​The Suicide of Rachel Foster Review

By Kevin Mitchell  |  Posted: September 17, 2020

A narrative adventure set in the early '90s, The Suicide of Rachel Foster takes place inside an eerily decaying family hotel. Nicole Wilson's family has been torn apart since she was little by her father's past actions, having a creepy affair with 16-year-old Rachel Foster, which led to her taking her own life while nine weeks pregnant. Reading through your mother's handwritten notes left for you from her deathbed, she implores you to return to The Timberland Hotel, assess its current condition, and sell it. With your father's passing, the hotel is the last haunting memory from your childhood and a man you grew to despise most in this world.

Reaching the seemingly abandoned location deep within Montana's mountains, Nicole becomes stranded as an unexpectedly heavy snowstorm makes leaving impossible. Although strong-willed, being trapped inside the place her mother and she fled ten years ago brings up forgotten memories of the past. The massive hotel contains dozens of rooms, hallways, multiple floors, and secret passageways, making it relatively easy to get lost exploring the atmospheric hotel. It's quite clear that the place is in disrepair—a shattered chandelier rests in the middle of the ballroom, the second floor looks rundown with cracked walls, and ceilings are infested with dangerous mold. A hotel map helps you find specific locations and Nicole's notes clue you into where you need to go to advance the narrative.

Although the only person in the hotel, you are not alone, thanks to an early cell phone prototype that provides a direct line to a FEMA agent named Irving. Like Campo Santo's Firewatch, Nicole and Irving's relationship starts dismissively and blossoms throughout the four-hour ordeal. During most conversations, you are given two different choice responses, which change the way the banter plays out between them. Irving serves as your guide, an unattainable ray of hope for survival. At first, you use his knowledge of the location to find something edible to eat and how to stay warm, but as the first hours turn to days, you welcome the warm sensation of connecting with Irving.

Being snowed in at an empty hotel out in the wilderness is a similar plot to one of the best psychological horror films ever made, The Shining. Even when you awake one day to find the power has gone out and the hallways are as black as night, I never felt frightened. The mystery of your family's past is key to the story, but the attempted horror falls flat. There is even one sequence where you watch footage left from a group of ghost hunters that fled the hotel after experiencing an apparition, but the payoff for your character never happens. A couple of flickering lights and unexplained doors that slam do elevate the tension, but it never reaches the level that it should.

Eventually, the game delves deeper into your relationship with your father. With your mother inundated with managing and running the hotel, you have fond memories of Leonard, your father—at least before the incident. Growing up in the hotel, you know every inch of the place, every hiding spot, every crawl space, and passage. Irving begins to pry into the past, bringing up the ghosts that Nicole wanted to forget. The way Nicole remembers Rachel, and how her father's attention was fixated on her growing up, is the most disturbing thing in the game. Did you begin to develop resentment toward your father as Rachel took over all of his thoughts? Or was the hatred growing inside of you for her? All of these themes, along with the unthinkable affair and relationship between a 16-year-old and someone most likely three times her age, begin to weigh on Nicole's mind.

Simply Put

The Suicide of Rachel Foster presents a haunting tale of digging up the past based on one's perspective. The start of the game hammers home Nicole's father as the leading cause of the death of teenager Rachel Foster, but when you first reach the hotel, the game's narrative focuses on her survival. Slowly, day after day, things unwind as memories come flooding back. A few plot twists are sprinkled throughout, but nothing should feel like a surprise once they happen if you are paying attention.