Finally A Decent Horror Game!
Let's face it: Aside from the shock value, most horror games and movies have become relatively predictable and, as a result, bland and boring. The F.E.A.R series capitalized on this by taking all the horror elements of The Ring and The Grudge and sticking them into a video game, with a substantially more naked antagonist. Regardless, the regurgitation of the same mechanics (open a door and something pops out, walk near a dead body and it comes to life, music ramps up as you approach something, etc) has gone sour.
The first tip Amnesia offers when you boot up is immersion. Play the game to be immersed, that means turning off your lights, playing in the dark, preferably wearing headphones, and not chatting while you play. Don't worry about the saving or other mechanics, just sit back and enjoy the ride.
Amnesia: The Dark Descent goes against all odds to show that the genre doesn't need to be reinvented, just re-imagined. It is a psychological horror title that continues and improves upon the bed-wetting H.P Lovecraft-inspired (The engine is named HPL) adventures of the Penumbra series. Amnesia starts out with just that, your character waking up in a castle with amnesia, his knowledge being summed up as "my name is Daniel." Luckily, Daniel's past Daniel is not only aware, but beyond happy that new Daniel cannot remember his past, and has scattered notes to himself around the castle. Daniel is tasked by earlier Daniel with tracking down a man named Alexander and murdering him, but warns that he is being chased by a creature known as the Shadow.
Those who played the Penumbra titles will be familiar with the sanity system, that works alongside Daniel's health. Witness unsettling events, spend too much time in the dark, or stare at the horrifying creatures too long and Daniel will slowly lose his mind. Spending time in light and completing puzzles will restore Daniel's sanity. Lose enough sanity, and Daniel will start to hallucinate, offering the player both visual and audio bumps that aren't actually there. This sounds gimmicky, but eventually you will start to question reality (in the context of the game's world), as the game progresses and Daniel's hallucinations become harder to control simply through spending time in the light.
Amnesia controls as a first person game with full physics, meaning that your mouse moves in accordance with the objects. Pulling down a level requires you to click and pull down, where as a dial requires a circular motion. This can create quite an immersible feeling, like in one situation where a crank breaks off in your hands, and your character goes reeling because of your delayed mouse movement, and you personally feel thrown off balance. The rest of the world is interacted with similarly, from opening doors to picking up and throwing rocks. The castle itself is a labyrinth that twists and turns, and is constantly changing due to the Shadow and the presence of earth-shaking earthquakes that destroy hallways and cave in ceilings.
Apart from The Shadow, there are other creatures roaming the castle that Daniel must get past to survive. To top it off, Frictional Games went even further this time by not offering you any means of self defense. In his tools for survival, Daniel has candles and a lantern. Throughout each level, you'll pick up tinderboxes for lighting candles and oil for your lantern, but in traditional survival horror style, both are in short supply. Be too liberal with your items and you'll find that they are gone when you need them most. Conserve them, and you'll be working against Daniel's sanity to make your way through the levels. Then again, when you are moving down tight corridors and evading the creatures that roam them, perhaps it is better to leave the lights off and deal with the insanity.
The creatures hunting Daniel through most of the game are ever-present, but are not your biggest foe. Instead, the antagonist of Amnesia is the atmosphere, the world around you, be it the sound of chains clanking, footsteps from no discernible location, the creatures grunting, dogs barking, people screaming, and more. The combination of audio cues and visual events creates an environment where you feel it isn't just Daniel's sanity that is in question, but your own.
If you do die, and you will a few times, the game gives you helpful tips related to your current situation. More importantly, the game changes based on where you die, and if you die too much in one area its creature may be taken away completely, instead replaced with the fear that it could pop out at any moment.
At the end of the day, however, Amnesia is like your older brother when you were both children. He didn't tie you up and lock you in the basement with the lights off so you would die, he did it so he could laugh at your emotional trauma. And that's what Amnesia is all about, traumatizing you through a barrage of terror, suspense, and horror whose inconsistency only adds to the effect rather than diluting it. It is not a game for those who can't handle "soft" horror films like The Grudge, and if you found the game Thief too frightening to play through, you may want to look away. There are no cheesy blood splatters, no hands grabbing you and then disappearing, no little girls with long black hair or giant mutants. Just you, your mind, and a whole lot of darkness.
If you've played through the Penumbra series, well you have a better idea of what game elements to expect. So what are you waiting for? Grab your lantern and jump right in!
