#i honestly dont remember seeing any reviews before getting the game on sale but yeah. not great on the devs part

[samodivas]

so i actually played The Suicide of Rachel Foster and I gotta admit, the negative reviews about the storyline had a great point 😐

good: graphics, atmosphere, little details they put in, etc.

bad: everything else? it started off really strong but there were a few points that either made no sense or were just handled very badly.

a) Nicole didn't really have enough of a struggle with her dad tbh. It's like he existed solely as a good guy in her mind, despite evidence to the contrary. I'm sure she would've been a lot more torn up about it.

b) Nicole's mom is also just ??? the woman clearly hated Rachel but besides that, we only get two lines about her from Nicole. basically the bitch hardass mom vs cool interesting dad? like come on

c) there is not a single point during which someone calls out Rachel's 'relationship' with Leonard for what it is. like. come on. it's horrifying

d) the fucking 'oh my gawd she was PREGNANT' cliche is so overdone, I don't even think it's worth acknowledging. Just lazy on the writers' part.

e) The things related to Irving towards the end were pretty bad. They made zero sense and honestly could've ended better.

f) it feels like the game is trying to convince you that Rachel is alive and then it just... gives up on that entirely? there's so much "evidence" that people, including Leonard, thought she was alive.... Nicole starts to think so, too, at some point. and yet....?

g) the creepy ghost/lights/whispers stuff never gets explained. which i guess is good for a mystery game but I would've liked a bit more consistency.

h) I feel like the reveal about how Rachel died does actually make sense because it's a better 'twist' than the official assumption.

i) for a game named after Rachel Foster, she sure as shit didn't get any real agency? like it's just her abuser who gets the limelight and Nicole remembers how perfect and 'mature' that girl was compared to her.

j) I spent the entire game lowkey waiting for a reveal that Leonard wasn't a piece of shit, and yet that never came. It's like the entire narrative was trying to excuse him as someone eccentric... I was genuinely thinking that the allegations against him would've been a misunderstood rumour and that truth was something else entirely. like that she was abused, but by someone else, and that Leonard was actually a positive influence... but no, it was even worse than I thought.

k) there was actually an inconsistency that bothered me where Nicole said 'Christmas of 1980' was the last one they spent together, and yet around the Christmas of 1983 is when Rachel actually died. That's a pretty big gap and it was definitely a mistake on the writers' (or VA's?) part

l) I think the ending was bad on many, many levels. Also irresponsible considering the subject matter.