Amnesia: The Dark Descent is a graphic adventure survival horror, developed by Frictional Games. While these days horror games tend to be more about action, Amnesia seems to be more focused on the aspects of survival and storyline. Did Frictional Games do the right thing with Amnesia, or should they have just gone with the flow like every other game developers these days? Well, let’s see..

Story

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

In Amnesia, you play as a man named Daniel, who is suffering from an amnesia. Shortly after waking up inside the castle of Brennenburg, you find a note written by Daniel himself before he lost his memory. This note explains to you that Daniel chose to lose his memory for unknown reasons and urges you to journey into the depths of the castle and murder a man named Alexander, the baron of the castle. The note also warns Daniel that he is being followed by a mysterious dark shadow, which causes a strange grow of fleshy substance in the castle when it reaches Daniel. As you journey into the depths of the castle, the mysterious past of Daniel, the “shadow” following him, his current situation and the reasons for wanting to kill Alexander is explained through various flashbacks and diary notes. Yes, there is some amount of reading involved if you want to get into the depths of the storyline, but most of the diaries are narrated and involve a flashback, which makes reading them much more enjoyable.

Before you start the game, the developers give you a message, stating that Amnesia is supposed to be enjoyed for its storyline. Well, I can safely say that the story of the game really keeps you interested. The game leaves you with a “hunger for more” when some interesting aspect of the story is explored, and during the last parts of the game, you begin to wonder if Daniel himself is an innocent man.. However, without spoiling anything, the ending is really disappointing. After finishing the game, Amnesia leaves you with more questions than answers. I have no idea if this is a hint of a sequel to come, but I think the game should have explained some of the things more clearly. The developers really did a good job of keeping you interested, but they reward you with a vague ending, which is a no-no.

Gameplay

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
The game is played from a first-person point of view. What’s interesting about Amnesia, is the fact that you can’t fight back when the creatures of Brennenburg Castle find you. Your only option is to run and hide, hoping that the creatures won’t find you. This aspect of the game makes your hair stand on your neck when you see that creepy silhouette of a zombie slumping towards you as you run and try to find a hiding spot. However, there were couple of instances where it seemed to be impossible to hide from the monsters leaving you with no choice but to get your face chewed off.

The game has your basic health, but it also has something called “Sanity” meter. When the sanity meter starts dropping, your sight starts to become blurry and you begin to hear noises. Monsters also become aware of your presence when you lose too much of your sanity. Witnessing creepy events and flashbacks, watching the monsters and standing in the dark will cause your sanity to drop. Standing in the light by lighting candles or using your lantern will heal your sanity. This makes the gameplay interesting, giving you the choice of hiding the dark from the monsters and losing your sanity or use the lantern to keep your sanity intact, but making your presence more noticeable by the monsters.

In Amnesia, you use the mouse to operate levers, open doors, pick up and throw objects, etc. The game has loads of puzzles that require you to use this control feature for either operating or fixing a machine, or making a potion of some sorts. The puzzles are not difficult, but there are moments where you really have to stop and think what to do or find. If you missed an item required in one of the puzzles, you have to do some backtracking, which can be tedious (especially if that item is in a creepy place where you don’t want to go back). The puzzles are mediocre at best and you rarely feel rewarded when you manage to solve a puzzle.

Graphics

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
While not the most colorful game on the market, Amnesia really knows how to set the mood. The dark halls of the castle will really make you shiver and when you see a zombie dragging itself in the distance, it makes the hair stand on your neck! The game really delivers for me when you enter a dark area and you think to yourself “Can’t I just go back to the less scary place?”. When your sanity decreases, you will immediately start to notice the effect. Your eyesight becomes blurry and starts to wobble, and when you are finally at the edge of insanity, bugs will start to appear crawling on your screen, which makes you go “Wow!” and “Uh-oh..”.

Creepy Atmosphere!

Sound

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Creepy moans, screams and voices! That is the cherry on top of the ice cream of creepiness! When you journey through the castle, you are greeted with loads of scary voices, which will sometimes make you jump out of your chair. Not to mention when your sanity decreases, you start to hear what sounds like walls being scratched and your ears will start ringing. Amnesia really knows how to scare you with sounds!

Voice acting is mostly done well, although there are couple of parts where the acting seems to be somewhat off. Music sets the mood of creepy things to come and really gets the job done. I have to mention the creepy music when you are noticed by a zombie, which sets the panic state even higher!

Last Words

Overall, Amnesia: The Dark Descent is a scary and a good game! It’s been a while for me when a game has startled me this much. The fact that you are completely helpless throughout the game, not to mention the creepy atmosphere and fascinating storyline, makes Amnesia really stand out among the crowd of horror games. If you are a fan of horror games, I really recommend that you check this one out! You won’t be disappointed!

Overall Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars

+ Addicting storyline
+ Atmosphere
+ Interesting gameplay
+ Freaking scary!
- Disappointing conclusion

If you are interested on trying out this game, head out to http://www.battlefieldheroes.com, register and download the game! It’s completely free!

Comments from Gilgalad

Command your minions!

I’m a big fan of the first Overlord game. I love the humor, playstyle and art form of it so I’m quite excited of the next adventure.

I have just finished the demo of Overlord 2 and I have to say it looks amazing. Gameplay seemed to be untouched but why fix something that’s not broken. There were few minor details changed for the better, like minions not running straight into the water and dying.

Only new thing I noticed was the mounts for minions. Mounts look really nice but the demo didn’t show anything special that you can use em for, they didnt add any damage for the minions but I think the mounts added minions health.

The demo only showed the mounts as a new thing but I am excited for the siege weapons and new minion abilities that are in the full game.

Comments from Mike (Noob perspective)

Seals! Yuck!

I have never actually played the first Overlord game, I have only seen glimpses of Gilgalad playing it, but I do know the basics of the game.

My first impressions when playing this demo is that even a newbie like me can get the hang of this game pretty fast. The demo gives you all the required info for you to get started. I tested both Xbox360 and PC demo and if you ask me, both of them were equally good in gameplay and controls.

The demo was short so that’s all I can say for now. I might get interested enough to try this game.

The demo is currently available on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. The PC demo can be downloaded from here.

-

Still haven’t voted for your favorite E3 trailer? Head over to our E3 Trailer Battle and vote now!

The Last Remnant

Plot of the Game is focused around family Sykes, mostly on their two children Rush and Irina. Basic plotline in the beginning of the game is that Irina gets kidnapped by a hooded man and Rush tries to find her. By accidents Rush meets a man named David and his Generals, they together try to find out where Irina is and why has she been kidnapped. The Plot is what it is, a basic RPG plot, nothing really shocking, alltough after hearing some of the cheezy lines Rush says about Irina I forced myself thinking Irina was her wife/girlfriend and ditched the whole ciblings thing. Without spoiling anything I´ll just say that the main bad guy of the game is really well done. He may be on the top five of bad guys in games, for me atleast.

The game looks really awesome on PC, at the cutscenes it really feels like watching an animated movie more than a game. The only thing that bothered me about the graphics was the physics engine and the way Square used it. Allmost every character had some swinging part on their costume that looked like it had a mind of its own. Its isnt a really big deal but it just sticks out. Voice acting is nicely done on most parts with a few character exeptions.

The combat is a mixed bag, everything looks great but the choises you make in combat dont seem to work out at all like you planned. If you assign a team to heal another group with low hp most of the time the team cant act before its too late. The combat actions seem to be too stiff so you end up using the same 1-3 characters main abilities even if your team has 12+ members. On the positive note I have to say the combat music specially is really well done. So my hat goes off to Tsuyoshi Sekito.

Basic Combat View

The gearing of other characters than your main character is really really awful. Instead of being able to equip items straight to characters they whine and moan about loot parts, which they use to upgrade the weapons without your control. Most of the time it goes smoothly but everytime you exit into the map screen every character missing one ingredient keeps reminding that they want the item, they dont give any indication what enemy drops ‘em or where the enemy can be found. Other bad thing about the character developement is when you exit into the map screen and a random person from your team asks if he should one learn in magic or melee. Two, only melee. Three, only magic. You cant check out the stats  of the character asking so if you havent checked them out before and memorised them you have to quess. If you choose wrong you have to load from previous quick save or save and pickup where you left out and do it again.

The difficulty of the game is another thing, most parts the game is really easy. To make it harder Square implemented a linking system, there isnt any random encounters but you can link enemy packs together for more challenge and more loot. The system works and is fun. Other side of the coin is the boss fights, they seem to scale way too much and most of the time you have to try a boss fight 5-6 times before getting a lucky break or head back and level your characters to get better skills. I dont mind trying a boss 5-6 times but I do when before the boss is a 7 minute cinematic that you cant skip.

The effort to make the game appeal more to the Western RPG fans shows. Some things work great but you almost can hear a dong sound when the Western influence kicks in (or something that Square thinks is Western). Like Rush calling David, Dave. Or two spoiled quest NPCs that curse alot and use words like ”Bitchfit”. Hairstyles seem… well ”emo” and many more.

In the end its a good game. If your a friend of the RPG genre I would definetly recommend this to you. At first certain systems seem really complicated or dont make much sence, but with the help of the internet and some try and error you’ll get the hang of it.

Overall score: 8,5/10

Site News: We are not going to have an episode of Addon of the Week this week! We are going to do three part episode of certain game trilogy! The first part is going to be released this week! Stay tuned!

F.E.A.R series tells the story of Armacham Technology corporation and their attempt to make a clone army controlled by Telepathic commanders. In the first F.E.A.R one of the commanders has gone insane and has to be stopped, youll bump alot into a weird dead eyed girl called Alma. Later on the game you’ll find alot of information about Alma and how you are connected with her, lets just say that she is behind of all the troubles going on and escapes her holding cell at the end of the game (wont want to spoil all the details) and thats where F.E.A.R 2 comes in, youll start the game as another F.E.A.R soldier 30 minuters before the ending of F.E.A.R 1.

F.E.A.R 1 was knows for its great horror moments and computer A.I. The combat was alright by the most standards but it got really repetitive after a while, enemys were just clones of each other with a few exceptions, the slowmo or “reflex time” was introduced and it worked great, you had to deside when to use it because it only lasted few seconds, regenerated slowly and enemies took alot of hits to kill.

In F.E.A.R 2 the combat has stayed the same with another adaptation of “reflex time”. This time the reflex time last longer than in F.E.A.R 1 and it regenerates faster, making the combat way too easy for a current first person shooter. There are more enemies now with their own gimmicks. Compared to F.E.A.R 1 this makes the combat way more easy, making the combat less intense than the first.

In F.E.A.R 1 the horror aspect was amazing, the scares were psychological and suddle. Like Alma staring you from a balcony after you find a pile of tore up soldiers that she had killed. Or when you are suddenly teleported into a bloody corridor that has a door on the other side and while you walk towards it, you start hearing screams from the other side of the door. Nothing is really explained and the atmosphere is great.

F.E.A.R 2 makes the horror more “in your face”. The horror isn’t so suddle but aggressive, by now Alma is all grown up and wants to get to know you… really closely. Most of the time youll get bored with the easy combat and briefly its interrupted with a BOO moment by Alma, sure it gets to you first few times but you’ll get so used to it that it hardly scares you after a while.

The graphics in F.E.A.R 2 are well done. Some effects like ghosts look awesome and enemy soldiers look great when you blow em up. The level design is a small upgrade from F.E.A.R 1, taking the combat from small corridors to larger areas like schools and hospitals. Some areas are more impressive than others, like the school level where the game resembles a little bit of the first F.E.A.R, I think thats the level I enjoyed the most.

I was disapointed with the more agressive nature of horror in F.E.A.R 2, I think the developers lost their understanding of horror vs fright. Otherwise the game is worth playing, even if you just like first person shooters, alltough fans of FPS will find it really easy to play trough. If I had to say the worst part of the game. I would say it the ending, without spoiling it, I’ll just say… horrible.

I recommend this game for horror game fans and maybe for FPS fans

Overall score: 7,5/10