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.