As some of you may already know but most of you don't, I love playing video games. Last summer, when I was bored with the games I had and wanted to play something new, I came across something fabulous, Amnesia: The Dark Descent.
For people who don't know, it's a first person adventure survival horror game and to my opinion, one of the best among its genre. The story, game-play, atmosphere and sounds build up and make it a very frightening and fun game to play.
The game takes place in a dark, spooky environment, and the sounds, such as the wind or phantom footsteps make it even more creepy. The growling of the monsters mixed up with human screams keeps you at edge all the time. The protagonist, Daniel, gradually loses his sanity if he stays too long in the dark and this affects your game-play, too. When he sees a monster or stays in the dark, his sanity starts to decrease, at that point, his heartbeat rate starts to increase and he starts panting, which makes you wait for something really scary to happen at any moment. In addition, when his sanity decreases even more, his vision, (also your vision since it's a first person point of view game) starts to get blurry, which when adds up with the creepy sounds and surroundings, scares the hell out of you. When he completely loses his sanity, he blacks out, falls down, you can even see him blinking, trying to stay awake and keep his eyes open. And if you see a monster coming to you when he tries to regain conscious, lying in the open completely helpless, just leave him there, shut down your computer and run for your life.
As for the adventure part, I think the key point of the puzzles in an adventure game is their difficulty. If they are too easy and too obvious to solve, it's not a challenge for you anymore and you get bored. If they are too hard to solve, you turn to Google or Youtube and read/watch some walkthroughs, then it's not a challenge for you anymore and you get bored, in addition to the game being spoiled for you. The puzzles in Amnesia aren't too hard to solve, in fact, we can even say they are rather easy, but still, the horror factor in the game makes them balanced. Although you get a grip of what to do next, you can't just rush to do it, because obviously, since it's a horror game, there may be monsters around any corner or behind any door or on any super-duper creepy, dark corridor. And this is one of the things that makes the game exciting, and scary. Definitely scary. No need to kid myself, there may have been times that I chickened out and played in a increased-gamma and lowered-sound atmosphere, as well as switching on ALL the lights in the house. Because I also lose my sanity in the dark, just like Daniel.
What I don't like about Amnesia though, is the ending. For a game so brilliant, the ending could have been better. I, myself, have written a hundred endings to Amnesia in my mind, since I played it last summer. Still, the fact that the game being so awesome in general, makes me ignore the frustration at the end.
All in all, Amnesia is a great game and made my summer. Though it saved me from countless boring evenings, it is not a hero. It is a silent guardian. A watchful protector. It is Amnesia: The Dark Knight. Wait.. What?
