How do you feel during a chase?

[Diz]

When I played The Dark Descent, I kept having a feeling as if the place was haunted and that I was not alone, but ever since I saw a silhouette staggering about, and especially after the water part, I had a growing feeling inside me which kept dragging me further into my own nightmare. The fact that I was a wreck, helpless and had no means of self defense in the game made me so terrified to press on, and I always wanted to be as silent and slow as possible, to see if I was alone and to make sure it stayed that way. Thinking about what I would do if a gatherer actually noticed my presence, it never even occured to me prior to a chase. It would have to be something to instinctively figure out there and then, because just seeing something out there would clear my mind and fill it with terror.

During unlucky or unfortunate situations, something would find me, and that screeching terror effect would freeze me up. Either I would stand still for some seconds, being unable to do anything, or I would turn around the very instant and just run. And I would never ever feel safe enough to consider hiding. No, I would just run for ages and be certain I had outrun whatever was after me.

During a chase, the nightmare feeling came to life. I am entirely helpless, my only utility and safety is to be silent and careful, and during a chase, all of that suddenly vanished, so I would just entirely panic. No thoughts, no ideas, no stopping and no barrier between the game and myself. Just sheer terror.

If I actually did manage to find a hiding spot, I would just freeze entirely up, listen closely to any sound, beg for the gatherer not to find me. This is also where I feel the music matches the psyche perfectly, especially for the grunt. The ambience goes really silent, and you can hear rhythmic pounding in the background, similar to what is heard in the brute's soundtrack, but much weaker and faint, as if your heart is about to stop and you are about to just fall over, until it gives up investigation and looks for you elsewhere, at which point I feel relieved yet realize how close I was to having a heart attack.

I disagree. Have you played Penumbra Black Plague? It has not special monster theme and it's still scary as hell. And there's actually less jump scares than in Amnesia.

Penumbra: Black Plague has a fixed set of soundtrack which plays whenever a creature is in the near and when it is chasing you, both. Some of them may be scripted, but you can find them in one of the Penumbra folders. Example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOSnRBGk_yA

On the topic of having soundtrack in the game, for many, including myself, soundtrack is very important. It adds atmosphere and feelings, and it gives a sense of as to what may be around. In Amnesia, the various creepy monster soundtracks would sometimes not go away until you actually went out and investigated the halls, making sure yourself that nothing was prevailing. This reflects nicely with the fact that you never really know whether something is there or not until you check it out. I am sure Penumbra did this as well, for instance, sometimes adding one of these tracks without reason or right before something did happen.

Music helps create emotions and feelings, terror included, so in my opinion, removing music potentially removes some of the additional terror that otherwise could be achieved. I also think that it is of good help regarding limiting the barrier between the player and the game. =)