Amnesia: The Dark Descent

PogMoThoin

From Frictional Games, the makers of Penumbra, I'm a fan of the survival horror genre, Penumbra Black Plague would be in my top 5 games, and this has kept to the original very basic creepy format. There's no weapons, its best to run and hide in the dark

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bo053hjMkcs

Review here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYeCwtksTgU

Anyone else getting this? Its out on the 8th

Its only €11.99 on preorder, there's also a demo
http://store.steampowered.com/app/57300/

cherryghost

I liked the original Penumbra games. My only gripe was that the originals didn't make use of the lighting as much as they should of, it kinda drained the atmosphere a bit IMO.

However, judging by the trailers there, thats next on my list of games to buy :pac:

gizmo

This looks pretty bloody awesome, definitely going to be picking this one up.

PogMoThoin

Try the demo, the graphics aren't that far advanced from where they were, maybe its cos I'm playing it at 1920x1200 when it might be better play it at a lower res in a window. Atmosphere is the same as the others, really freaky.

I started the demo and quit after 10 mins, gonna wait to play the full game and not spoil it, definitely buying

Zero-Cool

I never played the penumbra (sp) games. I wanted to but figured they would be old and out of date. Definitely want to play this though!

wayne040576

Meant to post a new thread about this. Preordered it months ago.Been looking forward to it. I think it was delayed for a bit, fairly sure it was due around 15 August.

I got the first Penumbra game when it first came out. They were one of the few pc devs who were supporting Linux. I remember they had planned it to be a trilogy but after Overture, they ran into a lot of problems with the publisher and afterwards decided to finish the story with Black Plague, releasing the requiem as expansion. I lost track of the development of black plague and when I finally played it I didn't know how it would continue the story. There was one bit at the start when you first come across the enemies that scared the bejesus out of me.

I never finished Requiem because I think it lost a lot of the atmosphere of the other two.

Naikon

Played the demo. Really, really creepy. The water part is very intense, but that is to be expected from this awesome swedish developers. Most importantly, they also bothered their arses to make a Linux version, so this is an instant purchase for me.
Regarding graphics, they are a small team of around 10 developers at most, you can't expect the graphics to be at the same level of Crysis. The graphics surpass Penumbra imo, and are very, very nice. Nothing wrong graphically when you consider
the size of the company. Very impressive that an indie studio can pull off such a great game:pac:

Linux version ftw

Dcully

Looks scary as fcuk alright

Fnz

Playing through Penumbra: Black Plague at the moment (at night, wearing headphones, no lights on). It's my entry to the series and the only one you need to play, I hear.

It's the most scared I've been while playing a game. Shame I don't have the Novint Falcon version... or a Novint Falcon.

wayne040576

Fnz wrote: »

Playing through Penumbra: Black Plague at the moment (at night, wearing headphones, no lights on). It's my entry to the series and the only one you need to play, I hear.

It's the most scared I've been while playing a game. Shame I don't have the Novint Falcon version... or a Novint Falcon.

I think you really need to play overture first. It's the first part of the story and black plague picks up almost Immediately from where it ends.

Agricola

Heard about this on a podcast recently. It looks really nerve jangling alright. Think it would freak me out too much, Id end up not finishing it!

Fnz

wayne040576 wrote: »

I think you really need to play overture first. It's the first part of the story and black plague picks up almost Immediately from where it ends.

Dunno, why would people say the first one is worth skipping? What about the prequel is worse?

Maximilian

Played the demo earlier after Pog told me about it - bloody hell it's scary. Haven't played anything that frightening since the Shalebridge Cradle. It's only 11.99 on Steam if you pre-order too which makes buying this a complete no-brainer.

I bought the Penumbra series in a steam sale a while back and only got around to playing the first one this evening, and ended up playing it almost the whole way through.

wayne040576

Fnz wrote: »

Dunno, why would people say the first one is worth skipping? What about the prequel is worse?

I dunno why people always tell others to skip Overture. I thought it was just as good. In fact the opening levels are great. I didn't even know what the enemies looked like for ages (different from black plague) because i would run and hide when I heard the growling.

grizzly

I'll probably pick this up, looks interesting. Good price too.

pixelburp

Downloaded the demo, but waiting for the right evening when there's no one else in the flat and I can play in the dark, with the volume right up. It's a long long time since I was scared by a movie or game, so I eagerly await playing this in the right mood & atmosphere

cherryghost

Awesome demo. Can't wait for the full game

TwoShedsJackson

Played and finished the demo (only takes about 30 mins), ordered the full game immediately. Great fun

Gonzovision

Installing now. Anyone get the full game?

TwoShedsJackson

gonzovision wrote: »

Installing now. Anyone get the full game?

Just playing it now, quality stuff so far, only about an hour into it.

Fnz

Bought a copy but it will have to wait until I'm done with Black Plague.

Was happy to see the game, at least, made it to the top of the Steam chart - knocking the, err... juggernaut that is "Mafia II DLC: Jimmy's Vendetta", from it's lofty perch.

Sandvich

I watched a stream of one of the Penumbra games last night(Overture), it was such a joke. Just reading stuff, plowing around in the dark, and dogs appearing out of nowhere.

I think it's too easy to convince people you've made an artistic game just because you don't shoot guns in it.

Games already offer a simplistic set of things you can do compared to real life; they get by, by including things in that set that you normally can't or wouldn't do in real life.

Games like the Penumbra series just seem "Limited" rather than innovative.

Gonzovision

Maybe you should play the game instead of watching a stream to form a proper opinion on it.


Amnesia is awesome. Scariest game I've played in years. And why does the water section still scare the crap out of me?

Maximilian

Sandvich wrote: »

I watched a stream of one of the Penumbra games last night(Overture), it was such a joke. Just reading stuff, plowing around in the dark, and dogs appearing out of nowhere.

I think it's too easy to convince people you've made an artistic game just because you don't shoot guns in it.

Games already offer a simplistic set of things you can do compared to real life; they get by, by including things in that set that you normally can't or wouldn't do in real life.

Games like the Penumbra series just seem "Limited" rather than innovative.

That's just a load of arse (or successful troll is successful). I just finished the second Penumbra game earlier this evening, the first one two nights ago and both were excellent. You don't know what you're talking about if you're just judging it on a 'stream'.

Anyway, Amnesia is bloody excellent. I haven't been this creeped out by a game (in a really enjoyable way) in years. I really hope this sells well, as I'd love to see more of this from these guys. It's games like this that the PC used to be all about. Anyone who liked the Thief games will just love it.

OctavarIan

Sandvich wrote: »

I think it's too easy to convince people you've made an artistic game just because you don't shoot guns in it.

Link me to a source where the developers state they were trying to make a piece of art.

Sandvich

OctavarIan wrote: »

Link me to a source where the developers state they were trying to make a piece of art.

That has to be one of dumbest posts I've read on game development in a long time.

Also, people are hilariously quick to defend it too, or rather to attack me instead of providing any reasons why they are quality games.

grizzly

Dumbest post? Really? I thought it was a valid point... it's not sold as an art game. I've heard words like survival horror, immersive and fcuking scary, but not art.

Fnz

Sandvich wrote: »

That has to be one of dumbest posts I've read on game development in a long time.

Also, people are hilariously quick to defend it too, or rather to attack me instead of providing any reasons why they are quality games.

Yep, it's everyone else who's spouting nonsense... after all, you did watch some footage from the game before soundly trashing it. :P

Maximilian

Sandvich wrote: »

That has to be one of dumbest posts I've read on game development in a long time.

Also, people are hilariously quick to defend it too, or rather to attack me instead of providing any reasons why they are quality games.

The irony. Tell you what - how about you actually play the games before passing judgement on them or those that have. Or write stupid posts.

Sandvich

grizzly wrote: »

Dumbest post? Really? I thought it was a valid point... it's not sold as an art game. I've heard words like survival horror, immersive and fcuking scary, but not art.

"art" is not such a narrow term. Anything that excels well enough in a creative field can be considered a work of art. There are very few "art" games in the vein you're thinking of, but that doesn't mean there aren't hundreds that try to be pretentious on an artistic level.

Gonzovision

You're the only one mentioning art! ffs. People have commented on the merits of the game already and no one has mentioned art.

wayne040576

I've played roughly 3 hours of the game (I think). Currenlty trying to get the elevator working. The water section scared the bejebus out of me. I paniced and tried to open a door the wrong way .

Then

I really paniced when I realised I needed a lock pick for one of the doors

Has anyone noticed that when you die, it doesn't reload a save? You lose any items you used prior to dying but you also retain some progress. The manual states that everytime you die the world changes in some way. ???

TwoShedsJackson

wayne040576 wrote: »

Has anyone noticed that when you die, it doesn't reload a save? You lose any items you used prior to dying but you also retain some progress. The manual states that everytime you die the world changes in some way. ???

All that amounts to, from what I can see, is that if you get killed by the same zombie-thing a few times, it removes it, or puts it somewhere else so you can continue.

Open to correction here, but I haven't noticed anything else changing.

wayne040576

TwoShedsJackson wrote: »

All that amounts to, from what I can see, is that if you get killed by the same zombie-thing a few times, it removes it, or puts it somewhere else so you can continue.

Open to correction here, but I haven't noticed anything else changing.

You're probably right. Although I did see somebody on the frictional forum claiming that a door became permanently locked after dying.

TwoShedsJackson

Finished it last night, very enjoyable and definitely had some spooky-as-fu<k moments. Fizzled out a little towards the end, but most games do. The writers were rather better at setting up the plot then they were at answering the questions raised.

Still, a solid 8, well worth €12. Took me about 10 hours to finish it, although I took a fairly leisurely pace.

Naikon

I am in the control room at the moment. Really great game, I should buy it again just to say thanks for the devs for an awesome game running natively under my os of choice. Frictional games comes across as very professional for such a small company.

wayne040576

Finished it last night. Great game but it does drop a bit at the end. A few times I didn't bother running from the monsters if they saw me because it was quicker to die and just reload.

I'm not sure if there is a way to make the player want to avoid getting killed in a game like this other than wanting to keep up the tension. The mind games and atmosphere were scarier.

Did anyone trigger the scene in the

Transcept?, if your sanity is low enough the picture at the top of the spiral staircase changes if you look away and look back.

I saw the good and the bad endings. Didn't have time to try the 'revenge' ending.

With each of the 3 endings in the game you get a password. If you combine all 3 you can use them to unlock the supersecret.rar file in the game's install folder. It contains artwork and early videos.

briany

I played a bit of it last week and it's quite good but I'll add a couple of minor criticisms and praises.

It has physics puzzles. I like games that force you to improvise to a certain extent. Now usually the puzzles will be set up in a way that they makers know roughly what the finished result should look like but there's still a great feeling of accomplishment in building a rudimentary walkway to a higher area or something like that.

It's scary. Quite scary, and the sense of place is well developed. There's enough noise and creaks to keep you on edge at pretty much all times. It's pretty much why I can only play games like these in pretty short bursts because they can become pretty stressful in a hurry. Especially if played as directed. Yeesh.

However, the insanity mechanic really bugs me. It comes on far too quickly and takes far too long to fully shake the effects of it. The way he becomes a gibbering wreck after thirty seconds crouched in a corner could potentially negate the stealthy benefits that space provides, providing that there's a baddie nearby.

I don't like the feeling of being totally helpless. I think that there is a balance in these types of games that can be struck between being armed to the teeth and running for your life every time. Being helpless can work but only with reasonable periods of respite to focus on more puzzle oriented gameplay, but a moment later in the game where you can take the fight to 'em would be oh so satisfying.

shadowcomplex

where would be the best place to order this game?

Magill

Sandvich wrote: »

"art" is not such a narrow term. Anything that excels well enough in a creative field can be considered a work of art. There are very few "art" games in the vein you're thinking of, but that doesn't mean there aren't hundreds that try to be pretentious on an artistic level.

HAHA, i love how you skip over everyones comments about how you've based your opinion on a video of the game !!! LOL. Games are ment to be played, not watched.



I need to get this game... looks intense as ****.

Cravez

shadowcomplex wrote: »

where would be the best place to order this game?

I'v only really seen it on Steam. It's currently €14.99. It's a very good game, one of the few games iv ever played that has genuinely scared the crap out of me