Amnesia killed the horror genre

[Hunter of Shadows]

That's because, imho, most of the market thinks horror = blood and sudden spooks. And not psychologically created tension and immersion. No one but Amnesia's team seems to have "gotten" that it's entirely about the 2nd. Amnesia makes you afraid when absolutely nothing is around threatening you... constantly.

Well yes, but I find it's less of that, and that the developers have a less refined understanding of what horror really is, and end up bypassing fear and terror completely, Dead Space for example, is definitely and utterly horrifying, but it has no 'fear factor' at all. I have never had any horror game evoke the flight or fight response.

Amnesia hasn't killed the horror genre, it has moved beyond it, it has taken horror genre, being a relatively new kid on the block so to speak, with horror games and shown us what true horror really is.

Other horror games are what I'd equate to children's toys, not that they're toys you'd ever give to actual children god forbid, but in the sense that they give us a feel of what horror is, but not the full scope of what horror is.

Amnesia gives us a much better feel of what real horror is, it doesn't just horrify and repulse, it terrifies, that is as Stephen King describe, to be the finest of all the emotions when it comes to the horror genre, other horror games only demonstrate how to horrify and repulse(and sometimes they don't even accomplish that).

Amnesia shows us that something we know isn't real, and is just a game, can terrify you. Except for some boring people I know who apparently aren't scared by ANYTHING, though personally I feel this is more due to a little bit of insanity then anything else...

I'm probably sounding extremely condescending and patronizing, and with a helping of arrogance as well, while being dead wrong, but a lot of what you're seeing here is part of what I've done a lot of thinking into. I started playing Amnesia, when I heard that it was the scariest thing ever made, because I've been playing and reading horror trying to understand what part of our psyche enjoys it so much, and to understand the fear response a little bit better.

And until I encountered Amnesia, I had frequently been disappointed, horror games managed to startle me yes, and they are actually often TERRIFYING...if you imagine yourself in that person's shoes, and that can take a bit of effort, not so with Amnesia. Amnesia manages to immerse yourself into Daniel's shoes quite well, and often you sit there and go "Fuck Daniel's sanity, what about MINE!?"

You can relate to him, he's an ordinary guy, who's managed to get involved with some unpleasant stuff, if you think about it, what's so horrifying for me with Daniel's story, is that it's possible to relate it to real life stuff, where someone could feel pressured to do things that are ethically questionable, if not downright ethically wrong.

Yet despite the utter failure of developers in most other games to create a 'true' horror experience, Frictional has come through, in a shining(or not so shining example depending on your preference) example of what true horror is.

Bravo Frictional, bravo.