Amnesia takes from other great horror games to create a fresh experience of powerlessness and dread.
(Minor Spoilers for Amnesia: Dark Descent, The Call of Cthulhu, & Eternal Darkness)
The Diminishing Return of Violence
The general trend of horror video games, however, has often been to replicate the other dominant concept to the medium, which of course is the shock of disturbing violence. Whether the chainsaw villagers in Resident Evil 4 or the necromorphs of Dead Space, these monsters have served to scare through violence itself rather than the thought of potential violence. The focus is on a gaze which paralyzes the observer through sympathetic pain rather than vulnerable suspense. Unfortunately, such scenes have rarely been mastered in video games, which is why it only makes sense that Resident Evil 5 more closely resembled an action-shooter than it's lauded originator – violence used for the sake of horror only works in managed instances which scare the player through overabundance, not through repetitive revelation. The fact then that Amnesia is successful by stripping all power away from the player only compounds this finding. The developers themselves noted that, when tools were placed in the game which seemed like weapons, players naturally assumed they ought to fight the monster. By stripping away all available weapons, players are left with no choice but to run (screaming) if they have any hope of retaining their sanity.
Sanity – Insanity
To my knowledge, the most important incorporation of insanity into a video game was 2002′s groundbreaking game Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem developed by Silicon Knights for Nintendo's Gamecube. A phenomenal game all-around, it's most important gameplay aspect was the incorporation of a "sanity meter" into play, which was influenced negatively by bearing witness to strange and gruesome events. As the player's sanity plummeted, not only would the player's perspective in-game change but it daringly incorporated "external" content as well. For instance, when entering a new room if your sanity was low it was possible that you would appear incredibly small in comparison to everything else, the room might appear upside down, or blood might appear everywhere. These were disturbing perspectives because they were sudden and unexpected, and there were enough different effects to keep the player on her toes. However, some of the most powerful moments of insanity incorporated events outside the gameworld – the most powerful being effects where it seems as if your TV has turned off or your controller has been disconnected. Though the game should also be noted for it's Dead Space-inspiring limb-severing action (also a first i think), it's rendition of the sinking insanity of the character (and player) is still some of the best found anywhere.
Averting the Gaze
Though many players might have overlooked 2005′s The Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth developed by Headfirst Productions and produced by Bethesda Softworks, those that played it know it to be in the pantheon of horror's all-time greats. Groundbreaking in so many ways, I've often felt it stood as the other leg to the original Resident Evil for the emerging body of horror, though it's rather recent release allowed it the ability to glean important insights from Japanese development of the genre. It's also clear to be that, if Amnesia: Dark Descent can be traced back through any game, the most critical predecessor would certainly be Cthulhu. Here, for the first time, we stumble into danger as a protagonist without weapon or power to fight (at least for the first hours of the game) which Amnesia realized to such a great extent. Furthermore, we also see the return of the importance of sanity first realized in Eternal Darkness – but now tied more closely and more powerfully to the gameplay: in Call of Cthulhu, for the first time we find ourselves unable to actually gaze upon the horrific creatures which mean our death. As creepy as the worshipers for Cthulhu were, it was the strange aquatic lands we ventured into which ultimately did our sanity in, for as soon as the evil creatures appeared to swallow us whole, the entire world began to spin like a ship at sea. It was this implementation of sanity which required that we avert our gaze from the very creatures we meant to do away with – at once both intently focused on their location and yet simultaneously needing not to see them for fear of a loss of consciousness. It was a masterful turn for the evolution of insanity's implementation in games – as well as one that Amnesia used to critical success.
The Horror of the Unknown
Video games don't simply draw from other video games, of course. This is especially true of horror games, where there is a strong lineage of cinematic representations of horror as displayed on the screen. Whether in Halloween or Alien, the perspective of the viewer has almost unilaterally been paramount to the successful build of tension critical to the genre. At times, we see more than the character – especially important when we're privy to "special" information, like the approach of a killer or monster from behind the character's line of sight. More importantly for executing scares, however, is to limit the gaze of the viewer. This is commonly executed by placing camera up close or at such an angle as to place the object of fear "behind" the viewer, which places us in the sympathetic body of the character herself, at times allowing us even less information than the character possesses. Though often used in achieving cheap scares through a sudden jump or to throw the viewer off the scent of the stalker (say, from the cat Josey in the movie Alien who jumps out a moment before the alien itself) it's usage is squarely to make the viewer vulnerable with our backs exposed to impending violence. In other words, cinema has known for a long time how to use the gaze of the viewer to control information in order to build or release suspense.
Dark Descent
Amnesia: Dark Descent has done well, therefore, to incorporate the effects of insanity and a limited gaze rather than mimic the compounded violence which has continued to rise in dominance of the horror genre. Taking it's cues from underrated masterpieces, the inability to actually look at that which stalks you and to require you constantly fight to remain sane in the darkest depths of its recesses means that the player quite simply has more sympathy with the protagonist than they would otherwise. Of course, utilizing a first-person view is certainly critical in this endeavor, as the body of the protagonist is more easily acquainted with one's own. If anything, where Amnesia occasionally fails is due not to revealing too little but occasionally revealing too much, especially towards the end. Though there is a long tradition of the "reveal" in horror and suspense, I'm now left wondering if Frictional Games might have done better never to have shown it's hand. From the gaze comes knowledge and from such comes a sense of control. If there's one thing Amnesia did better than most games in recent memory, it's ensuring that the player feels powerless for most of the journey, which such gazes subvert. Yet, Amnesia is so good for so long that to hold such criticism against it for long feels far too trite. Rather, we should celebrate the maturity that Frictional Games has returned to the horror video game genre for it's reinstatement of the concept that's been as important to it as violence, and for nearly as long. Thanks to Amnesia: Dark Descent, once again we fear the unknown.