Amnesia: The Dark Descent

It's hard to type - I'm still loaded with adrenaline from escaping the Storage.

Amnesia had two modes - walking around terrified, and running for dear life. Most of the time, you're walking around terrified.

It's the sound that gets you - it's the sounds of a living castle locked in a nightmare. You hold onto your lantern just to keep yourself from descending into madness - literally, in the case of your character.

As I mentioned, I just escaped from the Storage room, carrying the two rods. I reckon it was the explosion that set the two zombie- actually, no. Those... things aren't zombies. Zombies are slow moving, groaning mindless undead that you can easily dispatch. I don't even want to think about whatever the hell those things are, but they are certainly not zombies.

So, I decided to sit down and write about one of the only times (so far) the second mode Amnesia shines through. I'll describe my thoughts as they happened in that 45 second long sprint for survival. [Anything in quotation marks are things I've said, anything in asterisks are sounds from the game, and anything in square brackets are comments.]

Ok, got the two rods-*GOOOOOOORRRRRRAAAAGH*

Oh great. Monster time. You know what? Let's check the walkthrough.
[blah blah blah]
Ok then - keep stealthy, monster unpredictable. Fine.

[I sing to myself to calm myself down during this game. Sometimes it makes things worse. What? Don't look at me like that.
This is almost what was sung, I might have messed a word or two up.]

"Dooown the hall-way I go,
trying to forget about the noise,
oh god, there he is, thank god he hasn't seen me,
now I sneak, sneak, sneak down the staaaaair-case."

Great, he's dissapeared into the darkness. Now I can-*sound of my boot stepping on something loud*
Awwwwww.
*zombie grunts and turns around* Oh no.
*SSSSSSSSSSSISSSSSSSSSSHISSSSSSSSSSSSSIHSSSSSSSSSS* [Imagine the sound of sharp, rusty nails down a chalkboard. Now amplify that sound and it's roughly what you hear. You fear this sound. It's the 'you're probably going to die' sound].

SHIT it saw me! Aaaaaaah runrunrunrunrunRUN!
DAMN IT! It's behind me! I can hear it! NO! Can't look behind me, can't look behind me...
Around this corner, yes! Main roo-OH FUCK THERE'S ANOTHER ONE! "AAAAAAAAAAAAH!" RUUUUUUUUUUUN
*SSSSSSSSSSSSSSISSSSSSSSSSSSIHSSSSSHISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS*
THE DOOR! CLICK THE DOOOOR!
[click door, transitions into the 'back hall' area. Saftey - no monsters here.].
*SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSIHSSSSSSSSsssssssssisssssssshisss...*

At that point, I'm shaking too much to even hold down the W key. I hit escape and lean forward, my elbows planted on the table and I thought I heard a quite "yessssss" sound coming from between my teeth.

I lean back up in the chair and hold out my arm - it's damn near vibrating. So, I stand up, walk around a little bit, then decide to sit down and write about it.

I'm not yet ready to give a review for Amnesia: The Dark Descent; I want to finish it first. But if you like the sort of games that really screw with your head and terrify you as a psychological level way before they terrify you with anything on the screen, Frictional Games is your developer, and Amnesia is your game.