My Impressions...to the victor goes the SPOILERS!

[Crabski]

I plan to write out a similar post tomorrow detailing my personal thoughts, but I'd like to say that I agree to a degree. While I personally enjoyed the more 'cinematic' presentation of the notes/visions/etc (the flashbacks were awesome! The 'ritual' sequence was very well done), there is still a major problem with the storyline in their games: (LONG POST BELOW)

Spoiler below!

there isn't enough of it! It's always been a personal gripe that Frictional's characters always are well-imagined (and the writing is superb!), but there are never enough ancillary notes and supporting text detailing the character arc to really sink me into the game. For instance, in Amnesia, the major character arc that the story follows is Daniel's rediscovery of his past. It's an interesting journey of morality, but the amount of time spent on it in-game is not nearly enough. Basically, what I feel like the notes should have conveyed about Daniel would be something like this (every point having at least a couple diary entrees and several misc. notes surrounding the events, possibly from other characters' perspective):

1. Past, living and working in London; discovery of the orb in Africa
2. Return to London, ominous feelings; trouble sleeping
3. Obsession with the orb, correspondence with Alexander; friends and contacts meeting gruesome ends
4. Travel, meeting Alexander; staying in the castle
5. The dreams get worse, full access to the castle is denied; servants refuse to talk about the Baron
6. Learning about the orbs and the shadow; creeping feeling about the Baron, his skulking servants, and the castle
7. Discovery of prisoners! Daniel ponders the morality of the whole thing and thinks about them often; views on Alexander are tainted. Here the girl (the "get away from me!" girl) should have been introduced as a named(!) sympathetic character.
8. Alexander reveals the full brutality of the rituals, Daniel accepts the selfish necessity painfully, and worries about the girl. The shadow gets closer.
9. Daniel begins performing the rituals himself with Alexander as his mentor. Desensitization. Anger at the prisoners. Hollowness. Daniel's nightmares start slipping into his reality as a consequence. Madness. The shadow feels inescapable. Daniel's thoughts drift away from the girl and toward his work.
10. The girl escapes, and Daniel chases her down and kills her like a dog. He is thrown into despair. Begins hating Alexander. Can no longer grasp reality firmly.
11. Drinks the Amnesia drink to quell his tormented thoughts and horrible dreams. Events of the game begin.

This basic storyline is just a quick example of what a fully fleshed out character arc could look like. This one would be a painful journey of emotional discovery, pitting Daniel's fear against his morality (have to do terrible things to survive). It would have two diverse and interesting support characters in the Baron (mysterious, cold, withdrawn. He is intent on surviving no matter the cost to others. He is helpful towards Daniel but his motives are ultimately unknown. etc) and the girl (15 year old farm girl who was abducted by Wilhelm along with her mother. Naive, selfless, scared. Daniel takes pity on her but doesn't form a real relationship with her out of fear toward the whole thing. Her main role in the story would be as the catalyst for Daniel's breakdown after she escapes through that hole in the floor in the prison).

Instead of that, the game's story goes more like this:

1. Past, living and working in London; discovery of the orb in Africa
2. Return to London, ominous feelings; trouble sleeping
3. Obsession with the orb, correspondence with Alexander; friends and contacts meeting gruesome ends
4. Travel, meeting Alexander; staying in the castle
5. Learning about the orbs and the shadow; creeping feeling about the Baron, his skulking servants, and the castle
6. Daniel discovers the prisoners, hates them based on Alexander's lies. Briefly thinks (in ONE note) about whether it's right.
7. Daniel begins performing the rituals. Desensitization.
8. Hunts and kills the (largely unestablished) girl. Is thrown into despair, and hates Alexander(for... some reason). Drinks the Amnesia drink and the events of the game begin.

The important and scary parts of this story are largely ignored (most briefly touched upon in 1 part notes later on), and there is no character development for anyone but Daniel. Weyer and Agrippa are thrown in as ancillary characters with confusing or non-existent motives (Who is Weyer??? What is Agrippa's connection to all this, and who is he? Why is Daniel helping him?). Alexander has basically no role in the story despite being the main antagonist; the player is left to decide whether to hate him for what he's done or not, but is not given any info with which to decide.

Still, the thing that Amnesia does well is fear, and there's plenty of that. I would have liked to see a little more story woven in though, because I feel like survival horror in general is really weakened by not having a really strong story behind it. Either way I still put Frictional and their games miles above most games these days for even daring to inspire thoughts like these