Outlast

[Adrianis]

Thanks man that's a really good explanation, interesting to see a totally different take on it.

From what I've seen in Thomas Grips GDC presentations, they put a lot of effort into trying to make sure people don't die in Amnesia, working from the assumption that death and the necessary repetition / trial & error situation that creates is a huge factor in reducing the sense of presence, and therefore the level of fear you experience.

That certainly matched up to my feelings, dying in either DS game turned it into a mechanical challenge, i.e. checking the timing & where enemies were coming in from & what weapons to use when, so i could get it right, rather than the initial shock reaction and not knowing what to do. By contrast in Amnesia the fact that you never repeat a chase sequence or get trapped by the same enemy again kept me guessing, so I couldn't analyses & make plans, and that scared the shit out of me. I get comfortable with a system I can understand & predict, and I just couldn't do that with Amnesia, DS2 on the other hand I found it easy to do that, because the formula was the same as the first

You having the complete opposite reaction, therefore, is good to know

Apologies for the off-topic everyone