Did You Find "Amnesia: The Dark Descent" Scary?

[Venom 3135]

I'm interested in hearing your opinions on this. Did you find the game scary? Why?

I ask this question because I went into the game expecting one of the scariest games I'd played. I was severely disappointed, to be completely honest. I was scared and on edge through the first third of the game, but after a while the game stopped scaring me. There was no sense of actual danger in the game, the monster designed didn't really scare me and the level design was pretty boring in my opinion. The area in the basement (if I remember rightly) with the red fog like stuff scared me, but that was mostly because I couldn't see where I was going and got lost quite a few times. The environmental changes due to mental health got me a few times too.
But all in all, this game didn't actually scare me that much (definitely not as much as I was expecting). I did enjoy the game, I just wasn't scared much by it.

So I want to hear from you, how much the game scared you and for what reason. Feel free to comment on "Machine For Pigs" too, although I haven't played it myself.

 

[TheIceQueen]

I could never finish the game because I'm a little scaredy cat. ;w; I tried. Lord knows how I tried. I even tried multiple times, but I just couldn't take it.

 

[Muspelheim]

Well, it didn't exactly terrify me, no. But it did made me feel very tense and vulnerable, while also urging me on to explore the moody castle. If I could, though, I'd have thrown a chair out a window, hoisted myself down with a rope made from curtains and leg it. But I really did love the atmosphere, it was like being in a gothic horror story written by Marquis de Sade. Unsettling, rather than terrifying is the best desciption, I guess.

An enjoyable horror experience doesn't always have to petrify you to the very edge of what you can take to be succcessful, I've found, and the things that does that are very individual. I'd have much more trouble staying on top of things if there were any gigantic cobwebs filled with dry mummified bodies, because spiders are my particular scare button. Most horror will always be a little bit of hit and miss.

The earlier parts where you had more different places to explore were the better, I feel. Once you got into the dungeons, it got a bit too dingy stone hallway-ish, with few places to go. But it managed to keep the atmosphere nicely all the way through. And while the derpy monsters weren't very frightening by themselves, it felt rather tense trying to avoid or outrun them.

Now, I haven't played Hamnesia: Oink Oink Machine myself, but... Well. It does not look very promising. It's not really that frightening, and only mildly unsettling. It's a fascinating voyage and a lovely story, but... Well, the game part of the coin doesn't do it any favours. It is very well written and the voice acting is superb. But its lack of gameplay and the fact that it's tied together with Amnesia is not helping the story at all...

Hell, there aren't even many Pigmen around, come to think of it, and those that does just look oddly cute. I rather like pigs, and I just want to befriend and look after them, if anything. There is very little to be scared of, in all.

I suppose the fact that just watching the game and enjoying the story that way without any real wish to play it myself illustrate this game and its problem rather well.

 

[MysticSlayer]

Everything prior to the monster chasing you through the flooded halls? No.

Everything after you break out of prison near the end of the game (after Alexander's minions throw you in there)? No.

Everything in between? Certainly. It wasn't constant terror, and I the wouldn't consider it the scariest game I ever played (honestly, I was even more scared while playing BioShock than I was with Amnesia). Levels like the Storage room and Sewer absolutely terrified me, and there were other moments throughout the game where I felt at the very least highly unsettled. Overall, it was a frightening experience, and while I do think some people exaggerate how scary it is, I would still say it is an excellent example of a truly terrifying horror game.

 

[Qvar]

Yes. I could only get myself to play half an hours, then I would be forced to make a visit to the bathroom (scared shitfull, you could say), play another half an hour and go to bed, my hands shaking. Next day, same routine. I managed to play 4 days, then after the cellar part I couldn't gather enough courage to play again.

That was like 1 year ago. Still trying

 

[blaqknoise]

Yes, it did. though after the jail it wasn't really as scary.

Near the end of the water monster part where you have to open the gate, man did that ever stress me out, haha.

 

[Evonisia]

I found it scary, but for most of what I've played it's more just being stressed out. Door puzzles have never been kind to me (fuck you Silent Hill 2).

 

[Easton Dark]

No, I found it to be incredibly annoying.

Stop falling on the floor you scared bastard, that wont help you escape the monster.

The whole point is that you're faster than the creatures, so it wasn't scary, and all they could think to fix that is to make it so you can't move? Thanks, had lots of fun beating it.

The puzzles were fine and puzzly, but scary? Nah.

 

[BreakfastMan]

No, not really. There were some good bits, but mostly it alternated between slightly dull and completely laughable (the invisible monster in the water is still one of the most hilariously awful moments in any horror game I have ever played).

 

[Pascal]

It's good to know that I'm not the only one who was disappointed.

I was not scared even a single time while playing Amnesia. The enemies are too slow to be any real threat, and really just got in the way of me trying to solve the scavenger hunt puzzles, and the ambience consisted entirely of really loud wind and so-spoopy-haunted-house sound effects playing all the time that were absolutely cheesy and killed the atmosphere. "WOOOOOOSH! OOOOOOOUUUUUGHH!" type stuff going on constantly in my ear. I quit out of boredom after stumbling around in the blurry darkness looking for mcguffins. It wasn't really even hectic or stressful. Just annoying and tedious.

0/10 would not shit pants.

 

[DementedSheep]

Yes, mostly because of the audio, general atmosphere and the fact that you can't really fight back since the monster design itself is kind of derpy. Not that you see a lot of it, which works in the games favor because it stops them from becoming familiar and you don't pick a part the design while actually playing the game too much. The water monster fell flat for me TBH.

Things tend to stop being terrifying when you are continually come out on top when you fight them which is why a lot of action horror games don't work beyond jump scares. Amnesia has less jump scares so it not jumping out of your seat scary most of the time, it's just very very unsettling and easy to get immersed in especially if you actually do play it in the dark as it suggests. I was fairly desensitized to it by the end though I did scare the crap out of myself when I got cocky and impatient and ended up sprinting directly into a monster.

The short DLC on the hand I found utterly terrifying all the way through.

 

[piinyouri]

I was hyped to hell to play it, and before hand I had convinced myself that this was going to be S-rank, blood run cold, so scared I can't move stuff.

It was not. The game does have superb atmosphere, and a cool story, but once you realize there isn't actually a monster looking for you/chasing you outside of some scripted sequences, I found myself feeling less and less anxiety and fear.

Supposedly Penumbra is much better, with a monster that actually looks for you and what not.

One thing people are failing to mention though is the custom maps in Amnesia. The main game may be a tad disappointing, but some of the user made modules are REALLY good. (I'll ave to look them up...tis been awhile.)

EDIT: I played this thing every time in the dark with headphones. I gave it every chance to succeed.

 

[The Lugz]

scary? no. creepy? yes, quite.

after about 30 mins of rummaging in pitch darkness with groaning noises i just kinda got used to it, by the time I'd fixed the elevator the game was kinda worn out, although the chapel area with the red glowing mist wierded me out a bit for a while, the main thing that broke the game was I realised a, I wasn't being attacked and b, it's a game so who cares anyway so essentially I lost immersion with the 'horror' factor it was definitely a good game though i think it just needed a little variation in scene to keep you guessing what the game was gong to do

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

It's the scariest game I've played. Terrifying stuff. I still can't look at the monster without peeing my pants, and fuck you Jim for putting a picture of it on your last Jimquisition!

 

[Carpenter]

A horror game, much like a horror novel, cannot be scary on it's own and relies on you immersing yourself into the experience.

I know how defensive this sounds but it is on your end to be scared and if you find yourself unable to get sucked into the experience enough to feel tension or fear, it's probably just not the right game for you.

If you are going into a game expecting the game on it's own to scare you while you are busy listing it's flaws and nitpicks (as you did with Amnesia) then I'm sorry but it's on you for playing as a critic rather than just experiencing the game.

That goes for a lot of games, not just the horror genre.

 

[daveman247]

Some parts, the mad rush to wheel the gate up at the end of the first water monster. The first time you had to barricade a door to buy time to hide. The big knife man (reminded me of pyramid head a bit ^_^)

The parts where you could "relive" the torture scenes were quite unsettling though, props to the sound guy and voice actors for that. You didn't "need" to see it, the diagrams and sounds were enough.

Afer a few quest "successes" it did become a little predictable, after nearly every success you knew a monster was going to knocking around somewhere. Also the various visual filters were a little too "you must be scared NOW wibbly-wobbly". Great story though.


I'm currently playing through the first penumbra (got the whole series for five bucks) and again, interesting story but nothing has really freaked me out yet. Some panic (that first giant worm) but nothing too bad.


I think these days unfortunatly i've played so many horror games/ games that claim to be horror games I think i've become quite desensitized. After a while hanging-meat monsters don't mean a whole lot XD

I think Cry of fear has been the closest to silent hill for me, despite too many jump-scares and some cheap deaths.

 

[pfeffa]

The thing in the water, early on in the game. That bastard gets to me every time. It scared me in the demo, both times I played it, and it scared me when I played the full game. Especially the part where you distract it with meat, and have to turn a crank to open a door. INcredibly tense, and simply being able to lower your sholders a bit after an ordeal like that is so rewarding. Otherwise a very atmospheriv game, if not the scariest.

That last bit goes double for the pig machine. Excellent atmosphere and a well crafted story, but not really scary at all. Except for a bit that's very similiar to the one I described above. Maybe I just have a thing for invsible things in the water...

 

[DementedSheep]

Supposedly Penumbra is much better, with a monster that actually looks for you and what not.

I didn't find the first Penumbra scary at all. Black Plague was a lot more like Amnesia but with enemies that patrol or you have to trap in some way rather than just chasing you around for a bit then vanishing, better puzzles and surprising amount of humor but it doesn't have the feeling of isolation that Amnesia has and so wasn't as scary to me. Requiem was incredibly boring so I never finished it.