The moment we talk about horror games, we refer to games like Resident Evil, Silent Hill, or Outlast. That being said, there is another game that really established this particular genre and gave us a lot of nightmares. Yes, we are referring to the Amnesia series.
Fear is one of the most potent emotions that art can evoke. A good horror story can make any night into a sleepless one, even if it is not very scary. Additionally, it is one of the trickiest genres to execute well since it must persuade the audience that a fictitious menace, such as an evil spirit or a shapeshifter, is real on some level.
Both movies and books do a great job of manipulating the viewer’s emotions and thoughts by using the story’s tone, subject matter, and pacing. However, there is no direct communication between either medium and the viewer. The only medium that avoids this and appeals directly to the player is video games.
To experience horror, one must see it through the eyes of a character. Players are able to relate to the main characters in video games more deeply than they would if they were simply viewing the same characters in a movie because of how interactive they are. The player takes on the role of the protagonist by taking control of them, and their choices determine whether or not they live or die.
As a result, the protagonists in horror games like “Slender” or “Five Nights at Freddy’s” are not generally introduced. The main character, you, is alone in a dangerously unfamiliar location while being pursued by something dangerous. The player’s fight or flight reaction may be triggered as soon as the game starts.
The only reason that strategy succeeds is because any supernatural adversary that poses a threat to the protagonist grows significantly more dangerous and is able to respond to and exploit the player’s actions. As they stumble haplessly into dark spaces where the killer obviously awaits them, the naive kids in a standard slasher film are amusing to watch.
After watching “Until Dawn” for a few hours, the viewer will take on the role of the foolish adolescent who leads their character to certain death. Let us discuss the “Amnesia” franchise, which is the subject of today’s games. The super-vulnerable survival horror genre, which Amnesia contributed to popularizing, was followed by a number of excellent successors, notably Resident Evil VII. Amnesia has unmatched and shameless scares.
A number of well-known tricks transport you to a terrifying environment, including snarling animals that suddenly appear, a sanity system that tempts you with phantom noises, and haunted house details like pounding doors and howling winds. The most famous YouTuber’s career was launched by the game’s freaky gameplay in the first portion. (You understand whom we are speaking about, don’t you? You do, of course!)
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
In a world full of colourful, unsettling grotesquerie, Frictional Games’ Amnesia is a Lovecraftian narrative that puts players at the hands of monsters they can’t combat. The PC version was released in 2010 and took the world by storm. It took 6 years to get a release on Playstation and 8 years on Xbox One.
The Plot
The plot is fairly simple,Daniel, the protagonist, awakens in a Prussian castle called Brennenburg with no memory and a letter from himself ordering that he assassinate the estate’s master Alexander. He makes his way deeper and deeper inside the castle, pursued by screaming flesh monsters and plagued by flashbacks to his past. He keeps himself alive by barricading doors, hiding in closets, and simply fleeing.
But, things start to get a little complicated as Daniel eventually learns about the castle’s mysteries and his own past as he explores it, through notes and diaries he discovers as well as unexpected memories and visions. His predicament stems from a weird orb he discovered in the Tin Hinan Tomb, which unleashed a Shadow.
Each of the specialists he called and saw in person to discuss the orb was eventually found mutilated. When Daniel realised the Shadow was following him, he exhausted all archeological leads into unusual orbs until he was approached by Alexander, who promised a way to reject the Shadow’s menace using a “vitae” energy that could only be extracted from live animals through tremendous pain and horror.
Alexander’s ultimate goal, however, is to use Daniel’s vitae-rich sphere to return to his own dimension, from which he was exiled decades ago. To do this, Alexander and Daniel amassed vitae by torturing innocent persons whom Alexander claimed to be murderers. The monsters which chase Daniel are called Gatherers and they are the personal servants of Alexander. They are the primary enemies in the game, also, they are grouped into 2 types.
The Brutes and The Grunts. They monitor different areas of Brennenburg Castle, attacking Daniel if they see him. They cannot be killed by Daniel because he is unarmed, thus they must be avoided by running, hiding in closets, or hiding behind items. When the Gatherers enter Daniel’s location, they will always make an audible growl to inform the player of their presence. Daniel’s sanity will deteriorate when he sees these monsters. As a result, it’s better to avoid making direct eye contact with them.
The Gatherers don’t normally stay for lengthy periods of time and aren’t always thorough in their investigations, giving Daniel plenty of cover. However, if the game is played in Hard Mode, these enemies will become an even bigger threat: they will have increased movement speed, increased attack damage, higher perception in spotting the player, and will linger around areas for longer.
There will also be no search music to indicate if they have left. Sanity being too low kills the player in this mode, which means that not looking at enemies is even more important. An expansion game was also released in 2019 named Amnesia: Justine where the player controls an anonymous woman who wakes up in a dungeon cell with amnesia. A woman named Justine tells the anonymous woman that she is the subject of a psychological test on a gramophone in the cell. To get out of the cell, the woman must solve three tasks.
She has the option of just quitting the puzzles and walking away in each case, but doing so will result in the death of an innocent person. The Suitors, three terrible figures who turn out to be Justine’s former paramours, have been corrupted by physical and psychological abuse, are also after her.
The Gameplay
Let’s talk about the most interesting part of these games, which is the Gameplay! the first thing we need to know is that it’s a first-person adventure survival horror game. The gameplay keeps the physical object interaction from the Penumbra series ( another gem of a franchise by the same developers, Frictional Games), allowing for physics-based puzzles and interactions like opening doors and repairing machines.
Smaller goods can be placed in an inventory menu, while larger objects can be hoisted by pushing or pulling the mouse while holding down a mouse button. Objects like doors and levers can be moved by moving the mouse in a way that simulates moving them. The game’s difficulty level can be changed before it starts, but it cannot be changed once it has started. Daniel’s sanity must be managed in addition to his health, and this is done through a “fear of the darkness” mechanic.
As sanity is reduced by staying in the darkness for too long so it can be safe to say that probably Darkness is the primary villain of this game. Sanity is also reduced when the player looks directly at a monster or by witnessing unsettling events. Low sanity produces visual and aural hallucinations, as well as an increased likelihood of attracting monsters, but complete sanity depletion leads to a temporary loss of mobility or death at higher difficulties. Light sources help to restore sanity, if no light sources are available, Daniel may use tinderboxes to light candles and torches, or he may deploy an oil-burning lantern.
However, the number of tinderboxes and oil accessible are both limited, especially in higher difficulties. If a monster spots Daniel, it will pursue him until he manages to get away from it. Daniel has no methods of defending himself against creatures, so he must either hide or flee as we said before. Daniel can only endure a few attacks from a monster before dying, causing the game’s most recent save to load. Daniel’s health may be restored by using laudanum, which can be collected throughout the game.
Monsters can be thwarted by locking doors and erecting barricades made of adjacent objects. Monsters, on the other hand, can destroy doors and knock things over. Daniel’s sanity will be compromised if he hides in dark areas where monsters will not notice him. The monsters will move quicker, deal more damage, and search for Daniel for longer periods of time on higher difficulties. A Special shoutout needs to be given to Mikko Tarmia for composing the game’s soundtrack which further elevates the eerie atmosphere.
Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs
An indirect sequel to The Dark Descent was released in 2013 by the name of Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs which was developed by The Chinese Room and published by Frictional Games. While it takes place in the same universe as the previous game, it has a different cast of characters and a later time period. A Machine for Pigs was released in 2016 for the PlayStation 4 as part of the Amnesia Collection, including Amnesia: The Dark Descent and its Amnesia: Justine expansion. This game was originally meant to be a mod and it uses the same engine as The Dark Descent.
The Plot
A Machine for Pigs is a leaner and, in some ways, more interesting horror film than its predecessor. However, it sacrifices many of the jump-scares that made the first game such a memorable haunted house, and Machine for Pigs never fully exploits the sense of vulnerability it generates.
There are multiple interconnected narratives throughout the game. Some are set in the past, while others are set in the present, and some are plainly true while others are imaginary. The game’s protagonist is Oswald Mandus, a wealthy businessman and butcher who is implied to be the great grand-nephew of Daniel, the protagonist of Amnesia: The Dark Descent, and the game is set in London on New Year’s Eve, 1899.
He awakens from a fever that has lasted several months after returning from a catastrophic journey to study Aztec sites in Mexico at the start of the game. As they carry him through the various places, he hears his boys, Edwin and Enoch, begging for him. Mandus receives a call from “the Engineer,” who informs him that Edwin and Enoch have been caught in the “Machine” that Mandus built beneath his house and as a result, his sons are in danger because the Machine has been sabotaged.
Mandus is tasked by the Engineer with removing the floodwaters and getting the Machine back online, while the Engineer provides continual direction via telephones around the facility. The Manpigs, malformed swine-like monstrosities that patrol the depths through which Mandus descends, oppose Mandus in his tasks.
Mandus eventually reactivates the Machine after completing a series of puzzle tasks, but the Engineer betrays him, gaining control of the Machine and unleashing Manpigs onto the streets of London to gather unsuspecting victims with which to feed itself. If we say anything else then there will be tons of spoilers that will ruin you gamers the immersive experience these narrative-driven games bring with them. There are 16 chapters in the game based around 14 different locations
The Gameplay
The game is a survival horror first-person adventure game like its prequel and the core elements remain the same but few elements are removed and few are added mainly to provide a new gameplay experience for the fans of the Dark Descent. The inventory, as well as the oil and tinderboxes, have been removed, instead, there is only a lantern now. Because of this modification, the majority of the puzzles are dependent on physically interacting with the surroundings.
The first game’s sanity mechanic has been removed, so darkness and staring at the monsters no longer have any negative consequences. When Mandus is hurt, his health will regenerate over time, eliminating the requirement to locate bottles of laudanum to restore his health like in The first game. The level design of this game is also significantly different as the first game was always inside the castle this game provides many outdoor locations and
larger areas. The AI has also been tweaked so that players can’t predict adversary behaviour based on their previous experiences with the game. If we talk about the similarities with the first game players can still gather and read notes, utilise a diary as a goal reminder, hide from adversaries in dark regions, and move physical things around. In many regions, light still attracts adversaries, forcing players to rely on strategy and stealth.
The relative ease of these encounters, like most of the alterations to A Machine for Pigs, serves a single purpose: to create a tense, dark, and horrifying experience that is filled with dread rather than irritation. This is one of the few horror games that appear to want you to finish it rather than flee screaming — there are few roadblocks in the way of progressing through the plot, which is appreciated given how intense the entire arc is. But, a few puzzles might make you guys rage quit because they are a bit annoying and tedious.
Amnesia: Rebirth
This game was released in 2020 and is the actual sequel of The Dark Descent. Frictional Games was back being the developer again. However, it is the third installment in the franchise overall and Frictional Games brought back a lot of elements that made The Dark Descent so unforgettable. Jumping straight into the plot.
Plot
The plot of Rebirth follows the amnesiac protagonist, Anastasie “Tasi” Trianon, a French archeologist, as she travels through the Algerian desert and other locations, solving puzzles, maintaining her sanity, and avoiding monsters, all while slowly piecing together the horrible events she has lost.
The game takes place in 1937, around 98 years after The Dark Descent’s events. The game starts with Tasi traveling in Africa inside an airplane and of course, it crashes in a desert somewhere in Algeria. She wakes up only to find that all of her companions have vanished and that she has no memory of what happened immediately after the incident.
Tasi braves the hardships of the desert to follow the trail of her mission in order to find her spouse, Salim. As she makes her way down a cave, Tasi finds she has a Traveler’s Amulet, an alien technology that permits her to travel across Rifts to a dead alien world. Sounds a bit over the top right? To top it off she also learns that she is expecting a child. Salim’s body is finally discovered, having died from the fatal wounds he received in the plane accident. Tasi, distraught, presses on in search of the remainder of the group.
When Tasi emerges from the tunnel, she uncovers an abandoned French fort, where the whole garrison has been slaughtered by an unknown force. She makes touch with an expedition survivor, Dr. Metzier, who tells her to go to a nearby village that he has discovered. Tasi ventures deep into the fort in search of an exit, only to be confronted with hideous and mutated ghouls lurking in the passageways.
She escapes the fort but is trapped in a cave-in and falls inside ancient ruins that formerly belonged to a highly advanced but now extinct civilization. Tasi discovers that the institution was established by an alien civilization known as the Gate Builders, who were able to travel between worlds and extend their lives thanks to the power of vitae, a material they obtained through mass torturing humans.
The Gate on their homeworld, however, malfunctioned and destroyed itself as a result of an experiment, wiping out the Gate Builders and spreading the Shadow, a destructive force manifested as crimson tumor-like growths. Tasi also discovers evidence of a previous voyage headed by Professor Thurston Herbert, during which Daniel damaged the Orb and angered the Shadow. What follows is an almost 7-hour-long bustling adventure campaign where Tasi tries to find the truth as well as the rest of her group.
The Gameplay
The player, like in The Dark Descent, can burn candles and torches across the world to provide a permanent light source to diminish or sustain “Fear,” which is analogous to sanity in The Dark Descent. When Tasi goes totally in the dark, fear overwhelms her, leading her to hallucinate and hear whispering in her head. Images of the grotesque will also appear on the screen.
Solving riddles, hiding from creatures, and controlling light sources can help her overcome her fear and keep her from being frightened. However, instead of tinderboxes, the player uses matches to light up these regions. When utilised, these matches provide a momentary source of light, and the player can use this time to ignite any candle or torch they come across by interacting with it. Furthermore, the player possesses a lamp that is analogous to the lantern in The Dark Descent in terms of requiring finding oil to refuel.
To proceed in the game, players must also solve numerous puzzles and read the notes left by non-playable characters to learn more about the plot which is kind of the main charm of the whole franchise. This game, like the previous ones, has no combat mechanism, and Tasi can either run or hide when she encounters a mysterious entity. When the player is killed, unlike the first game, the game does not reload an earlier save point. Instead, it will move the player forward a little, allowing them to skip the monster encounter entirely on their second try.
Final Thoughts
Games Like Outlast play on actual, concrete worries of people and otherworldly objects intent on harming us, Amnesia appears to psychoanalyze us and prey on the anxieties and regrets that keep us awake at night or give us nightmares. I remember when the first part was released I was in my early teens and having played games like Black Mirror, Left 4 Dead, and Dracula before I felt a sense of comfort so when I bought The Dark Descent game and played it one night with a group of my friends, we were traumatized!
We never felt so scared watching any horror movie before, we screamed and cried and panicked and could not sleep properly for the next few nights. I don’t even remember finishing the whole game. So definitely this game was a bit ahead of its time and it really defined the genre moving forward. Talking about its reviews both The Dark Descent and Rebirth gained all positive reviews, A Machine For Pigs got mixed and average reviews from most of the reviewers.
Personally, our favorite is still the original one but each of its successors brought something new and it did not feel monotonous at all. The level design along with the soundtrack will provide an unforgettable experience that no horror movie can ever bring to the table and most importantly you CANNOT FIGHT BACK! Frictional Games the independent developer was launched in 2007 and they specialise in Survival Horror Games.
Their other notable works include the Penumbra series and Soma which are also worthy enough for you guys to check out. I know these games come with a message which says “Turn your lights off and use Headphones for better experience” but I would strongly recommend not to do that, in fact, turn all the lights on. turn on a comedy flick on the television and ask all your family members to be in the room while you attempt to play one of these bad boys!
What’s Next?
I am sure all you horror buffs who are done playing these 3 games cant wait for the next one right? What are you guys crazy or something? Anyway, we have some good news for you, Frictional Games stated in a blog post that they are already working on a new game.
Quoting them “The project of developing Rebirth has really laid the organizational groundwork for how we as a studio can work moving forward and we have just initiated production on the next game (which has now had tons of pre-production time during Rebirth) and we’re kicking off pre-production on a second project as we speak.” That means another fantastic survival horror and the 4th part of this installment is not far away from a release. Look at you maniacs grinning.
Well, that’s it for this video guys, if you liked it then don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe to our channel. Adios Amigos!