as a gamer, i personaly play for a lot of reason like releasing some inner beast, being a psychophat, or simply to feel some great experience. its an addictive form of art to me, whether its visually or emotionally. there's just a game that just suck you in like a desperate 2$ hot prostitute, i can't just deny the fun on it. most of the game this day will be great and fun if you want to play more and more until you die in an addiction with a mouth full of foam (example: WOW or COD). but there's a game that somehow break that rule, a game that you dont wanna play but it keeps dragging and challenges you to finish it.
enter amnesia: the dark descent, an adventure survival horror game created by an indie developer called frictional games whose only previous title is a cult favorite, penumbra series. both of this game will scare you like a cockroach in front of pesticide can, yet it will challenge your manhood (or girlhood if you are one brave girl) to keep playing it so you know you are not a coward.
the game is about Daniel, a man who woke up in a creepy dark castle alone and he had, well you guessed it, amnesia and can't remember things or two about his past. yeah, yeah, i know amnesia is as common as sunrise in video game plot line but its quite working here so just enjoy it. he wanders around the castle and find a notes from himself in the past that told him to kill a man called Alexander Brennenburg. the note told him that he prefer to forget about what happens so he could go on without a burden to finish his goal. from this point you wander and wander then solve some basic puzzle before getting butchered by "what the F is that" things that hunt you down in the castle.
the story is actually quite interesting and makes you wonder about why he choose to forget about what happened, why did alexander had to be killed, or simply what the hell just chase me back there. there's no cut scene to tell you what happened in the game. maybe its due to the developer limitation so all the story in the game is told by either an audio flashback or a note in game. it had similar feeling like the first time i played resident evil in the psx when you find out about the horror that happens, limited but still get the job done to surprise you.
horror game in this day this, say deadspace or fatal frame, is quite scary but because you had a number of weapons in your pocket you will always feel quite safe, for most part of course . while in amnesia, they stay true to what survival is, being hopeles in the search to survive, that was real survival just like humanity now. the hopelessness of your character will drive your instinct to do whatever you need to survive, even if it was a realy stupid idea that get you killed. you had to run or hide whenever you meet with the monster, there's now way you could kill the monster and that was just downright scary.
one thing that makes this game unique is the inclusion of the sanity meter. the sanity meter will keep dropping if you witness anything scary or stay too long in the dark and makes your day even worse in the castle. you need a source of light from the candle and lantern to keep your sanity in check but the light will make the monster easier to spot you and make you one of his dessert for the dinner. it force you to make a choice whether going crazy in the dark or getting slain by the monster. the lower your sanity is, the harder the game became. daniel will be harder to control and he will see halucination and hear strange voice. as unique as it sounds like, for me it doesn't changes much of the game. most of the changes caused by the sanity meter going low is just a cosmetic like a confusing camera effect and it doesn't affect much of the survival factor.
the star of this game is absolutely the atmosphere of the castle where you will always be scared even if theres nothing to scare you. the atmophere did a great job in making you always be in fear even the sound of your cellphone ring will scare the living soul out of you when you played this game (this happen to me). there's just something uneasy about the stone castle combined with darkness and unexplained voice that came from nowhere.
in conclusion, this game had a great moment and its a very memorable experience, one scary great memorable experience to be precise. there's a moment that will makes you scared to put your foot in the water ever again, there's a disturbing voice and imagery that will haunt your dream, and of course the overall experience will haunt you for a long time. you should play this game in the dark with a headphone to fell the maximum experienc. oh, and dont forgot to stock some pants because you will Sh*t your pants for sure.
No comments:
Post a Comment