Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Writing another review for a game with nine pages of them is not going to change the world. But I need to share a bit of what I've felt playing this game. The premise is old as hell. Or, at least, as System Shock 2. You wake up without memory and must look around for clues. Contrary to the "grandfather", you have no idea of where, when, or even in which world you are. You discover this slowly, through another storytelling devices as old as time: journals, notes and flashbacks. The most striking feature of this game is the atmosphere. Everything is made to enhance it. The setting. The shadows. Strange events. And the sound. Man, the sound of this game is awesome. The atmosphere is so heavy that, even without ANYTHING really happening at the first moments, I was opening every door as if it was hiding my worst nightmare. In some parts, the feeling is so overwhelming that maybe you could truly consider stop playing. Yes, I will not forget that old jail too soon. The gameplay doesn't stay on the way of the atmosphere. The game will take care of saving and giving you second chances without breaking your immersion. In the end, it's quite easy, and there is virtually no replay value, it's a one-shot experience Enjoy while you can. Why four starts, then? Well, for one side, when you understand certain games mechanisms, some tension is dissipated. And a real warning: much plot information is given just in the flashbacks. If you play the game in a few sessions, you could not be able to put all pieces together when the moment comes (the ideal would be to turn off the phone and shut down the curtains for a weekend, but life is not so easy for all). That doesn't stop your progress, but diminishes the impact of the story. For that reason, the end of the game was a bit disappointing to me. So, when you hear something interesting, write it down. But you will write in darkness. Because you must play this game alone, with lights off, and headphones. Yes, have "fun".

Great game in terms of fear and stress caused by enemies, as well as the psychological part of terror. Also, great story and excellent depiction of how the protagonist changes throughout the game. In my opinion there are also two negatives: A) I didn’t like vision distortion, as it actually forces the player to feel as Daniel feels. The game can cause fear and stress to the player even without the need of this. For example, this feature wasn’t in the Penumbra games when you were facing dogs and, believe me, those encounters were scarier! But the second negative I think it’s worse, as B) I noticed that apart from 2 or 3 occasions, in all other occasions that an enemy appeared, he would disappear if you stayed hidden for a couple of minutes. This made the game easier and, somewhat, less scarier than other (e.g. Penumbra) games. You just had to wait for a while and the enemy would be gone! But, the above aspects aren’t enough to drop the top rating from me about the game, as it is made from a company who obviously knows what it’s doing. I have to clarify that the 5-star rating is only for the main game. I don’t appreciate games with a no-saving feature (referring to the Justine DLC), no matter how short they are. I died a few times and didn’t have the mood, nor the time (other games, as well as other obligations, are waiting for me too…) to try again and so I watched the final sequences on youtube. Clever story though.

I bought this game on Epic Games but I guess there is no difference compared to the Gog version. The game is brilliant! The impression is only spoiled by the lack of manual save option because there is only Exit&Save option. For that reason, I give 4 stars instead 5!

This game is true gem of horror games, so try it if you like horror games. Usually I played for a several hours per day without breaks, but this game is so scary that I wasn't able to play more than 1-1.5 hours and always did a 15-30 minutes break. It turns out that I am quite brave, a lot of my friends didn't finish it or did a break every 30 minutes of the game :)

To date this is the only horror game that I'm legitimately too terrified to play for more than an hour or so at a time and the new hard mode is even more terrifiying. This game perfectly captures Lovecraftian horror - the fear of the unknown. Don't read any guides and play this game in the dark with headphones to have the maximum effect.