I descended deeper and deeper into the dark, narrow, damp and rusty corridors of this ancient castle. With every step the ring of Darkness came closer to me, and my hands trembled more and more. But I had no other way.
(There was a Flash player, but since 2020 Flash is not supported by browsers)
Domestic game site.
Title: "Amnesia". Ghost of the Past"
Original title: Amnesia. The Dark Descent
Localization: Snowball Studios
Developer: Frictional Games
Publisher: 1C-SoftClub / Snowball Studios
Genre: psychological thriller
Platform: PC
Release date: 10.09.2010 independentcasinosites.co.uk
System Requirements:
* Microsoft® Windows® XP SP2 / Vista / 7
* processor 1.5 GHz
* 1.0 GB RAM
* 1.5 GB of free hard disk space
* compatible video card with 128 MB memory (NVIDIA GeForceFX or ATI Radeon 9600), supporting 32-bit color and pixel shaders
So, today we will talk about the game “Amnesia: Ghost of the Past”. Such a name invariably makes an unprepared person yawn. And in fact – how many dozens and hundreds of times have various heroes lost their memory and then fought with superior enemy forces in an attempt to find out what they forgot there, in this past of theirs, which now appears to them as nothing more than a silvery fog?? Offhand, you can name 5-6 games and 2 times as many films where the hero suffered from this particular form of memory loss. And “Amnesia” is far from original in this regard – to start with the fact that the hero does not remember anything is, one might say, a cliche.
But this only matters to those who don’t know that Amnesia is a game from Frictional Games, creators of the Penumbra trilogy of fantastically frightening quests. The main advantage of the creation of four Swedish students was darkness. Despite the rather outdated graphics, the game was very scary due to very competent lighting. Every object cast the correct shadow. In addition, the game had a very competent physics engine, which allowed the player to interact with the world much better. And to top it all off – an interesting plot, in the best traditions of the works of H. P. Lovecraft.
We figured out the origin of the game and its name. Of course, one could say that “the previous game obliges”, add to this the fact that the trailers were quite scary and calmly declare that “Amnesia” was a success. Masterpiece, applause curtain. But the story of “Mafia 2” requires a detailed story. Besides, the game deserves it.
"Darkness has enveloped me and consumed my mind. I wandered in the dark through deserted rooms and saw dead people. The cold froze my limbs every time I looked into their eyes, trying in vain to see at least something human in them.".
Amnesia is a truly scary game. And it plays not on fear, as developers often like to do, but on a heavy, gloomy atmosphere of hopelessness and defenselessness.
The main character of the game is a man named Daniel, who did something so terrible that he chose to forget about it and the rest of his past rather than remember it. The plot is presented in the same way as in the mentioned progenitor – through notes left on tables, some scraps of papers, letters… In addition, the main character is constantly visited by memories, very spontaneous, confused, at first it seems that nothing connects them, even and only further, in the depths of the dark corridors, behind a heavy, creaky door, there is another answer.
In addition to amnesia itself, Daniel differs from all his brothers in the horror workshop by extremely weak nerves. Every rustle, sound – all this scares not only us, but also the hero himself, he shudders, takes noisy, sharp breaths, or completely falls to the floor. He’s also afraid of the dark. As soon as you turn off the flashlight and move away from any light sources, the picture before your eyes immediately begins to float. And the longer the hero remains in this state, the worse the consequences await him. Therefore, you have to carefully search each room in search of a tinderbox (something like a medieval lighter) or oil for a lantern.
“The silhouettes moved in the Darkness almost silently. Some of them stopped to look at me, but immediately continued on their silent path. My feet stepped uncertainly on the cold stones, my whole being was overcome by fear, I was trembling, like the last leaf on the branch of a tree falling in autumn. I trembled, but I walked forward, not knowing why. I guess I had no other choice.".
But a scary hero isn’t enough to make a truly good horror film. The fact that it is impossible to fight monsters in the game greatly reduces the prowess. The golden rule applies here: either hide or run away. There is no third option. For almost the first time, the hero of the game is unable to fight back his fears. And this makes these same fears even stronger and more terrible.
And here we come across the next, undoubtedly important aspect of the game – riddles and level design. And these elements, I will say, are executed brilliantly. The atmosphere of the medieval, saturated with secrets, deaths and secret passages is conveyed flawlessly. Almost every room you visit looks not like a hastily put together set, but a very “live”, real room.
On top of everything else, the game has fantastic sound. Not only the sound, like the quality and variety of different samples, but also the direction itself, the sound production. Sometimes thoughtful steps somewhere right above your head or a piano suddenly playing somewhere in the depths of the castle scare you more than monsters or anyone else. Rustle sounds, creaking door hinges, various creaks, some screams in the distance… All this sounds as if it came out of those same stories by H. P. Lovecraft.
And now we come to what no horror film can do without. Plot. The plot in "Amnesia", as one would expect, is imbued to the last thread with that Lovecraft and that signature feeling of total hopelessness and some kind of painful madness. The plot in “Amnesia” is not exactly original, but it is interesting at the same time. He manages to grab hold of something and not let go until the very end.
The last thing that will fall out on the table is graphics. Simply because this is the only element of the game that you can find fault with. And these quibbles are quite funny, considering the fact that Amnesia is not Crysis embroidered with gold shaders and bumps. Amnesia is a thriller that’s way off the charts. But at the same time, the graphics in the game are good. It doesn’t knock down the tower, but it performs its function 100% – without hurting your eyes, it allows you to completely immerse yourself in the game, and the abundance of very well-applied post filters only further helps in feeling the atmosphere.
Let me sum it up. If we take the game as a whole, and not in an anatomical section, when the insides begin to stick out in all directions, and blood spills around, then the result is a very scary, smart, solid and, most importantly, interesting survival horror, capable of giving horror connoisseurs more than one liter of adrenaline injected into the blood.