Things that would have made Amnesia scarier

[Unreal]

Post whatever ideas you think would have made Amnesia even scarier.


In the dungeon, the player enters a cell. If the player doesn't close the door, the door will quietly close by itself. And locks. A silent monster walks up and looks in. Never makes a noise. Just stares for a moment then walks on. Then the door unlocks and slowly swings open.

Mysterious shadows of monsters and people as the player walks around quiet areas. No monster there, just the creepy shadow moving on the wall for a second.

[mattwestwick]

I don't want to.

It's pretty scary as it is.

[Urrah]

You want to make it scarier? You, sir, are a braver man than I.

Seriously though, I don't think I'd change anything. Any more scares and the player would become desensitised, any less and the player would be too comfortable.

[Unreal]

There is always room for improvement. If Amnesia is perfect, then Frictional has no where to go but down in their next game


A few more pictures that change when you go insane would be great. Much like the painting at the top of the (i forget the name) room opposite of the Choir, at the top of the spiral stairs. I saw that and was like OMFGWJEOGJGOAJGIZOZRUNRUNRUNRUNRUN!!

A room where the player is trapped with a monster until he figures out how to escape. I'm mostly referring to a recreation of the computer room in Penumbra Black Plague. Already uneasy from the guy sawing off his hand, then a monster comes after me and I can't escape. That single scene was a little bit scarier than any single moment in Amnesia (though, of course, Amnesia was much scarier overall).

[TheLittleGarfield]

Maybe they didn't want to repeat the scares we had in Penumbra

[Crafter]

Would have been scarier if the water monsters show their forms out of the water when they attack you.

A monster inside a closet that you open... oh man i was expecting that sooo many times, expecting it just makes it scarier.

That is all....

[Shanksworthy]

Here are three things I thought of which would have increased the fear factor for me:

1. Near the beginning, there are some paintings with curtains over them. It would have been freaky if walking close to them would trigger an event where suddenly the curtains would start to take the form of extended arms as a creature slowly immerged from behind it.

2. Similar to #1, you could have a room full of statues that are covered with sheets, only one of them is not a statue. (shudder)

3. At another point near the beginning of the game, there was a hallway lined with statues of knights. At one point I was staring into a dark room, and you could see just the silouette of a knight standing there. It was the freakiest thing, and I hesitated to go in there because I wondered if it was just a creature standing perfectly still and just waiting. I would have shat myself if it had lunged at me when I came close.

The latter two suggestions use the mechanism of lulling you into a false sense of security by making you think that what you're looking at is something else. I find that to be a very effective scare tactic.

[Culinus]

Would have been scarier if the water monsters show their forms out of the water when they attack you.

I really disagree with this. I think the scariest part is definitely the unknown, and the most memorable and enjoyable parts of the game was all the walking around expecting something horrifying to happen. Personally I didn't find being chased by monsters to be the most frightening, the anticipation was the worst (best) part.

And what I really love about the game design is how dumb / incompetent the monsters are. The fact that you can just about always escape from one (if playing properly) just makes you panic every time you bump in to one rather then just thinking "ooh well". And the hard part is of course to conduct any form of rational thinking when you're panicking and running for your life, and instead you end up trying to open the damn door 5-6 times unsuccessfully. Clearly it's not only the monster that's incompetent.

And to get back on topic of how to actually make it more scary; I'd say to work up a bit more to the moments when you're gonna face the monsters. Of course you can't do it every time since that will make people anticipate when they're gonna encounter one, but for example: Say that first you open a closet and something falls out towards you (skeleton, body... or something more normal), then you open a door and some form of a trap goes off just missing you. Then you proceed to open another door and you find a monster there facing away from you, doesn't actually notice you opening the door (this door could be silent for once). So by this time I'm guessing your heart would be racing, and you have to close the door silently, slamming it would make the monster aware of your presence and lunge at you.

Another thing that would have made an improvement on the game would have been to not actually have the monsters despawn. Or if it's a vital part of the level, have them at least reappear from time to time. I'm not 100% sure but it seemed like the monsters only patrolled a certain route in the instance and then despawned when it was done, or maybe he just completed the damn level before me every time

But again, the most frightening wasn't actually the monsters, it was the small things, like the paintings and the sounds from the torture chambers.

[hollowleviathan]

2. Similar to #1, you could have a room full of statues that are covered with sheets, only one of them is not a statue. (shudder)

So you've played Bioshock?

[Tottel]

Unreal: The things you describe have been done so many times already. It's just not creepy anymore. ^^

I think Amnesia is just as close to perfection as it can get.