understanding of the plot. There is a linear narrative being followed so each portion of the game lays out some small goal to move you to the right areas such as needing to activate a boiler for hot water or searching for food Nicole can eat during her long stay. There really isn’t much in the way of puzzles or challenges, the game asking for some light interactivity like using a special microphone to follow strange sounds in the hotel or needing to figure out the importance of a riddle in moving forward, but mostly you are heading to points of interest to hear Nicole and Irving give their perspectives on events. Some of these can be outright comedic, a bit of levity certainly appreciated in a game that will later dive deep into dark and uncomfortable subject matter as it must look straight on at the unsettling facts about the past you explore. The hotel has some interesting rooms to look at both just as general settings like the museum area or as tonally appropriate locales like the closed off wing under construction, but the game is a little odd about what you can actually pick up and look at. Some important notes are difficult to read due to the lighting and the game also allows you to pick up most any cigarette pack or bottle of bathroom cleaner despite these having no relevance and their only details being names that are a few letters off from real brands.
The execution of the story is pretty much the important part of The Suicide of Rachel Foster, and it can certainly manage its build-up in an engaging way. Before you’re neck deep in the details of the mystery you’re uncovering, the game does a good job rolling out new information on the strange circumstances surrounding Rachel’s death, the game even hinting at the hotel being literally haunted by the specters of its past. A strange phone call urges you to leave, graffiti condemning your father can be uncovered as you explore, and as the tension begins to swell near the end as more and more comes to light, The Suicide of Rachel Foster feels set to deliver a heavy emotional blow to tie everything together… that is sadly mostly whiffs.
The conclusion of the game starts laying out twists, but rather being the climactic reveals that throw you for a loop, they feel like they’re avoiding the potential for stronger drama while also heaping on an additionally layer of artificially added drama. The build up that leads to the truth still has a good enough pay off that it’s not a complete wash, but it seems to be pointing one direction and then does a mild swerve while also adding in another twist that takes away a potential route for emotional payoff. The ending offers a split choice but neither feels particularly satisfying in totality, but having all the information finally in your lap at least makes the four hour journey worth taking. You still get a game that takes an unflinching look at the disturbed mind of Nicole’s father as she and Irving try to make sense of it, you creep up on the information about Rachel Foster that allows you to better understand the truth of her death, and Nicole’s personal connection to it all makes her a good player surrogate to experience this narrative through. The problem isn’t that it really fumbles its handling of heavy subject matter though, but it can’t quite complete the follow-through that would make this a more nuanced and emotionally driven exploration of some topics that storytellers shy away from due to how sensitive such things can be to discuss.
THE VERDICT: The Suicide of Rachel Foster can handle the build-up of its mystery fairly well, with the dialogue between Nicole and Irving appealing due to their personalities and working well as a means of detailing the places and notes the player finds as they explore the snowed-in hotel. It begins to construct a nuanced look at sensitive topics and dark subject matter, but as everything begins to swell, it trips up with its twists and instead leaves you wishing it hadn’t tried to subvert its expected narrative. The narrative journey still has its strengths despite its conclusion’s odd choices and the game manages to avoid being overbearing with its heavy topics while also executing its lonely atmosphere and eerie setting well when it wants to. It’s unsurprisingly divisive, but it has enough craft to it that it feels like it won’t outright disappoint most players willing to view its story critically.
And so, I give The Suicide of Rachel Foster for PC…
An OKAY rating. Even discussing some of the subjects that come up in The Suicide of Rachel Foster can make me feel like I’m walking a tightrope, but for a game that tries to look deeper into topics like suicide and the inappropriate relationship between Rachel and Nicole’s father, it mostly achieves a good balance of easing you into the darker moments and providing sections in-between with Nicole and Irving to put you at ease. You’re able to latch onto the personal narrative of two people growing closer over the phone due to an abnormal situation while also beginning to investigate a mystery that will have no happy answers. The hotel has a surprising amount of location diversity even if backtracking through it is inevitable, and it gives up its secrets at a good pace that keeps you hooked as more and more comes to light about its history and the part it played in it all. The payoff to all of the work put into these parts is where The Suicide of Rachel Foster comes up short, the game building up to inevitable twists but choosing strange routes for them that start tearing away some of the game’s better elements. This personal tale that turns a rather realistic eye to how awful people justify their actions and how their family and friends try to live in proximity to someone they used to understand gives way to weak attempts at upending the narrative for the sake of surprises, and although the plot doesn’t collapse under this choice, it definitely feels like the game should have wrapped up its heavy subject matter better after it put in the work to try and lend nuance to its depiction of it.
Some players might find the buildup strong enough to rate this narrative exploration game highly, others might be underwhelmed by the path it settled on, and quite a few will certainly be turned off entirely by its attempts to take a deep look at sensitive topics that tie into its narrative. A bit too much of a player’s response might come from broaching such subjects at all rather than critically reflecting on how the game handles the material, but The Suicide of Rachel Foster was definitely on the crux of being a better game because it does a good job handling its atmosphere, dialogue, and subject matter until it finds it needs to wrap things up in some way. Its attempt can still be interesting and emotional, but The Suicide of Rachel Foster feels like it needs to improve its handling most when it comes to structuring some satisfying storytelling.