Immerse yourself in complete and utter horror...
You play as a helpless man, wandering the dungeons and hallways in a mysterious castle. You have no weapons whatsoever, save a lantern for light and some useful tools you pick up along your journey. You have only one mission: to escape and to find out what happened. There are lots of areas to explore, and while your at it, monsters to see.
The unique part of Amnesia is your incapacity to fight. You are ultimately forced to hide in the darkness from your enemies or use the environment to your advantage. This gives the game a lot of variety in how you choose to play. No one will play this exactly the same way.
The game engine and controls are absolutely superb, and give you tones of interaction with this spooky world. You can control the speed in which you open doors, etc by holding down the left click and moving the mouse up and down. This gives Amnesia an even more realistic feel, as in-game physics are already top-notch. Interacting with practically everything in the world immerses the player all the more, making Amnesia a standalone horror experience in all forms. In all honesty you feel as if you are actually there.
The game also consists of a very well written, thought prevoking story that never seizes to stun and surprise its players. As you explore the gloomy castle rooms and complete puzzles to move on, the story unfolds as each critical event occurs. There are also flashbacks of times before as you enter new rooms. It never felt better to experience a satisfying horror story in the way it's shown in Amnesia.
On to criticism, and there is only a few flaws. However few, they can impact your experience greatly. First off, the game can be repetitive at times, as you look from one dark room to another. The design of the rooms is what hits you, as some rooms seem a little too similar to others. The second criticism, is that there are a few glitches in movement and sometimes even frame-rate drops. It can be quite frustrating if the game glitches for a couple of seconds as you run from a pursuing monster. My last criticism is that the graphics as a whole are a tint dated, but this is only a minor issue.
Though Amnesia can be a bit repetitive at times, it's gameplay is so captivating you'll hardly notice it's faults. Amnesia: The Dark Descent is extremely addictive, fun, and affordable. For the price, anyone who is in for a scare should not hesitate.
Not to mention mod support, there is absolutely no reason why horror fans should not pick this one up.
9.2