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Amnesia: The Dark Descent is still a timeless classic to this very day and it remains as one of the most enjoyable puzzle horror games I've ever played. It's an incredibly rewarding game, all the while I'm completely cacking my pants at the incredible atmosphere that's terrifying yet tasteful. What can I say that hasn't already been said before other than me rambling about my love for this game and my disappointment for many other games of its ilk? It became a massive sleeper hit and a beloved cult classic for a damn good reason and it ended up spawning countless clones and imitators, yet not a single one of them has ever come close to just how great everything is in The Dark Descent.
The puzzles are really great and brain teasers without being too difficult or too easy. The resource management is tense enough to always worry about but just lenient enough so you can stay fully immersed in the game's world, narrative and atmosphere. The atmosphere is so superbly done that the intense build up from frame one upon hitting start game is truly palpable and manages to hold me in its grip all the way to the end. The tension as the game builds up a good long while until you find your first monster is amazing and upon finally seeing it, they never stop being scary - the pure anxiety of trying to hide or run away from one, that is always faster than you, is peak horror gaming for me. Despite the game's extremely troubled development, pretty much every aspect hits hard in all the right places for me,
Many people seem to blame Frictional and Amnesia for the death of more classic style survival horror back when it released, but I'm going to come to its defense and say big publishers were the killer of classic survival horror. They deemed the genre "not viable" and either killed off horror franchises and refitted them into action games. Frictional struck gold with Amnesia and proved that horror never died and there was always a demand for it, it just came in a form and style that hasn't been done anywhere near as successfully previously, and the timing was perfect.
With how much of a cultural phenomenon Amnesia was in the indie space, so much so that many Youtube creators built their careers off the back of this game, it was inevitable that The Dark Descent would spawn countless clones and imitators and unfortunately I cannot think of a single one that comes even close to matching the greatness of this absolute classic. And yet again many people would continue to blame Amnesia for killing survival horror to this day because indie horror games for a long time was dominated with this "run and hide" style. But yet again that's not the fault of this game, but rather the fault of many developers rushing into this genre like it's a gold mine and trying to take what The Dark Descent did so well and yet botched their games so hard because they didn't get it.
Many Amnesia clones seem to believe The Dark Descent is boiled down to just lots of impenetrable darkness and spooky monster chases, when in actuality it's far closer to a point and click adventure game with monsters hunting you down while you try to solve the game's many puzzles. And yet Amnesia's physics mechanics allow the player to barricade doors, create hiding spots, objects can be thrown to stun enemies in pursuit and create distractions for players to sneak by - the running and hiding allows players to get creative so long as they can find what they need and that's what makes the combatless design work so well. Amnesia does so, SO much with so little whereas many of the terrible and even decent clones often do so little with even less, as many games don't have those physics mechanics, multiple resource management, enjoyable puzzle solving and genuine sense of terror.
It sucks to say as I usually champion clones of other games and genres, such as souls-likes and boomer shooters, because those games can take a basic formula and do many unique and different things from many different developers that have great ideas. Don't get me wrong a lot of games in those genres of games can be bad, but I think this style of combatless horror game is almost completely awash with awful clones that simply aren't worth playing at all and so many of them keep coming out and continuing to not get what made The Dark Descent so special.
Heck I'll even apply that criticism towards Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs, Amnesia Rebirth and even Soma's stripped back gameplay, as I found them to be incredibly disappointing follow ups to the masterpiece that is The Dark Descent, even if their narratives can hold up exceptionally well. At least Amnesia: The Bunker was a fantastic return to form, and while I thought the puzzle aspect of that game was disappointing and I still rate The Dark Descent above it, I still think it's an incredible horror game and it managed to successfully marry that classic Frictional style with a good healthy dose of classic survival horror. And as someone who adores The Dark Descent AND survival horror games, The Bunker is pant soilingly glorious.
Luckily the community's love for The Dark Descent has endured with a fiery passion 14 years after release, with so many excellent and wonderful custom stories, mods and addons STILL being made and released by a really healthy community of talented modders and map makers. Many of them having fully custom assets, monsters and mechanics that make them stand out and even rival the quality of Frictional's work, thus making the base game an excellent taster introduction to an all-you-can-eat buffet of incredible high quality horror gaming from creators who do get and understand what made this game so special in the first place. So without a doubt, this game is your one stop shop for some delicious combatless puzzle-focused horror gaming.
Honestly I could gush about this game for days, I feel like my most recent replay has made me fallen in love with this game even harder than I did over a decade ago. Especially after discovering loads of brand new stuff I missed the first time around, such as the Justine expansion, the Remember short stories and the super secret stuff in the game's files - tons of new stuff to delve into always makes me giddy when revisiting my favourite games!
If you haven't played Amnesia: The Dark Descent, then PLEASE do so if you're a fan of horror stuff, you owe it to yourself to enjoy this absolute banger of a classic. And if you really don't like the idea of a combatless horror game, then I genuinely think you should give this game a real honest try with an open mind - it's absolutely worth it.