Revengeful Lobster

January's Game - Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 13:37:00 -0800

The highlight of my gaming year is undoubtedly the Steam Christmas sale. During the most recent celebration of this annual festival, I picked up the entire works of Frictional Games, specialists of the horror genre. It took me a couple of weeks to work my way through their Penumbra trilogy, and was impressed for the most part. The three games tell the story of Philip, who receives word from his not-as-dead-as-he-thought father about some mysterious discovery in the frozen wastes of Greenland. Naturally, Philip decides to go visit, and soon finds himself trapped in an underground complex, fending off an array of monsters in the dark. Or something. Amnesia has a similarly daft plot; the protagonist Daniel suffers from the titular condition, and he must make his way through the castle of a mad European baron (in the dark), piecing together his memories, while dealing with the monsters within the walls, and within himself. Pretty forgettable faire, but I'd like to think that its lack of depth serves a purpose; it stands to one side and lets the engine deliver a fulfilling experience in the place of an engaging narrative.

In order to communicate what I enjoyed about Amnesia, it's important to talk about its engine. The developers are definitely engine people, in that all of their games utilize a game engine of their own design called HPL, and Frictional are rightfully proud of it. I've recently discovered their development blog, which makes for interesting reading, and shows how enthusiastic they are about creating rich, believable worlds, and delivering emotionally intense experiences. Their entries are sometimes highly technical, but it is always satisfying to read the thoughts of a developer genuinely interested in their own work. The four games are rendered from a first-person perspective, an ancient technique for helping a player feel immersed in the world, but an important one when dealing with high emotions, like fear. The eye and the ear are well simulated, with subtle tricks such as the gradual adaptation of your perception when moving from a light area to dark one, and the utterly brilliant surround sound. But not only is reality simulated here, the same techniques and rules are bent to simulate the unreal with great effect. The game measures your health and your sanity, when the latter is spent, your vision warps, and you start to hear things which only may be there.

On top of the smart visuals and illustrative sound is a set of physics which encourages interaction with the world. Drawers must be pulled open with a mouse gesture; doors pushed; wheels turned and objects thrown. This may not sound especially exciting, but it is a vital ingredient in the way encounters with the castle's inhabitants are served. More than you'll find yourself hearing something enter the adjacent room in search of you, and knowing there is no way out, hiding in a wardrobe, peeking through a crack in the door at the shambling form, holding your breath and hoping it does not discover you. Amnesia is full of moments like these, and Frictional have made very good use of visual and audible cues to instruct the player, delivering just enough information to make them aware of a threat, just enough to suggest that there may be a chance of escape, just enough to make them afraid.

Amensia is literally the most scary game I've ever played. Frictional are true conductors of the senses, and masters of fear. Unlike so many horror series of film, each of their games is an improvement on the last, and the news that Amensia did well beyond their expectations is encouraging, as I eagerly look forward to their next title. I'd play it in the dark, with headphones on, and my feet in a bucket of ice cold water if they asked me to.

Revengeful Lobster

January's Game - Amnesia: The Dark Descent

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