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PC Reviews
| Amnesia: The Dark Descent
| The survival horror genre has come a long way since its inception, bringing people some of the most well-known franchises in the video game world. Ask anyone who has played a Silent Hill or Alone in The Dark game and they are sure to tell you about all of the moments that scared them and how much sleep they lost over them. Yet one of the complaints heard in fan circles nowadays is that survival horror video games are losing their roots, focusing much more on action-based gameplay rather than the ‘survival’ aspect of it. Gamers who feel this way can rest easy knowing that another game to whet their appetite for fear has arrived – Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Developed by Frictional Games, the independent studio who brought us the Penumbra series, Amnesia was almost cancelled mid-way through production. But persistence pays off, and Amnesia is an excellent example of that.
You play as Daniel, a man who has no idea about what's going on - just like you. As the title implies, Daniel is struggling to remember the details of his past and the reason for his presence in the strange, haunting castle he finds himself in. These details are gradually revealed in the game by numerous letters and diaries scattered around the castle and the occasional flashback. These materials are all very well written and present a lot of interesting lore; players who are familiar with the works of H.P. Lovecraft will find that there is a lot to like here.
As a game without combat, Amnesia forces you to have your wits about you as you explore the castle. The castle is split up into several areas, most with fairly mundane purposes, but others that are sinister and incredibly foreboding. Like many adventure games, you will find yourself completing a variety of puzzles in order to progress through these. Those worried about the frequency of backtracking need not be concerned – puzzles are mostly specific to areas of the castle and backtracking is therefore minimal. Amnesia also places plot markers to ensure that you know exactly where to go. No matter where you are though, the game does a fantastic job of keeping the atmosphere tense. While it is true that enemy encounters are infrequent, the use of this tension makes sure that you will never want to encounter an enemy, not even out of sheer curiosity.
Most of the time, your focus will be on the use of the game’s most important features - light and dark. Learning how to strike a delicate balance between the use of both is an important key to your physical and mental survival. More often than not you will find that light is your best friend. Being in the dark will slowly drain your sanity, leading to bizarre things happening (ala Eternal Darkness) and eventually, death.
There are two main sources of light: those found throughout the castle; such as wall torches, candlesticks, hanging lanterns, and a portable oil lamp. Lamps in the environment can be lit using tinderboxes, which are scattered around. You more or less have free reign over what you want to light, but as tinderboxes are uncommon, these choices should be made wisely. Of course, it wouldn’t be fair if you were forced to go exploring in a pitch-black castle, and some light sources in key areas are already lit for you. In situations other than these, the previously mentioned oil lamp comes into play. Much like tinderboxes, the lamp needs to be used sparingly as the oil used to fuel it is very scarce. So if light is so wonderful, why should you even bother with darkness? The answer is simple – when enemies are near, bathing yourself in light will make you more noticeable to them. In other words, you need to hide in the darkness at the cost of your sanity. Minimising sanity loss means that you will need to meticulously plan an escape route. It’s an interesting and subtly balanced system that manages to be fair to the player at the same time.
Much like the Penumbra games, Amnesia’s control scheme is meant to feel unobtrusive. It affords itself to very natural motions, similar to what you would actually perform in real life. So, for example, tipping a vase over would require you to hold the left mouse button down and tilt your mouse. Opening a door would require you to focus on the door and push or pull the mouse depending on which way the door opens or closes. The controls might take a little bit of getting used to and may even be a little unresponsive if you are running from enemies in a blind panic, but for the most part they are very well implemented.
Despite the game’s fairness, chances that you will meet your demise during your eight hours of playtime are high, either because of a sudden ‘skip’ in the quality of controls or because of an unfortunate encounter with an enemy. However, we’re not sure if it was just strange coincidence or not, but segments of the game seemed to get progressively easier when we died, to the point where enemies vanished from certain rooms in the castle. It’s an understandable decision if the developers were trying to remove player frustration from dying in order emphasise the experience, but there’s something jarring about having major obstacles removed just because they prove to be a problem a few times.
Amnesia is a game where the smallest sound of splashing water will turn you into a nervous wreck.
Amnesia is a game where the smallest sound of splashing water will turn you into a nervous wreck.
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For the best experience, the game recommends that you play it with all your lights off and the volume up. And it definitely ramps it up. Amnesia is very graphically impressive, given its relatively small download size on Steam (approximately 1.8GB) and there were no texture problems as far as we saw. Each area in the castle has its own horrific beauty and in the glow of your light sources, you will be able to see just how much time and effort has been put into crafting this game. The game’s audio effects prove to be equally well done. Amnesia does not use any ‘jump scare’ sound effects, instead focusing on subtle things that disturb rather than shock.
Amnesia manages to succeed in doing what many games nowadays don’t – providing players with a genuinely frightening survival horror experience. Now that Frictional Games has crafted such an interesting, immersive game; will this make bigger studios sit up and turn their focus towards survival horror, rather than action horror? Only time will tell. For now, turn the lights down and the volume up for a truly horrific game. But in this case, we use the term ‘horrific' and mean well by it.
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