The monstrous evolution of Amnesia: The Dark Descent

[Administrator]

There's a reasonable argument to be made that Amnesia: The Dark Descent is one of the most influential games of this decade. Like Minecraft and Dark Souls, the ideas and systems explored in Frictional's masterclass in terror have crept out into other areas of the games industry, like a virus seeking out fresh hosts.
Prior to Amnesia, horror games tended to be prefixed with the term "Survival", and the genre was exemplified by games like Resident Evil and Dead Space, where jump-scares and creepy environments coexisted alongside an emphasis on combat and the scavenging of supplies. Even the most frightening games in existence, like Silent Hill and System Shock 2, couldn't let go of that notion of fighting back against some kind of external threat.
This is the notion that Amnesia challenged by shifting the focus away from fighting monsters, and towards the central character's own state of being instead. The result dramatically altered the horror genre as a whole, but Amnesia didn't break this new ground entirely on its own. Instead, it represents the culmination of a series of ideas that evolved gradually throughout Fractional's earlier output, beginning with the studio's debut, Penumbra: Overture.
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