Amnesia: The Dark Descent Review

By Quintin Smith Published 6 September, 2010

Thanks for the memories.

Version tested: PC

Boy does Amnesia nail running away. It nails running away like Mirror's Edge nailed running away, which is a bit of a damning indictment of the latter game, since it was about a sexy free-runner leaping and rolling through the rooftops of a futuristic cityscape, while Amnesia is about a mentally unstable man fumbling doors open and squatting in cupboards. Then again, Mirror's Edge also gave you the option of fighting instead of running. Amnesia doesn't, which is one of the bigger reasons why it's the scariest game I've played in years.

Amnesia's also unusual for a horror game, which as a genre tends to put horror first, panic second, creepiness third and the actual game fourth. With Amnesia, you're also getting an engaging first-person adventure game that could have stood by itself had developer Frictional Games chosen to go that way.

Amnesia's plot alone is intriguing enough. Waking up on the stone floor of some ancient castle with no memory whatsoever except their character's own name ('Daniel'), the player's first discovery is an oddly brief letter from Daniel to Daniel, telling him to descend into the castle's basement and kill a man named Alexander. As you explore the castle further the plot thickens eagerly and ominously, with diaries, rooms and panicked notations all providing scraps of a much larger and more unpleasant picture.

This exploring takes up most of the game, and is made all the more engaging through the same excellent grabbing mechanic Frictional used in its Penumbra titles. You click the mouse to 'grab' objects within the world (a door, a boulder, a drawer), and then move the mouse to interact with that object in an immersive and intuitive way. It's a system that's as beneficial to ransacking somebody's study as it is to turning some dusty, forgotten valve. Or, perhaps more relevantly, slamming a door in the face of a monster. But we'll get to that in a minute.

'Amnesia: The Dark Descent' Screenshot 3

You don't have to eat, which I feel is missing a trick. I loved fighting for clotted milk and sour vegetables in Pathologic.

Physics aside, nosing around Amnesia's castle also holds your interest because it constantly rewards you with details, pick-ups, pieces of the story, surprises or varied environmental puzzles which often use that same grab mechanic, if not particularly imaginatively. But what the puzzles lack in inventiveness they make up for in difficulty, with plenty of them sat in a sweet spot where they'll rarely stump you, but still make you feel smart.

If this physics-puzzler-mystery concept was expanded on, I'm sure an awful lot of people would want to play it. But clearly Frictional had other ideas.

It takes balls to do a horror game right. There's a reason that out of all the recent high-profile horror games of late, Dead Space and F.E.A.R. 2 gave you enough weaponry to level whole buildings, Resident Evil 5 and Siren: Blood Curse traded some of their series' spookiness for more gung-ho action, Alone In The Dark featured ludicrously overblown stunt sequences and Alan Wake gave its monsters enough of a weakness that they'd probably qualify for disabled parking stickers. Scaring players is about more than inserting jumpy moments and a quivering string soundtrack into a level lit like a seedy club. It's about a lack of empowerment and control, which is enough of an acquired taste that none of the big publishers will fund it.

Amnesia isn't just a game where you can't fight the monsters. It's a game where you can't look at the monsters. Doing so drains your sanity and increases the chance they'll spot you. Sometimes this not-looking isn't a problem because the monsters are invisible, but in places it's the most horrible thing in the world. Imagine it. You're hiding from a monster in the sole pocket of shadow in a room, and all you can do is stare at the floor.

There's more. Because something is less scary once you understand it, many of the monsters are unknown quantities. They frequently appear and disappear when you're not looking. You never quite learn the limits of their vision. You can distract them by throwing things to create noises elsewhere, but it doesn't always work. And while monsters are relatively rare in Amnesia, which saves them from ever becoming irritating in the way they would if the entire game was built around them, the game does a great job of making you feel that any of them could appear at any time. In one room I spent 10 minutes nervously sprinting from safe place to safe place to avoid a monster, except there was no monster. I'd only convinced myself there was.

There's more still. While monsters make for almost all of Amnesia's high drama, some extra moment-to-moment tension is added by your character's aversion to darkness.

Amnesia's Daniel is a card short of a full deck. He's brave, resourceful and smart, too, but also distinctly unhinged. Leave him in the dark (like you often have to do to avoid monsters) and his sanity drains. If Daniel's sanity drops too low he'll start to slow down and gibber to himself, and you'll get some serious lag on your mouse-looking and a hazy Vaseline sheen applied to the screen.

Your enemies against the darkness are tinderboxes, which allow you to light candles, fires and torches, and your lamp. But both tinderboxes and lamp oil are in short supply.

'Amnesia: The Dark Descent' Screenshot 2

Yeah, there's a sewer level. Two, actually. Best sewer levels ever, though!

Again, that might sound annoying, but Frictional has executed it almost perfectly. The times when you get annoyed with this system are outweighed by the relentless atmosphere of danger it creates, with you fretting over your supplies and wondering whether to light that torch and lose another hiding place. At the end of my game I realised the prudence in flicking the lamp on and off to conserve oil, which actually results in a flicker-cam straight out of any horror movie.

Amnesia's problems are all to be found outside the horror. It's relatively short, clocking in at about eight hours, but since it's being sold for $20 ($18 if you pre-order) I wouldn't say that's an issue. What I would say is an issue is the plot's resolution, since Amnesia does mystery better than it does concrete answers, some of the voice acting, the odd bit of uninspired level design and lots of the puzzles being too simple to involve any thinking.

Amnesia's overwhelming confidence and competence as a horror game takes it so, so close to being excellent, but there's just not enough content. The horror peaks whenever you're forced to deal with some new, unknown element, and those situations can be counted on the fingers of one hand. It's more than just a missed opportunity - by the final third of the game, as you reach the true heart of the castle's darkness, the monsters start losing their mystique and becoming 3D models.

Still, fans of horror gaming should definitely have Amnesia: The Dark Descent in their lives. It's a brave experiment in the genre, a more solid package than the Penumbra games and stops at nothing to make you truly, deeply uncomfortable. And after a hard day at school or the office, isn't that all we really want?

8 / 10

Amnesia: The Dark Descent is available to download for PC, Mac OS X and Linux from tomorrow.

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy
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About Quintin Smith

Read more articles from Quintin by visiting the Quintin Smith archive page.

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Comments (71) Latest comment 9 months ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • ZuluHero #1 1 year ago

    Oh i heard about this a while ago, but forgotten (fnar!) it was coming out. Nice to see a review and that it is every bit as scary as it promised. For $20 i will definitly take a look :)

  • humble #2 1 year ago

    So very, very excited by this. These guys deserve all the success they gan get. Then again, great sales would probably mean they'd be bought up and forced to make their games more mainstream, which would certainly be a shame.

  • Tangled #3 1 year ago

    It's not available tomorrow, but the day after it (8th). Seems you hurried the article one day (the URL says 09-07). ;)

  • Xabarin #4 1 year ago

    Reminds me of the excellent Call of Cthulhu: Dark corners of the earth, by far the most terrifying game I have ever played. It may be worth a try, I think there's a demo on steam, if I'm not mistaken.

  • Frybird #5 1 year ago

    When will Frictional finally start making Games for the Wii/Playstation Move?

    Thier game mechanics in Penumbra and this are perfect for motion control....

  • systems #6 1 year ago

    Wasn't that horror system in Penumbra too, or at least a similar version? I seem to remember if you stared at a monster for too long you would gasp and they'd hear you, so you had to keep staring at your feet and having crafty glances at it.

    Well worth a purchase then, but I'll wait for the long winter nights to draw in first.

  • UncleLou #7 1 year ago

    Sounds excellent, I hadn't really taken notice before although I liked Penumbra . There's a demo here, will try it tonight.

    Wasn't that horror system in Penumbra too, or at least a similar version? I seem to remember if you stared at a monster for too long you would gasp

    Yeah, you're right, that's how it worked.
    Edited by 1 at 06/09/10 @ 08:54

  • Goodfella #8 1 year ago

    @ Xabarin

    Yes, there is a demo. Downloading now.

  • Lukey__b #9 1 year ago

    Tried the demo wasn't scared. Did enjoy it though. I think I may have to give this a punt - I've never played a game like it and I feel I need to give it more of a chance.

    Why does the articile use $? As a UK based website (?with a UK based reviewer) called EUROgamer, why $? Not that I've really a problem with this (apart from the price in the article not being relevant to me), just would like to know the reasoning.

  • Rubbish_Russ #10 1 year ago

    Sounds amazingly terrifying.

    For my sanity - I'l have to give it a miss. Can I come an watch it at somebody's house instead?l

  • The-Builder #11 1 year ago

    Turn off the lights, get a cup of tea, light a candle or two, and descent into darkness. Horrifically good times.

  • bad09 #12 1 year ago

    Was eying this over the weekend, I need a good scary game not played on since Dead Space so might pick this up, need to download the demo.

  • Yossarian #13 1 year ago

    Yay, a properly scary game. Will buy.

  • Goodfella #14 1 year ago

    Hmm just tried the demo, I thought the atmosphere was very foreboding, made me feel rather uncomfortable. I don't know if I could take that for too long, what a wuss I am, lol.

  • peppergomez #15 1 year ago

    Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners was an excellenct horror game, taht's for sure. At one point, my character committed suicide due to staring at a monster too long. One of the most shocking gaming moments I've ever had, seeing my character put a pistol to his head and

  • Goodfella #16 1 year ago

    Yep, I thought Call of Cthulhu was a superb game.

  • kangarootoo #17 1 year ago

    Apparently some Radeon cards have problems with this game (or vice versa, so its worth trying the demo first).

  • kangarootoo #18 1 year ago

    I stopped playing Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners when I struggled with the "shoot bad guys from the back of a moving truck" section. Not particularly in keep with Chthulhu mythos that scene, I'm sure many would agree.

    It always felt like CoC:DC was a a great horror game, stuck behind terrible gameplay. Some of the basic game design was just awful (bribe a policeman with a bottle of rum, that you found BEFORE you met the police man - seriously), but the writing was good. If both could have been good, it might have been a classic. As it was, I just couldn't get past the flawed mechanics.

  • taurus82 #19 1 year ago

    I'll wait for the PS3 version (but It's never going to happen, is it?).

  • darkmorgado #20 1 year ago

    Hurrah.

    Came out of nowhere and sounds awesome. Buying this.

    Is it on Steam?

  • darkmorgado #21 1 year ago

    @peppergomez

    Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners was the best horror game ever made, taht's for sure.

    Fixed it for you

  • Goodfella #22 1 year ago

    @ darkmorgado

    Yes it's on Steam, the demo is available now and the full game is released on Wednesday for a mere Ł10.

  • Zeburdee #23 1 year ago

    Loved the Penumbra series - pretty much shoe-string master classes on how to create disturbing atmospheres within a game.

    However, the game requirements should list 'Headphones, Utter Darkness, Solitude, and Incontinence Pants' as mandatory. For me, that's the best way to get the most out of these spine-tingling little gems.

    [Bonus tip: the inco-pants also prevent the atmosphere being broken when needing to pop off for a piss mid-game]

  • darkmorgado #24 1 year ago

    the full game is released on Wednesday for a mere Ł10

    INSTABUY!

    Cheers dude.

  • Goodfella #25 1 year ago

    Sorry, forgot to add that it's Ł10 (actually Ł10.39) if you pre-order. Otherwise it's Ł12.99.

  • ChthonicEcho #26 1 year ago

    Eight hours? Short? Kane & Lynch 2, Modern Warfare 2, Portal and Splinter Cell: Conviction are short. Eight hours is not the 12+ hour standard of earlier gaming days, but for the genre it is in, when you are almost constantly moving forward, eight hours is just the right amount, I find.

    Pleased to see a positive review, though. IGN also gave it 85, which surprised me, considering it's IGN. Already have it pre-ordered.

  • Xardan #27 1 year ago

    Sounds fantastic but i think there are other games i would rather be playing during the summer. Lets admit it too i mean who actually enjoys playing such games. Its an experience im sure but this particular game must be quite stressful at times.

  • darkmorgado #28 1 year ago

    @Cthonic Echo

    I agree. 8 hours is plenty, when you see loads of games released on consoles with half that amount of content.

    Also, a bit of consistency on this would be nice, EG. Do you let game length affect scores or not? Is it relative to quality (so a higher-quality game doesn't need to be as long)? It just seems odd to criticise this for it's "short length"(!) after having a groupwank over Limbo (very good, but overpriced for 3 hours and no replay value).

  • darkmorgado #29 1 year ago

    Sorry, forgot to add that it's Ł10 (actually Ł10.39) if you pre-order. Otherwise it's Ł12.99.

    No worries. I've preordered it.

    God, its not even lunchtime and so far I have finished 3 events in Burnout Paradise, set up my skill training in EVE, preordered 2 games and I am about to go out and buy KickAss on bluray. I think today is going to be a geek day.

  • darkmorgado #30 1 year ago

    The arbitrary neg fairy seems to have visited this thread.

  • kangarootoo #31 1 year ago

    "The arbitrary neg fairy seems to have visited this thread"

    Fixed , except for myself :)

  • darkmorgado #32 1 year ago

    @kanga

    Fixed you too (that sounds wrong).

    He's visited the thread on the charts article as well.

    I have an image of someone twisting their mustache "nya nya nya, this will teach them!".

    I have my theories over who does this, but I'm keeping quiet.

  • _LarZen_ #33 1 year ago

    Played the demo and it scared the shit out of me, preordered it on Steam for a nice price. Looking forward to play it but at the same time I know it's gonna scare me so much I almost dont want to play it :p

  • quadfather #34 1 year ago

    Can't wait for this. Pre-ordered and have checked the site about a million times in the off chance the release date might have been brought forward. Need more horror titles in general

  • fizzyfish #35 1 year ago

    ...the player's first discovery is an oddly brief letter from Daniel to Daniel...

    I smell a Memento-style twist coming.

  • Rack #36 1 year ago

    Interesting, equal parts of things I love the sound of and hate the sound of. Will have to try the demo and hope it's indicative of the difficulty of the game.

  • Tiger_Walts #37 1 year ago

    For those of you who pre-ordered from Frictional's site, you get to activate it on Steam as well as having a seperate download link.

  • harhol #38 1 year ago

    8/10 for a survival horror game is basically a 10/10. "The scariest game I've played in years" - what more do you want? Seems a bit silly to have a go at a lack of "content" when it's a standard length* budget game by a few mates in their spare time. I'm not moaning (well, I suppose I am), but if horror is ever going to get back in the big time, we need a few 10s, and the scariest game in years is surely as suitable a candidate as any. Look what Edge's 10 did for Bayonetta.

    * 8 hours for a single player 1st/3rd-person game has never been, and never will be, "relatively short". If anything it sounds as though the game might have been a bit too long - "by the final third of the game [...] the monsters start losing their mystique". This is exactly why all the classics of the genre are around 3-5 hours. (And, of course, an hour of Silent Hill feels a hell of a lot longer than an hour of Starcraft.)

  • Wildsleven #39 1 year ago

    love the demo, had it pre purchased in steam straight after playing it.

    playing this game in the dark with headphones is a real treat to us horror fans! a must buy for any pc gamer or horror fans!

  • Bulbatron #40 1 year ago

    Really enjoyed the Penumbra games. This looks amazing and if the excellent demo is anything to go by, it definitely will be.

    Really looking forwards to this. Pre-ordered quite a while ago.

  • KDR_11k #41 1 year ago

    Those "relatively short" 8 hours are still more than any of its competitors offer IIRC.

  • kissmyass #42 1 year ago

    ok, i think thats is a go for the game...it brings back memorys from a game call phantasmagoria, the last cd where you have to escape from the crazy husband hahahah priceless that game was a 10/10.

  • Bulbatron #43 1 year ago

    This is also available on Mac, just in case anybody didn't know.

  • northside #44 1 year ago

    Sounds terrific and have now pre-ordered. How much of it I actually play remains to be seen though - Penumbra really got under my skin and is still sitting on my hard-drive, unfinished.

    Am a bit baffled that a Ł12 game is getting criticised for it's 8-hour length too.
    Edited by 1 at 06/09/10 @ 19:30

  • Dave #45 1 year ago

    Is the 8 hours including all the time I will cowardly hide behind cupboards and the likes?
    Edited by 1 at 06/09/10 @ 19:47

  • The_KFD_Case #46 1 year ago

    I normally do not condone Steam since it is also a form of DRM (albeit, a more user friendly one than all the other crap various publishers have shovelled upon the gaming public). Anyway, Steam has a 20% discount on "Amnesia: The Dark Descent", and a working demo.

    I played the demo yesterday, and while I can easily recognize the terror that this article writer attributes as a positive to the game, I also consider it a negative. It's immensely frustrating knowing you only have one way forward in a room filled with water on the floor where an invisible monster chases you as soon as you are in the water, yet you have to stand in the water to turn a slow-ass moving wheel to open a metal grate door. This sense of frustration is further compounded by the fact that you can't fight back, you have a very limited supply of light, all the while your character's sanity is steadily seeping away.

    I'm in the mood for a horror/survival game, but this won't be it. You see, for me gaming needs to be both engaging and fun. When it becomes more frustrating than fun there's little point to it in my opinion, and I certainly see little reason to actually pay for this dubious "pleasure". Thus I can only recommend that each of you play the demo first before committing to it financially.

  • Bulbatron #47 1 year ago

    The_KFD_Case, just open the gate with the valve a little bit at a time, while distracting the whatever-it-is with chunks of corpse.

  • Goodfella #48 1 year ago

    @ The_KFD_Case

    That was pretty much my conclusion after playing the demo, I'm all for the horror genre but not when done like this, all I felt was dread and panic but didn't get any actually enjoyment or pleasure out of it. I guess people who do must be somewhat masochistic.

    Being completely powerless and having to constantly monitor your light and sanity does not make for fun, in my book. I could live with not being able to fight back, but the other issues on top of that make it a no sale for me.
    Edited by 1 at 07/09/10 @ 08:20

  • UncleLou #49 1 year ago

    I am with KFD and Goodfella, the demo didn't do much for me. I was more irritated by the graphical "insanity" effect and the a tad tiresome mechanics than anything else. They felt too much like crutches to me, something a properly scary game shouldn't need.

  • gesadt #50 1 year ago

    surely the whole point of a horror genre is to scare and unnerve you. that by definition is not "fun" or pleasurable in the truest sense. but people still like horror games (or movies) for slightly different kind of "fun" which is the whole experience of getting scared, and not just cheap thrills but actual psychological horror, which is what this game provides and i think above commenters are missing the point of.i think part of the problem is that gamers these days are used to simple, quick scares games like dead space and whatnot, but rarely they encounter psychological horror games like this where part of the design even is that you cant fight back etc. you have to embrace that and you'll love it.

  • harhol #51 1 year ago

    ^ Exactly. A good horror game will never be "fun" in the sense of bouncing up and down in your chair and grinning at the awesomely epically satisfyingly fluid combat. The "fun", or rather the satisfaction, comes from being in a constantly unnerved state for a prolonged period of time, a state which is obviously unpleasant but immensely stimulating and unique, and something which even the best horror movie cannot provide. I suppose it is masochistic, but it is no more masochistic than, say, playing Call of Duty 4 on veteran mode. If you can remember the "scary bits" from a horror game (e.g. those rubbery things in Resident Evil 4) then the game has failed to provide genuine horror, which is a relentless, miserable, agonising hours-long dirge.

  • Goodfella #52 1 year ago

    Perhaps 'fun' was the wrong word.

    The problem though was not as much the constant feeling of dread but the somewhat irritating mechanic of light and what UncleLou mentioned, the intrusive sanity effects and such. The game doesn't appear to have any respite at all.

  • UncleLou #53 1 year ago

    Yeah, what Goodfella said - we were talking about the mechanics, and while I agree with the two of you, it's semantics. :) That said, I absolutely love it when a game manages to scare me, so maybe "fun" isn't the wrong word?

    I also don't think a horror game needs to put you in a helpless situation, though. The scariest game I played in the last few years was Stalker, the underground sections. You're a hardened soldier, armed to the teeth, and yet the game scared me shitless. :)

  • The_KFD_Case #54 1 year ago

    @gesadt

    I comprehend your point and I accept parts of it. That said, I found "Dead Space" far more enjoyable and look forward to playing through it again before "Dead Space 2" arrives. Have I been influenced by the "Generation Kill" mentality? Possibly. That said, if one is really looking for a dread inducing, adrenaline pumping experience join the military (or some other potentially nerve wrecking real-life activity). While I had the good fortune of not having been sent to a war zone in a blasted wasteland, friendly practice sessions can achieve very similar, if perhaps somewhat more limited, reactions. But to each their own on this matter - buy it if it intrigues you. It is after all your money.

    P.S. I concur with Goodfella's and UncleLou's commentary.
    Edited by 2 at 07/09/10 @ 13:24

  • harhol #55 1 year ago

    Yeah I see what you're getting at. The nature of (good) horror is that it treads a very thin line between sanity-breaking and game-breaking. The more "broken" something is, the scarier it tends to be. Take the first Siren for instance, where you could get killed in an instant by an off-screen enemy. I can't say that it wasn't annoying sometimes, but it made the game a hell of a lot more frightening. This is what the old "clunky controls" vs "it's meant to be that way!" debate boils down to. Perhaps Amnesia could have implemented weapons of some kind, but melee combat in first person games is always a bit farcical (System Shock 2 comes to mind), and imo there are already more than enough games with guns.

  • gesadt #56 1 year ago

    dead space is a great game. nowhere near amnesia in terms of horror element tho, but then again this is survival horror which is different ballgame altogether imo.
    i get the point about specific game mechanics, fair enough. i for one didnt find them to be intrusive or frustrating, but ten again ive only played the demo.
    also The_KFD_Case your comment about joining the military makes no sense. i was under impression that were talking about horror in the entertainment field, real life has nothing to do with it.

  • dingo75 #57 1 year ago

    To emphasize this again:
    If you pre-order from the developer's website you will get the game twice:
    Downloadable Setup + a Steam key!!!

    I think that is very nice of them so you can have a DRM free version + the game on Steam in case you are one of those that prefer every game to be on their Steam account.

  • The_KFD_Case #58 1 year ago

    @gesadt

    The "point", as you so "kindly" put it, was in reference to your comments about different types of "fun" in relation to whether or not it simply amounts to "cheap thrills". The gaming experience is not rendered invalid by the existence of far more acute and real, real-life alternatives, but they do run the risk of coming off as "cheap thrills" in comparison. When you argue that the realism of "Amnesia" is part of what makes it such an effective horror game, I argued that if you were truly looking for a distilled horror/fear experience, joining the military is one potentially excellent way of getting the "real McCoy". That was my point.

  • LewisResolution #59 1 year ago

    Amnesia isn't just a game where you can't fight the monsters. It's a game where you can't look at the monsters.

    Can you talk to the monsters, though?

  • SheffieldSteel #60 1 year ago

    This sounds like a really gripping game, thanks to a well-written review from Quinns. I think I might give this one a go.

  • gesadt #61 1 year ago

    The_KFD_Case
    by cheap thrills i meant monster poping out behind giving you a sudden scare as opposed to unnerving tension etc. throughout the whole game, that is to say former is easier to achieve that the latter. i get the point youre making i just don agree that it has any sort of logical continuation with relation to real life. following that logic you could make a similar ridiculous analogy that guys that like realistic shooters should also join military since that would be the ultimate realism or whatever. seeking an experience in entertainment field does not mean one needs or wants to seek similar experience in real life.
    Edited by 1 at 07/09/10 @ 15:04

  • ph101 #62 1 year ago

    "Boy, does Amnesia nail running away."

    fix'd, as they say.

  • The_KFD_Case #63 1 year ago

    @gesadt

    Precisely, and that logic is entirely valid though it is not required to execute fully in order to enjoy a game of this nature. I was close to buying this on the fly, but after trying the demo, and given its current price, I won't spring for it. It feels to inflexible and wooden for my preferences. A shame, since I rather enjoy the premise of the game. Oh well. I don't need their game, but they do need my money and the money of other gamers. Next game!

  • Kluff #64 1 year ago

    @harhol: Frictional implemented consciously a "broken" combat system in Penumbra 1, and people complained about it, that it was so terrible. So they removed it for the following episodes. Turns out that not being able to fight is the better choice then.


    @The_KFD_Case: Next thing you tell me is that I should play real soccer instead of Fifa, right? :-/
    The great things with horror games is that you can feel dread without being in actual danger, which is kinda the point.

  • The_KFD_Case #65 1 year ago

    @ Kluff

    Nope. I'm not going to tell you anything in regards to what to do. That's your own can of worms to deal with.

  • Verwandlung #66 1 year ago

    Wow what a game, I have been playing for a couple of hours and had to take a break every 20 minutes. Crazy tension all the time.
    Edited by 1 at 08/09/10 @ 22:02

  • Sonic_D #67 1 year ago

    This game is pretty nerve racking, also a bit of chore at times. But then so was Demons Souls, and I fucking loved that game. This game won't reach those heights, but it is looking like a worthy buy.

  • Stjarnor #68 1 year ago

    Looks. REALLY good. Loved the Penumbra games, especially the first games ending.Oh. My. God. Probably the best and the most scariest ending I've ever encountered. Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth was also a VERY good game. Loved that one.

    Just got this game and will try it out after the sun sets. A cup of té and I'm set. The waterpart in the demo fecked me up pretty good. Definitely recommending this to my friends.

  • flippet #69 1 year ago

    "The_KFD_Case, just open the gate with the valve a little bit at a time, while distracting the whatever-it-is with chunks of corpse."

    @ Bulbatron: The review tempted me to get the game, but the above description really sold it to me :)

  • MarketZero #70 10 months ago

    Quite liked the demo and hoped for better from the full game. Now four hours in and bored sh1tless. This is not frightening. It's cumbersome, frustrating and with very basic gameplay.

    I think the worse thing I did was run right up to one of these monsters (deliberately) to get a good look at it. I recall laughing as it swiped me to death.

    Played the game properly since but still can't help sniggering when the 'scary' baddie shambles around, looking for me.

    Hugely disappointed.

  • sswam #71 9 months ago

    @MarketZero maybe you're too skilled of a gamer, or not 'immersible' enough to continue fealing the fear? It doesn't sound boring to me - if you can imagine that you're really there. Sounds like Frictional has made that pretty easy to do, or hard not to.

    Someone said 'join the military' lol, then you may get horror and genuine death, also cause genuine death which is not something I'd like to experience IRL. I think most gamers prefer the challenging experience, without the genuine death.