Amnesia

There's been a game that's been taking up my time recently. It's been keeping me up through the nights with a couple friends. It's a computer game. We'll throw it up onto the TV screen via HDMI cable, grab a USB mouse, play it up. It's a one player game, and so far, it's only been able to correctly run on my laptop, so I've been the only one to play it first hand so far. This game is called Amnesia: The Dark Descent.

This is a game that I found while reading a comic called Scandanavia and the World. It's a little comic that personifies various countries (focusing on the Nordic) with single characters (or at times it'll bring in the 'sister' character which is just the female version of the country). It pokes fun at the various ethnic stereotypes and interactions in the world and is quite funny if you get what's going on. Hell, it's pretty damn funny even if you don't know what's going on.

http://satwcomic.com/anything-but-that There's the link if you want.

If you don't feel like using the link, in this comic, one of the characters, Sweden is playing this game, and he's telling what's happening to America. He's describing terrifying actions that he as the player is doing. Meanwhile, America is just over his shoulder going, "Wow. Boring. Meh. This is lame" undermining it the whole time. As the actions get more gruesome, the other onlooking Nordic countries are looking on with terror while America is still watching with disinterest. That is until he sees a phallus (penis) on a character in which he freaks out in seeing, the obvious joke being how here in America, we are completely unfazed by violence, but when there's even the slightest bit of nudity, we gotta call up to the air force, the army, the navy, and even the aliens to get that shit out.

So while I was reading about this game, and being interested by psychologically thrilling things like that, it kind of got me interested, but I didn't really care all that much at that point. I just kept reading more comics. Then I saw that a youtube personality I enjoy, Lanipator, also played the game and was interesting enough to post his play through. That spurred my interest a little more and so I looked up the reviews, and many reviews talked about how terrifying it was.

Long story short, I talked to my friends about it (who apparently also heard of the game before me) and we decided to get it and try it out. We said we were going to play it together on the TV, but I was a little over eager and decided to play a bit of it for myself.

I must say, maybe it's because I actively immerse my imagination in things like video games and books, but this really gripped me. You wake up in a pool of your own blood, and follow your own trail of it to a room telling you that for the most part, you're an asshole how purposely chose to make yourself forget and trap yourself in some creepy ass castle and to figure out what the hell happened, and to kill some random guy. As mundane as that sounds, it's the overall atmosphere of things that give it its edge.

The music and sound effects are quite unnerving and startling. The movement is rather creeping rather than just a nice, upbeat jostle through the castle. The setting is very dark and foreboding for most of the game. You can find little bits of tinderboxes to light candles, but they are in very short supply. There are mysterious noises that if you're in serious concentration can make you jump and startle you.

Another thing that sets this aside is the 'Sanity' meter. The longer he stays in the dark, the more his grip on his sanity is loosened. The more insane he goes, the more noises he hears. Bugs start crawling all over the screen. The noises get louder. His vision gets really blurry. It makes the player feel a bit...helpless. While my friends couldn't get that part of the game, it was definitely something I had to remain vigilant about.

After twenty minutes in and reading that note and seeing EVERYTHING go black and my character (Daniel) fall to the floor I was too scarred, shut my laptop and said, "Fuck it. I am not going to bed if I play more. I'm done." I was scared enough then, but I later played more at my friends house.

As I roamed the castle, I would haphazardly throw things around for laughs. It was advised against because there were things 'following' me, but I didn't care too much. I figured I could just throw things at it and make a quick getaway. Then I was put to the test.

I walked out into a large hall, and out of the corner of the characters eye, a large movement is seen. A flesh colored humanoid creature is seen walking into another room. My friends jump and even I went, "Oh shit!", but it was in excitement. I arm myself with a chair (yes, a chair. There is nothing else) and I start to follow it.

"What the fuck are you doing man?! It's in there! It'll kill you! You can't kill it!"

"No, I know I gotta go this way."

We argued about it for a few moments, but in the end, I was the guy playing it, and I walked on. Right in front of the doorway, it was all or nothing. I charged into the room, chair in hand ready to throw it at whatever the fuck was in my way... then I heard a slight growl turn into a monstrous howl and we all screamed.

I dropped the chair, and I started yelling at the TV as I backtracked and ran, "OH FUCK OH SHIT OH FUCKING FUCK FUCK PURPLE PENGUINS SHIT SHIT SHIT!!!! DEAR GOD IT'S AFTER ME SHIIIIIIIIIIT".

Oh how brave I was.

At least my friends did the same.

So as I ran, taking turns and not bothering to look behind me in case it was still behind me (I could've swore I heard its breathing, but it probably wasn't chasing me for long at all), my friends and I were all yelling. We must've sounded like little girls.

"Fuck where do I go!?!?!11?//1/!?!?!?!? I'm gonna die, I'm gonnda die, I'm donna diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!", until I eventually hid...in a closet. I hid in a closet for probably about ten minutes as we sat there and stared at the screen whimpering wondering if it was going to find me and kill me.

After I finally emerged from my boudoir haven, we all realized that that was indeed where I had to go next. That was most definitely the place that I had to go through next. The thought just pissed us off as well as mortally scarred us.

Long story short, we did make it past that monster and now I am stuck at an area where I must traverse a series of flooded rooms hopping from one small box to another without landing in the water. Why you ask? Because if I land in the water, I will be eaten and killed by an invisible monster! How unfair is that? I don't even get to see what kills me.

Overall, if you're a fan of survival horror, it is definitely a game to pick up. Just about everything about the game is good except for the part that your character is an asshole that brought this upon themselves.