[SPOILER] Thank you Frictional

[Bridge]

Some spoilers imminent so watch out.

Having just finished Amnesia: The Dark Descent I feel the need to write this little post of thanks to the developers.

While not perfect (incredibly close though), I think Amnesia (and to a slightly lesser extent Penumbra) accomplishes what most other horror games can only hope to: inspire true fear in the player. The only other games I can think of that manage to do this as effectively are the Thief games. For some reason most games from the survival horror genre have been riddled with obscure and logically unsolvable puzzles, awkward and much unwanted combat and bad voice acting.

Then in 2007 out of seemingly nowhere comes Penumbra: Overture, which impressed me so much because it fixed most of the problems I had/have with survival horror games. Finally puzzles that you can solve simply by observation and analytical thought (and that doesn't necessarily mean easily solved puzzles; it means difficult but fair puzzles). The combat bugged me slightly (although the atmosphere is so thick that even with all the zombie dogs dead the game is still scary) but it was a great game. Penumbra: Black Plague was even better IMO with enemies that you actually fear but I won't ramble on about it because Penumbra is essentially just one game.

I had no idea how much Amnesia was going to improve the "formula" when I first played it. It does an excellent job at setting the mood of despair and dread early on and maintaining it relentlessly throughout the entire game. I actually "had" to stop playing it for almost a year (to be honest I fearquit it when I arrived at the storage and then I left the country for an extended period) and about a week ago I began to play through the beginning again and this time I mustered up the courage to get through all of it. Wow. What an incredible experience. It's been a long time since I've been this impressed with a game. I don't want to spoil anything about the story inadvertently but just in case I put a spoiler tag on this thread. The storytelling, the pacing, the breathtaking graphics, the chilling musical score and the outstanding level and puzzle design. Apart from being a well designed game on a technical level, it is also one of the only truly scary games out there (as I mentioned before). You know how you sometimes say a game/movie is so scary it gives you nightmares? Well, Amnesia actually did give me nightmares. If something fictional can do that, you know it accomplished what it set out to do.

I did say it wasn't perfect and indeed there are some things that bug me about it (though they are mostly design decisions and fully arguable). For one I don't like triggers that much in games, which really kills the replay value. I'm sure if I play this game again after several years it will be almost like a fresh experience. But in essence it means the game never changes which is why, say, the Thief games (the horror levels mainly) will always be consistently scary because the AI wanders around constantly and sometimes acts in an unpredictable manner which provides a fresh experience each time. You can play through a Thief level twice with no pause and get a mostly different experience but I am almost certain you would be very bored if you started to play Amnesia again immediately after beating it. I know it isn't directly comparable because Amnesia is a linear game and Thief isn't really but I think my point still stands. Using triggers offers perhaps a much more focused experience because the developers can make you feel exactly what they want you to feel, and so they have complete control over the experience. But it felt kind of silly walking into obvious traps after a while. However, Amnesia does this much better than Penumbra because instead of monsters appearing when you pick up an item for example, the monsters in Amnesia can appear really at any time, so it had a lot of excellent scares (some quite unpredictable). As I said it's completely debatable; I don't think it necessarily means a game is going to be better or worse for having triggers but I think it allows for a much scarier experience if the scares are organic.

Though I will admit that if you actually had to sneak past the enemies in this game instead of them wandering off and disappearing this game could probably drive you to actual insanity (with some hyperbole). One other problem I had with Amnesia was having to go into a corner and wait (sometimes for an entire minute!) whenever a monster appeared. After a while it got kind of tedious but I really have no idea how you could have solved that, because well that's the game (the first few times though it was really intense). I also thought the endings could have been handled better. I got the supposed bad ending and actually really enjoyed it but it was over so quickly it was not completely satisfying. But hey, it's about the journey not the destination, right?

Anyway to sum up this aimless and parentheses-laden review/thank you note I want to say I had a great time and if other developers follow suit the horror genre could really turn into something to be taken seriously. Not only that, but after this game and Penumbra no one can honestly say without contradiction that video games are not art. I'm not saying A&P are the only games (or even the most notable ones necessarily) that could be considered art, but taking into account Amnesia's success and the fact that it's quite well known among gamers (PC gamers at least) I consider it a good sign. So without being too melodramatic, I thank you Frictional Games for creating such an excellent game, and I look forward to playing all of your future titles.

(Sheesh. I defy you to write a more convoluted post; pretty sure it can't be done).

P.S. The Old Archives sequence with the water monster is some of the best gaming I've ever experienced. I found that scene to be extremely well done.