Amnesia: The Dark Descent

[MaggieTheCat]

Husband of mine downloaded this last night and we've been playing it together...okay, well, he's been playing it, and I've been watching, because I would be way too scared to play a game like that myself (I don't like first person games in general 'cuz they freak me out and make me uncomfortable, even games like Metroid Prime aren't very fun for me to play.)

It's good. It's actually...not as scary as I was expecting. Of course, I'm not playing. I'd probably be freaking out a lot more if I was, but so far I haven't screamed or even jumped (my husband jumped once, so I'm even doing better than him!) We're about 2 hours into it and maybe about a third through the story, from what I can tell. We just got to the Storage area, if anyone else here has played it. I've read that this is one of the creepiest areas in the game.

For those who are unfamiliar with it, it's a first person survival horror game. There are no weapons or fighting mechanics at all. There are monsters, though; if you see one, you have to either run or hide, because you cannot fight back against it, and they will tear you apart of they see you and attack you. It's definitely influenced by HP Lovecraft (you have a health gauge and a sanity gauge, and any time you see a monster or see something freaky happening around you, like a door opening on its own, your sanity goes down.) I read it's even loosely based on one of his short stories. Basically you wake up in a castle with amnesia and you have to figure out who you are, where you are, what's going on, what you're doing in this place, etc. There are a lot of puzzles involving collecting a bunch of items and then figuring out how to put them together or use them together in order to advance to the next part of the castle.

Has anyone else played this?

[Kaylyn]

Ooh, haven't played it, but I definitely want to! Apparently my husband downloaded it but it won't run on his computer, so I'll have to try it out on mine.

[gunsage]

I started playing it and...I would probably be more freaked out if I could get a handle on the pacing. A lot of the puzzles of the game slow it down because it's hard to figure out what to do, where to go, etc. I don't know, it could just be me. Definitely very moody and atmospheric so far, but I hate it when you look everywhere for a key, tossing crap all over the place in the dark.

[Sarlon]

almost sounds like a first person view of the ClockTower games...THOSE were freaky

[Bright_Star]

How does it compare to "Resident Evil"?

[MaggieTheCat]

I haven't played the RE games but I've heard Amnesia is similar but much scarier. It's a lot darker (and one of the themes of the game is that if you stay in darkness for too long you lose sanity; you get a lantern, but you have to keep it filled with oil, which is fairly rare; you also get tinderboxes that you can use to light candles and torches, but they don't give off very much light and tinderboxes are also limited, so you have to be careful about how to use your light sources.) You also can't defend yourself at all, which, according to people who have played RE, makes it a lot scarier and more tense. If you're in a room with only one exit, and you hear a monster approach and start smashing on the door to the one exit, trying to get in, you have to find a place to hide in that room or else you're doomed.

[gunsage]

It depends on what scares you. RE offered a lot of atmosphere and jump scares, but since it was something new and original at the time, there was a lot to work with. RE2 was especially good, but 4, 5, and pretty much any of the new ones aren't "scary" so much as just concentrating on tense action and survival. I'd say my favorite survival horror game is Silent Hill 2 with the Fatal Frame series coming in at a close second.

That said, Amnesia isn't really like that. I've compared it to as though the makers of Riven decided to make a game that was scary. I would almost compare it to something like older Sierra classics such as Shivers or Lighthouse or something. It's very atmospheric and moody, but so far I haven't really been "scared" by anything. It's almost like Doom 3, but in a castle and without any clear enemies.

[MaggieTheCat]

How far into Amnesia are you, gunsage?

[Lachrymose]

I can't get it to work on my laptop.

Apparently it has trouble with Intel graphics cards.

[MaggieTheCat]

I heard they're working on a patch for certain things...I think they have a list of known issues they're working on on the official message board, which you can check out and let them know about your issues if they're not already listed.

[Lachrymose]

I've already tried their fixes, but nothing's working at the moment.

[Geek King]

Hmm, if its based off the story I'm thinking of, the ending will be quite the twist.