Things that would have made Amnesia scarier

[reehone]

In my opinion, a lot more could have been done with the health effects. It sorta felt unrealistic that Daniel could regenerate health so fast and so often, it would be more challenging/scary if Daniel could only regenerate health once or twice upon entering a different area. I was thinking something like when Daniel reaches "barely conscious/bleeding badly" state, the player should see blood dripping (would scare the hell out of me, personally) from where they are standing or when the lantern is used, the arm would have a large gash and the shirt would be bloodstained and when they are walking you can see drops of blood fall on the ground, almost making a trail of blood drops that maybe the gatherers could follow? Or, alternatively, the gatherers should be able to hear Daniel's heavy breathing when he is nearby the monster.

Just my 2cents

[Welsh cake]

SMALL SPOILER - LOOK AWAY IF YOU'RE AN IDIOT AND HAVEN'T PLAYED THE GAME YET.


You defeat the baron's plot the Revenge Ending and flee. Daniel reflects upon his purgatory, when suddenly a skinless Alexander, half-digested by the Shadow, starts chasing after you as you try to escape Brennenburg in the Revenge Ending.

I can imagine it, and holy crap, it could've added to the experience. It would be akin to hiding from that bloody insane Malo from the Justine expansion pack. T___T

[Faravid]

More "silent" stuff that will play with your mind.. not monsters growling and running after you but.. paintings that will keep staring at you or switch places.. statues or something that will move when you look away (yeah, weeping angels!) and stuff like that

[theDARKW0LF]

I don't want to.

It's pretty scary as it is.

I wish I could say the same... Making mods for the game reveals all the ways in which the game works to scare you - which means no more surprises, and as a result, no more scares... I do wish the game had code that could make events unscripted, yet still retain the amount of scariness that it has when scripted. Like in a similar fashion along the lines of BF3 gameplay, where events are so amazing and seemingly scripted, but completely unscripted.

Maybe Frictional would just need to hire more programmers or work harder at the code for such a thing to come into being, I dunno, but I'd love it!

[SunAndMoonProductions]

Welshcake: Holy crap, that would have been awesome! so many people probably would have cried in fear because they finally thought that they were safe and then-BAM, something else is after 'em! >D

I think that it would have been scary if you had really horrible hallucinations when you went insane. That way people would have been really afraid to run out of oil. I also think that it would have been really scary if there was no music that plays when the monsters are searching for you and that way you never know if they are gone or if they are still hunting for you. But then, that can easily be changed be going into the game files. :/

But I really think that Amnesia is scary enough.

[SilentKilla78]

Pretty much the only thing I want more of, is the things like that cabinet full of skulls. That scared the hell out of me. I was all peaceful, and not alert because I knew there were no monsters in that area, and then when I opened the door it freaked the hell out of me. Another thing is when you get the cured blood, and right as your leaving the room, a monster bangs on the door and the camera like focuses on it... jesus that was scary D:

[StudMuffin]

One of the major factors that added to the fear factor of amnesia was the fear of the unknown. I felt that if every encounter was with a slightly different monster it may have made the game slightly more scary however I don't think you can add much more to the game.

[xdeath]

There are a few things for me that are important.
First is the protagonist. The main protagonist must be someone players can identify with. To feel empathy and sympathy. It also makes the player want to keep the character alive. Daniel is good in most cases, but in order to make it better. I'd suggest a young female character.
The gamer audience is getting older, but most are young or can remember being young.
I don't want to come across as sexist, but a female character removes that whole "balls-of-steel", macho BS.
People expect young men, like Daniel, to be strong and brave. It's a society thing.

Increase the uncertainty by:

• Random Monster Spawns
• And just general Random events. There are a lot of great examples in this thread.

My third relates to my first somewhat. Self Mutilation.
I heard a lot of players found the part in Heavy Rain, where the character cuts his own finger off was incredibly uncomfortable. I found the part in Dead Space 2, where you have to stick a needle in Isaacs eye very uncomfortable as well.
If you can make the player properly identify with the character. Self mutilation scenes can be very effective.

Lastly, general weirdness.
Having imagery or sounds that are weird can greatly unnerve the player.
This type of thing has to seemingly have no logical basis.
Silent Hill series does this very effectively. The monsters are freaking weird.

[soulsweeper]

There are a few things for me that are important.
First is the protagonist. The main protagonist must be someone players can identify with. To feel empathy and sympathy. It also makes the player want to keep the character alive. Daniel is good in most cases, but in order to make it better. I'd suggest a young female character.
The gamer audience is getting older, but most are young or can remember being young.
I don't want to come across as sexist, but a female character removes that whole "balls-of-steel", macho BS.
People expect young men, like Daniel, to be strong and brave. It's a society thing.

That's an interesting point. I agree that there's certainly more pressure on males, but I doubt that changing protagonist's gender would really help with the issue you've mentioned. People are just used to assuming a role of total badass in their games, including female characters. Some players find it very appealing and don't want to try different approach. They might learn to enjoy the game anyway, but they're not the main target of Amnesia and I hope their tastes won't influence too many design decisions in future games. Not that I'd mind playing a female character, I enjoyed Justine and I'm a woman myself.

I thought Amnesia was pretty scary already, but if I had to change something, I'd try to make game mechanics less obvious and monsters' senses a little bit sharper. Now you can get pretty close to them, as long as it's dark. They're not even alarmed by Daniel's loud breathing and gasping. It took me a while to discover this, since I usually tried to put as much distance as possible between me and monsters and didn't really feel like testing them, but eventually it became obvious that I didn't have to be THAT careful.

More penalty for losing sanity would've been nice as well.

[Zaffre]

Sorry for resurrecting this; I didn't realize the post date.