Amnesia: The Dark Descent

[Asembo]

Holy crap this game is terrifying! I can't play it more than 30 minutes at a time, because it's so stressful. What's strange to me is that I like horror games, but rarely find them to be scary, due to the fact that they always go for cheap jump scares. I've played over an hour now and I have to say that Amnesia is doing a great job making you fear the unknown, my concern is that the game will lose it's scariness once I see who or what is trying to kill me.

I hope this game does well for Frictional, especially after I red this article. Frictional guys seem to know how to make atmospheric horror games and I hope they'll stay in business.

[Irishjohn]

Sounds awesome to me. I had somehow completely missed that this game existed until I saw it on Steam.

[Thyroid]

People should read this. On the risks of being an indie in the world of big boys.

[Tanukitsune]

I know you guys are going to hate me for saying this, but... I gave up on this at the middle of the game, not because it was too scary or stressful, but because it was annoying the hell out of me!

The constant "OOGA OOGA BOOGA! I'M A SCARY SOUND! You're safe but I'm here to remind that you might not be in the future... OOOGA BOOGA!.... BOOOO, DAMMIT! MOTHERBLEEPINGBOO!"

Also wasn't this game supposed to be emergent? As in, not scripted? Then why does it feel so scripted? Monsters usually appear when I pick up an important item and only leave when I do a specific thing...

I'll watch a video-walkthrough to see the story, but I think I already know the gist of it...

By the way, I was playing the game in the dark, but that didn't help, I only got a few cheap scares...

[Irishjohn]

How dare you!!!

Nah, I won't judge you. I certainly don't have the indie game cred in any case. I haven't even played Gravity Bone.

I might still give it a shot.

John

[Tanukitsune]

Come to think of it, I only beat the first Penumbra game, got bored through half of the second one and watched the rest on a YouTube walkthrough too! XD

[Erkki]

I know you guys are going to hate me for saying this, but... I gave up on this at the middle of the game, not because it was too scary or stressful, but because it was annoying the hell out of me!

The constant "OOGA OOGA BOOGA! I'M A SCARY SOUND! You're safe but I'm here to remind that you might not be in the future... OOOGA BOOGA!.... BOOOO, DAMMIT! MOTHERBLEEPINGBOO!"

Have any other games scared you? Maybe horror games are just not for you? I played through it again with the developer commentary, brightness turned up a bit, in a fully lit room without headphones and some parts were still scary. Not as much as the first time, of course. IMHO, playing a horror game properly requires you to have a certain mindset. If you think about how the scare-providing game systems work while playing, it will not be that effective.

Also wasn't this game supposed to be emergent? As in, not scripted? Then why does it feel so scripted? Monsters usually appear when I pick up an important item and only leave when I do a specific thing...

Not sure where you got the feeling that it was supposed to be emergent. I at least didn't expect anything much different from Penumbra, just better execution (based on the demo and reviews).

BTW. It's true that many monsters appear after important quest events, but it's not always the case.

[Tanukitsune]

Have any other games scared you? Maybe horror games are just not for you? I played through it again with the developer commentary, brightness turned up a bit, in a fully lit room without headphones and some parts were still scary. Not as much as the first time, of course. IMHO, playing a horror game properly requires you to have a certain mindset. If you think about how the scare-providing game systems work while playing, it will not be that effective.

Not sure where you got the feeling that it was supposed to be emergent. I at least didn't expect anything much different from Penumbra, just better execution (based on the demo and reviews).

BTW. It's true that many monsters appear after important quest events, but it's not always the case.

Yes, I don't know why but the first Condemned had me wetting my pants during the whole game... other kept me tense until I either got bored or annoyed by the game...

I'm pretty sure someone said it was more emergent than the Penumbra games at least...

If there is one thing that puts me out the "I want to be scared" mindset, it's the constant scary sounds, which why Dead Space annoyed the living daylights out of me... it also makes me not give a damn when the real monster appears....

"Oh, so after three hours of moaning and screams you finally bother to show up?":erm:

Come to think of it, the first Penumbra game worked for me until I realized the mosnters didn't insta kill me, after that I just didn't care anymore...

[Nevsky]

I want to play this game, but I have hardly any money and I don't want to potentially waste £££s by getting it and being too scared to play it. That's logical, right?

[Sully907]

I bought Pneumbra during the humble indie games sale but didn't have a chance to finish it. If I jump to this, will I be missing important story elements or are the games pretty self contained. I remember liking what little I got to experience of pneumbra overture's narrative

[Erkki]

I bought Pneumbra during the humble indie games sale but didn't have a chance to finish it. If I jump to this, will I be missing important story elements or are the games pretty self contained. I remember liking what little I got to experience of pneumbra overture's narrative

The stories of Penumbra and Amnesia are not related at all. And Amnesia has much better storytelling IMHO.

[Erkki]

Frictional have posted on their blog about how the game has been doing if anyone is interested:

One week after the release of Amnesia

One Month after Amnesia's release

[Orv]

I tap two cards and cast MILD RESURRECTION:

So I watched someone play through the entirety of Amnesia, though I admittedly wasn't paying full attention.

I felt like I saw enough of the game to ruin it for me, and every time Amnesia goes on sale I go "But it seems like a really good game! But. . .horror games aren't really big on replay value!" So I haven't done anything about it yet.

Then I see a video like this: (Thanks RPS)

loSzpvq73FY

That makes me think I should play it anyway, because I am easily psyched out when it comes to horror games.

Am I being stupid?

[Sully907]

You absolutely should play it. Almost nothing actually happens, but you will still shit your pants out of fear. I love it.

[Irishjohn]

You absolutely should play it. Almost nothing actually happens, but you will still shit your pants out of fear. I love it.

This is actually a very compelling one sentence review. I got Amnesia a couple of weeks ago but I've been waiting for my new computer to play it. Not sure why, as my current computer could handle it just fine, but I'm hoping the better audio will freak the crap out of me in the dark.

[Erkki]

There's a pretty good mod out: http://www.moddb.com/mods/white-night (via RPS as usual).

Well, it's not really really good, but it was interesting enough to play to the end (might have been 4 hours). Takes place in an insane asylum and features Amnesia as the main plot element just like in the main game.

Some parts of it reminded me of Silent Hill.

[Kolzig]

Available now for only 3 euros now in Steam during the Halloween sale. So practically almost for free.

What is the cut between Valve and the dev regarding the prices?

[elmuerte]

afaik the cut is a more or less fixed 30%; so for stuff on sale valve still gets ~30%

of course nobody will tell you; the steam terms are confidential and punishable by undead lawyers.

[toblix]

I'm at a LAN party, so I thought I'd give this a shot and be able to play as long as there were shouting people and bright screens everywhere around me. I got to the library and found the wine cellar key, and when I stepped out of the room I heard this groaning sound and knew (or thought, rather) that something was out to get me and I quit.

[toblix]

HAHAH FUCK THIS GAME or actually fuck me because I cannot play it. I went into the wine cellar and after doing some stuff I got the tutorial message telling me that the only way to avoid enemies is to hide, which told me that I was about to meet an enemy. I went over to some shelves, picked up a thing, turned around, saw the silhouette of a man, smacked shut my laptop, tore off my headset, opened my laptop, opened task manager, killed the process and uninstalled it in Steam.

I've always have great sympathy for people who are unable to play some games due to motion sickness. I now realised fear is my motion sickness. Some day a game will come out and everyone will be raving about how amazing it is and you have to play it, and I just won't be able to. Sucks. ANYWAY, it was fun for as long as I lasted. I can't remember how the physics stuff was in Penumbra, so I don't know if they changed anything, but if felt pretty natural, and made rummaging through stuff more fun than it usually is. The thing where you pull out of a drawer and the tinderbox comes rolling out all physicsy is cool.

[Gwardinen]

smacked shut my laptop, tore off my headset, opened my laptop, opened task manager, killed the process and uninstalled it in Steam.

That's a pretty great sequence of events. I want a GIF of someone doing that.

[toblix]

Actually I just noticed it's still in my Steam library, so either I never actually uninstalled it (though I remember doing so,) or I did, but it's not done with me. The last, brief image I have of that game is this terrible creature just standing there, and now that image will in my mind forever transform into something so twisted and horrible I will never be able to return to it, just like my memory of the lady that was turned into a robot in one of the Superman films.

[Roswell47]

You are actually in a Lovecraft short story right now Toblix. You found this item and it revealed unspeakable horrors so you threw it away, or so you thought.... You can't get rid of it and it will slowly turn you insane.

[vimes]

I've always have great sympathy for people who are unable to play some games due to motion sickness. I now realised fear is my motion sickness. Some day a game will come out and everyone will be raving about how amazing it is and you have to play it, and I just won't be able to.

That's Silent Hill 2 for me :/

[toblix]

Weirly, I was able to complete Silent Hill 2.