Research on "who" you felt like in Amnesia

[FlawlessHappiness]

For the main question:

No, i was playing as myself, but in Daniels body.

The story is made like that!
You wake up in a place, you don't know what is (Because of the Amnesia Elixir).
You are not acting like Daniel, because you don't know how Daniel acts at all. Daniel has to make a new self because of the Amnesia. And that's you!

[Bridge]

I was playing pretty much myself the entire game, but there is an interesting duality that emerges between the old and "new" Daniel. Because of the amnesia mixture, Daniel wakes up pretty much a blank template that you can fill into in any way you wish. As the game progresses and you learn more about Daniel, it's not really like the game is forcing his personality on you, but more like you are learning about another person altogether. The pre-amnesia Daniel did what he did under completely different circumstances and the new Daniel can really only act on instinct (which gives the player a lot of room for his own opinions).

I really disagree with the hidden game mechanic that keeps track of how "evil" you are (seeing how torture devices work is purely out of curiosity - they were clearly empty) and decides whether some sister that is only briefly mentioned lives or dies. I think it's unnecessary and quite black and white, then again I disliked the multiple endings to Amnesia as well, which I found to be incredibly weak. The only person I've discussed the game with at length is my nephew and we both agreed that we had imagined a different scenario when the note in the beginning said: "Go to the Inner Sanctum, find Alexander and kill him". It sounds so dark and brutal. When I hear a sentence like that I imagined going to the Inner Sanctum (which I imagined to be something more like a large library), killing Alexander which is totally helpless and the game just ends. Personally I find the whole knocking down pillars/throwing a severed head into a portal really ruins the entire atmosphere of the game. I know Amnesia doesn't really support NPCs, but I would have been totally fine with a cutscene or anything apart from the ending we got. I know it would have taken a lot of rewrites but I don't think Alexander being some kind of alien from another dimension is interesting at all, and it really ruins the great premise the intro sets up. Anyway, that's the game and it was excellent, but that's my opinion. Something to think about perhaps.

[felixmole]

I felt like I was myself in the castle all the way. As in any FPS game I play, I try to lie low as soon as anything suspect happens and I'm not able to protect myself; I'm not the kind of person that goes straight ahead to the danger to fight it. Don't see how I could consciously become Daniel if the game is all about immersion.

I didn't feel that I was any responsible for all the atrocities Daniel committed, but I didn't put the blame on him, since they were somewhat understandable as he wasn't aware of the very high level of trickery was was victim of. So yes, I feel I am still attached to Daniel, although I see him as an entire other person.

[Macgyverthehero]

When I played the game I kept shifting in feeling who I was, either as myself, or Daniel.

I felt sorry for Daniel at many times in the game, because it seemed more like he was once brainwashed into torturing innocent prisoners, and the death of the little girl.

[Cranky Old Man]

As always, with an FPS game, it's a blend: I'm playing the game, and also playing the character. I tried to relate to Daniel as much as possible.
...but it's easier to relate when you're not doing something at the moment. When you flee, you're not Daniel. When you try to figure out a puzzle, you're not Daniel. When you explore a peaceful environment, you COULD relate to Daniel. When you're reading, you're most often Daniel.
This is why I find Daniels gasps a little annoying: He's distracting me by stealing my fear in the most tense moments, and often he's overreacting too. I'm a pretty stern man, so I think this about every other man, but I often went "WHA-! Wait, who's gasping? Oh, that's right - I'm playing a big Pussy.".

As I played, I didn't trust that the protagonist was Daniel at all. I had seen glimpses that revealed that the endings were named after different characters in the game, before beating the game, and figured that my sanity/actions would determine who I turned out to have been all along, in the end. Maybe it was Alexander who drank the Amnesia potion for some reason. Maybe Daniel tricked him, and tried to make him hate himself by seeing things from his perspective, maybe enough to kill himself. Maybe the final journal entry would have been Daniels suicide note. ...or maybe I was this "Agrippa" character, who sounded like Alexanders girl.

Many key elements to the story, is written in the loading screens, and if I remember correctly, you only have a very limited time to read them, and they change each time too. You also have to puzzle the pieces together. In a way, that's a good thing, but if you lack a character motivation, you can't relate. Some things (like the significance of the innocent girl, or what boy was beating on what boy) didn't fall into place until long after I had beaten the game.

[Earthykiller127]

ugh. well at first the only thing i wanted to hear is "I'm Daniel" and: "The shadow is hunting me"
after that i got through the game as myself, then when i need to do something obvious or that daniel has found something i would do it, except if i had found an other way

---

with an FPS game

Amnesia? a First Person Shooter?

[Cranky Old Man]

ugh. well at first the only thing i wanted to hear is "I'm Daniel" and: "The shadow is hunting me"
after that i got through the game as myself, then when i need to do something obvious or that daniel has found something i would do it, except if i had found an other way

---

with an FPS game

Amnesia? a First Person Shooter?

You mean you didn't find the hidden rocket launcher? How did you manage to kill Alexander without it?

[Googolplex]

Hello Thomas, that's a very interesting and problematic poll.

After playing Penumbra first, I understand how to immerse myself in the game and not Philip. The problem of Amnesia are primary the missed player thoughts, where you can examine objects in Penumbra and thinking more about the environment. And secondary the bad written texts. For example:

"Follow the liquid trail and find its source."

"Find the key for the Wine Cellar."

"Search for another way around the barred gate."

"Repair the machine powering the eastern bridge."


The problem is that this texts are not immersing. They are not written by the player himself, they are written by a third person or a computer. That seems more like "hints" instead of player thoughts.

In Penumbra this texts would call:

"Seems like a liquid trail, perhaps I should follow it and find its source?"

"I think, the Wine Cellar door won't be open without the key."

"Hmm, the barred gate is locked, I should search for another way around."

"The eastern bridge is not working, I have to repair the machinery."


That's just an example. Because of that I felt more like "Daniel is" instead of "I am".
It's amazing how just the texts can change the feeling. In Amnesia it was more "You are" and not "I am". I really missed the immersing formulation of Penumbra.

This is why I revised german language file to make Amnesia more immersing, like we know that of Penumbra.

I really hope, your future projects (including AMFP) will have text formulation like Penumbra and not like Amnesia.

Thanks
Googolplex

[Cranky Old Man]

I know that it's really hard to make a triple A game, but ideally, those journal entries could have been acted out in cutscenes, as flashbacks of memories. Instead of having a past Daniel being read to him, the player could experience those situations first hand. First experiences are always the best, because they connect directly to the player, and is up to the player to relate to. Journal entries are fine, though, but it's weird how almost all of them are from Daniel.

[failedALIAS]

I know that it's really hard to make a triple A game, but ideally, those journal entries could have been acted out in cutscenes, as flashbacks of memories. Instead of having a past Daniel being read to him, the player could experience those situations first hand. First experiences are always the best, because they connect directly to the player, and is up to the player to relate to. Journal entries are fine, though, but it's weird how almost all of them are from Daniel.

I think they might've been purposefully setting distance between the old Daniel and the current one, so that the player could better discover and ponder the mysteries of the Castle in efforts to uncover who they once were; essentially in the same position of the protagonist. You're supposed to feel connected -- not to the past Daniel, but to the current Daniel, who is nothing more than someone confused, frightened, and lost trying to make sense of what's happening; the position they were hoping to place the player in.