Amnesia: The Dark Descent Preview

I was recently lucky enough to get a major chunk of hands on time with Frictional Games latest entry into their ever expansive, and ever perfected library of survival based thriller titles. Having access to 1/3 of the whole game, I was impressed, overwhelmed and most of all legitimately frightened of the game. With games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill dishing out their scares in the form of “flash” attacks, screams and full frontal gore, Amnesia: The Dark Descent plays on your nerves, senses and sanity as you go from scare to scare.

Located out of Sweden, Frictional Games is an independent developer with a reputation for crafting enjoyable experiences in brand new worlds and packing them with scares and mind tricks. For those of you familiar with the “Penumbra” series Amnesia will be right up your haunted alley. Assuming you’ve never played it before, Penumbra was a First-person adventure title that focused more so on survival, fear and stealth than it did guns, explosions and rambo-esque behaviour like the rest of its first-person kin.

Another intuitive feature of Penumbra was the usage of the mouse in regards to opening doors, chests and even down to things like solving puzzles. Instead of clicking once and having the door magically open, the game instead allows you to click then move the mouse forward, giving a more enjoyable experience as it allowed for you to peek around the tiny crack of a door, or slam one behind you as you’re hunted through the shadows.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent kicks off with the players character awakening to find he has no recollection of anything (Hence, Amnesia), and you’re then tasked with finding out what has happened to both the character and the castle you are in, as well as killing Alexander of Brennenburg. “Castle?” you may ask. Yes, Amnesia takes place inside an old castle named Brennenburg. Players navigating the castle solving puzzles, escaping the shadows and keeping themselves sane.

Frictional Games has said time and time again is that this game isn’t meant to be rushed. They want players to play the game casually and at a slow pace so they can take it in, learn the story and actually enjoy playing the game. A testament to this is the way players learn the story. Instead of passing through invisible barriers and triggering memories and thoughts, the story is instead told through books, scrolls and flashbacks that are laid around the castle. This style is brilliant, as it doesn’t rely on the player being focused on one piece of the puzzle, instead they can be pieced together all over the board and eventually pieces will link up, telling a common story.

Something I touched on earlier was the control system of Penumbra. Thankfully that makes a return and is once again a blast to use. Everyday gaming moments like opening a door or lifting the lid of a chest are refreshing and enjoyable to do in Amnesia as they aren’t just click and wait things. The game draws you in by giving you a intuitive system in which you control how much the door is opened, or how quickly it is shut as your eyes catch glimpse of something. The system might sound same old same old, but when you’re using it to slide a draw open, or to slowly open a door ajar fearing something might be on the other side, you will love it.

When it comes to games that play tricks on your mind and aim to give you a fright, sound obviously plays a large part in that, and Frictional Games has really delivered in terms of sound effects. In Penumbra, and I feel like a total nerd for knowing this, Fictional Games implemented a sound system only used one other time in “Jurassic Park: Trespasser”. This system allowed two sounds to intertwine and create a unique sound at any time in the game. This happened on the fly, allowing any sound file to mix with another, providing a unique and unheard of sound engine at the time.

This time it’s not uncommon to be walking around and hearing creaks of the floorboards behind you, spinning around to find nothing, but seeing the dust settling from movement. You hear yells, people whispering at you from the shadows, people going “psst” but no-one is actually there. This game is a sound masterpiece, and it really does need to be played with true 5.1 surround sound and a headset.

Something Amnesia plays heavily on is the usage of light and darkness. Spend too much time in the dark and your sanity will slowly seep away, leaving you prone to hallucinating and seeing ghosts and creatures, and when you do actually see them you will scream, I did. I was walking through a rather large hall, minding my own business and solving a puzzle. I heard a creak on the floorboards behind me, spun around and actually saw a ghost. I literally screamed and ran into the nearest room slamming the door shut behind me. I then lit my oil lamp, opened the door slightly ajar and peeked around to find it had gone. Because of the constant immersion to light and dark and the sounds always playing tricks on you, you never know when you will actually see something or get the fright of your life.

To alleviate your “sanity” issues players can solve puzzles, or down one of the many “Sanity” potions laying around the castle. Playing once again on the effect of exposure to light and dark, it is also possible to restore your sanity by exposing yourself to light, whether it be a crack in the roof or a fire across the room. Amnesia has a distinct feel akin to that of a H.P Lovecraft book. I say that because the style of Lovecraft’s horror is not a shock and awe type, but more a physiological horror. Understanding what a monster gushing blood represents is more mentally challenging than actually seeing it, and as such when Lovecraft’s characters can’t comprehend that they go mentally insane.

I don’t want to spoil anything in the game, but by far my favourite moment in the preview was in a semi-submerged room and having to get from one end to the other. I ignorantly jumped into the water, only to see something coming directly at me forcing me to use various crates and shelves floating on the surface. Unfortunately they weren’t everywhere, but it was possible using the click and move system to drop body parts into the water, momentarily distracting the monster and letting me survive another mind breaking turn through Brennenburg.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent is a rare breed. It doesn’t play itself up to be something it so clearly isn’t, but at the same time it tries and becomes something new, unique, and something no-one has seen before. In the niche market of Survival/Horror titles it really is a beacon of light paving the way for titles to come, and at the same time it might just be Frictional Games’ best title.

I urge everyone to check this out when it launches on Steam in August of 2010. We will bring you a review when we get our hands on the full title, but until then click here to pre-order the game.