The Problem of the "Kaernk"

[Alardem]

The water monster was my favorite part of Amnesia. First of all, there's a certain mystery to it: you can never see its true form, yet the splashes it makes and its ability to devour you prove its existence. Secondly, it marks a rather different and welcome gameplay style - rather than hide in darkness, you need to strategically jump for your life between floating havens and use objects as distractions and bait. Here, the game uses time pressure to force you to run and draw its attention, and you MUST do so because it never goes away. This is quite a welcome change from the rest of the game, where even the Choir gives you the option of simply hiding out until the monster goes away.

Here's the problem: the threat of the Kaernk diminishes, and with it the overall tone of the game. After the intense chase through the cellar archives, you come across it a couple of times - in the cistern, which is so large that if you watch your step you'll never even notice it; the sewer, where it gets crushed by a cave-in and growls helplessly at you; and in a well, where it's reduced to a silly little pet gator that you feed a turkey leg to.

The problem for me was that the game explained too much of it and didn't utilize the water monster as effectively again. For one thing, it has a name - a mangled version of Kraken - and it's revealed to be a mere animal from Alexander's world. One whose saliva is used to cure poisons, and which can be fed bits of chicken. This is at odds with the chase sequence, where it's implied to be a manifestation of the Shadow - you hear those otherworldly roars and see a horrid red glow while the monster chases you throughout the flooded archives. To me, it would have been far more effective for the water monster to have never been explained, or portrayed to behave like a simple animal.

I suppose that goes for most monsters out there. You explain them or show them too much, and they lose much of their initial terror. I can talk about how the Grunt and Brute look really comical, but I focus on the water monster because it's honestly my favorite part of Amnesia - the rest of the game, to me, is little more than a refinement of Black Plague's gameplay.

[PutraenusAlivius]

Fear is sometimes untrue. Real fear is the fear of the unknown. Once you make something unknown known, that true fear feeling is kinda ripped away and you are less terrified about it. I mean with the Grunts and Brutes you can make them funny in appearance as hell, let it be in a clown suit or whatever. But masking their appearances, make them buildup and make their presences be known? Absolutely terrifying.

[VaeVictis]

Here, the game uses time pressure to force you to run and draw its attention, and you MUST do so because it never goes away. This is quite a welcome change from the rest of the game, where even the Choir gives you the option of simply hiding out until the monster goes away.

What about the Brute in the sewer that you had to lure away?

To the rest: I'm on the fence. On the one hand, knowing that it's driven by pure instinct gives it the air that it makes no distinction about what it consumes, which is kinda freaky when you think about it. But, on the other, having that knowledge gives you the means to get around it.

[Bridge]

By no means the only thing that was "ruined." I think all of the mystery set up in the first third or so was very efficiently dispelled right before the end (though the game had already been going steadily downhill since after the prison segment.)

[Alardem]

What about the Brute in the sewer that you had to lure away?

I didn't recall that. I never found that as terrifying, likely because by then it was basically a larger version of the Grunt.

By no means the only thing that was "ruined." I think all of the mystery set up in the first third or so was very efficiently dispelled right before the end (though the game had already been going steadily downhill since after the prison segment.)

True, the story begins to fall apart once Agrippa is introduced and you were put on a fetch quest for Orb #2 - which apparently needed tar to be reassembled properly.

[daortir]

Kinda agree with the post-prison part being meh. Still have to say that the Transept was gorgeous, and that the Choir terrified me.

[MrWhitticus]

Towards the end of the game Frictional seemed to start focusing on the story more than the horror element, but I think that if they'd just had a lot of unfinished plot elements the game would have felt incomplete, so there's good points to this arguments and bad points.

[Alardem]

Towards the end of the game Frictional seemed to start focusing on the story more than the horror element, but I think that if they'd just had a lot of unfinished plot elements the game would have felt incomplete, so there's good points to this arguments and bad points.

Good developers can still manage to deliver strongly on both fronts all the way through. But since Amnesia's end-game really did feel rushed, I'm hoping Frictional will be using their long development time to deliver a good climax.

[MrWhitticus]

My least favorite bit about Agrippa-onward was the fact that you spent the last third of the game collecting items which didn't lead you to the good ending.

The whole "cut my head off and throw me into a portal" thing was dull and took like 4 hours to set up even though it was made redundant with three clicks of a button.

[Alardem]

The ending could have been slightly improved if there was far more pressure. Perhaps the player would only have a handful of seconds, or had actual monsters running after them. It'd be disregarding all the previous hours of stealth, but at least it would have been exciting.