Zero Punctuation: Amnesia: The Dark Descent

[MetaKnight19]

I'm not a hardcore horror game fan but this caught my eye on Steam, and it is quite possibly the scariest game I've ever played.

 

[syltman]

I wish Yahtzee would review minecraft...

yah once it's done

 

[mexicola]

I contemplated spamming his inbox with requests to review this game but I got distracted by laziness, so I'm glad he did it anyway. My 1st reaction was joy when I saw he got around to playing it, then I got scared he might cover it in a mound of shit (which he did, but in a strangely good way), but then I thought about it and couldn't really come up with much to be disliked about the game and I was curious to see if he found any flaws. Well, of course he did, but I'm glad he liked/recommended it. Now I'll go back to playing it, I still have far too many dark dark rooms to go through.

 

[Orcus The Ultimate]

Very well made video, with all the nice references, but what's the storyline of that game ? just survival ?

 

[DoomBlackDragon]

Great review I do agrea it not the best game of the year but it is so good in the horror area. Never play this in the dark with vent on. Lol being on the verg to shit your self and your buddy stops to say hi which freaks you out.

Still got to love how Yahtzee stuck it to all the want a be gaming fanboys by saying f-you Halo Reach. Never can understand why people bring big hype about a very outdated duchtap buggy PoS hardwear. I play a cross platform game bet it in 2 - 4 hours and feel I need a refund cause it was bad. Thank you Microsoft for bring game level down to the causal level. Bunch of sell outs.

 

[spartan1077]

This might be the first game I pick up as a result of ZP. A rare positive review, the game must be far better than advertised.

same here I am "buying" it as I type this

 

[RobfromtheGulag]

I actually pre-ordered amnesia after [trying to] play the demo. However upon it's release my pc suffered so many technical issues (which I now believe are related to the screen resolution, of all things) that my progress thus far spans the entirety of 2 halls and a room.

Nonetheless this review reinforces my preconception that the game will get frightening, so I'll have to buckle down and play it at some point. Though the whole running-really-slow-to-create-mood kind of kills my survival horror pants-tent.

 

[NermanQ]

I loved the thought process part. This could potentially be the first horror game I've seen where you can't defend yourself (if you don't count not having a weapon in Condemned).

 

[Daniel Coulter]

This review led to me playing the demo, which led to me buying the game. I played the demo in the afternoon and still pooped a little during the water trek. One thing that bothered me was the slight screen tearing I experienced; it kind of un-immerses you a bit (couldn't get rivatuner's triple-buffering to work for some reason). Huzzah for steam bringing the indy game devs back to the PC!

Play the demo!

 

[Danpascooch]

I was literally just playing Amnesia and thinking about how the horror genre is pretty much dead in mainstream games in favor or action.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

This is exactly why Fatal Frame was a good game. See, the scariest parts of Fatal Frame were when you saw a glimpse of the enemy in the distance and you tried to stay away from it. When you did get to see the ghosts they were still extremely scary, but when you actually had to fight them that was the least scary part.

I was planning on checking this game out, but this video sold me on it.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

I'm proud to say I'm the one who recommended this game and I happen to be playing it too (durr).

Nice to see you enjoyed a break from the horrible moneymilker runny-gunny-survivy horrors, Yahtzee.

 

[lokiduck]

XD love the the Eternal Darkness Jab at the end XD

I love you so much right now Yahtzee XD I've been watching my favority Lper play this game, and so when I saw you had done Amnesia, I was so excited and worried you wouldn't like it XD But never mind that XD.

What you said about it is completely true. I was kind of like, wow this game is pretty and the atmosphere is tense but nothing has happened... then... in the Storage room... I realized that this game is really scary. It is exactly what horror is and should be. You walk about around build up the tension then when the person has gotten used to it, launch the horror when they don't expect.

This I think best described Amnesia though from that Lper

*Running away from monster* "You can't catch me I'm the Gingerbread ma- *looks back* Oh shit it can run!

 

[yoyo13rom]

A horror game that doesn't rely on you being disgusted by a clearly-visible monster that's been seen in half a dozen previous iterations? Unpossible.

An actual recommendation from Yahtzee is a rare thing and probably not given lightly. Glad to see he isn't the only one who actually understands the "less is more" mentality. It shows in his writing.

Would you mind explaining me the "less is more" mentality?
I think it refers to less as in less monsters, and less on screen scares that equal more class psychological horror, but I want to be certain I got it right.

"OH pissing blimey there's jam coming out of the Walls!" XD

My thought process when playing the demo was something like: "Huh I have amnesia, how original. Well not much to do here. Ok you open doors by moving the mouse? That's pretty neat, hmm, not very scary so far. I think I'll walk into this room. Huh a broom, can I set it on fire? No? that's weird. Well, better go upstairs. Let's just walk around this corner and... footsteps? That's not good! I think I'll stop playing now."

I seriously couldn't finish the f**king DEMO that's how scary I thought it was. I'm impressed at the games scaryness, but I'm not gonna buy it. It's too good at it's job.

I barely finish watching the fucking game trailer! It's just too good.
Ok, I gotta find a way to grow the balls to play it to the end, although it's whole point is to make you piss yourself with fear.

 

[atomicmrpelly]

I... but... Yahtzee... likes a game!??!

 

[atomicmrpelly]

I think this is the first time we've ever heard Yahtzee have a freakout like that.

"Great pissing blimey there's jam coming out of the wohls!"

Sorry, I'm really not a grammar nazi but "wohls"?! That did make me laugh

 

[Delusibeta]

Can I have some help here? I'm tring to decide if I want Penumbra: Overture or Amnesia. Nto only because I'm wondering which is scarier, but because I'm wondering which one has lower system requirements. I have a really crappy PC, so let me play this out: Portal works, Doom 3 doesn't. The Penumbra tech demo (which I loved) works fine, but i wonder if there's an engine difference. If not, I just need to decide what I feel like. Price is no big deal, 2 dollars difference, whatever, but I'd prefer whichever is scarier. I've longed for a horror game (that I haven't already played, Silent Hill) that truly scares me. Silent Hill freaked me out a bit, while I'm laughing at F.E.A.R, DOOM 3, Dead Space, and Resident Evil 4, saying "Wait, that's supposed to scare me?"(although those games are still good, just not scary.) I've heard Penumbra is really scary, though, but Yahtzees reaction has me split. I need help!

Judging from the Steam pages of both, Penumbra is the game demanding weaker computers. Not by a big pile, however: Penumbra will be on a par with Doom 3 in terms of system specs, while Amnesia will be more than Doom 3 and less than Portal. Basically, all depends on the graphics card. Both should be trivial if you have a decent graphics card.

 

[Meatstorm]

Excelent review. I myself bought Amnesia for two reasons:

1. It's the most horrifying thing i've ever played/seen/experienced

2. The developers are as far as they can from being super rich sellout company. They will need every euro to fund the next game.

So please. If you enjoy horror and have that extra 15e, then go buy it on steam.

Oh and there is also mapping/modding tool being released so there should be custom stories coming out sooner or later.

 

[Delusibeta]

It all makes sence now! The reason your not reviewing any good games is because your trying to piss off the majority of YOUR fan base by not reviewing any of their favorite games. Who the hell wants to know anything about some piss-ant game nobody cares about? I cant even find Amnesia at any E.B. games store!

I used to acctualy care what you thought about games but now I've realized you only review games (or dont review certain games) just to get some shock value, in order to attract attention. Even that guy who does Escape to the Movies reviews things while there still relavent. Because what good is a review of a game that nobody has, and no body cares about.

So with your poor choices in mind I think you should not review any games that sell over 1 million copies this fall. That way every game that people want you to rip on can get throughly ignored with no favorites.

And yes I'm still upset about how you didnt eat Starcraft 2 alive for being a predictable piece of shit, that only sold because of the name. WHOA Ticus was a trator!? That would have been a supprise if it didnt show it at the begining of the game!

Sarcasm detector is bleeping.

Ultimately, as anyone who watched the Brutal Legend review can tell you, Yathzee hates RTSes, and StarCraft 2 is about as traditional as they come for RTSes. He'll probably come round to doing Halo Reach in the next couple of weeks, but this is a game that really needs more publicity. And the occasional positive review isn't such a bad thing.