An Indie Game for Fans of Horror

Emily's presentation was great. I love that she showed some of my favorite games (Dear Esther/Bioshock) and talked about how they really are visually stunning. I really liked her comment about Dear Esther, one of the best games I've ever payed, on how it's like a short film. That is exactly what I was thinking the entire time I was playing it. The story is beyond amazing, and the ambience is not only stunning but also engaging. It is truly like being in an interactive film. Bioshock is the same way, although darker and grittier.

Availble through Steam
PC/MAC only

I would just like to add my favorite Indie Game of all time to Emily's already very amazing list: Amnesia: The Dark Descent. I woud definitely say it's the scariest game I've ever played. Scarier than Bioshock, and even scarier than the Slenderman games. I only worked up the courage to buy it over the summer when Steam was having a really good sale on it's games. So I bought it, and did just as the game recommended: I turned off the lights, put headphones in, and hit play.

And I lasted 20 minutes before I was too scared to continue. 20 minutes. The game is absolutely psychologically horrifying. The basis is simple, you wake up in the scariest damn castle in the world without any memory or backstory at all. Unless you research the game before playing, you know nothing except that you, Daniel, have woken up here, in this nightmare of a manor.

From the second  you start playing, the game starts messing with your mind. You have two stats to maintain: Your health, and your sanity. You lose sanity from being in the dark too long, or from seeing horrible things, or having violent flashbacks. You lose health from being attacked by monsters. And you can't fight back. You get no weapons. Your only means of survival is stealth and the ability to outrun the things that chase you. And you get very limited light. And the game is dark. Literally.

The more your insanity meter lowers, the more the game begins to mess with your head. The walls will crawl. The faintest screams will be heard, but did you really hear them? Doors you swore you closed will be open when you turn around. Furniture will be rearranged. At a low enough sanity, you even begin to experience hallucinations, yet you never really know for certain if they're real or not.

This is a screenshot of your character, Daniel, crouching
behind some crates as a monster approaches. Looking at
them, or moving at all when they're close by, will not only
lower your insanity but also alert them to your presence.
And you can't fight back, you can only run.

Amnesia warns you at the beginning that this isn't a game where you should be searching every room, and this isn't a game where the goal is to win. The goal is to survive without losing your mind. And I know what you're thinking, "Yeah ok. Obviously I'm going to search every room for hidden items/easter eggs/spare tinderboxes/etc." and, "I'm gonna beat this game... duh. I bought it so I could beat it."I thought that too. Then, about two hours into the game, I realized that I had abandoned my normal routine of searching every room and drawer, and I no longer had the idea of winning on my mind. I was just running through this puzzling maze of terror that wasn't even always there. I was watching how fast I opened doors, and monitoring closely how much oil was left in my lamp. I was pausing to listen to the distant sounds to see if I could hear any clues as to what to do next, and I was hiding behind boxes as demonic creatures tried to find me.

This game is genius. The creators took every aspect of a good horror film and made it into a an interactive mystery. There are cheap scares, sure, but the real terror comes from the always haunting notion that at any moment, you could die. If you enjoy horror games, then this should not be a game you pass up on. The story alone is haunting. The visuals are simply amazing. the atmosphere couldn't be anymore equally beautiful and horrific.

As the game goes on, the atmosphere
changes from a typical
haunted castle environment...

...to nightmares.

The game also has a custom story mode, so users of Steam can upload their own little mini-games using the same atmosphere and designs from Amnesia. Some of the mini-games are pretty lame, but I've found several that are really good and really take advantage of Amnesia's haunting atmosphere. So, the replay value is infinite as long as custom content keeps being created. And, if you just replay the story, the monsters will spawn in different places, offering terror each time.

But don't be fooled, this game isn't easily beaten. It took me 5 months to actually beat the game. Not because it's excessively challenging either, but because it's really difficult to play for more than an hour or two at a time without feeling the need to walk away and recollect your thoughts. My constant struggle with beating the game was actually opening the game and knowingly facing the monsters and the terror that awaited me.

So if you're bored over Christmas break,don't mind a whole lot of disturbing themes and images, and you want a game that's going to rattle you and challenge you in a way you might never have been challenged before... this game is the game for you.

- R.