A little disappointment after announcement of new Amnesia

[Mine Turtle]

You can only pull the modern-horror story so far; whilst past-time horror stories based on legends give the tale you tell with a story a very mysterious and interesting feel.

Examples:

Penumbra was inspired by the movie "The Thing", but that was an alien-life-form based story. It was a great movie, and penumbra was a great game, but it was still focused on the extra terrestrial. This gives us scenario from which we can make a horror story.

Another story you could present modernly would be one where some sort of apocalypse happens, followed by some infection of sorts. That gives us two scenarios.

Another would be through paranormal activity (not the movie; the actual term.), or something originating from the fictional tales of religion. This gives us three/four scenarios.

You could also mix and match these stories to make some sort of interesting blend, but I wont go into that.

These are, in my opinion, the only kind of scenarios that could work with a modern story, mainly because they make logical sense (although ghosts and religious figures aren't exactly logical, they've still remained present in our minds for thousands of years, and we've constantly pondered about their existence. Same goes with aliens; we're not sure whether or not they exist, but we are completely convinced that they in fact do exist.); whilst in ancient times there were countless legends and myths, where a young horror-story enthusiast could build his/her horror-stories from. Amnesia strongly based their stories on myths, and thus gave a very very interesting story that they could tell, but if one were to make such a story based in modern times, they would be limited by logic-breaks. "Why didn't this guy just call the police" "Why did this guy enter a blatantly obvious haunted house?" "Why DIDn't he just find a gun and shoot the monster?" etc etc.

With society brings a sense of security, where one thinks that because of police and such, then "if something happens to me, i'll still have a chance to survive". Back in the day, we didn't have these urban securities that societies provides us with today. There was no healthcare, and you were basically on your own if something happened to you. This provides you with the concept that you truly are alone. You truly are defenseless, and if shit hits the fan, you're fucked, and you know it.


I get why you can adore the modern setting of a story, but myths and tales, along with basing your stories in the past (such as frictional games has done, and continue to do (i speak on the ways of AMFP, not any future projects)) gives the story more suspicion, more terror, and overall a better horror gaming experience. If guns are incorporated into the picture, that too gives you a sense of security; which is what made Amnesia truly horrifying; the concept of having no means of defense whatsoever.

Hope this cleared things up. Dont be upset with it. Embrace it, rather ^^.