Game: Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Platform: PC (digital download on Steam, Impulse, Gamersgate)

Publisher: Frictional Games

Developer: Frictional Games

ESRB: M

Genre: Horror

Players: 1

What's Hot: Some of the scariest horror gameplay you've ever survived; only 20 bucks

What's Not: A hurl-inducing insanity effect

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Review by: Neilie Johnson

Swedish game developer Frictional Games first made our spines tingle in 2007 with its first survival- horror offering, Penumbra: Overture. Building on the success of that title, the companys latest title, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, once again asks us to willingly enter the darkness.

In Amnesia, you take on the role of a young man named Daniel and wake to find yourself on the floor of a deserted, ruinous castle. Not knowing how you got there (or much else, for that matter), you set out to escape the castle's spooky, echoing rooms, quickly realizing that in the dark that there are many opportunities for danger to overtake you. The main thrust of Amnesia's gameplay is navigating through this impenetrable blackness, which depending on the situation, serves as friend or foe.

Spending too much time in the dark increases your insanity, so as you move through the castle, it's key for you to find tinder boxes and oil for your lamp in order to light the way. The problem is, if you light your way too well, you risk exposing yourself to some very serious danger. Much as you'd like to believe it, the creaking doors, painful groans and distant thumpings you hear aren't just the castle settlingthey represent the presence of terrifying creatures that if encountered, will...let's say...do something unpleasant. You have no way to defend yourself against these things so when they appear, all you can do is run away and cower in the darkest corner you can find.

Through very simple meansdarkness and sound effectsAmnesia creates a tension that never lets up. Moving slowly through the pitch-darkness, dogged by the ever-present threat of bodily harm, straining your ears to hear, you find yourself holding your breath. Jumping at a sudden gust of wind or a rock fall, your body goes rigid until you can once again savor those moments of relative safety and light. Touching seemingly harmless objects, you suddenly see memories and ghostly visions that bathe you in fear and horror. Your path takes you through chaotic drawing rooms, storage areas and laboratories, and wherever you go you find scraps of paper and clues that tell of an ancient evil, a local nobleman's connection to it and your part in his dark conspiracy.

Without doubt, Amnesia offers one of the most fear-inducing, sensory-rich gaming experiences seen in some time. Cleverly hiding some fairly pedestrian graphics in darkness-dependent gameplay, the game makes incredible use of sound effects. (Note: if you don't play Amnesia in a darkened room with headphones on, you're doing yourself a real disservice.) The silence is oppressive, broken only by the wind, by weird, inexplicable moaning and by the sound of your own footsteps. The music too is simple but menacingly effective, sounding like an out of tune organ played by one of Satan's minions.

The only somewhat negative aspect to the game is its questionable insanity effect. If you've been in the dark too long, everything goes blurry and the camera starts heaving back and forth like a ship at sea. And heaving is the apt word here, since if this happens and you're unable to find either a light source or a way of making one, you just might lose your lunch.

In any case, Amnesia: The Dark Descent is an unforgettable survival/horror experience, one that should not be missed. With an appropriately eerie setting, an interesting story, multiple endings and some extremely shrewd sound design, it'll grab hold of you and won't let go until at least one of its surprising conclusions.

Neilie Johnson is a regular contributor to GameShark , as well as Atomicgamer.com and IGN and is an associate editor of the new GameFan Magazine.

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