Amnesia: The Dark Descent

[Shadenuat]

Amnesia popularized this first person stealth/defenseless horror shtick that is all the rage these days. It didn't invent it, considering the developer's earlier titles as well as even earlier games like Hellnight or earlier parts of Xbox Call of Cthulhu (from which they stole those mental health mechanics BTW), but it was the game that made it so popular. it helped that Twitch/YT channels like PewPieDie became a thing at that time, in large part due to games like Amnesia (if you don't know what I am talking about, don't bother to investigate it. ignorance is a bliss in this case) and that game came with easy to use editor that resulted in tons of fan made content.

[Mr. Veech]

It's true that the main reason A:I was so good is that the team who worked on it were passionate about the project itself. Unfortunately, the amount of resources utilized to turn said passion into a reality resulted in less than desirable sales. I prefer A:I over both Amnesia and Soma. It was simply a better game in my opinion. While money isn't always the issue, it's true that passion accompanied by money is better than passion with a smaller budget, though I don't think the specific issue you mentioned has to do with money. Nevertheless, we wouldn't have that kind of game without a substantial backing. I shudder to think about how much the assets alone in A:I cost, assets which play a significant role in recreating the atmosphere of the original game. You see a ton of reused assets in Amnesia because it was created by a smaller team.

A:I was a niche title with a AAA budget. Economically, it was stupid for Sega to have given Creative Assembly the green light. But that's why it's so great.

Frictional Games, of course, is also passionate about making a specific genre of games. I personally thought Amnesia was a great game with a lot of influence from Lovecraft. But playing it now, as opposed to when it was first released, is perhaps different. The problem you mentioned was acknowledged by the developers themselves. They wrote a wonderful article regarding this problem:

In The Games Of Madness: Thoughts on Alien: Isolation and Horror Simulation

Since getting a PS4 a few months ago, Alien: Isolation has been my favourite game for it. It's too long, but what I appreciate is how it goes for unscripted scares. It makes it still scary to replay, while Resident Evil 7 isn't so much.

[Frater_Tsalal]

Quote Originally Posted by James

It isn't about money. In Alien: Isolation I would be terrified of the monster finding me because there would be actual consequences if I died. There were none in Amnesia. I seemed to benefit from the creatures killing me as then their placement would be reset. Odd design choice.

Yeah, that's the one issue I had with Amnesia, in that there were no real stakes if you died. If anything getting killed actually made the game easier because (as you noted) the monsters would usually vanish afterwards.

Someone else earlier on this thread mentioned how Amnesia nicked its sanity meter from Call of Cthulhu. To be fair though, it could be argued that Call of Cthulhu got the idea from the (supremely underrated) Gamecube game Eternal Darkness. I actually finally got around to beating Dark Corners of the Earth recently. An okay game, but buggy/glitch as hell. It crashed so many times it's not even funny.

My favorite survival horror game is probably still System Shock 2. Actually, the first DOOM is still a favorite as well.

[Shadenuat]

I know of that game but, sadly, I never owned Gamecube.
Speaking of Amnesia being too easy on the player, sequel is actually even worse in that regard. Though, to be fair, that one wasn't even developed by the same guys.

[Robert Adam Gilmour]

Quote Originally Posted by James

I was so good at dodging the humanoid enemies that I could never tell what any of them looked like.

Isn't seeing them supposed to be the scariest part?

[Robert Adam Gilmour]

Quote Originally Posted by Frater_Tsalal

Someone else earlier on this thread mentioned how Amnesia nicked its sanity meter from Call of Cthulhu. To be fair though, it could be argued that Call of Cthulhu got the idea from the (supremely underrated) Gamecube game Eternal Darkness

Aren't sanity points a staple in Lovecraftian tabletop games? I think there are other games before Eternal Darkness that had a sanity meter but I can't be sure. I found Eternal Darkness quite an awkward game mechanically, though not as bad as the Siren series.

[Mr. Veech]

Quote Originally Posted by James

Since getting a PS4 a few months ago, Alien: Isolation has been my favourite game for it. It's too long, but what I appreciate is how it goes for unscripted scares. It makes it still scary to replay, while Resident Evil 7 isn't so much.

For some reason Resident Evil 7 made me jump far more than any other survival horror game. I'd say Alien: Isolation is one of the top three PS4 games I've played. So far, it's Bloodborne, Alien: Isolation, and Nier: Automata (too bad I no longer possess the latter).

@ Robert

Eternal Darkness - man, that was a long time ago. That game was way ahead of it's time.