Scary Game Review (Spectator) with James Paradie: Amnesia - The Dark Descent

"It was my greatest triumph...and I never looked back. You think I was afraid fleeing Brennenburg? Quite the contrary. I knew it was my purgatory - hellfire made to wash away my sins. There's no denying the things I've done. But I have paid my tribute. I gave them that awful man ... I did the right thing." 

If you're familiar with my reviews, you will know that I talk a lot about this game. This game that I hold in high regard and always compare it when reviewing other games. What I mean by that is in terms of scariness. I also do the same thing with Outlast. They are my favorite horror games. I did a review on Outlast I think more than a year ago. And I thought I did a review for Amnesia. Yep, I did White Night, but did I do the main game itself? Gasp! No?! I must do so now before a Suitor stabs me in the ass! 

Wait ... did that sound sexual? Oh, lighten up. If you hated my humor, you would have stopped reading this site ages ago. 

A Quick Synopsis: 

The game features a protagonist named Daniel exploring a dark and foreboding castle, while avoiding monsters and other obstructions as well as solving puzzles. The game was critically well received, earning two awards from the Independent Games Festival and numerous positive reviews. - Provided by Wikipedia (and before you think anything: the only reason why I copy other synopsis is because when I write them they tend to be long winded and suddenly I spoil the entire game.) 

My Review: 

Me getting into horror games is a recent thing, probably within the last four years I've been really into them. Mind you, I don't play them, but I do enjoy watching them. And I think the reason why The Dark Descent holds such a high pillar to me is because it is the first horror game I watched in full. It is also the horror game that I've watched on more than three occasions (the others being Nightmare House 2, Outlast, Outlast: Whistleblower, and Silent Hill Downpour, as well as a few custom Amnesia stories). I can kiss it's ass all day, but let's get with the review. 

First impressions are everything and The Dark Descent does do a great job in it's first watching. It's like that horror movie that you want to stop watching because you're so scared, but watch anyways because you want to see what happens. I couldn't get enough of this game when I first saw it. I remember I wasn't so much terrified at first, but once I saw the first enemy ... boy, oh boy. I knew I was in for a treat. 

Back when I first watched this, I always thought horror games were just slash 'ems, much like Resident Evil or Silent Hill. But when I saw that you can't defend yourself and the only way to avoid getting a toe tag is if you hid, I was intrigued. Since then, I've been hooked on finding games that follow the same suit and they're my favorite horror games (I gave this genre my own title - "Hide or Die." I thought it was clever. I mean, a little.) Amnesia didn't do it first (for example, Haunting Ground came out almost a decade before Amnesia and it's the same principle) but it changed the game for all horror. 

Horror to me doesn't have to rely on cheap jumpscares, blood and viscera. The best horrors are what lies in the mind. I know, I'm pulling some psychological crap on you, but to me those are the best horror games. The ones that mess with your mind. Oh, sure, The Dark Descent has its share of monsters, but it's the environment that is the scariest part of the game. The way the wind blows, the screams coming from torture chambers, the fact that you're all alone and your only company wants nothing but death for you. The dark halls, the prison, the torture cells, even a kitchen is scary in this game. 

The Dark Descent proves that horror games do not have to follow the same set of rules that have been implemented by other AAA games. How do I know? When you look at top 10 lists of scary games, you won't see very many commercial games (exp. Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Left 4 Dead) in the number one slot. You will see Amnesia: The Dark Descent though. A game that went from being independently developed by a small team at Frictional Games to being considered the one that changed horror games forever. You see other games pulling the Amnesia shtick, whether it's Outlast or the Silent Hills demo, P.T. They're all following pursuit because of this little independent game. Some have tried to pull it off (Daylight - not a terrible game, but not great - review soon!) or Outlast, but much like Resident Evil or Silent Hill, Amensia: The Dark Descent will live on in video gaming infamy. 

I have forgone rating games, but this game is a masterpiece. Some people like to poo on it and say, it isn't scary. Well, opinions are subjective. It all depends on what a person likes. People think Silent Hill and Resident Evil are scary, I don't. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of both franchises, but they don't get to me like Amnesia-like games do. I think I've shown you how much I like Amnesia and I think if you watch it or play it, you will enjoy it. Hopefully. Much like all my other reviews, I've only given a tip of the iceberg. You want to know more? Go on Steam, buy it and download it. Watch it on Youtube. Enjoy! 

Until next time, this has been another Scary Game Review. If you have a scary game you would like for me to review, comment down below. Thanks for reading! 

Scary Game Review: Amnesia - White Night

Hey guys, it’s SS here with another scary video game review. 

I actually watched this game a few years ago on my commentator of choice, the Rad Brad’s channel and was amazed. The reason why I was amazed was because they took an actual game and made it into something entirely different. 

What game am I talking about? Amnesia: White Night. 

The game takes the world of The Dark Descent and warps it into a new world, with a new story. Some people say it’s not even a horror game, like the Descent was, but I think it’s freaky enough. 

The Story (No Spoilers): 

Be careful about what or who to believe.

Just like the Dark Descent, your character wakes up and has no idea where they are or what happened to them. All this person, whose name is David, knows is that he is in a mental hospital. The beginning of the game, which acts like an prologue, doesn’t tell much. It tells about a happy couple who are celebrating an anniversary, when suddenly the wife is dead. Three years later, the husband is in a mental institution and has recollection of what happened. Guesses point to that the husband killed the wife. 

My Thoughts: 

Not one to play games, but to watch them and enjoy them for the story, I can’t tell you much about the gameplay. Other than going by that it plays just like the Dark Descent. The story, however, is well done. My biggest problem with it is the voice acting. Some is okay, but the majority of it is not that great. It seems like they’re dead panning it and reading their script. I know that they have to read the script, but usually you need to put some sort of charisma into it to make it sound halfway decent. These voice actors did not, however, and it makes the story suffer a little.

I actually had to watch the entire game again, because I forgot a lot of details, minus the fact that I enjoyed watching it. Watching it the second time, I saw some similarities with games like Silent Hill, Nightmare House 2, and Cry of Fear. Elements of these classic games are in White Night, but of course the biggest comparison of White Night is to the Dark Descent. 

The music is really good too. Definitely sends a chill down your bone, which makes the atmosphere even better. 

SS Score: 7.5/10 – I was going to rate it 8/10, but I realized that I rated Outlast the same score. Not that it wouldn’t be a problem to, because other games on other sites (example: IGN.com) give numerous games the same rating. My problem with giving White Night the same rating as Outlast is due to that I believe Outlast was a better game. The voice acting is the reason why White Night can’t be taken *completely* serious. No offense to the voice actors, but they should have went with text dialogue. Another example of a great game with terrible voice acting – Cry of Fear. I will be doing a review on that as well. But where the game suffers, it does make up for it with some pretty fascinating twists and turns in both story and game landscape, along with some neat puzzles. 

I know last time I said I was going to do a review on Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs or Eleusis, but the commentator I watch hasn’t played the game yet (he will, but he has other games to complete first) and Eleusis was not what I was expecting it to be. Not a bad game, mind you, but it doesn’t fit in the scary game category. 

Until then, check out White Night and tell me what you thought. Have a great day.

Scary Game: Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Been awhile since I've done one of these and since I have no new material for you guys today, it's been a real slow day, I figured I'd do one of these.

For those who are not familiar with it, what this is, is I post a video of a video game that's deemed scary to give you a guys a chill. Last time I did Nightmare House 2 and this time it is what is considered the scariest game ever made, Amnesia: The Dark Descent. I actually watched this one before I did Nightmare House 2, but the latter had a lot more jump scares than this. Amnesia is a scary game, but it's more psychological, it likes to play tricks with your mind. Let the video explain it, because it will do a better job than I can.

This game, which is independately made, was such a big success that Frictional Games is making a sequel called Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs. This game is also unique because game developers can take Amnesia and morph it into a completely different story (check out Amnesia: White Night one of these days to see what I mean). But the video below is courtesy of my favorite Youtube commentator the Rad Brad. He's funny, he's very down to Earth, but if you have virgin ears than you may want to watch it somewhere else, but his reactions are hilarious. Check it out!