Amnesia The Dark Descent Review

Game: Amnesia The Dark Descent
Ted Puffer's Rating : 3 stars.

I'll come clean and say that I'm not finished with this game, so this review is going to be incomplete. This was a title I picked up because it is in the Lovecraft genre, which doesn't come up a lot. Horror games are out there, but they're not as popular as your standard FPS or RTS title. This one wasn't only horror, but Lovecraft horror so I knew that sooner or later I'd be installed in on the game system and taking it for a spin.

Now about the review. Let me start by saying that the game is dark. Well no kidding, I hear you say, what game set in the Lovecraft world WOULDN'T be dark! OK, I say, I understand that you may have jumped to the conclusion that when I said "dark" I was making a comment about the overall tone of the game. But my intent was to describe the graphics, and they are dark. Murky. In other words, very hard to see.

Horror gets a rap for having a person running around dark hallways and alleys, and there is some truth to that. Darkness is where bad stuff happens, right? But what works on movies, doesn't really translate that well to computer games. For starters, the frustration level goes right through the roof. Imagine if you will the sexy heroine of the typical horror movie. She runs through a dark forest. She runs through a dark swamp. Exciting, right? Adds to the tension of the story and keeps you on the edge of your seat.
But computer games are different. The same scenario suddenly becomes "...can't see were I'm going... got killed. reboot. Got hung up on a branch that I didn't notice... controls seems frozen... got killed. reboot. Ran into a corner of the room, couldn't see the doors to get out... got killed. reboot."

Right now there is far too much of this for me to strongly recommend the game. It does have a sandbox mode for the creative types to make their own levels, and I've checked it out already. Once I invent a level or get further along the story line, I'll update this review. Right now the story is good, sounds are creepy and puzzles are moderate. All in all a good game. But please somebody, turn on the lights!