The first Amnesia made me fear the dark. After a time I was okay. Now I'm afraid again, and I look at pigs differently.
The atmosphere is as good as ever before. I've felt unsafe right at the start, just like it should be. The sounds and the music -which is important for the feels in my opinion- make sure you get the "I'm not safe" feeling, no matter where you are at the moment. The little noises while you go through the corridors, the sound of the wind while it blows through the windows, the crackling of chains and the machines all are amazing.
The music helps a lot in creating the feelings of course. While you are just going from 'A' to 'B' when you hope nothing will happen, there are barely any music, if there is it's pretty low and only the little noises are there that make you feel like "I don't want to be here". But when the chocolate rain hits the fan, the music becomes so intense, so terrifying -if you are as faint hearted as I am- you instantly go NOPE in that god forsaken moment.
The voice acting is brilliant, you can hear the actors put themselves in it. There are a lot of emotion in the voices which makes the characters feel real, including the monster. So that's about the sounds and music basically. They are great, and every one of them is in place.
Now for the visuals. The Chinese Room proved in their game called Dear Esther, that they can make pretty places look -and feel- pretty unsettling, even if there are nothing chasing you to tear your cute little frightened face off. The lighting and shadows look beautiful, and just in the previous title, shadows can become your best friend while you try to hide. No need to be afraid from the graphics quality, even the lower settings provide the experience, if not fully like on stronger builds. Tried it on both ends, so relax I can assure you.
The Victorian-era setting can make the game lot closer to the player, not like the previous medieval-era which is -as you might guessed- farther from our current time. Let's make this a little theory here:
"The closer the games era is to our current era, the more believable the game can become." I think this is why even the most bizarre things in this horror game can look like they could truly existed.
Gameplay almost works like in the previous Amnesia, tough it may feel a little simple compared to that. This is where we should start looking for the negative sides of the game. The visuals and the sounds are great, but the gameplay lacks some things which made us love the first one. Don't get me wrong, the story is fantastic, the dialogues are amazing too, (and a lot of them have their hidden meaning) paying attention is advised because it can get philosophical.
But the main thing is: the mechanics are not so complex, the puzzles are easily solved, some of them doesn't require much thinking. Maybe it's made so more people can play it to the end without getting stuck at certain parts, and that is understandable from a corporate point of view. The other bad thing is that the game is short. Even while afraid and hitting the escape button at the sudden monster appearances, or even counting in the occasional "fear quits", the game can be run through in an afternoon.
These are the reasons I give this game 7.5 out of 10.
Visuals: Great
Sound/Music: Great
Gameplay: Good but not as Great as the previous title
Hope you liked my first review, have a nice day!