Thank you, Frictional Games

[Adeno]

Hello, I'm Adeno, a lover of all things horror! May it be movies, tv shows, comic books, books, or games, if it's horror, then I want to experience it! Anyway, I just tried the demo and after experiencing it the first time, I knew already that this was a game that I'll be buying.

You know, I never really paid attention to Penumbra and Amnesia before, probably because I never had the chance to read or see them in action before. I never even got to read any reviews about them because I never heard about them before. One day, while doing a little horror gaming broadcast on justin tv playing Fatal Frame 4, one of the viewers asked me if I was going to play Amnesia. I didn't know what it was so he said it's like Penumbra. I asked him what Penumbra's all about. He told me he didn't want to spoil the stuff for me and he suggested for me to just watch a trailer or two on youtube. I just continued playing and I was focused on finishing Fatal Frame 4 first.

A few days went by and I've completely forgotten about Amnesia. While checking out about the latest news on Dead Rising 2 (I'm also waiting for this!) on the GameFaqs pc forum, one poster mentioned Amnesia as being a "real horror" compared to Dead Rising 2. Of course I already knew that games such as Dead Rising, Resident Evil, and even Dino Crisis have become more of action games than horror games. I was intrigued so I checked a trailer for Amnesia on youtube.

As I watched the trailer for Amnesia, I suddenly formed a smile. It gave a creepy feeling. There was an air of mystery. The sound actually played a part in the environment. Effective use of shadows and lighting was in the trailer. Fear was also present. While the person in the trailer was searching the dark halls, something screamed next door. The door suddenly busted open and the weird animalistic sound was getting louder. The person quickly ran back, away from the incoming threat and hid in a room. He knew that whatever it was, it won't stop looking for him. A nearby table was pulled and placed in front of the door as reinforcement, even to buy him just enough time to let him find another hiding spot. A cabinet was spotted and he quickly hid inside. The sound from the scary source drew near, and the door was being bashed until it was broken into by whatever it was. Peeking through the hiding place revealed a short glimpse of what seemed to be an angry humanoid. It was a monster. Quickly, the person closed the cabinet in order to not gain any unwanted attention. A few moments passed and the sound from the monster went away. He left his hiding place to continue to explore, but the sounds from the hall indicate that he still wasn't safely free.

The trailer alone already imparted the emotions effectively that a player should feel while playing the game. It was very good with advertising the horror theme of the game. I knew at once that it was just like what others have told me, "true horror".

I'm just glad that there are developers that still exist today who know the meaning of horror. Fear is one of the hardest emotions to instill in people. Happiness, sadness, irritation, they're a lot easier to put into effect in a game. Super Mario Brothers is known for its fun factor and care free feel. A lot of RPG games such as Final Fantasy can give you the feeling of sadness as you learn the lonely background of the characters that you meet in the game. Irritation is probably the easiest feeling to give to gamers. Just make a badly planned game with horrible controls and bad glitches and you've got a bunch of irritated gamers.

For fear, it is very easy to say "It's just a game", and people wouldn't feel afraid anymore. You might be surrounded by thousands of zombies, but you're like superman, you can carry benches as if they were pillows and plow zombies into bloody bits with a swing. You might be hounded by a bunch of jurassic period behemoths who want to feed you to their hatchlings, yet you've got a giant laser gun that turns them instantly into glorified hams. You might be in a house full of vengeful spirits, but you've got one godly camera to trap them forever in film. It is very difficult to make gamers feel fear, as it is one of the most rejected emotions of the human mind.

In order to make a game truly scary, one has to understand how the human mind works. Fear, although it should be undermined by logic, has the ability to overcome rationality with the proper set of variables. These sets of variables are what Frictional Games has gotten just right. They have studied well how normal humans would react during certain situations. One of the best ways to break a person's courage is by breaking his rationality. The game is good with this by making the player feel as if there's always a threat that could pop up from anywhere, especially since strange sounds could be heard. The more a player is exposed to the feeling of anxiety, the unknown, the more possible it is for the player to commit mistakes. When mistakes are being done under pressure, that's when fear grows stronger. The summation of being pursued, the unsettling environment, the eerie sounds, they all contribute to making this game a true horror game, something that you will actually fear.

Good job and congratulations to Frictional Games for creating one great quality horror pc game! Let's hope you make more horror!