Blog: "10 Ways to Evolve Horror Games"

[SquigPie]

[…] they both lack subtlety (not in a bad way, mind you) […]

I don't understand this. In what way do you mean Amnesia lacks subtlety? Certainly not in the story, the music/sound, the visuals or the gameplay. What else is there really? I guess it's a matter of opinion, but I think almost everything about it is subtle. Sure there is bombastic music at times and the scares are sometimes decidedly unsubtle but you need to have scenes that emphasize the mood. Constant and static build-up is pretty boring.

I think you misunderstand, I don't mean it lacks subtlety as in "monsters pop up all the time". What I mean is, in essence, the sounds, the monsters, the atmosphere and the design, it roars at you, the best way to explain this quickly is by this example, when you enter the menu, you don't see fog with silent, beatiful and creepy music in the background, what many other horror games do. Instead, you see a barely lit doorway with an almost daemonic darkness surrounding it. The music is loud, screaming, hellish, doomtastic. The rest of the game has small moments of "subtlety" but for most parts, it's this, not the melancholic empty Silent Hill in SH2. But something cosmic, most of Amnesia bombards you with things to fear, wether it's the darkness itself, or monsters, it doesn't matter.

The devs somewhat said it themselves in the commentary, at the front hall (the part with the fountain, can't remember the name.) They say that it's a small area to calm down in.