Did You Find "Amnesia: The Dark Descent" Scary?

[BillyTheFunny]

I only found it scary when the monster was near, besides that, if I was just alone in the dark, with no oil for lantern,
I would try to light up the rooms, If I couldn't, I would scavenge the rooms for oil. I wouldn't be scared much.
But yeah, only if I was getting chased, or if the monster was near.

 

[Raggedstar]

Scared me, but I'll easily admit to being a coward (to the point of screaming and/or smashing my keyboard in a panicking haste) and it was my first real horror game. Lots of great tension and payoff with a great use of sound.

Though perhaps what I like about it more-so was Frictional's understanding and respect of fear, whether or not you're actually afraid of Amnesia itself (but I honestly can't speak for Penumbra as I know very little about it). As mentioned before, look at the torture scenes. It's great how little violence shown visually but implied through notes, remains, and especially the sound effects. And also the utilization of the mechanics and story (ie how the castle is designed and how Alexander does his stuff to not tread too deeply in spoiler territory) work on that level too. Everything just sort of fits and makes Amnesia so fascinating to me...just as long as I'm not the one playing it.

 

[PinkiePyro]

I could never finish the game because I'm a little scaredy cat. ;w; I tried. Lord knows how I tried. I even tried multiple times, but I just couldn't take it.

this made me feel a lot more brave XD I nearly shat a brick or two while playing it but I still got though it and let me tell you my startle reflex is though the roof..

 

[AnthrSolidSnake]

Well, the beginning set up the mood pretty well. And of course my first encounter with those monsters had me on edge. But once I got to the first part with the water...things....no, just no. I was done. Nuh uh! I stopped playing for at least two weeks after that. I despise it when I can't see what's chasing me, even more so than actually seeing how grotesque something is. The splashing, and then the part where you had to quickly open doors and gates, I don't think a game had ever made me feel so stressed out than then.

 

[deleted139124]

DELETED

 

[MrMixelPixel]

Well... it scared me more than any movie ever could. I tell you that. It was scary enough, and I really enjoyed the setting and story. More than good enough for me.

 

[Trivea]

Yes, I was terrified. However, it really wasn't the atmosphere that terrified me. I hate being chased in video games, period. Hell, Ao Oni made me scream out loud a few times, I'm man enough to admit that. But different things scare different people, and just like you can never please all of the people all of the time, you can never scare all of the people all of the time either.

I still think, from a "normal people" standpoint (that is, not my own), that the Amnesia games (and probably the Penumbra games as well) are a hell of a lot scarier than whatever is considered AAA "horror" these days. Is it on the level of Silent Hill 2? No way.

The thing in the water, early on in the game. That bastard gets to me every time. It scared me in the demo, both times I played it, and it scared me when I played the full game. Especially the part where you distract it with meat, and have to turn a crank to open a door.

This. I cannot emphasize "this" hard enough. I think it's the fact that it's, you know, invisible that does it for me.

 

[Truehare]

The beginning of the game is very good at building tension, then it gets scary, then it gets VERY scary in the prison area. It's all downhill from there, at least as far as fear goes.

I think that's because you get used to it by then; the "horror" is always the same, something chasing you in the dark. After a while, you learn how to avoid all the monsters, and most of the tension just vanishes. Besides, after dying a few times, the monsters become less scary: you already know the worst they can do to you, and it's not that much.

Still a pretty good game, though. I even bought it *after* finishing it on my son's computer. Definitely way better than anything that comes out in the triple A front.

 

[NoeL]

No poll?

Anyway, yes I did. I was down in the wine cellar, no sanity left, and couldn't find where I needed to go. There was a pulsing mass that looked like it could be burned with acid, but I didn't have any on me and the door to the main foyer wouldn't open... all the while some invisible monster would occasionally attack me. I was lost, scared, confused and helpless... so I quit. :3

Haven't played it since.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

It gave me an adrenaline buzz, even made me giggle during the chase sequences, but I never remotely screamed or flailed my arms at any of it. Except for 1 jump scare I didn't see coming, but that was it.

I don't understand why 100% of all reactions on the Internet consist of people screaming like absolute pussies at this game. I'm starting to think it's a forced meme.

 

[Seracen]

Have not played the game yet, but I don't think it will scare me as much as I hope....a few reasons why...

1) so much hype

2) spoiled a few frights from watching reaction videos

3) desensitized nowadays

4) by the half-way point, I will likely have grown accustomed to the style

This last point was the case in Dead Space 1. The game certainly remained creepy and disturbing throughout the experience. However, after a certain point in the game, I developed methods of gaming the system. Knowing the effective range of "kiting" the enemies allowed me to rush in, do the objective, and rush out. All of this with nary a bullet spent.

True, this was done as much out of a scarcity of resources as anything else. I will say that the ride remained exciting throughout, but I wasn't scared crapless as the start of the game.

As for movies, only two can claim to have me in terror from beginning to end: the original Excorcist, and Event Horizon.

 

[NardBasket]

I'm kind of in a similar boat. Once you see the monster and realize that it's a matter of running and hiding for a certain amount of time, it becomes more of a chore than a scare. It interrupts puzzles and figuring stuff out. Hopefully A Machine for Pigs does something differently. I wish it were just a straight adventure game with no damn instant-death invincible monster.

 

[DementedSheep]

I think most the people who record themselves playing horror games (like pewdiepie) overplay it to make watching them more interesting and it was really hyped up so people were expecting to be screaming at it.
Screaming and flailing seems strange to me unless it was an unexpected jump scare. Maybe I'm just not a screaming person so that's why I don't understand it? When I'm afraid I end up chewing on my lip and fiddling. Maybe swearing quietly or a nervous giggle. I'd be really boring to watch.

 

[Venom 3135]

A horror game, much like a horror novel, cannot be scary on it's own and relies on you immersing yourself into the experience.

I know how defensive this sounds but it is on your end to be scared and if you find yourself unable to get sucked into the experience enough to feel tension or fear, it's probably just not the right game for you.

If you are going into a game expecting the game on it's own to scare you while you are busy listing it's flaws and nitpicks (as you did with Amnesia) then I'm sorry but it's on you for playing as a critic rather than just experiencing the game.

That goes for a lot of games, not just the horror genre.

Honestly, I really disagree with this. That's kind of you just saying "You're not aloud to look at this game critically, because then obviously it won't be good". If you looked at a game critically and it wasn't good, then surely that tells you that it wasn't. For example, games I played as a kid all seem great in my memory, but when I go back and play them (obviously with a more critical mind than I had back then), they're not as good.

As well as all that, It's down to what scares you personally. Some things scare people that don't others. It comes down to ones imagination a lot too (The Blaire Witch Project scared me more than any other film I've ever seen). I'm not saying the game should find something universally scary, because that thing doesn't exist. I'm simply saying that It's not my fauly (or the games) that I wasn't scared of it.

 

[Venom 3135]

I agree with everyone saying that the scares get repetitive, and because of this, less scary. I'd also like to comment on the water monster. I have a fear of things in water, so I was expecting this monster to scare me senseless, but honestly, it was no more than a little bit tense. The monster to me just seemed like it was too...human. I know it's invisible, but something about the way it moved and the shapes it made in the water made it seem human, or at the very worst, a invisible version of the typical monster. It didn't even have any notable audio effects (If I remember rightly) that could make it scarier. It was easy to avoid and just not different enough from the regular monsters. It acted the same as one and I imagined it the same as one.

That was the problem I had with the main, iconic monster, too. It was just too human. Sometimes a good blend of human and...well, not human can make something very scary to me, but for some reason, the monsters in Amnesia just didn't get that right. A good example are the nurses from Silent Hill 2. They're so human yet the lack of face and foreign behaviour just makes them so terrifying. I also find that sometimes just being completely unknown and inhuman can make a monster terrifying too. A good example of this one would be those flying fucking blade bastards from Silent Hill 3. They're just a mess of metal and flesh(?). They make those horrible, noises that I can't even describe and they just make me so uncomfortable. I'd often leave the room, or sprint through trying not to look when I heard or saw one.
The monsters in Amnesia just didn't do that for me. The sound effects were boring and kind of generic too, which didn't help. It was kind of just like being chased by a man with a broken face who was breathing a bit funny.
That's not to say that it wouldn't scare me in real life, of course.

 

[Carpenter]

A horror game, much like a horror novel, cannot be scary on it's own and relies on you immersing yourself into the experience.

I know how defensive this sounds but it is on your end to be scared and if you find yourself unable to get sucked into the experience enough to feel tension or fear, it's probably just not the right game for you.

If you are going into a game expecting the game on it's own to scare you while you are busy listing it's flaws and nitpicks (as you did with Amnesia) then I'm sorry but it's on you for playing as a critic rather than just experiencing the game.

That goes for a lot of games, not just the horror genre.

Honestly, I really disagree with this. That's kind of you just saying "You're not aloud to look at this game critically, because then obviously it won't be good". If you looked at a game critically and it wasn't good, then surely that tells you that it wasn't. For example, games I played as a kid all seem great in my memory, but when I go back and play them (obviously with a more critical mind than I had back then), they're not as good.

As well as all that, It's down to what scares you personally. Some things scare people that don't others. It comes down to ones imagination a lot too (The Blaire Witch Project scared me more than any other film I've ever seen). I'm not saying the game should find something universally scary, because that thing doesn't exist. I'm simply saying that It's not my fauly (or the games) that I wasn't scared of it.

I never said "you're not 'aloud' to be critical of this game" I was saying that looking at a game critically while playing it isn't the same as just experiencing it.

I'm not saying your not allowed, I'm saying don't expect a game to give you an emotional experience if you are in a critical mode.

No, playing a game with a critical mind and finding nitpicks doesn't mean the game is objectively or universally bad. You can play a good game and only focus on the negative, you can also not enjoy a game that others love. It's opinion, not research.

If you're going to fall into that "oh I guess I'm just not allowed to criticism the game" just because I suggested that it might be the reason you didn't enjoy it, then maybe you just posted this for the sole purpose of having an argument. In that case, have fun.

You "disagree" right before saying exactly what I was trying to explain to you, fear comes from imagination. It's not the imagination of the game but the imagination of the player. If you are not experiencing the game, your imagination is not invested in it and it won't be scary.

You keep describing this as if there are objectively scary games yet you also admit that things that scare some may not scare others.

 

[Venom 3135]

A horror game, much like a horror novel, cannot be scary on it's own and relies on you immersing yourself into the experience.

I know how defensive this sounds but it is on your end to be scared and if you find yourself unable to get sucked into the experience enough to feel tension or fear, it's probably just not the right game for you.

If you are going into a game expecting the game on it's own to scare you while you are busy listing it's flaws and nitpicks (as you did with Amnesia) then I'm sorry but it's on you for playing as a critic rather than just experiencing the game.

That goes for a lot of games, not just the horror genre.

Honestly, I really disagree with this. That's kind of you just saying "You're not aloud to look at this game critically, because then obviously it won't be good". If you looked at a game critically and it wasn't good, then surely that tells you that it wasn't. For example, games I played as a kid all seem great in my memory, but when I go back and play them (obviously with a more critical mind than I had back then), they're not as good.

As well as all that, It's down to what scares you personally. Some things scare people that don't others. It comes down to ones imagination a lot too (The Blaire Witch Project scared me more than any other film I've ever seen). I'm not saying the game should find something universally scary, because that thing doesn't exist. I'm simply saying that It's not my fauly (or the games) that I wasn't scared of it.

I never said "you're not 'aloud' to be critical of this game" I was saying that looking at a game critically while playing it isn't the same as just experiencing it.

I'm not saying your not allowed, I'm saying don't expect a game to give you an emotional experience if you are in a critical mode.

No, playing a game with a critical mind and finding nitpicks doesn't mean the game is objectively or universally bad. You can play a good game and only focus on the negative, you can also not enjoy a game that others love. It's opinion, not research.

If you're going to fall into that "oh I guess I'm just not allowed to criticism the game" just because I suggested that it might be the reason you didn't enjoy it, then maybe you just posted this for the sole purpose of having an argument. In that case, have fun.

You "disagree" right before saying exactly what I was trying to explain to you, fear comes from imagination. It's not the imagination of the game but the imagination of the player. If you are not experiencing the game, your imagination is not invested in it and it won't be scary.

You keep describing this as if there are objectively scary games yet you also admit that things that scare some may not scare others.

In my opinion, if you don't look at a game critically, you're not fully experiencing it.

I'm looking at the game critically, because, to me, that's how I can truly understand and play a game. I wasn't looking for nitpicks (I know, you didn't say I was), but I found them, and problems that were much bigger than nitpicks. Yes, it's opinion. That's basically what I said in my second paragraph.

I'm not looking for an argument, I'm looking for a discussion. I find it interesting to hear what other people find scary.

I don't disagree with you saying that fear comes from imagination. I disagree with you saying that it's on my end that the game wasn't scary. I agree to an extent, because the things in the game just weren't things that got to me personally. What I don't agree with is that you're saying that it was on my end because I didn't allow myself to be fully immersed as I played it with a critical mindset. I disagree with that, because I don't think it's a fair statement. I feel that the game didn't scare me because the scares in the game didn't hit me personally, not because I was judging the game while I played. In my opinion, all games should be judged while they're played. The Last of Us is an excellent example. Something about that game put me off (I'm not sure what it was and I still think it was slightly overrated), but I played it critically and fucking loved it. It was a very emotional experience regardless of the fact that I looked at it critically.

"If you looked at a game critically and it wasn't good, then surely that tells you that it wasn't" was a contradictory slip up on my part. I didn't mean that it was bad, I meant something more along the lines of the problems were there. I know that to some they weren't problems, but some of them stopped the game from being scary to me. It wasn't until the end of the game that I even noticed them and realised why I wasn't scared.