Tweet
If you've heard of the Amnesia games before, then you've probably also heard that they're scary. I've certainly come across several claims that they are the "scariest games of all time" and even a few people have suggested that the games are too scary to complete. The success of the first game in the series, Frictional Games' 2011 Amnesia: Dark Descent, was contingent on its terrifying nature; its cat and mouse chases featuring in a hundred Let's Plays and streams, where grown adults hid in corners, faced the wall and whispered to themselves repeatedly that "everything is going to be OK".Spurred on by these brave pioneers, players flocked to the game, eager to test their mettle. But why? Perhaps it was the rush, the adrenaline of an imagined brush with death. Maybe it was the draw of the unknown, a desire to plumb the darkest depths in search of something other, something new. In some senses it doesn't matter: When it comes to video games fear is fun. We've all felt it, we all know it, why not leave it at that?
But what if there's something underneath that fear? What if it's just a mask, a layer, which sits on top of something else? What if we are looking at the tip of an iceberg, but beneath the dark, choppy waves lies a vast unknown mass, a container of emotions, ideas and secrets that we never knew was there.
Read more…
More...