Walking sims have carved out their own little corner in video games. The emphasis on telling an intimate story through an engaging environment gives diverse and personal topics the space they need to be fully explored. Rachel Foster's creepy hotel suicide certainly seems like the perfect setting for a walking sim, and the story of a young woman uncovering the truth about her past in a decaying building sounds like an interesting hook.

But whereas thoughtful storytelling has had a tremendous impact on walking sims, "The Suicide of Rachel Foster" falls short. What began as a compelling ghost story has quickly turned into a melodramatic soap opera that is merely gory, turning sensitive themes of suicide, child abuse, and teenage pregnancy into unfounded drama.

In The Suicide of Rachel Foster, she plays as Nicole, a young woman who returns home to her parents' old, empty hotel in the middle of the Montana wilderness. Following her late mother's advice, Nicole wants to investigate and sell the decaying hotel, called the Timberland. Ten years earlier, Nicole and her mother had run away from the Timberland after learning that her father had an intimate relationship with a teenage Rachel Foster. While Nicole is auditing the hotel, a brutal blizzard locks her in, along with the memories of the hotel.

I enjoyed the first half of Rachel Foster's four-hour total. It focuses less on investigating the history of the hotel and more on the challenge of navigating this massive space. Thankfully, it is not a complete solitary experience. Nicole has a handy wireless phone with a direct line to a FEMA agent named Irving, who gives her survival tips, including the location of the pantry, etc. As in "Firewatch," the two characters are a bit salty at first, but they quickly open up and I found myself enjoying their banter. I found myself enjoying their banter. Irving became a familiar voice warming up the creepy corridors of Timberland.

Compared to the family homes in Gone Home, Layers of Fears, and What Remains of Edith Finch, the Timberland Hotel is enormous. It has dozens of rooms, hallways, secret passages, and multiple floors with crawl spaces. Evidence of slow decay is everywhere, from the clean squares on the walls where paintings have been removed to the black mold that has seeped into the walls and floors.

The hotel uses both hallways and open spaces to build tension. Just when you think you're scared of what's around the corner in a narrow hallway, you go to a huge ballroom, dining hall, kitchen, and lounge where anything could be lurking. Nicole's room is kept exactly the same as when she left. It serves as a cozy hideaway in the hotel.

There are a few moments of terror. In one chapter, the power goes out completely, and we are forced to make our way through total darkness with only the flash of a Polaroid to guide us. There is also a section where we are forced to watch an old, battered VHS recording of a ghost-hunting group, capturing the crew's reaction to something off-screen that frightens them.

I was somewhat looking forward to the film, as it seemed to be heading more in the direction of a ghost story than a mystery. However, rifling through Nicole's belongings and digging up the hotel's history is where Rachel Foster has a problem. Later in the game, when we begin to delve into Rachel's relationship with Nicole's father, it becomes clear that we are venturing into territory that One-O-One Games cannot handle. It is revealed that Rachel was nine weeks pregnant when she died, and there are clues that indicate that she had been tamed by Nicole's father from a young age.

This relationship is even more worrisome because it is seen as romantic. A fairy-lit attic hangs above the bed, littered with sketches of teenagers posing naked. As if to excuse the relationship between father and teenager, there is a line in which Rachel is described as "mature for her age." I was particularly horrified by the game's marketing focus on Rachel's retainer, an object that emphasizes how young she is.

The most damning aspect of how the game frames this relationship is that Rachel has no voice throughout the game. I know very little about her, even though she is the character named in the game's title. There are no letters, no flashbacks, no diary pages, nothing that attempts to give her a voice. I know almost nothing about this character other than the fact that she was tamed from a young age, impregnated by a man three times her age, and then took her own life. Rachel's story is neither as melancholic nor as poetic as the game would have us believe; it is simply irresponsible.

The Suicide of Rachel Foster uses these issues merely as a storyline, further emphasized by an ending that puts the player in the deeply uncomfortable position of standing in the shoes of the title's subject. The endings I experienced, of which there are several, as I understand it, sensationalize complex issues. The Timberland Hotel and its characters are convincingly set up, but then the film spirals into tasteless drama and lacks compassion for sensitive topics.

In the UK and Ireland, call Samaritans at 116 123 or email [email protected] または[email protected]. In the US, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found atwww.befrienders.org.