I
eagerly start to play Amnesia, one of the most horrifying games
in recent years according to most media. The loading screen really
lives up to this expectation. The game suggests you turn off the lights
and use headphones to play. This is definitely a great suggestion!

Based on my experiences playing ‘horror’ based games,
there are 2 different types of games out there: those that put emphasis
on action (such as Resident
Evil and the Silent
Hill series) and those that put emphasis on atmosphere (such
as the Last
Half of Darkness series, Dark
Fall and Scratches).
The first group usually has few puzzles – most of which involve
pulling levers and finding keys – and forces you into a killing
spree in order to survive, which is why they’re called horror survival
games. The other group has lots of difficult puzzles and most likely,
you do not have to kill anything in order to finish the game. Now
in which group does Amnesia belong?

You
play as Daniel, who wakes up with amnesia on the floor of the big
empty Castle Brennenburg. The first note he finds suggests that he
kill Alexander, the master of the house. Who is Alexander, why did
Daniel wake up alone and how can Daniel escape the castle? These are
questions you’ll need to answer throughout the game.

Amnesia uses a first-person perspective and a combination
of mouse and keyboard to control the action of the main character.
For example, to open the door you need to click the mouse on the door
handle, hold it and move it backward with your mouse. Sound tedious?
At first, I felt the same. But I guess it adds realism to the control.
The same applies when you want to stack boxes or throw things.

Since
it is a horror game, most of the environments are dark. You need a
light source such as a lantern or candle to be able to see much of
the time. The lantern is the only light source that you can take with
you while you’re exploring the house. So if you miss it at the beginning
of the game, you’re screwed. To make it more difficult you need
oil to light your lantern. Oil is fairly scarce, so don’t waste
it. The other light sources are candles and torches in several places
that you can light using tinderboxes. Use these sparingly as well;
you will run out.

There is an extra feature that you will need to worry about: your
sanity level. The sanity level will degrade when Daniel stays in the
dark too long. When it’s low, Daniel’s vision becomes blurry and shaky;
this makes it difficult to see clearly. If it reaches zero then Daniel
will go insane, or GAME OVER. You can stay in the light to keep your
mental focus, but again, light sources are limited. So this is an
interesting part of the game and it’s totally dynamic. Either
you keep your wits by staying in the light all the time and using
those limited light resources to the max, or hide from your enemies
in the dark and risk your sanity.

As
in other horror games, there are monsters throughout the game. The
worst part is you CAN’T KILL them. You cannot find any weapons
or anything else that can be used to kill these monsters. The only
thing you can do is hide or run away whenever you hear those strange
scary noises. This makes the game extremely difficult at times. You
can use any open closet, cabinet or anything that has an opening to
hide.

You’ll find notes in the game that will reveal the story little by
little. Most of the time they will bring flashback videos that will
explain various incidents. As far as I know, there are only 3-5 puzzles
in the entire game that are close to being adventure game-style puzzles.
Most of the others are simply pulling levers, breaking walls, finding
keys and stacking boxes to reach a way out. I don’t think we
consider those things puzzles, do we? Luckily, the answers to all
of the ‘puzzles’ lie in close proximity to the problems,
so you don’t need to backtrack all the way to the beginning
just to try to find a key to open a door near the end. Just look around
closely and most of the time you will find the solution nearby.

The
sound is where the game shines! The eerie sound, echoing footsteps,
the wind gusts and several other sound FX really gave me the creeps
while playing the game. Believe me, I’m not the kind of person
who gets scared easily by watching or playing games. But this game
is totally different. You don’t need tons of blood to scare
you; just the perfect sound, environment and atmosphere will give
you the chills.

So finally, how do I rate this game? Hmmmm…this is a tough
one to grade. From the perspective of an adventure game purist, I
would give it no more than a “C.” Not because it’s a bad
game but simply because there are not enough elements to categorize
it as a real adventure game. It plays more like an action game without
a gun or other killing tools, and even with the absence of such tools,
the game is way too short.

Amnesia
heavily depends on your ability to use your keyboard and mouse to
manipulate objects, either to pull, throw or stack them, and on your
agility in jumping, ducking and running. These are the main skills
for an action game, whereas in adventure games you depend mostly on
your ability to solve puzzles with your brain without worrying about
being killed by monsters or how skillfully you’ll be able to jump
between boxes. Really, one of the main reasons I stick with playing
adventure games is that my mouse/keyboard skills are not among my
strongest assets.

But objectively, I think this is a really good game that deserves
at least a B+. Not many games can play with your emotions as skillfully
as this one. The sense of something watching every move you make along
with not knowing what will happen to you adds value to the gameplay.

It’s too bad the good old point-and-click system cannot handle
everything within this game.

System Requirements:

• OS: Windows XP/Vista/7
• Processor: 2.0Ghz
• 2 GB RAM
• Memory: 2048MB
• Disc Space: 3GB
• Video Card: Radeon X1000/GeForce 6

Supported languages:
     • English, Deutsch, Español, Francais,
Italiano