Amnesia on GOG - gog.la/forgetjuice THE LIST - docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_K3ziSxT9zcUUGCddS4sF1uNJTWHSbOwB1CQX2Rx4Uo MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS. I am having to fight the pig machine now.
Do a review on the game Nebraska! It’s a horror game that feels very similar to Penumbra as the developer managed to get exclusive permission from Frictional Games to use their engine to make the game! It’s a hidden gem, plus, what other game do you know of that takes place in the corn husker state?
My friends were running a Call of Cthulhu campaign and had one character at ridiculously low sanity. The hard mode sanity reminded me of the running gag that whenever he entered a building he'd wear horse blinders so as not to glimpse a horror. Daniel shoulda just brought some horse blinders.
@@MandaloreGaming That literally happened to me in a Call of Cthulhu game; just got in the car, leaving the haunted country house, my character sees a shadow follow. Fail the sanity check, fail the occult roll, and fail the marksmen roll. To my character, he was blasting a demon chasing them down, to the rest of the party, my character randomly screamed and then shot himself in the head
Daniel has little to no "current objective self talking" that directly tells the player the direction you must take, "gotta get that elevator working" "should be a valve somewhere"
And it worked so well that The Chinese Room came in next with a game where you are given an endless barrage of written "current objective self talking" from Mandus, despite the game having no objectives whatsoever. God I hate AMFP.
@@meanwhile_0 Yeah AMFP was garbage. It wasn't even a game, I think it had 1 section that you actually had to, you know, play and sneak. The rest was about as interactive and on rails as Layers of Fear which also sucked. The story was ok, that's about the nicest thing I can say about it.
I didn't think Amnesia had save states. I vividly remember at one point the monster got me after I had tried to drag it back to a ledge I thought it couldn't path on. The monster just floated right towards me as if the devs said "you thought you could trick us". I remember a "waking up" animation in the same room and I thought I had loaded a save. I went back expecting the monster to come down the same hallway like before but he was not there and had spawned in a different location. The third time there was no monster anywhere. Amnesia is a very meticulously designed game. The devs seemed to understand that players will try to cheese the game to break the tension, so they throw a lot of little scripted moments to keep you on your toes such as monsters that are actually just illusions. Most of the time there isn't any real danger and if you die to the monster enough times it just goes away so you can progress and they can build the tension again; the monster already did its job. I could be mis-remembering some of these points but Amnesia was the one game that broke my "game designer" brain.
I can partially confirm. There was one point in particular where I 'died' consecutively to a particular... entity... and there came a point where it just stopped spawning in its set, scripted area. If we take Rebirth and Soma as design direction, a post failure automatic reload is probably just Daniel waking up again, part of a continuous narrative. Rebirth shows why you can keep playing, and in SOMA you are kicked to the main menu... unless the thing that took you out wouldn't kill you, in which case it just continued as if from a auto save.
If you read the Fricitonal team's blogposts from back in the day, they were explicitly going for that as a goal. They had this idea of horror games being a 'black box' where the player started off not understanding the systems in play, the rules -- and once they did understand them the fear was lost. So one of their explicit goals was never letting the players *really* get confident in learning the rules. Stuff like so many of the monster encounters being fake plays into that very well.
I personally really like this about Amnesia, and it's something I've come to resent about similar games. The monster in Alien Isolation on a high difficulty is too omnipresent and never gives you a break, at certain points with enough attempts it just feels like bashing your head into a wall and the monster loses all effectiveness as a source of tension and just becomes an annoying obstacle the player has to game around. Most of the time in Amnesia if you die to a monster, the game changes the scenario and lets you progress unimpeded instead of making you become frustrated. I think the Shadow chase towards the end after Daniel gets captured by the gatherer is completely changed if you die in the chase sequence, and most of the gatherers at other points in the game just don't show up if they kill you once or twice. It let's you keep on a reasonable pacing and sense of progression that basically no other games give you.
If Christmas is allowed to creep backwards into July, Halloween is allowed to creep forward. Heck, I've been trying to turn April Fools Day into April GHOULS Day for a couple years now.
I'm imagining Mandy standing there all imposing, delivering his speech to the wobbling mutant, and then collapsing into the Family Guy death pose with a sudden piano sting.
Newer horror games have learned all the wrong lessons from Amnesia. What makes a game scary is the feeling of danger, the feeling that something is stalking you and creeping behind you, of never be safe. When a game relies on jumpscares too often, it becomes predictable and not scary.
Indeed. While Amnesia itself was good as it was, its imitators have a lot to answer for. Much like when modern military shooters supplanted the older shooter styles in the triple-A space, the Amnesia style supplanted survival-horror in the gaming space for many years. But after many years, new life has been breathed back into the genre thanks to a resurgence of the older styles, coming back even stronger than before. Even Frictional kinda embraced this resurgence, since The Bunker itself is not only item-based survival-horror, but the way you USE those items is more imsim-esque, kind of like Prey 2017, Gloomwood and Fear & Hunger. (honestly, there's plenty of room for more survival-horror imsims)
Agreed. Its what makes lethal company so scary is the DANGER. Terrifying monsters rushing at you that will make you dead real quick adds so much to the tension and terror. You never know when a thumpy will rush at you from out of the darkness but when it does you better run!
This game’s a gem, though I still find it funny how Daniel wakes up with amnesia, save for the three things (his name, location, and the date) normally used to confirm a _lack_ of amnesia.
Which is, funnily enough, actually how amnesia tends to work. Both brain injuries and trauma have a very low chance of messing up a person's ability to remember who they are, at least as far as I know. Even something as debilitating as Alzheimers usually doesn't make people forget their identity.
Amnesia usually comes with short-term memory loss. Patients usually know their names and locations that they know for a long time. It's not rare to remember what year is currently neither.
This was my first horror game ever, I was scared shitless . The story itself was so special to me because it was narrated in such a unique way that was totally new to me. It still is my favourite when it comes to horror games.
I was dared to play it by a friend since he knew I wasn't good at horror games and coudn't even get into the first room lol the sounds was enough to make me instantly close it
@@007megaoof not entirely true but yeah, horror games are now actually one of my favourite genres to play, but everytime something really scary comes up, I just feel nostalgic. It's not that they're not scary anymore it's that they remind me of something else.
As you were talking about the sound design, I started to really get immersed in the video. I was listening to the whirring sounds of distant machinery, a vague sort of sloshing noise of water being poured, and some muffled thumps. Then I paused the video and realized it was my laundry machine running downstairs!
Weird as it sounds, I'm imagining a washing machine with big beefy legs running down the stairs. Then it stumbles into the wall and shouts "OH MY SHOULDER". Honestly, it would probably fit into an Earthbound-style RPG. Like maybe it appears in the junkyard area of Omori, and if Kel flexes at it, it sprouts a pair of arms and flexes right back, missing a turn.
The soundscape of Amnesia is really top notch, it's one of the scariest games for me solely because of the atmosphere and deep, unsettling sounds and those awful monster groans, especially the brute! 17:35 Funnily enough, if you play or turn on dev commentary (always wonderful additions to a game), the devs do draw attention at how similar the torture stuff with horror game design is. There's also a fourth "ending" which is when you get locked up, you wait too long and the shadow consumes you.
Sound design is really important for horror I think, though I love good sound and music in general. By the time I played System Shock 2, for instance, it looked janky compared to the BioShock games but dang the sound design was really something else and it managed to be freakier than many more recent games.
This game is a classic for a reason. I played it many years after its release, so the hype had died down, and what surprised me was how elegant it actually is. As the video says, it never becomes gory or violent even where it would have every right to be, and it's one of the few games in which dead bodies actually look like dead bodies: not gruesome, just pale, still and eerie. It's also apparent that the story was written by someone who's very cultured, with all the references to the Bible, Prussian history, ancient roman temples etc...
Frictional Games have pretty much always had super interesting and "well-educated" storylines. Competent game company in every aspect pretty much, and I'd say they are the de facto kings and queens of the horror genre.
the Prussian history part is what I find most interesting about it. I already wrote it somewhere else, but this is probably the only game set in Prussia that I know of despite Prussia being one of Europe's major countries & the birthplace of modern Germany. It's cool that Amnesia does it & missed potential that nobody else does.
This carries over to one of the most disturbing things about The Bunker for me. The bodies in The Bunker look like actual corpses and war gore. It's genuinely really sad and shocking. The way that one man with his face torn off and eye hanging out looks in the officer's quarters looks is so much more revolting than most games want to go.
I remember playing this game with my sister late at night on a weekend. We got to the point just after that iconic bit with the invisible monster in the water. We were so on edge moving through the hallways that when a candle or a cup or something fell off of a table it scared us so bad that i threw the mouse and hit the wall. Our parents were not pleased cause i completely destroyed the cheap mouse we had. Never made it past that point and its a fond memory.
I nearly pulled my boyfriend's entire brand new PlayStation 3 off the shelf playing Dead Space. I had the controller charging while playing and those damn necro fetus things scared me so much my skeleton nearly flew out of my body. I just got up and went right to bed. I know exactly how you felt when that mouse hit the wall! I learned that day that even little baby horror games are things I simply cannot handle. I'll stick to watching other people play them instead.
@@ChristopherSadlowski dead space 1 scared the shit out of me the first time I played through it, but when dead space 2 came out i was in my peak middle school emo edge lord phase so I really leaned into the horror and I loved it. The little fetus monsters didn't bother me much back then, but when I went through the game again about two years ago while serving on a ship out in Japan the game scared me a lot more 🤣 wasn't until I was an adult did I really understand how fucked up and tragic those little guys were, and the toddler/child sized necromorphs too. The whole trek through the apartments when you can hear people screaming and crying hiding from the necromorphs hits different when you aren't an angry teenager hyped up on monster 🤣
I still remember my first time playing amnesia. I was in that area before the chemistry puzzle, and the ambience track scared me such much I hid under a staircase for like 10 full minutes.
When I was in college, I was playing the water level of this map, I was breathing heavily and saying, "Oh God" under my breath. It was 1 a.m., and my roommate thought he woke up to hear me spanking the monkey. Had a good laugh, It's my most memorable moment of this game.
The atmosphere and tension in Amnesia is, in my opinion, unmatched even today. The fact you never feel truly safe even in the "safe areas". The game always keeps you on edge, never letting you stop and slow down for long but also making sure to punish you if you charge in carelessly. Its a near perfect balance and I love it.
the back hall after the kaernk chase is my favorite part of the game, it's so relieving at first with the music but once you start getting the elevator up and the shadow fills the area it completely changes the atmosphere
As someone who's done 12 separate playthroughs of the game, I can confidently say that it's still scary. The flooded Archives are still an intense experience, and the Choir - Main Hall is an area is an area I *still* dread going back to. It certainly helps that I've had several nightmares of being hunted/chased by the Gatherers. Truthfully, this video game is a must-play.
First of all thanks for covering this timeless gem! Secondly I (as well as everyone who has played this journey) can't praise enough the ambience work that Tapio Liukkonen conjured up for this game. I had the privilege of attending a lecture from him here in Finland waaaaaaaaaay back where he went through all the processes of making a soundscape that would always....ALWAYS make you feel uneasy. Idea was that there would not be respite anywhere. Whether it was the subtle sound of rats chewing, scraping of nails, cold steps in the snow, the awkward wind during the autumn, shocking siren sounds etc. The amount of samples that this dude recorded for this game is insane but he bloody incorporated everything in to this. What a fucking bloody legend. Hats off an thanks to thee mr. Liukkonen.
The sound design of this game goes wildly underappreciated nowadays. The chase themes are amazing, especially the droning one that sounds like a mounting panic attack put to audio. The castle ambience, the creaking wood and machinery, the soft crackle of the flame in the lantern, it's all so satisfying. Plus there's a neat little behind the scenes video of the sound design dude creating all this stuff in his house. He basically voices the main monster himself. Shoutout to Tapio Luikkonen!
I remember finding an Amnesia CD in my house right around the same time I started watching letsplays of it. My dad bought it for my mom thinking it was a point and click mystery game. Good times.
Amnesia; The Dark Descent review in almost 2024? Count me in! Finally got to try this fantastic game for myself fairly recently. Definitely deserved the attention
My favorite Amnesia song is the Suitors chase theme from Justine. It starts with rhythmic knocking on wood and that's possibly the scariest thing I've ever heard
I am SO excited for this video. This game really got me into horror games, to be honest. I had tried some prior but had never been hooked by the concepts or story. The explosion of early commentary RUclipsrs covering this was such a proto-golden era of gaming commentary and we didn't even realize it. Beautiful memories.
Their ability to instill fear and terror into the player or even people simply watching someone else play is amazing. Even watching the clips in this video where he was getting chased were giving me a fear reaction that no other horror game has been able to replicate.
@@croisaor2308 Same here, except I have tried to play the game... can't get thru it no matter how hard I try... it's too scary for me even after all these years, all I can do is watch and even then it still can really get to me. I had to pause the video 10 minutes in to take refuge in the comments 😂
I somehow managed to power through this one at like 11 years old or so, man, it scared the ever living shit out of me, loved horror games ever since :')
Minor spoiler I always like Daniel's reasoning to why he's getting chased by the shadow. That the orb is or is somehow connected to a fundamental law of the universe, and by moving it and breaking it, the universe is now catching up to the changes, and destroying anything in the way to do so. Always found it a very interesting idea
It was just Daniel's theory however and was later debunked in Amnesia: Rebirth where this shadow was explained further and technically encountered again, though if only for a short time. Rebirth in general sheds some light on the Lore and Universe of Amnesia and the strange world Alexander came from originally.
@@StabYourBrain by 'debunked' you mean the hacks who wrote it just couldn't be bothered to remember the lore of TDD. It's one thing to provide another view on a previously established theory and it's another to just completely discard existing lore for the sake of a new story, which is without a question what they did in Rebirth. Orbs were explicitly meant to be more than just the interstellar portal network, only used as such in the same way a caveman would use a supercomputer as a club, and Alexander resorted to it out of desperation. So on, so forth Alexander didn't come from the other world of Rebirth by the way, he was a passing stranger in there as well, there's a note covering this. Rebirth didn't explain shit. Yes, I'm still mad about it to this day. Good thing Frictional proceeded to make a game with as little story as possible afterwards
@@ExValeFor I played Rebirth way after this video, and I actually liked a lot of elements in the story, but yeah, everything relating to the lore and otherworldly horror is absolutely ruined. Overexplained and ineffective
I convinced myself to play this one Halloween. I managed to make it past the invisible water monster but couldn't continue after that... Excited to see you talk about Oni!
@@TheHalogen131 Yeah Rebirth was kinda disappointing. It was the same old song-and-dance, but not only didn't evolve, but also kinda devolved a little. Still, I'm glad that we have The Bunker as the kind of direction Amnesia SHOULD have gone in.
I always read the orb-related deaths as ones Daniel himself carried out. My speculation was that the monstrous visages of the prowling enemies looked similar to his victims after he was done with them. A Silent Hill "They Look Like Monsters to You?" bit.
This makes sense if you assume that the Shadow isn't actually physical but just something lurking in Daniel's mind that drove him to insanity after touching the orb. Alexander isn't a reliable source so of course he could reinforce any delusions Daniel might have to further his own goals, especially if Daniel's already murderous inclinations could be utilized. The idea starts to fail when you remember that Agrippa or Weyer also apparently encountered the Shadow and give credence to it being a real being with real physicality, which does feasibly explain the supernatural murders of anyone Daniel met with.
For those wondering, the secret of Amnesia's sanity system that Mandy talks about at 14:25 is that its effects are actually entirely cosmetic. The only mechanical effect it can have on the game is that collapsing at 0 Sanity will alert enemies in the area if there are any. Otherwise, its only impact is making the game's atmosphere spookier, and there is technically no reason to keep your sanity high outside of comfort.
This game taught me a pretty nice lesson about engaging with the media I consume. I didn't enjoy it at all, and it's almost entirely because I refused to let myself be scared. There was always that disconnect of "I'm just playing a video game who cares" that took an unfortunately long time to break down. I very much value immersion nowadays, even if it's still quite rare. Rain World's my favourite for putting me in the shoes of the protagonist.
That is exactly, why so many people back then, 2010, thought Amnesia and other horror games from that period was bad. An awful lot of people commented something along the lines of "it is not scary, just boring"... Yea, those were the same gamers, which praised Skyrim as the best RPG for years, even tho Skyrim has very little RP and was mechanically stripped from everything that made pervious games really good. A lot of younger gamers from back then and even more so today play games like a problem solving task and not like games. Thus why we get more and more mediocer games where fetchquests make 90% of the whole gameplay loop. Amnesia was art, but 8 out of 10 players wanted to solve a math equation instead.
Despite how good "The Bunker" is. I still think TDD is the best Amnesia. It's the game that revolutionized modern horror games and it was long considered the scariest game of all time after it came out. There is no experience other like playing this game for the first time and every aspect of it was executed perfectly.
that's funny 2 months ago i did a retrospective on this game, and here you are making a review as well. i'm totally with you, despite already knowing this game, i was still on edge. Hearing that chase siren has never left my brain and always terrifies me
Aaaaaah..."Wood Carving Partita" from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, right at the beginning of the video. What an atmosphere. Suits the premises of Amnesia very well.
Yeah, the prospect of having a protagonist who is utterly emasculated and borderline mentally challenged to the point that they don’t even consider fighting is quite horrible. Not everyone needs to become a full Frank West crafting a double sided chainsaw staff, or the DoomSlayer, but jfc there isn’t a sword in this entire castle?
I’m not gonna lie I’ve always never really liked these kinda games, no matter what I can’t get over how your character doesn’t even attempt to defend themselves, because of that I can’t find enemies scary. It’s just a problem I have though, I can admit they’re good games, most of them at least, just not my cup of tea.
I've beaten this game. I've seen several other people beat this game. So when I picked it up again for a little Halloween spooks not long ago I was expecting nothing more than some tense nostalgia. But I was shocked at just how tense and effective the game still was. Just goes to show how important good design is.
Was just binging your vids while it’s slow here at work, and you drop this???? It truly is a Christmas miracle. Happy holidays Mando! Can’t wait to see what 2024 bring the channel.
funny, i played this when it came out, didn't know that much english at the time but enough to figure the controls and other basic stuff, but the story? never figured it out til now. I always thought i was supposed to embody an Igor type character, doing my boss's biding, had quite a lot of fun imagining the vampire c(o)unt going "Igor, fetsch me ze gearz" and me going "Yyyesss masssterrr" and running along and getting scared shitless because the dude left other abominations loose around the castle just to fuck with, watching me as he pops open a cold one and eats some chips while laughing
One part of Amnesia’s sound design that always sticks with me is the Terror Meter, that loud rasping siren that plays when the monsters have found you. I don’t know why, but it horrified me back in the day. I kinda thought the monsters were making that noise, like the pod people screeching, just the sound of cold alien malevolence.
If one could buy P.T. again, you would quit forever. But yeah, Amnesia was my first and only proper horror game, and first time I saw monster in Winery, I was so scared I quit the game for the day. The Alexander painting is what really upsets me. I just can't look at it everytime I play the game.
I just played trough the collection recently, and i was surprised at how good the first game is. I mean, its a classic for a reason but i genuinely didnt expect whats basically a spooky walking simulator to captivate (and scare the hell out of) me to such an extent. Definitely one of my favorite horror games
Yeah, Amnesia is one of the only times where a horror game with no combat genuinely worked IMO. The game has actual mechanics that give you plenty to do even though you can't fight the baddies, so you're not just walking around bored and waiting for jump scares. Mandalore was dead on at 23:41 when he compared Amnesia to Halo: two great games that have a bad reputation in some circles because game developers learned all the wrong lessons from them.
I enjoyed my time with Dark Descent more. The Bunker is a better game-as-game. But SOMA is the only one that still has me wake up asking "Why'd I put my hand in there? Am I really that kind of person?"
Fun fact, there is one monster you can kill (which ironically is considered one of the scariest in the game): the Kaernk. It’s a monster that is invisible, but it makes loud splashes on the water when it moves, and it only can harm you or find you when you’re in the water. You only need to get out of the water and hit it with a box over and over until a small pool of blood appears on the water.
Can I just say I really appreciate that you took a balanced middle ground in your descriptions of both Alexander and Daniel? I've been in the fandom forever and usually the opinion is either "Daniel is a selfish spoiled brat with a victim complex" or "Alexander is a complete monster and nothing excuses the shit he's done". It's refreshing to hear a gentler opinion of both of them for a change.
Back in the day I resolved to complete the game despite being very scared of it and horror games in general. Something in this one drew me in, and I was intrigued by the story - that was before I knew about Lovecraft, in my younger years. And afterwards I felt immense relief and accomplishment when I finally beat it. It kinda "fixed" horror games for me and I can now enjoy them, so I will always respect Amnesia for it. Furthermore, this is where I started to appreciate and notice sound design and music and how important they can be to an experience. Nice review.
This was one of the most anticipated videos I had been waiting for. Thank you for taking the time with these games! Great video and essay, as always. I hope you have some wonderful Christmas Holidays!
I love this review, I think you captured exactly what this game is about, the sanity mechanics, how it tells you not to look at monsters, the absurdity of dark areas that you can't even see, how to horror in this game keeps you on edge and tense throughout the whole campaign, really great
Great video. Fantastic to see this game again, it truely was revolutionary for it's time. what's that music at 14:48? it scratches my brain really hard and I can't put my thumb on it.
Amnesia on GOG - gog.la/forgetjuice
THE LIST - docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_K3ziSxT9zcUUGCddS4sF1uNJTWHSbOwB1CQX2Rx4Uo
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS. I am having to fight the pig machine now.
"Neat."
-Bilbo Baggins
Merry Christmas
merry christmas! i'm very excited to see what videos you have for us in 2024.
*The tiger is in pursuit*
Do a review on the game Nebraska! It’s a horror game that feels very similar to Penumbra as the developer managed to get exclusive permission from Frictional Games to use their engine to make the game! It’s a hidden gem, plus, what other game do you know of that takes place in the corn husker state?
Daniel is a prime example of what happens when you ponder someone else's orb
This was amazing omg
Orb logic goes "don't be a prick and you will prosper" so I guess it is like "don't ponder someone else's orb **without asking**"
You say sumn?
@@hannibalburgers477 After picking up Amnesia: Rebirth, I learned only one thing... maybe don't fuck with the Algerians?
Oh my gahd! You can't just like ponder someone else's orb!
My friends were running a Call of Cthulhu campaign and had one character at ridiculously low sanity. The hard mode sanity reminded me of the running gag that whenever he entered a building he'd wear horse blinders so as not to glimpse a horror. Daniel shoulda just brought some horse blinders.
This is definitely a fetish I just can’t pinpoint which one
Given how game fovs work he basically is wearing them!
Sounds like those sun glasses from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy setting. They turn black and block your vision when someone scary appears.
It's all fun and games until glancing at the wrong creature makes your own shotgun turn on you.
@@MandaloreGaming That literally happened to me in a Call of Cthulhu game; just got in the car, leaving the haunted country house, my character sees a shadow follow. Fail the sanity check, fail the occult roll, and fail the marksmen roll. To my character, he was blasting a demon chasing them down, to the rest of the party, my character randomly screamed and then shot himself in the head
Daniel has little to no "current objective self talking" that directly tells the player the direction you must take, "gotta get that elevator working" "should be a valve somewhere"
And it worked so well that The Chinese Room came in next with a game where you are given an endless barrage of written "current objective self talking" from Mandus, despite the game having no objectives whatsoever. God I hate AMFP.
@@meanwhile_0 Yeah AMFP was garbage. It wasn't even a game, I think it had 1 section that you actually had to, you know, play and sneak. The rest was about as interactive and on rails as Layers of Fear which also sucked. The story was ok, that's about the nicest thing I can say about it.
"oh god damnit what the hell just happened. Oh I'm in one piece. Oh where's the scroll"
@@Alberich_Prince_of_Dwarves *Lights torch in the middle of actively burning wreck* Now I can finally see.
@@ser0t0ninaddict94 I love you
The Vitae extraction process being Amnesia’s design philosophy is such a good piece of meta commentary.
Yeah, its actually hilarious how well that describes the design of the game.
Sounds a lil too much like edging
@@soshiusss Or "Adrenochrome" fueling certain Conspiracy Ptheories
Yes but at the end of the game we make it out.
Brennenburg castle is Alexander's giant gooning complex, the inner sanctum is where the real business's is done @@soshiusss
"You'll never truly catch me MUTANT, I've already SHIT MYSELF TO DEATH"
- Mandaloregaming
It's the usual deadpan delivery that makes the sudden moments of emotion like this all the better
with the robocop music and reverb, just too funny
Where is this quote originally from?
I didn't think Amnesia had save states. I vividly remember at one point the monster got me after I had tried to drag it back to a ledge I thought it couldn't path on. The monster just floated right towards me as if the devs said "you thought you could trick us". I remember a "waking up" animation in the same room and I thought I had loaded a save. I went back expecting the monster to come down the same hallway like before but he was not there and had spawned in a different location. The third time there was no monster anywhere.
Amnesia is a very meticulously designed game. The devs seemed to understand that players will try to cheese the game to break the tension, so they throw a lot of little scripted moments to keep you on your toes such as monsters that are actually just illusions. Most of the time there isn't any real danger and if you die to the monster enough times it just goes away so you can progress and they can build the tension again; the monster already did its job. I could be mis-remembering some of these points but Amnesia was the one game that broke my "game designer" brain.
I can partially confirm. There was one point in particular where I 'died' consecutively to a particular... entity... and there came a point where it just stopped spawning in its set, scripted area.
If we take Rebirth and Soma as design direction, a post failure automatic reload is probably just Daniel waking up again, part of a continuous narrative. Rebirth shows why you can keep playing, and in SOMA you are kicked to the main menu... unless the thing that took you out wouldn't kill you, in which case it just continued as if from a auto save.
Actually, the fake monster encounters happen only 2-3 times
If you read the Fricitonal team's blogposts from back in the day, they were explicitly going for that as a goal. They had this idea of horror games being a 'black box' where the player started off not understanding the systems in play, the rules -- and once they did understand them the fear was lost. So one of their explicit goals was never letting the players *really* get confident in learning the rules. Stuff like so many of the monster encounters being fake plays into that very well.
no, that's the developer cheesing the player - YOU'VE been gamed
I personally really like this about Amnesia, and it's something I've come to resent about similar games. The monster in Alien Isolation on a high difficulty is too omnipresent and never gives you a break, at certain points with enough attempts it just feels like bashing your head into a wall and the monster loses all effectiveness as a source of tension and just becomes an annoying obstacle the player has to game around. Most of the time in Amnesia if you die to a monster, the game changes the scenario and lets you progress unimpeded instead of making you become frustrated. I think the Shadow chase towards the end after Daniel gets captured by the gatherer is completely changed if you die in the chase sequence, and most of the gatherers at other points in the game just don't show up if they kill you once or twice. It let's you keep on a reasonable pacing and sense of progression that basically no other games give you.
Mandalore making Halloween videos on late December, our hero.
Nightmare before Christmas, a tradition
I guess Halloween and spooktober is a state of mind
If Christmas is allowed to creep backwards into July, Halloween is allowed to creep forward. Heck, I've been trying to turn April Fools Day into April GHOULS Day for a couple years now.
14:47 pure comedy, the insane line and the robocop theme contrasting what is supposed to be a horribly nightmare scenario.
*mwah* perfect.
lmao
I can't help but think of Murphy being in the game just massacring all of the monsters to deliver justice to Alexander.
I'm imagining Mandy standing there all imposing, delivering his speech to the wobbling mutant, and then collapsing into the Family Guy death pose with a sudden piano sting.
It's his usually deadpan delivery that makes these moments all the better
Hey hey people, Mandalore here
Damn when did Mandalore become an African warlord
"You remind me of bread..."
-Bilbo Baggins
Haven't seen that one before
Today, we will be breaking away from tradition.
Most original comment I’ve ever seen, holy shit you’re clever
Newer horror games have learned all the wrong lessons from Amnesia. What makes a game scary is the feeling of danger, the feeling that something is stalking you and creeping behind you, of never be safe. When a game relies on jumpscares too often, it becomes predictable and not scary.
Indeed. While Amnesia itself was good as it was, its imitators have a lot to answer for. Much like when modern military shooters supplanted the older shooter styles in the triple-A space, the Amnesia style supplanted survival-horror in the gaming space for many years. But after many years, new life has been breathed back into the genre thanks to a resurgence of the older styles, coming back even stronger than before.
Even Frictional kinda embraced this resurgence, since The Bunker itself is not only item-based survival-horror, but the way you USE those items is more imsim-esque, kind of like Prey 2017, Gloomwood and Fear & Hunger. (honestly, there's plenty of room for more survival-horror imsims)
but how are youtubers supposed to soyscream at ambient horror?
So what is your opinion of Lethal Company?
Agreed. Its what makes lethal company so scary is the DANGER. Terrifying monsters rushing at you that will make you dead real quick adds so much to the tension and terror. You never know when a thumpy will rush at you from out of the darkness but when it does you better run!
@@Theonixcolethal company is a comedy game tbh. Anything is funny when you're in a group like that
This game’s a gem, though I still find it funny how Daniel wakes up with amnesia, save for the three things (his name, location, and the date) normally used to confirm a _lack_ of amnesia.
Which is, funnily enough, actually how amnesia tends to work. Both brain injuries and trauma have a very low chance of messing up a person's ability to remember who they are, at least as far as I know. Even something as debilitating as Alzheimers usually doesn't make people forget their identity.
"My name is Daniel, I am in Brennenberg Castle, the year is 1839, and the King of England is . . . wait, no, that sounds . . . wrong, somehow"
Amnesia usually comes with short-term memory loss. Patients usually know their names and locations that they know for a long time. It's not rare to remember what year is currently neither.
just another testament of how fuhking stupid the game is
@@lopa-u9fgottem
Ahhhh what a classic.
Random Byf jumpscare
The Bungie meta text extends here, too? Poor Mandalore, he'll never be free again, will he?
Ahhhh what a world what a world
Good to know that old piece of tech from Marathon still works… 🧐
Oh hi byf
This was my first horror game ever, I was scared shitless . The story itself was so special to me because it was narrated in such a unique way that was totally new to me. It still is my favourite when it comes to horror games.
Its hard to beat
"I also remember playing it was I was young... And not touching the game for couple years after my first encounter with the monster."
-Bilbo Baggins
I was dared to play it by a friend since he knew I wasn't good at horror games and coudn't even get into the first room lol the sounds was enough to make me instantly close it
Every horror game after that must seem not scary now?
@@007megaoof not entirely true but yeah, horror games are now actually one of my favourite genres to play, but everytime something really scary comes up, I just feel nostalgic. It's not that they're not scary anymore it's that they remind me of something else.
As you were talking about the sound design, I started to really get immersed in the video. I was listening to the whirring sounds of distant machinery, a vague sort of sloshing noise of water being poured, and some muffled thumps.
Then I paused the video and realized it was my laundry machine running downstairs!
Weird as it sounds, I'm imagining a washing machine with big beefy legs running down the stairs. Then it stumbles into the wall and shouts "OH MY SHOULDER".
Honestly, it would probably fit into an Earthbound-style RPG. Like maybe it appears in the junkyard area of Omori, and if Kel flexes at it, it sprouts a pair of arms and flexes right back, missing a turn.
The soundscape of Amnesia is really top notch, it's one of the scariest games for me solely because of the atmosphere and deep, unsettling sounds and those awful monster groans, especially the brute!
17:35 Funnily enough, if you play or turn on dev commentary (always wonderful additions to a game), the devs do draw attention at how similar the torture stuff with horror game design is. There's also a fourth "ending" which is when you get locked up, you wait too long and the shadow consumes you.
Sound design is really important for horror I think, though I love good sound and music in general. By the time I played System Shock 2, for instance, it looked janky compared to the BioShock games but dang the sound design was really something else and it managed to be freakier than many more recent games.
Don't look for frogs... 🐸
This game is a classic for a reason. I played it many years after its release, so the hype had died down, and what surprised me was how elegant it actually is. As the video says, it never becomes gory or violent even where it would have every right to be, and it's one of the few games in which dead bodies actually look like dead bodies: not gruesome, just pale, still and eerie. It's also apparent that the story was written by someone who's very cultured, with all the references to the Bible, Prussian history, ancient roman temples etc...
Frictional Games have pretty much always had super interesting and "well-educated" storylines. Competent game company in every aspect pretty much, and I'd say they are the de facto kings and queens of the horror genre.
the Prussian history part is what I find most interesting about it. I already wrote it somewhere else, but this is probably the only game set in Prussia that I know of despite Prussia being one of Europe's major countries & the birthplace of modern Germany. It's cool that Amnesia does it & missed potential that nobody else does.
This carries over to one of the most disturbing things about The Bunker for me.
The bodies in The Bunker look like actual corpses and war gore. It's genuinely really sad and shocking. The way that one man with his face torn off and eye hanging out looks in the officer's quarters looks is so much more revolting than most games want to go.
I remember playing this game with my sister late at night on a weekend. We got to the point just after that iconic bit with the invisible monster in the water. We were so on edge moving through the hallways that when a candle or a cup or something fell off of a table it scared us so bad that i threw the mouse and hit the wall. Our parents were not pleased cause i completely destroyed the cheap mouse we had. Never made it past that point and its a fond memory.
I nearly pulled my boyfriend's entire brand new PlayStation 3 off the shelf playing Dead Space. I had the controller charging while playing and those damn necro fetus things scared me so much my skeleton nearly flew out of my body. I just got up and went right to bed. I know exactly how you felt when that mouse hit the wall! I learned that day that even little baby horror games are things I simply cannot handle. I'll stick to watching other people play them instead.
I used to play Dead Space drunk because I couldn't handle it sober. 😅@@ChristopherSadlowski
@@ChristopherSadlowski dead space 1 scared the shit out of me the first time I played through it, but when dead space 2 came out i was in my peak middle school emo edge lord phase so I really leaned into the horror and I loved it. The little fetus monsters didn't bother me much back then, but when I went through the game again about two years ago while serving on a ship out in Japan the game scared me a lot more 🤣 wasn't until I was an adult did I really understand how fucked up and tragic those little guys were, and the toddler/child sized necromorphs too. The whole trek through the apartments when you can hear people screaming and crying hiding from the necromorphs hits different when you aren't an angry teenager hyped up on monster 🤣
This game made a generation on RUclips
A generation a year or 2 older than me.
@@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714way to put yourself fam. Grow up kid. Bet I could dunk on you.
I've been here since it started. Not well known
I miss the slenderman or the keys stories.
Yeah man that was the shit back when I was in school, goood times @@ncrvako
I still remember my first time playing amnesia. I was in that area before the chemistry puzzle, and the ambience track scared me such much I hid under a staircase for like 10 full minutes.
When I was in college, I was playing the water level of this map, I was breathing heavily and saying, "Oh God" under my breath. It was 1 a.m., and my roommate thought he woke up to hear me spanking the monkey. Had a good laugh, It's my most memorable moment of this game.
What a good video, which I definitely already watched in its entirety despite releasing a minute ago.
Yeah me to I just bended the laws of time
"Yes."
-Bilbo Baggins
Very season appropriate.
lol yea for real, im only 7 minutes in
Are you a frog too?
The atmosphere and tension in Amnesia is, in my opinion, unmatched even today. The fact you never feel truly safe even in the "safe areas". The game always keeps you on edge, never letting you stop and slow down for long but also making sure to punish you if you charge in carelessly. Its a near perfect balance and I love it.
the back hall after the kaernk chase is my favorite part of the game, it's so relieving at first with the music but once you start getting the elevator up and the shadow fills the area it completely changes the atmosphere
That siren was like a white noise standin for panicking. No actual thoughts are getting through that filter, you're solely in instincts mode
As someone who's done 12 separate playthroughs of the game, I can confidently say that it's still scary.
The flooded Archives are still an intense experience, and the Choir - Main Hall is an area is an area I *still* dread going back to. It certainly helps that I've had several nightmares of being hunted/chased by the Gatherers.
Truthfully, this video game is a must-play.
Yes that’s the scariest area in all Amnesia.
First of all thanks for covering this timeless gem! Secondly I (as well as everyone who has played this journey) can't praise enough the ambience work that Tapio Liukkonen conjured up for this game. I had the privilege of attending a lecture from him here in Finland waaaaaaaaaay back where he went through all the processes of making a soundscape that would always....ALWAYS make you feel uneasy. Idea was that there would not be respite anywhere. Whether it was the subtle sound of rats chewing, scraping of nails, cold steps in the snow, the awkward wind during the autumn, shocking siren sounds etc. The amount of samples that this dude recorded for this game is insane but he bloody incorporated everything in to this. What a fucking bloody legend. Hats off an thanks to thee mr. Liukkonen.
The sound design of this game goes wildly underappreciated nowadays. The chase themes are amazing, especially the droning one that sounds like a mounting panic attack put to audio. The castle ambience, the creaking wood and machinery, the soft crackle of the flame in the lantern, it's all so satisfying. Plus there's a neat little behind the scenes video of the sound design dude creating all this stuff in his house. He basically voices the main monster himself.
Shoutout to Tapio Luikkonen!
I remember finding an Amnesia CD in my house right around the same time I started watching letsplays of it. My dad bought it for my mom thinking it was a point and click mystery game. Good times.
Amnesia; The Dark Descent review in almost 2024? Count me in!
Finally got to try this fantastic game for myself fairly recently. Definitely deserved the attention
My favorite Amnesia song is the Suitors chase theme from Justine. It starts with rhythmic knocking on wood and that's possibly the scariest thing I've ever heard
I am SO excited for this video. This game really got me into horror games, to be honest. I had tried some prior but had never been hooked by the concepts or story. The explosion of early commentary RUclipsrs covering this was such a proto-golden era of gaming commentary and we didn't even realize it. Beautiful memories.
Their ability to instill fear and terror into the player or even people simply watching someone else play is amazing. Even watching the clips in this video where he was getting chased were giving me a fear reaction that no other horror game has been able to replicate.
The “100% Black” from the Malkavian mod for Deus Ex caught me off guard 😂😂
Sam A. Mowry's role as Alexander has solidified him as one of my favorite voice actors. Also Anti-Mage.
Holy shit, never connected these two as one voice actor
Thy lifes weight in mana pay.
Fuck. Anti-Mage.
I never played Amnesia. But that siren... Jesus. I can only imagine what it was like as someone's first horror game
Imagine being in that environment when that thing fucking sees you and the next thing you know you can’t hear because it blew out your ear drums
I've never even played the game but the siren is burned into my brain after watching so many Let's Plays back in the day.
@@croisaor2308 Same here, except I have tried to play the game... can't get thru it no matter how hard I try... it's too scary for me even after all these years, all I can do is watch and even then it still can really get to me. I had to pause the video 10 minutes in to take refuge in the comments 😂
I somehow managed to power through this one at like 11 years old or so, man, it scared the ever living shit out of me, loved horror games ever since :')
Minor spoiler
I always like Daniel's reasoning to why he's getting chased by the shadow. That the orb is or is somehow connected to a fundamental law of the universe, and by moving it and breaking it, the universe is now catching up to the changes, and destroying anything in the way to do so. Always found it a very interesting idea
It was just Daniel's theory however and was later debunked in Amnesia: Rebirth where this shadow was explained further and technically encountered again, though if only for a short time. Rebirth in general sheds some light on the Lore and Universe of Amnesia and the strange world Alexander came from originally.
@@StabYourBrain by 'debunked' you mean the hacks who wrote it just couldn't be bothered to remember the lore of TDD. It's one thing to provide another view on a previously established theory and it's another to just completely discard existing lore for the sake of a new story, which is without a question what they did in Rebirth. Orbs were explicitly meant to be more than just the interstellar portal network, only used as such in the same way a caveman would use a supercomputer as a club, and Alexander resorted to it out of desperation. So on, so forth
Alexander didn't come from the other world of Rebirth by the way, he was a passing stranger in there as well, there's a note covering this. Rebirth didn't explain shit. Yes, I'm still mad about it to this day. Good thing Frictional proceeded to make a game with as little story as possible afterwards
@@ExValeFor Finally, someone who sees how flawed Rebirth is.
@@ExValeFor I played Rebirth way after this video, and I actually liked a lot of elements in the story, but yeah, everything relating to the lore and otherworldly horror is absolutely ruined. Overexplained and ineffective
Daniel's teeth grinding when in low sanity is probably the most wince-inducing sound effect in all of gaming.
Not his teeth grinding.
"You think darkness is your ally?" - Bane, Amnesia: The Dark Descent developer
A middle eastern hole prison seems like something from Amnesia, curiously
He's a big guy.
I convinced myself to play this one Halloween. I managed to make it past the invisible water monster but couldn't continue after that...
Excited to see you talk about Oni!
I can’t wait to hear what you have to say about The Bunker, I was so impressed by how far their trademark gameplay style has come over the years
I mixed up their names and thought that's what this video was about at first 😂
But first we have the unfortunate Amnesia: Abortion or whatever the hell it is. Man, what a poor game
@@TheHalogen131 Yeah Rebirth was kinda disappointing. It was the same old song-and-dance, but not only didn't evolve, but also kinda devolved a little.
Still, I'm glad that we have The Bunker as the kind of direction Amnesia SHOULD have gone in.
That symphony of the night music in the background is just perfect, love it. Thanks for the fantastic video!
My chemistry teacher played Daniel, I was baffled to learn he did not get paid nor does he recieve any kind of royalties. Such a small world!
Shoutout to Mr Topping for letting me basically cheese Chemistry during my senior year!
small world! Neat
I always read the orb-related deaths as ones Daniel himself carried out. My speculation was that the monstrous visages of the prowling enemies looked similar to his victims after he was done with them. A Silent Hill "They Look Like Monsters to You?" bit.
This makes sense if you assume that the Shadow isn't actually physical but just something lurking in Daniel's mind that drove him to insanity after touching the orb. Alexander isn't a reliable source so of course he could reinforce any delusions Daniel might have to further his own goals, especially if Daniel's already murderous inclinations could be utilized. The idea starts to fail when you remember that Agrippa or Weyer also apparently encountered the Shadow and give credence to it being a real being with real physicality, which does feasibly explain the supernatural murders of anyone Daniel met with.
I play this game every Christmas. It reminds me of my childhood.
For those wondering, the secret of Amnesia's sanity system that Mandy talks about at 14:25 is that its effects are actually entirely cosmetic. The only mechanical effect it can have on the game is that collapsing at 0 Sanity will alert enemies in the area if there are any. Otherwise, its only impact is making the game's atmosphere spookier, and there is technically no reason to keep your sanity high outside of comfort.
"Childhood trauma is the only thing that brings me joy in life..."
-Bilbo Baggins
My brother in Christ is this an EFAP reference?
@@josephjackson9679 How could it not be? Only members of the Toxic Brood understand the wisdom of Bilbo Baggins.
Good to see a fellow member of toxic brood
@@Amarenamann seeing one in the wild's a rare treat, is all!
@@markokuht I couldn't agree more.
This game taught me a pretty nice lesson about engaging with the media I consume. I didn't enjoy it at all, and it's almost entirely because I refused to let myself be scared. There was always that disconnect of "I'm just playing a video game who cares" that took an unfortunately long time to break down. I very much value immersion nowadays, even if it's still quite rare. Rain World's my favourite for putting me in the shoes of the protagonist.
That is exactly, why so many people back then, 2010, thought Amnesia and other horror games from that period was bad. An awful lot of people commented something along the lines of "it is not scary, just boring"... Yea, those were the same gamers, which praised Skyrim as the best RPG for years, even tho Skyrim has very little RP and was mechanically stripped from everything that made pervious games really good.
A lot of younger gamers from back then and even more so today play games like a problem solving task and not like games. Thus why we get more and more mediocer games where fetchquests make 90% of the whole gameplay loop.
Amnesia was art, but 8 out of 10 players wanted to solve a math equation instead.
The chase sound effect randomly popped into my head last night at work, must have been a premonition
Despite how good "The Bunker" is. I still think TDD is the best Amnesia. It's the game that revolutionized modern horror games and it was long considered the scariest game of all time after it came out. There is no experience other like playing this game for the first time and every aspect of it was executed perfectly.
Man, TobyGames... remember kids, no matter how bad you fell off, you haven't fallen off as hard as Toby Turner.
Which is a real shame
Was his high point being on TV with the annoying orange?
Ya Tobuscus that is a throwback. Last I heard was years back where he surrounded himself with yes men and was crashing hard in his personal life
He didn’t deserve that
that's funny 2 months ago i did a retrospective on this game, and here you are making a review as well. i'm totally with you, despite already knowing this game, i was still on edge. Hearing that chase siren has never left my brain and always terrifies me
Aaaaaah..."Wood Carving Partita" from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, right at the beginning of the video. What an atmosphere. Suits the premises of Amnesia very well.
that siren at 9:41 is an auditory encapsulation of what fight or flight reflex feels like
This game absolutely scared the shit out of me when it first game out but I loved the atmosphere and setting overall. One of my favorites!
The nostalgia is real with this one. I think this was the first horror game many of us were exposed to, a timeless classic in my eyes.
I always had a bit of a grudge against Amnesia because it was the start of the "Run Away" horror genre taking over Survival horror.
It inspired Outlast which went on to further corrupt the world of horror games.
@@Amarenamannoutlast 1 seemed decent but its sequel went way off the rails
Yeah, the prospect of having a protagonist who is utterly emasculated and borderline mentally challenged to the point that they don’t even consider fighting is quite horrible. Not everyone needs to become a full Frank West crafting a double sided chainsaw staff, or the DoomSlayer, but jfc there isn’t a sword in this entire castle?
I’m not gonna lie I’ve always never really liked these kinda games, no matter what I can’t get over how your character doesn’t even attempt to defend themselves, because of that I can’t find enemies scary. It’s just a problem I have though, I can admit they’re good games, most of them at least, just not my cup of tea.
@@clan741 The first game was okay I guess, very overrated tho. And it's negative effects can be seen to this day.
Thank you for including the soundtrack in the credits! That Castlevania track is wonderful
9:00 I swear, it's a gamer natural instinct at this point to touch fire at least once when you come across it in a game to see if it hurts you.
I've beaten this game. I've seen several other people beat this game. So when I picked it up again for a little Halloween spooks not long ago I was expecting nothing more than some tense nostalgia. But I was shocked at just how tense and effective the game still was. Just goes to show how important good design is.
oh SHIT ive got a bag of milky ways
AHHHAAAHA AHHHH
That's actually me in the milky ways clip. What a time to be alive, seeing myself on a mandaloregaming video.
Was just binging your vids while it’s slow here at work, and you drop this???? It truly is a Christmas miracle.
Happy holidays Mando! Can’t wait to see what 2024 bring the channel.
funny, i played this when it came out, didn't know that much english at the time but enough to figure the controls and other basic stuff, but the story? never figured it out til now.
I always thought i was supposed to embody an Igor type character, doing my boss's biding, had quite a lot of fun imagining the vampire c(o)unt going "Igor, fetsch me ze gearz" and me going "Yyyesss masssterrr" and running along and getting scared shitless because the dude left other abominations loose around the castle just to fuck with, watching me as he pops open a cold one and eats some chips while laughing
just discovered this channel and man i love hearing your reviews
As an algerian, yeah, eldritch horrors are everywhere and Amnesia is just a tuesday in Ain Taya
whatever you do don't touch the rocks, worst mistake of my life
That Oni clip at the end has me so excited!
Just when I needed a spooky review ❤
So nostaglic to watch this. Brought me back and it makes me happy that I can look back at A:DS with such fondness. Holds up!
Oh cool we are closing in one the best piece of horror ART ever made. Soma.
23:44 DEADLY PREMONITIONS MENTIONED RAAAHHH
One part of Amnesia’s sound design that always sticks with me is the Terror Meter, that loud rasping siren that plays when the monsters have found you. I don’t know why, but it horrified me back in the day. I kinda thought the monsters were making that noise, like the pod people screeching, just the sound of cold alien malevolence.
Mandy kinda talked about it ;p
Throwing this one out there in hopes Mandalore will review it one day: "Harvester".
I’ve always loved Amneisa’s story and characters. Fantastic writing that really elevates it above just being a spooky movie.
It feels very much like book writing in video game form
Brother, I literally cheered when I saw an Amnesia video by Mandalore
I've been waiting for this for so long
The only horror game that has made me actually quit for months and come back because no other game has made me feel that level of terror before
If one could buy P.T. again, you would quit forever. But yeah, Amnesia was my first and only proper horror game, and first time I saw monster in Winery, I was so scared I quit the game for the day. The Alexander painting is what really upsets me. I just can't look at it everytime I play the game.
???????????????????????????????
Thanks for another awesome video for Christmas Mandy!
I just played trough the collection recently, and i was surprised at how good the first game is. I mean, its a classic for a reason but i genuinely didnt expect whats basically a spooky walking simulator to captivate (and scare the hell out of) me to such an extent. Definitely one of my favorite horror games
Yeah, Amnesia is one of the only times where a horror game with no combat genuinely worked IMO. The game has actual mechanics that give you plenty to do even though you can't fight the baddies, so you're not just walking around bored and waiting for jump scares. Mandalore was dead on at 23:41 when he compared Amnesia to Halo: two great games that have a bad reputation in some circles because game developers learned all the wrong lessons from them.
Man this is the best Christmas gift Mandalore! Madness and nightmares and perfect for the Holidays!
I know it probably won't be any time soon, but still excited for a future SOMA video. Best Frictional game for me.
I enjoyed my time with Dark Descent more. The Bunker is a better game-as-game. But SOMA is the only one that still has me wake up asking "Why'd I put my hand in there? Am I really that kind of person?"
Oof, SOMA is something else. Its ending and themes are still randomly haunting my thoughts.
Fun fact, there is one monster you can kill (which ironically is considered one of the scariest in the game): the Kaernk. It’s a monster that is invisible, but it makes loud splashes on the water when it moves, and it only can harm you or find you when you’re in the water. You only need to get out of the water and hit it with a box over and over until a small pool of blood appears on the water.
"Oh my jesus. What in the christ are you doing, Shepard? You know it's dangerous to play Amnesia at night."
RIP Kitty0706
Can I just say I really appreciate that you took a balanced middle ground in your descriptions of both Alexander and Daniel? I've been in the fandom forever and usually the opinion is either "Daniel is a selfish spoiled brat with a victim complex" or "Alexander is a complete monster and nothing excuses the shit he's done". It's refreshing to hear a gentler opinion of both of them for a change.
This is JUST the pick-me-up I needed on a shitty cold day.
Thanks Mandy.
🐸
Back in the day I resolved to complete the game despite being very scared of it and horror games in general. Something in this one drew me in, and I was intrigued by the story - that was before I knew about Lovecraft, in my younger years. And afterwards I felt immense relief and accomplishment when I finally beat it. It kinda "fixed" horror games for me and I can now enjoy them, so I will always respect Amnesia for it. Furthermore, this is where I started to appreciate and notice sound design and music and how important they can be to an experience. Nice review.
Barrels!!
I clearly heard the Akira ding reading this.
*Chests!!!*
Rest in peace Sam Mowry, voice of Alexander.
The amnesia is really the only horror game i think did it right. The atmosphere and the dread has amazingly good balance
This was one of the most anticipated videos I had been waiting for. Thank you for taking the time with these games! Great video and essay, as always. I hope you have some wonderful Christmas Holidays!
Got me in the Christmas spirit with this one
LOVE the Deadly Premonition music in the conclusions, wonderful punctuation LOL
Nearly everything about Amnesia TDD is so well executed that I can't help but compare every horror game I play to it.
0:55 Shake-zula, the mic rula, the old schoola.
9:20 "THE TIGER IS IN PRESUIT"
Funny thing, the voice actor for your player character was/is a chemistry teacher at my High School. That was quite the revelation to me.
Loved this game. Hoping for a SOMA video at some point in the future!
I love this review, I think you captured exactly what this game is about, the sanity mechanics, how it tells you not to look at monsters, the absurdity of dark areas that you can't even see, how to horror in this game keeps you on edge and tense throughout the whole campaign, really great
Great video. Fantastic to see this game again, it truely was revolutionary for it's time.
what's that music at 14:48? it scratches my brain really hard and I can't put my thumb on it.
Its robocop :P
The outro song... Deadly Premoniton video teaser? 😊
2010 youtube went wild for this game
Yes.
"That's factually true."
-Bilbo Baggins
The _"You'll never truly catch me, mutant! I've already shit myself to death!"_ fucking killed me.