Amnesia: The Dark Descent

[Johncarllos]

This game terrifies me to my core. Every fiber of my being tells me not to continue playing it.

I keep going. It's near torture, but I keep going. I can feel my heart race and body shake when that damned monster is upon me.

Amnesia is a first person adventure game where you play as Daniel, a man who has purposely erased his own memory. Trying to figure out why he has done it through his old journals leads him deeper into castle Brennenburg where the man responsible awaits.

I recommend this game to anyone. I have just a few hours left before I complete it and it continues to get scarier.
It's currently $10 on Steam and worth every penny. Get the demo if you doubt me.

It may not be the best LOOKING game, but it's atmospheric, to say the least. It runs on OpenGL instead of DirectX, so there are some definite peculiarities with the game's visuals, and the occasional glitch, but nothing game breaking.

Get it, you'll cry.

[ASR]

I really have to play this. I keep putting it off.

[saldite]

This is from the people that made the Penumbra games, yeah?

I'd consider nabbing this if my computer wasn't ass.

[Johncarllos]

It runs fairly well on most computers. You miss some of the fancy effects but due to it being openGL, there's fewer fancy effects that are always on.  Even on lowest settings it looks okay.

[Chron]

I played the demo.  It's pretty tense and what I've seen of the story is fairly interesting (especially the way it's delivered), but the game itself doesn't really seem like it's worth money.

[Majikn]

Sell after playing?

(I am so anti-DRM that I will avoid gaming experiences entirely if I don't feel guaranteed that I'll be able to keep the software, unless I don't intend to play it again, in which case I want to resell.)

[Chron]

You can't sell digital copies, and I don't buy physical anymore.

[Majikn]

Why not? (@ the latter statement)

[Johncarllos]

I just get my stuff through steam. I'm okay with the savings if the product is only digital. Physical copies of PC games are too expensive when I can get the same thing for dirt cheap digitally.

[NovaMan XP]

A friend of mine bought it for me on Steam, I've still yet to play it... but it does sound really good.

[Chron]

Physical copies also tend to have some form of DRM, and I am not a fan of that practice.
It's nice to have them sometimes, but only for utility programs; games are more expandable to me, so the digital format (especially Steam) is a far better choice in my eyes.

The only time I'll ever buy something in a box is to get the neat stuff in the box, or if it's a console game.  No neat stuff in the box means I may as well go digital.

A lot of games are also digital only now, and I'm honestly not sure there even ARE physical copies of Amnesia for sale... anywhere.

[Johncarllos]

There are. They initially released it in Europe in a box shortly after the digital release. It's either in the US now or will soon be.

It's only like an 8 hour game, anyways.

[Majikn]

Eight hours unless you have no idea what the ##### you're doing in a first person survival horror game.

[ASR]

I have a very serious question: since when did 8 hours become SHORT for a game?

It's #####ing ridiculous. I mean, stuff like Mass Effect and Call of Duty have set unreasonable trends for other games through ridiculously long story modes or endless multiplayer replayability. It's completely okay for a game to be 8 hours. That's not short. That's EIGHT HOURS.

[MOX]

Mass Effect 1 took like 4 hours to finish if you did only the main missions and ignored the side missions (optional obviously) which take up the majority of the game. It's main story portion is ridiculously short.

For an RPG I'd expect the game to be long, as long as it doesn't overstay its welcome. Unreasonable length? I don't know if you're played/finished ME2, but It'd be a buzz kill if ME2 was any shorter because one of it's strengths is the depth and lore surrounding it's universe. You become so invested in the characters and universe that the game doesn't feel long or tedious at all.

Length should depend on the game's design. I'm okay with short games depending on how repetitive the game is, like Portal for instance. I agree that one of the reasons that Portal is a great game is because its length is a perfect match for its design.

However, ATM big budget games are made to be longer while cheaper downloadable games are shorter; I don't see how this is a problem because if you're paying 60 dollars for a game, then you'd better get your money's worth.

[Majikn]

If the content matches what you pay for it, it really doesn't matter and I'm pretty sure anyone who takes like three seconds to think about that would completely agree. Furthermore, you could have a 40 hour game that is 20 hours of doing the same thing over.

So Amnesia is ten dollars on steam, for 8+ hours of worthy, well-reviewed entertainment.

I'd have to play it fully myself to decide if it was too short, but it seems about worth it.

[Fatso]

Replayability is always a huge factor of the 'length' equation for me. Mega Man X is about 40 minutes "long" (1-3 hours the first time through), but I've spent more than a thousand hours (probably closer to 2 by now) on it over the 17 years since release, and I still love to bring it out every now and again. And I don't even want to know how much time I've dumped into the Tribes franchise (which is still the best multiplayer capture-the-flag series of all time).

[Chron]

True.  Even though Fallout: New Vegas was horribly programmed and really shouldn't be as fun as it is, I have nearly 200 hours clocked in on that thing.

Amnesia seems like the sort of linear story that you'll only break out and play when you want to hear it again.  You won't be as scared of all of the stuff that happens because you'll know what's going to happen and where you should be going... but that's still "as scared" and not "not scared at all".

Probably has a replay rate of 1.2 on my scale.

[Johncarllos]

The game is worth what you pay for it, definitely.
Besides, 8 hours is the perfect length for this game. The story can flesh itself out, and you can get your flesh fleshed out too.
I'm 5-6 hours in and if I knew the game was 20 hours I'd be too scared to continue.
I'm so close now that I know I can make it.

Definitely the scariest part yet is the second prison block. The place is like a maze and every time you turn a corner you're scared to death of seeing that damned thing.

Posted on: April 12, 2011, 10:13:54 AM

It's actually worth a replay just to get the story again. It's fairly confusing early on.

I've been playing it for weeks now. I can only handle a few hours at a time.

[Chron]

$1/hour is my standard.

[Johncarllos]

That game will just about hit that standard.

ALSO: Totally custom maps are available, new stories, enemies, puzzles, etc...

If that persuades you at all.

[Vinchenz Rock]

I played the game and went through it in one sitting playing with headphones on, full settings and best of all in the dark alone.

I did enjoy it... but I honestly wasn't really scared. I can appreciate the atmosphere but there was never a moment where I was like "OMGOMGOMGOMG I DON'T WANT TO GO FURTHER HOLYCRAPHOLYCRAP".

[MOX]

lol john is a scaredy cat.

[Johncarllos]

I am

[Majikn]

Playing the demo, I got kind of anxious. At a certain point though I was like "Wait a minute, why the hell do I care if I die?" And then I stormed through a door all like "GIVE ME YOUR WORST" and then I closed the door behind me and explored the room. And then I heard the growling noise and something started banging on the door and I was like "FUUUUU"

I think I'd have to get a solid working computer, move it to an open space in the dark empty basement, and LP this after hours, perhaps on Skype.
More hilarity would ensue if I have my back to an open area in complete disregard of anticipation of family members coming up behind me in the middle of a session.

[White Shadow]

I have a very serious question: since when did 8 hours become SHORT for a game?

It's #####ing ridiculous. I mean, stuff like Mass Effect and Call of Duty have set unreasonable trends for other games through ridiculously long story modes or endless multiplayer replayability. It's completely okay for a game to be 8 hours. That's not short. That's EIGHT HOURS.

I think that happened around 1999 or maybe a bit earlier. I personally take pride in many of my old console RPG savegames showing "99:59:59", but even without 100% grinds those kept me going for 30 hours or more. As far as FPS go: Every non-episodic Half-Life, the first Unreal, Perfect Dark and Golden Eye could last you for 15 hours or more.

8 hours is a ripp-off and certainly not worth the 40 bucks or more one has to shell out for current generation games.

[Snare]

It's not scary if you play like me and just throw everything you see and run around and try to look for the monster. I'm very bad at video games.

[Majikn]

Or if you play with stitched up mounted dead bunnies by bouncing them off of tabletops...

*reference to Lanipator*

[Mikero]

Furthermore, you could have a 40 hour game that is 20 hours of doing the same thing over.

On this note I'm pretty sure I could have beaten Fable 3 in 125 minutes if I didn't care about the, ableit terrible, outcome and side stuff.

So I'm not sure where I fall on the "is 8 hours short" argument. I obviously play some formidably "long" games, but it's not like I don't like a ton of technically shorter games.

... Fable notwithstanding, as the series continues to be an utterly contemptible experience by or before the climax of each game.

[Johncarllos]

I balance games between price, hours, and fun.

A 'not very fun' game (like Fallout 3) needs to cost less to be worth it, because I don't want to put the time in.
A fun game like Just Cause 2, which I have 60+ hours into between consoles, is worth the full $60 to me, and I've paid less overall for it and had the best gaming experiences I've ever had.

Even if it's fun, $60 for a game I spend less than 10 hours on is bull#####, unless it's thoroughly incredible.

[Mikero]

Mm. I'm with you, except that I find Fallout 3 to be quite fun.

[Johncarllos]

After 10 hours, nothing had happened except an ant queen and me getting raped by super mutants.

[Mikero]

Seriously?

That's your fault... I think. I mean, I've played less than ten hours of the game and a lot of craziness has happened. Considering how easily you're able to wander into events I'm surprised you got that bored. raped.

You didn't even blow up/not blow up Megaton? Or find "vampires"?

[Johncarllos]

Saved megaton, sheriff got killed, tried to find SOMETHING fun to do but just got bored looking around for something to do when I was trying to find my father but couldn't progress because of the super dee duper mutants.

And I realized what a time sink the game would be if I had barely progressed the story after that amount of time.

[Majikn]

I don't see why the Super Mutants should have been so dangerous unless you were completely in the wrong area, and if you were wandering for 7 or 8 hours, I suspect so...

The Brotherhood helps you fight the mutants during your first actual encounter of them. They'll die by the dozen. There will be plenty of corpses to loot. That's really where you start overpowering everything.

I don't blame you for missing stuff though. I went through two playthroughs of the game and never met Dogmeat.

[Mikero]

Is Dogmeat the dog?

Last time I played I had just gotten the dog but the game froze, I'm still unsure if it saved me getting the dog, so we'll see whenever I can get back into that game.