A good chance to brush up before the sequel
It’s not too late to (re)discover Amnesia: The Dark Descent – especially when it’s free to keep.
The survival horror adventure has taken on a life of its own since its original PC release in 2010. You don’t need to have played Amnesia to know (roughly) what it’s about, why it got so popular, or how it influenced the genre for years. Many of us greatly prefer Frictional Games’ 2015 underwater sci-fi horror game Soma over the original Amnesia, but it still deserves recognition. It’s a gaming icon.
It’s been a few years for me, but I’m pretty confident the “run away from horrible sanity-shattering monsters before it’s too late” format still works in 2020. Maybe it’s not quite as potent nowadays – the graphics don’t hold up as well as they used to – but the paranoid tension should be there in spades.
With a sequel coming later this year in time for the tenth anniversary, a revisit might be in order soon. If you never managed to snag a PC copy of Amnesia: The Dark Descent, it’s free today on the Epic Games Store along with Crashlands, a crafting-centric action-RPG about a stranded galactic trucker.
The two games will be claimable until Thursday, May 7, at which point the next free game deal on the Epic Games Store – Death Coming, a twisted puzzle title inspired by Final Destination – will kick in.
As for Amnesia: Rebirth, I’m so stoked. Here’s the quote to remember from creative director Thomas Grip: “In horror, repetition is a deadly sin. You need to keep players on their toes at all times. We’ve had to twist expectations, refine old features, and up the ante on everything you’ve seen from us.”
We’re in good hands. And by that I mean we’re totally screwed. Don’t turn around.
