Looking for a creepy, elegant thriller? Look no further!

Before
playing Amber: Journeys Beyond, I would not have thought it possible for
anything on my PC to actually scare me.

Lots of adventure games take place
in haunted houses, museums, mansions, etc. Superficially, perhaps, Amber might
sound like just another one of those.

Roxy’s
in Trouble

Here’s the not-exactly revolutionary setup: Your over-eager
paranormal researcher friend Roxy has been exploring a haunted house and needs
your urgent help. You drive to the house … and a ghost suddenly appears in the
middle of the road causing you to drive into a lake.

After making it out
of your car it’s time to … dum dum dum … go … into … the house!

Not at All the Same Old Thing

Believe you me, at this point
you very quickly realize that Amber is not your average haunted house game.

What
makes the difference? First of all, instead of cheesy “scary music”
a la Shivers, Amber bravely foregoes any traditional soundtrack at all.
The only sounds you hear are “real life” sounds. Therefore, entering
this silent, dark house that you know good and well is haunted is literally
a hair-raising experience. Each footstep on the wooden stairs, each creak of an
opening door or slide of a drawer, each chirp of a cricket, makes the hair on
the back of your neck stand up.

Putting
it Together

Your first task is to get Roxy’s ghost-hunting equipment
working, and this involves an entertaining series of challenges. Clues exist around
the house, especially in Roxy’s office. Once you are technologically operational,
things get even scarier, because your special devices are able to amplify and
record spectral sights and sounds. This entire prologue to the game was truly
scary, and I frequently laughed at myself for getting so scared.

Once Roxy’s
Amber device is working, it’s time to experience three different ghosts
that haunt the house and the surrounding property. These three stories comprise
the meat of the game.

Putting
Them Together

Each ghost story is unique, and each has a distinctive
graphic style, down to the framing of the view window. Each is sad and creepy
and has interesting problems to solve. Your overall goal is to help the spirits
come to grips with a difficult truth about their own deaths. In fact, one major
puzzle involving rescuing a teddy bear is one of the most absorbing and satisfying
projects I’ve ever worked on in an adventure game.

The
three stories are quite sad, and they deal with difficult subjects such as suicide,
murder, perversion and drowning, but for some reason this is not a depressing
game to play.

Some have complained that Amber is too short, and that
criticism may be valid. But I suspect that no matter how long it was, I would
not have wanted this beautiful, scary, and elegant game to end.

Amber
is the first game that actually felt like I was exploring the haunted house
myself.

Conclusion

Amber has beautiful graphics and an elegant,
uniquely chilling atmosphere. However, it is short and may be too grim for some
players. That being said, this one is a must-play for those in need of an elegant
scare!

Final grade: A-

If you liked Amber:
Watch: The Haunting (1963)
Read: The Legend of Hell
House by Richard Matheson
Play: Morpheus

System
Requirements: Windows 95
486DX2/66
8 MB
RAM
High-color (16-bit) video card
45 MB of free hard disk space
4X
CD-ROM drive
Sound card