Amnesia: The Dark Descent

I have never been scared by a video game until Penumbra, a product of this small Swedish four-(now five)-man team. The atmosphere is perfect and the entire play through has every attempt made to genuinely scare the player with a feeling of helplessness and anticipation of the dark things ahead of him or her. What's scarier than being trapped in an abandoned mine in Greenland? That's right, being a skinny English physics professor who is trapped, nearly defenseless, in an almost-abandoned mine in Greenland.

Coming in August from the same developers is the literally-titled Amnesia: The Dark Descent, about person man, who wakes up with amnesia in a dark castle some time in the eighteenth century. That's about all anyone knows but here's a clip. The compression at YouChoob darkened the image, though, so it is recommended that you turn your contrast on your monitor as high as it could go without being ridiculous and watch in fullscreen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEHPwAvrc_U

Fullscreen also makes it scarier. :>

Looks pretty cool, shame i'm such a child when it comes to 'Scary Games'... Movies, real life situations, no problem, but I simply cannot play 'Scary Games'... Shame!.. Might have to get some weird equipment to force myself to play this game, as it does look indeed interesting.

I used to feel the same way about survival horror games. I still don't like anything with 'jump' scares, although a creepy atmosphere can draw me in. I don't get as bothered by this as I used to. I guess I'm getting all crusty and jaded in my old age. I found the first BioShock pretty creepy in terms of atmosphere, but I've been playing the sequel recently and it's barely even occured to me to be creeped out.

If anyone does want to be scared the developers are having a preorder sale, cutting the price in half until May eleventh. http://www.frictionalgames.com/forum/thread-3283.html

If you're an enthusiast for anything you become its biggest critic. As far as the horror genre goes... the more you like horror, the less it scares you. It's just fact.

I'm not a horror fan at all. In fact, I am still afraid of haunted houses. I still get spooked in the dark in a strange place. Games like Bioshock and Dead Space kept me on edge and freaked me out to the point that I had to get my friend to play through parts of both games because I was too frightened to continue.

I'm scared by bioshock, Dead Space, F.E.A.R., silent hill etc.

as a child I was scared of Halo (particularly the Library... that place was creepy) and some parts of Metal Gear Solid (I remember hesitating for at least a half an hour in the hallway full of dead bodies and the echoey ninja voice)

That being said I think making horror games for horror fanatics is impossible. They are so used to the horror genre that they can't "get into it" like someone like me can. When I play a game, I am as afraid for my character's life as I am my own.



Idea though: If there were a game that were a little less lenient than F.E.A.R. and Bioshock which had infinite lives and continues and instead had a "one life per save file" system I think you would be as on edge with it as you are with Penumbra, even if it is a game as simple as Super Mario Bros

I don't really know what exactly happened, but it's my affixation for horror that is now so prominent that got me into being scared and kept me from being scared by many games, movies, etc etc. In fact, I wanted to play FEAR because of its touted gunplay (where enemies turned out to trip over their own grenades on my copy) but was scared as fuck about opening the box because of anticipation of the just as much touted horror element. However, when I started playing, I was like, "What is this? A girl turning the lights on and off?"

I think it's something that can come naturally to some people just like math or language skills. Because I certainly didn't earn that sort of tolerance over time. It became more of a want to be scared rather than working my way up. Everyone has primal fears no matter what, which is what makes Penumbra different than putting a man in a room with a gun and monsters he has to kill before exiting. I do think Penumbra and the upcoming Amnesia are games for horror fanatics because, unless you were born an abnormally unemotional savant and are basically a text book with a mouth, you have a primal fear of being in the same room as something that can kill you.

I'm not a horror fan any more than I am a shooting fan or an adventure fan, but the reason why I bitch about it the most is because more video games have excellent gunplay/AI and puzzles than have much more than jump scares.

art wrote:

Idea though: If there were a game that were a little less lenient than F.E.A.R. and Bioshock which had infinite lives and continues and instead had a "one life per save file" system I think you would be as on edge with it as you are with Penumbra, even if it is a game as simple as Super Mario Bros

I'm not sure about that. I could definitely become tense, but tension is far from the terror I so love.

I feel no connection to my in-game character if I have infinite lives and continues. It's the equivalent of turning god mode on.

If when the character dies your save file is deleted and your disk is scratched and your house catches on fire you have a lot more inspiration to not die in the game

If you've never read this before - you should. It's a bloggers decision to play Far Cry 2 in a self-imposed 'Iron Man' mode. That is, if his character ever dies, he will simply quit playing at that point. It's well written, funny at times and interesting for anyone with an interest in video games. AND it serves as an example of what you're talking about. Let me know if you read any of it.

http://drgamelove.blogspot.com/search/label/Permanent%20Death

In terms of horror fans, are they still looking for scares ? I agree that the more you watch horror the more immune you become to it. But I think real hardcore horror fans then begin to appreciate the genre on a more critical (artistic ?) level, the same with all kinds of genre analysis.

Speaking of scares, I just got a copy of Alan Wake but haven't played it yet. Thoughts to follow in a different thread.

We all want to be scared because realising the fact that everything happend on the screen is fiction we fell alive and safe. We all want to feel the thril and face the darkness, but will we be prepeared for it in real life?
All in due time...in Night Springs.))

Ok.
To be short.
I haven't seen or played anything that could scare me. (that sucks)
I can like the plot and characters...but nothing more.
THE ONLY thing that still scares me is the first "Omen"

About Alan Wake.
Good game.
As expected from Remedy.
But...
Wile playing i couldn't get of the feeling that i've been playing Alone in the dark: Near Death investigation.
The darkness, monsters and flashlight)

Demo: http://www.amnesiagame.com/#demo

I haven't finished it because it contains some spoilers and I want to go in as blind as I can, but it's rather HOLY FUCKING SHIT so far. I recommend it.

It's being released in three days.

where did you go i wanna take you up on your offer =[

I figured you'd say something.

By the way has anyone else played this at all? I played through it (will finish my review this weekend) and it is absolutely amazing, scary, and interesting. I'd go to lengths to argue that it has one of the most mature and disturbing stories is all of gaming history.

I tried to play the demo, but kept getting a error message as soon as it started up. Not surprising really. My computer's okay, but it's not really built for gaming. Fallout 3 is pretty much the only (semi) recent game it can run.

Try the official forums. The developers help with every problem they can, and the community can help you too. But you definitely don't need a gaming PC to play this (one of the devs uses a computer from 2005!) so it's not a problem caused by you.

this is the scariest fucking thing I've ever played don't play it

My desktop will be back up in my room very soon and I will be able to play this!

art wrote:

PunchFox wrote:

My desktop will be back up in my room very soon and I will be able to play this!

you will literally break down and cry from fear

AND YOU WILL LOVE EVERY DAMN MINUTE OF IT.

OH SHIT I have a bag of Milky Ways!

sexbad the bangbarian wrote:

OH SHIT I have a bag of Milky Ways!

I... what?

sexbad the bangbarian wrote:

Saithis wrote:

sexbad the bangbarian wrote:

OH SHIT I have a bag of Milky Ways!

I... what?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loSzpvq73FY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjUd6_XTkOI

This guy has the whole game - the uninteresting parts with pretty amusing commentary. Cept he doesnt freak out as much.