I Tried to Play Amnesia

I am wimp king, king of wimps, and I’m incredibly bad at horror games. Not just horror games – any games that leave me in the dark, where things jump out, where I die suddenly, where noises are sudden, where music is creepy, where things kill me, where I have no weapons… all of these things scare me.

I remember buying Resident Evil 4 years ago, because everyone talked about what a great game it was. I remember starting the game, wondering forwards, saving a dog from a trap, then looking ahead to see a couple of ‘zombie things’ outside a house (I say ‘zombie things’, they aren’t technically zombies are they? I can’t remember), I carefully take aim, I miss, they run towards me, every time I aim and shoot they stumble and I miss. I turned the console off before they reached me and never played it again.

I managed to play significantly more of Doom 3, and Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil. In broad daylight. With the sound down. I spent much of that game hiding in corners, looking at the floor whimpering, too afraid of what lay ahead and what I might see.

I played a demo of Dead Space 2. If I ever want to actually shit myself, and faint in my own mess, I will play it again. I greatly fear Silent Hill. I fear the level in Tomb Raider Chronicles that takes place on a spooky island. I get nervous in God of War 3 when you have to wander in the dark.

I am the wimpiest of wimps. I have a longer yellow streak than a heard of diarrhetic camels [/RedDwarf]. When I went to see How to Train Your Dragon at the cinema, I jumped out of my seat when the dragon flew past the waterfall and made a loud noise. However, I have a particularly nervous disposition when it comes to video games, because I am very afraid of dying. I’m not the only one who freaks out when ‘things’ happen, here’s a choice favourite of mine, Steve Playing FEAR Alone in the Dark:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s0wvYeGTHc[/youtube]

So I decided to record myself playing Amnesia: The Dark Descent.

So that the video does not purely consist of me crying in the corners of every room, Jim joined me on my travels. He played the demo (available on Steam) first, and we start our adventure discussing what happened. As you now know I’ve not progressed far with any horror games, but from what I’ve played so far, Amnesia is actually rather clever, the methods it uses to scare you are well planned and thought out, and if you want to play the game yourself this video may spoil some of those moments.

It is perhaps worth mentioning for anyone who hasn’t played, that there are some fundamental elements in Amnesia:

-In order to stay sane, you must use light effectively. To do this you can use tinderboxes to light items within the area, and you can also equip a lantern (with limited oil).

-Something terrible is following you. You cannot fight it. If you see it, the only two options are to hide from it, or run.

-The chocolate-lemonade method of door opening is a legitimate way to open doors and feel less scared. I was inspired by Sean Locke and Madonna.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vwsIXJ2qRk&feature=channel_video_title[/youtube]

Go fullscreen and 1080p for the best video goodness. Enjoy!