Zero Punctuation: Amnesia: The Dark Descent

[Laggings]

Am I mistaken or is there no physical copy of this game? It's download-only?

Cause that'd be really lame ... This game was gonna be a birthday present, you can't giftwrap a download ... well you can, but extracting a rar archive just isn't the same.

 

[AlphaCent]

Don't want to brag just yet, but i like to think Yahtzee reviewed it due to my suggestion some time ago.

But either way...i love you because of that, because the Penumbra series is my second best game/series of all time.
I fell in love with it, in about 10 seconds of the game

 

[Ickorus]

I'd been waiting to buy this game for a while and today I finally had the money to buy it, I got to what I believe is the exact moment that made you shit yourself a few minutes ago:

*Walk out into hall*
*Hear something to my right, big scary monster leaving the room*
"Oh dear, guess i'll go the other way then"
*Goes to the left*
*Sees the other way is a collapsed tunnel*
"Hmm, guess I have no choice then.."
*Turns around BIG SCARY MONSTER*
"OH SHHHHHHIIII-"
*Runs like fuck*

 

[Raptorace18]

Does anyone else find the Back hall area to have a sort of eerie beauty about it? The combination of the music and the strange architecture always makes the phrase 'Hauntingly Beautiful' pass through my mind.

 

[JohnTomorrow]

Well, this game is definately original. And downright scary. Downloaded it today and played for an hour just now. I freaked at the first sign of a monster, and hid in a cupboard for a few minutes before realising he didn't see me. Then i tried to go back out, but ended up turning the game off and coming here, to the bright light.

Pooed my pants indeed.

 

[JohnTomorrow]

Getting rid of combat entirely just heightens the feeling of weakness and desperation.

Isn't that the idea of survival horror though? You, faced off against something unspeakable, would most likely poo your pants and run if you had the choice. Tearing the leg off a chair and squaring off with a monster is the stupid thing to do in that kind of situation. The best option is to bolt and try to avoid the monster. Sure, it makes you feel weak and defenseless - but lets face it, in that kind of situation, thats what you'll be.

 

[JohnTomorrow]

Hmmm, well to be entirely honest I am not too fond of survival horror games without a decent combat mechanic.

Cool, well then you should be happy that you have every other survival horror game ever made. For those of us that want to try something different however, there's this game.

Sort of true.
Though I will point out that adding combat is actually the aspect that defined survival horror, along with hording the resources for it and picking your battles carefully.
I guess what sort of bugs me about this innovation is that it's a step backwards, there are tons of "Adventure Games" that used a similar mentality, this includes the real time elements of monsters moving around in differant locations and having to avoid them and so on. Sierra produced a few of these if I recall, not to mention tons of other companies during the whole golden age of adventure games.
Yahtzee enjoys Adventure games though, so I'm not surprised he liked this a lot. As far as I go, I've enjoyed a lot of them, but my overall opinion is mixed.
If my comments seemed fairly negative, I guess a lot of it comes down to feeling that with the mainstream coming into gaming, that the industry is actually regressing. We've seen a return of interactive movies ("Heavy Rain", which is similar to things like "The Daedalus Encounter", "Gadget", and other similar products of yesteryear), and of course games like this which despite the new technology seem like something someone would have made 15 years ago.
Retro doesn't bother me really, I after all defend turn based RPGs and such, however I guess I find this alarming for the simple reason that I'm concerned it represents a trend.
Consider that the Silent Hill remake used a similar idea, removing the combat elements from the game. While this makes a game more approchable to casuals (I am not sure if I believe it had anything to do with immersion for reasons I mentioned about realistic reactions), I don't think it nessicarly makes it a better game overall.
Perhaps we will see a compromise like the original "Alone In The Dark" where you could say trick a group of Cannibals, or walk in with a shotgun and kill them all if so inclined.

You say regression, i say...affirmation? Realisation, perhaps? That there should be other options then throwing down and putting up your dukes.

Blowing a monster's brains out like Bruce Willis may be satisfying, but its become boring too. Too many survival horror games have the option to lock n load, and therefore aren't scary anymore. Take RE4, for example - after realising you can manage your bullets and can find a steady stream, you spend most of your time avoiding the Las Plagas more then fighting them, because they became a nuisance. The most scary bit in that game was the big pale things with the 30 Days of Night mouths. They frightened the crap outta me.

There is a feeling of utter hopelessness of not having a weapon - or even better, having a weapon but being unable to use it properly - that frightens people to the core.

Imagine this - there's a monster down the hall. You have a handgun in your hand. The monster is a big son-of-a-monkey - you dont know if your pea shooter can take him down. You do know, however, that when you pop out to take a shot at him, he'll be on you in an instant, gun or no. Loud bang, flash of light, attractive to a heaving monstrosity. Do you save your bullets and try to let him go past, or take a risk and put a few rounds into him?

Oh - and there's no quicksave. Sorry little man, you only get one shot at this before you get punted back to the title screen.

Feeling anxious? Anxiety leads to fear, and fear is what you wanna taste when you play a survival horror game. And its not the anxiety of 'crap, outta bullets, i'm dead, bugger', its 'fuck, do i shoot it or let it go past? Shit, did it just see me?!"

 

[Porecomesis]

Getting rid of combat entirely just heightens the feeling of weakness and desperation.

Isn't that the idea of survival horror though? You, faced off against something unspeakable, would most likely poo your pants and run if you had the choice. Tearing the leg off a chair and squaring off with a monster is the stupid thing to do in that kind of situation. The best option is to bolt and try to avoid the monster. Sure, it makes you feel weak and defenseless - but lets face it, in that kind of situation, thats what you'll be.

... that was what I was referring to. And you're right, too.

 

[Dfskelleton]

I just bought this, and I can say that it's almost too scary. I'm a big horror fan, and the recent "horror" games have been pathetic, but this is just downright horrifying. I actually turned off the game in fear once, and I'm not even that far into it! This is truly awesome.

 

[500 lb Orangutan]

I like how when he talks about the level design, and there are three buildings sitting there, the middle one is quite obviously the industrial complex gamepiece from Axis and Allies. Caught that the moment it was on screen, that's how lame I am.

 

[samaugsch]

I'd been waiting to buy this game for a while and today I finally had the money to buy it, I got to what I believe is the exact moment that made you shit yourself a few minutes ago:

*Walk out into hall*
*Hear something to my right, big scary monster leaving the room*
"Oh dear, guess i'll go the other way then"
*Goes to the left*
*Sees the other way is a collapsed tunnel*
"Hmm, guess I have no choice then.."
*Turns around BIG SCARY MONSTER*
"OH SHHHHHHIIII-"
*Runs like fuck*

They obviously anticipated players doing that :3

 

[Tontomanzz]

Any game that gets you happy there's a closet to hide in rocks!

Apparently gamers do watch this before deciding..

"Interestingly, the developers didn't notice much in the way of a correlation between the positive review scores Amnesia has received and any direct spikes in unit sales. The notable exceptions were the release of reviews on Zero Punctuation and GameSpot. Sales quadrupled from roughly 150 per day to about 600 per day around the time those outlets published their review coverage. "
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/66172

 

[Slipslop]

If Yahtzee likes a game it means something, because he rarely dishes out positive reviews. This game is really worth it, it's very tense and scary. I enjoyed every second of it and i can only recommend it!

 

[80r]

I found Dead Space to be scary, but it's a conditional kind of scary. You have to turn up the difficulty, turn down the brightness, and not use Stasis. Also, in my experience, games are scarier on PC because it's more immersive than on a television 10 feet away.

Also, there were plenty of times that Dead Space had the type 2 scare factor. Of course, if you didn't do any of the above, these scenes will be a bore.

 

[Wolveria]

Excellent review, and the game is TERRIFYING. I'm still getting through it... have to take a break frequently, or my RL sanity takes too much of a beating.

 

[Wolveria]

Does anyone else find the Back hall area to have a sort of eerie beauty about it? The combination of the music and the strange architecture always makes the phrase 'Hauntingly Beautiful' pass through my mind.

I would say that's your reward for getting through the water level... It's like feeling calmly and pleasurably at peace after having really good sex. They let you have a little respite... before throwing you back in to the terror.

It's something they do really really well, and it makes me want to come back for more.

 

[Metalrocks]

i have played the demo and it was ok, but not my thing of constantly running away all the time. if it would be like mirror's edge were you can use your fists/feet (without the running on walls and jumping offcourse), no guns, then i could enjoy it.
because in mirror's edge confronting the enemy was also not a good option. especially against these trained runners you sure dint want to be close to them.
i hope you understand what i try to say here.

also operating things with the mouse is not something i can be befriended with, like closing doors. every times i let go of the door when i had it shut, it opened up again. i rather press a button to close/open something or pick up anything you can pick up. then press the left mouse to use it or hit the enemy with it.
i am not saying the game is bad just not my kind of game-play.

 

[brainslurper]

And its on mac. which its why its selling so well.

 

[AngryBritishAce]

You know, Amnesia was my favourate Game this year. I've played through it 3 times and it still scares me

 

[Tontomanzz]

Time to send some out as Christmas gifts. Tis the season to give out horror to the ones you love hehe.