I am, of course, talking about the invisible monster who can only harm you if you step on the flooded floor of one area – resulting in a game of “the floor is lava” and a rather suspenseful puzzle-like segment where you have to distract it for long enough to… slowly… open a door. Still, whilst you shouldn’t expect the constant heart-pounding suspense of something like “ Remothered: Tormented Fathers” (2018), one of the game’s monster encounters is surprisingly clever. But, although they can chase the player, it is usually very easy to outrun them and/or hide from them. Yes, the concept of even looking at a monster being dangerous is a neat one. Even the loading screens contain mysterious and atmospheric text fragments that further add to both the atmosphere and the horror.Įgads! An otherworldly horror! Let us make haste and scarper immediately! Seriously, this is one of the few games that is able to fully capture the feeling of reading a truly disturbing horror novel. Often the most disturbing moments of inhuman cruelty are described via text or implied by sound effects and/or static visual details… and this makes them even more disturbing. Plus, although this game certainly contains some gruesome moments, it is what you don’t see that will truly linger in your mind. And, yes, Daniel is about ten times more evil than James Sunderland too. In “Amnesia”, you are given a hint about Daniel’s evil past early in the game when he mentions something about “redemption”… and then it just keeps getting worse and worse. In “Silent Hill 2”, James Sunderland’s murderous past was a major final plot twist. Yes, “Silent Hill 2” (2001) famously did something similar to this but “Amnesia” – dare I say it? – does it in a much scarier way. And you are playing as him! This is a horror game that slowly creeps up on you and leaves you feeling deeply disturbed for hours afterwards. You get to learn his motivations, you see all of his weak self-justifications and you can do nothing but watch as the full extent of his monstrous past gradually unfolds before you. Seriously, the “descent” in the title is as much a moral and metaphorical one as it is a physical one… with Daniel being one of the most well-written “evil protagonist” characters I’ve ever seen in a horror game. And this is used to brilliantly disturbing effect here, being a rich source of both psychological horror and moral revulsion. The game’s central premise – amnesia – is a brilliant narrative trick, allowing the player to gradually learn more and more about Daniel as they progress through the game. Whoa! It’s an iron maiden \m/ Oh, wait, this game is set in 1839… not 1983. When he wakes up, he finds that he has no memory of who he is or why he is there. Set in 1839, the game begins with a drugged man called Daniel lurching through the halls of Brennenburg Castle in Prussia, muttering to himself and then falling unconscious. I should probably warn you that this review may contain MAJOR PLOT SPOILERS for both this game and “Silent Hill 2” (2001) and possibly some DISTURBING IMAGES too. Still, it will almost certainly look better if you have a proper graphics card though.Īnyway, let’s take a look at “Amnesia: The Dark Descent”. Even with these limitations, the game was still very atmospheric. Likewise, in order to avoid an annoying visual glitch, where the “ordinary” mouse cursor would appear in the middle of the screen, I also played in windowed mode too (with the screenshots in this review pulled from a relatively small amount of footage I recorded, since taking a direct screenshot also included the window too). I should probably point out that, due to my computer’s Intel HD 2500 integrated graphics, I played “Amnesia” on low graphics settings and at a lower resolution. Well, after noticing that a DRM-free version of it had been reduced during the spring sale on GOG a couple of months ago, I decided to finally take a look at the famous horror game “Amnesia: The Dark Descent” (2010).
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