Amnesia: The Dark Descent - Don't play without the lights on.

I played Amnesia with a friend last night, and within about 15 minutes of playing with the lights off, we couldn't take it, and bolted for the lights. Unsurprisingly, that only helped a little bit. But let's look at this game a bit first before we get into my experience.

You play as the young strapping lad from London, named Daniel. You awaken in a dark castle like place, with no memory about where you are, or why. All you know is your name, and that you are being hunted.Throughout the game, The story and who you are is revealed via many several-paged diary pages that are scattered throughout the castle. If the ambiance wasn't enough, at regular intervals, you'll go through flashbacks, which typically involved women and children screaming, or scholarly men discussing what this hunter is. Shortly after waking, Daniel finds a note written by himself that explains how he purposely made himself forget his past, for reasons yet unknown. The note urges Daniel to descend into the castle's Inner Sanctum and murder a man named Alexander, the baron of the castle.

At about half way through the game, you still have absolutely zero clue what is going on, except that you have an objective to kill some guy. You don't know why or how you left behind these notes to yourself, and you don't really know who Alexander is, except that he is a guy you flashback talking to several times, even in the beginning. This game is creepy as hell. There were several times we had to trade who was playing and take breaks to keep our own sanity levels normal.

There is decidedly very few enemies, but the knowledge that one could jump out from a pitch black corner, or rend you when your light goes out is enough to make you go mad. If that wasn't enough, the longer you are in the dark, or without your light, your guy starts to hallucinate. The screen starts to shake and wobble, your heart rate picks up and adds to the fact that you don't want to open the door you just went through because you have no idea what's behind it the moment it closes. After a while we couldn't take going on any further, and quit for what may or may not be a second try. While the storyline isn't very long, the fact that you're extremely cautious and reserved, coupled with terror, you're probably going to take 3 times longer completing simple tasks.



The fact that I don't really like horror games or movies didn't deter me from trying this game. It is easily the best Horror game I've ever played in terms of fear factor and how a horror game should feel. You can tell a good game by the fact that the collective 9 - 12 enemies throughout the whole game are enough to make you second guess every step you take. (I don't know if there are that few, it just felt like it, apparently they spawn randomly.) I'd say give this game a try if you haven't already. It's only $20.00, and it seems to have the ability to have add on stories to the original game. While it doesn't really have replay value, sometimes these kind of games need some love. If you're interested, watch the video, and visit their [Homepage]

Just do it, you won't regret it.