Penumbra was the proving grounds and amnesia was the result. In other words, Frictional Learned what did and did not work in terms of horror in the penumbra series and implemented those in amnesia to great affect.
In Overture your are allowed to carry a few weapons to battle against the various enemies in the area, I will say I was never more afraid of a wolf in any other game but on the other hand knowing if I made the effort I could brain the thing to death with a hammer and then it lost some of its scariness factor. Frictional learned that fear of the enemy is heightened when you have no defenses against them we're looking at black plague here, where your character is stripped of any weapons and must flee and hide from enemies, which builds tension while trying to avoid them knowing you have no way of defending yourself. They took this idea of defenselessness and put it in amnesia and it works great.
I gotta say watching a play-through is one thing, but you really should experience amnesia first hand, I recommend picking it up, settling down alone with a good pair of headphones for greatest effect and immerse yourself in the games atmosphere. Amnesia does horror right, wherein the world around you builds tension and dread not with monsters popping out of closets every five seconds like other titles, in fact it is quite a ways into the game before you even catch your first glimpse of one, it builds the fear of the unknown, the fear that at any moment something could come to get you but most of the time it doesn't, until it's too late.
Pick amnesia up, if you're enjoying penumbra, it's only 20 USD and goes on sale regularly on steam for about half that. I guarantee it will during steams holiday sale for sure.
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I am so omniscient, if there were to be two omniscience's I would be both! Prepare yourselves for the subjugation! - Ziltoid The Omniscient.
03 Oct 2011, 6:56 pm
