Let's sit down and take a jouney into the dark minds of Frictional Games
Fear, is controlled by the imagination. The unknown often seems more eerie than what is known. Why? Because we imagine far worse scenarios. This, is something one can take advantage of using psychological torture, where uncertainty and the wait for the next enemy to come, is worse than the enemy itself.
The above, is something you will learn while playing Amnesia: The Dark Descent.
Actually, whether you like it or not (the game, that is) it's not a nice game. Frictional Games have told themselves; "All right, let's sit down and see how we can make the most angst-filled and frightening game, ever." And the result is... impressive.
The game starts out in the upper parts of a prussian castle around 1850, that has mysteriously housed the same baron, for the last 200 years. There, Daniel, our character, wakes up remembering nothing but his own name. But something has gone very wrong, when a letter written by himself talks about revenge, and pleads with Daniel to go into the castles deepest chambers and kill the baron, who is old and fragile. With a lot of questions in the back of your mind, you will steer Daniel through one of the most frightening buildings ever created on a computer. The answers to your questions come slowly, in the form of flashbacks, diaries and notes. The history is almost taken directly out of one of H.P. Lovecraft's short-stories, something bringing a horrific atmosphere to the game. You will probably have seen it before. Especially if you are familiar with Lovecraft's work and the previous Penumbra games.
The game is a first-person horror, where you use the mouse to pick up most things. This feature is used in the game's logic and satisfying puzzles. These puzzles are small breaks, that with intervals interrupt the exploration of laboratories with distubring experiments and nasty prison cells holding the remnants of their captives.
Here's the thing, then. Daniel is completely defenseless against the monstrous creatures wandering the dark halls of the castle. A bad combination since they seem to be severely attracted to the light in the lamp the game demands you use, to keep yourself sane. Oh, and did I mention, that if you look directly at the monsters, even if you are hiding in the shadows, they will spot you?
You will never win, in Amnesia. You will, sometimes, narrowly escape death by hiding, shakily in the dark coners until danger has passed. Some of the game's most nervewrecking moments is thus, when you can not find a place to hide and you are forced into an intense and horrifying flight, with your sweat magically materializing on your back. This - again - takes us back to the power of the imagination. You are fully aware that you are sitting on your chair in your college dorm, living room or wherever, and that it is Daniel who is hiding from this meatfreak patrolling the corridors. But the game does such a good job of drawing you into the game's creepy universe, through it's many cunning tricks, that it might as well be the other way around.
The visual tricks and distortions happening every time Daniels mental condition takes a dive into the unpleasant, coupled with the game's exquisite use of sceneray, and sounds that screech in your ears and haunts you, builds a rare case of uncertainty and uncomfort around you which I found to work infuriatingly well on myself.
The best horror is when the fear lets our imagination do the job, with monsters you cannot see, and dark references to the bloody deeds of the past. This is what Amnesia does.
What keeps the game from getting a perfect score is small irritating moments. The game sometimes puts a little too much emphasis on the fact that you need to sneak past patrolling monsters in long halls and corridors. A little more variation there could have worked. And unfortunately, the history and the acting are only average as what we have previously seen in the Penumbra games. Make no mistake though. The athmosphere and fear is real, and will, almost definetly, scare you.
So can you have fun without actually having fun? Yes you can, with Amnesia. The most horrifying game I have ever played. So much, that I was out of breath in the end. So if you like being scared and having the small hairs on the back of your neck stand up, then for a price of 15USD, this is definetly worth a try.
8 / 10
