Preview | Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Be Afraid…
Format: PC | Genre: Survival Horror | Publisher: TBA | Developer: Frictional Games | ETA: September 2010
Jennifer Allen never sleeps again after taking a look at AMNESIA: THE DARK DESCENT.
A CONFESSION is needed here. I’m a bit of a wimp. Not a full blown coward, but still a bit of a wimp. When playing horror games like the Resident Evil series or Dead Space, I’ll jump at relevant moments but they won’t scare me. They don’t get under my skin and keep me constantly on edge. That pleasure is left to the fearsome Silent Hill series, especially the latest: Shattered Memories. There’s a very crucial reason for this. It’s more of a matter of survival than anything else. Being thrust into a peculiar world with no weapons is scary. No one likes feeling out of their element.
This is something that Amnesia: The Dark Descent does wonderfully. It’s genuinely scary in places and I felt constantly on edge playing it, much like the Penumbra titles, Frictional Games’s previous foray into the world of survival horror.
Right from the start, it’s unsettling. With no real introduction or tutorial, you’re dumped unceremoniously into an old castle named Brennenburg. Nothing is clear here, not even your goal. Gradually the pieces are put together through acquiring diary pages and notes, but the entire experience feels disorientating thanks to the various dream sequences and motion blur used to convey this. Frictional Games has laid everything out very specifically to disturb you.
Sanity is not overrated
This is particularly noticeable with the use of the sanity meter. This meter is as crucial as it sounds. You have to stay out of the darkness as much as possible or else your sanity is drained and, well, bad things happen. With candles and lanterns available it really is wise to keep in the light. There’s palpable tension throughout these moments. Refreshingly of all though, it won’t be game over if your sanity meter does deplete. It’ll just be very scary and you really don’t want to be scared any more than you are already. There are potions available to restore your sanity but admittedly these feel like a bit of a bad move. It feels a bit too obviously like a game convention and one that doesn’t tie in as well as other, more immersive features.
Talking of immersion, the sound effects aid this greatly. Your spirit will be gradually unhinged by the sounds you hear and it feels near essential to play Amnesia with headphones on. You’ll hear the creaking of floorboards, whispering from behind and other deeply unnerving sounds, and uou’ll try to dismiss them as nothing important or worth being scared over. Despite this, you won’t be able to resist feeling just a little bit more
twitchy.
This game is clearly meant to be played in a darkened room by yourself with headphones. Unlike so many other horror games, it doesn’t feel like one that should be rushed. Exploration is key here as Amnesia is more about that than fighting any monsters or foes, and we all know that the scariaest thing possible is the unknown.
The puzzles on offer in this early preview of Amnesia don’t feel overly taxing but they do use some intriguing physics based fun. Like the Penumbra series before it, Amnesia likes to use real-world physics in its puzzles. For the most part they all feel logical though, and it makes for a nice point and click adventure feel to the game. None of the puzzles feel very taxing but this is early days for the game and there’s certainly the potential for more complex brainteasers.
It’s difficult to say much more without spoiling things, and this is a game that is much better when approached with no knowledge of what’s to come, but after a slow start it hooks you in easily. Its ability to unnerve and unsettle is fantastic. I felt consistently vulnerable in my time of playing it with its constant barrage of mind tricks to confuse yet beguile me at all times. It’s positively overflowing with Lovecraftian influences which is no bad thing at all. It’ll be interesting to see how the full game pans out come September. If it carries on like this, it’s going to be something really rather special. In a nightmare inducing sort of way obviously.
This is from the Penumbra team right? I could never play through it with the lights off :(
Yeah, same guys. I’m eagerly awaiting for Amnesia.
I confess however the Penumbra series generally let me down. I wasn’t the biggest fan. Probably because I played it much later after release (one year later) and the overly positive reviews eventually led me into to building too high expectations for a game that, while technically impressive and with an interesting writing, failed in some key points that I find absolutely necessary to give me the immersion I need in order to “enjoy” the scary parts.
Amnesia so far has only displayed one aspect I’m not very keen on. I don’t appreciate hearing my player character heavy breath and gasping at the scary scenes. It seems to want to lead me by the hand into the moments I should feel scared. Not always a problem, but for those moments when I will be able to keep my cool and act rationally, the gasping and whimpers will completely break the suspension of disbelief I find so important in these type of games.
Jennifer also mentions sanity potions. And that too is definitely not something I’m looking forward to. I tend to be abrasive when commenting on those kind of choices by the game designers. And I will open no exception here: These are usually game design shortcuts that don’t speak well of the professionals. Instead of taking the time and hard work to design a sanity system that works, they show their occasional incompetence and design a sanity system that doesn’t work and make it work with a “magical” potion. Problem is these shortcuts into bad design tend to blemish the otherwise great display of skill and love that obviously goes into games like this.
Mario: Sanity potions are actually quite rare. You really do have to keep the light/dark balance managed well if you want to stay sane.
Cannot wait for this bad boy.
I’ll take your word for it, Lewis. But for the sake of debate, I’d rather much preferred if the game introduced psychotropics. Pills that fought the overwhelming sense of fear. And with it introduce a balance between insanity and dependency, with both having effects on the player if they tended too much either way.
No doubt a choice open for argumentation. But it could make for a rather interesting mechanism. And it would be so Poe.