Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Probably one of the best horror games of all time. I finished this game not too long ago and can safely say that it is a stellar experience! The game's atmosphere combined with the puzzles and story really scratches that horror itch that I've been having. Even though it is very different in many ways, this game reminds me of one of my favourite horror games, Outlast. The chase sequences are probably the most nerver wracking. And if you do decide to buy this game, be warned! It will make the hairs on your neck stand upright!

100% percent recommended, buy it now!!!!

fahking barrels, allways the goddamn barrels i get killed because of them. stupid barrels, they betrayed me they blew my cover... I HATE BARRELS!. the game itself is perfect lol go buy now

Hasta el momento es el juego de terror que más incómodo me ha hecho sentir, su atmósfera es extremadamente opresiva, los sonidos ambientales y los sonidos de gamplays son excelentes, me encanta que no expongan demasiado a los enemigos, porque cuando aparecen demasiado se vuelven aburridos, pero aquí aparecen lo justo y necesario. Este juego es excelente, se lo recomiendo a cualquier amante de los juegos de terror, porque es de los mejores que he jugado.

A classic of a the genre and a masterpiece. That it's based on H.P. Lovecraft is a plus.
Everything works: The atmosphere, story, sound design and effects, graphics and the scare factor.
Play it without a guide or anything else of the sort for the first time.

I will say that it isn't perfect. It's a bit of a glorified walking sim, there aren't enough puzzles between and they are on the easier side. You will also wise up the game tricks eventually. Check out hard mode for a truly terrifying and difficult experience.

One of the scariest games of all time!
The atmosphere, background noises, and monsters are always gets your adrenaline pumping for sure!
If you haven't played this games yet then what are you doing when it comes to playing horror games? This is an absolute treasure!

Stealthy horror game. While the horror is a step up from Penumbra I think the puzzles and the interactivity is a lot worse in general. My biggest gripe is that so many of the monster encounters are resolved by just sitting in a corner for a few seconds until the enemy despawns.

this may be the worst game ive ever played. i hate this game so much that words cant describe it. i spent a dollar on it and i will never touch it again. i wouldnt touch this game with a ten foot pole. get it away from me

I'm not a fan of these pacifist escape room walking simulator horror games. This type of horror really isn't my taste. I'm more of the evil within, resident evil, silent hill, and dead space type. If you're like me, don't waste your time investing into this game because you will be bored. Amnesia is built for a specific crowd in the horror genre. I'm not apart of that crowd, and I'm not going to force myself to try to be.

What an incredible experience... The story, the horror and brutality, even the somewhat dated graphics seem to add to the sense of eeriness, of being a stranger in a castle that seems to hate you. The Dark Descent managed to strike a perfect balance between being scary and being entertaining, which (in my opinion) not many horror games manage to achieve. I recommend that you go into this game as blind as possible, just figure it out yourself. It is easily one of my favorite games I've ever played.

perfect balance between horror, puzzle, survival.

One of my favorite atmospheric horror games. This game is slower paced, not for everybody, but it really delivers to those who immerse themselves in the game.

One of my all time favorite games due to its charm and story. if I were to make a proper review of the things I liked, I'd write my own damn bible- Unfortunately, my keys would give out halfway.

Absolutely terrifying and oozing with ambiance.

Strongly regret not getting this game sooner, it's still an incredibly spooky and immersive experience 14 years later.

An all time classic horror game that is still thoroughly frightening well over a decade after it's initial release. The incredibly detailed audiovisual design in this game creates a consistently immersive and harrowing experience. The bone chilling macabre soundtrack is mostly composed of haunting ambient noises and constantly chips away at your nerve throughout the whole game which means you always feel on edge.

The level design and environments are surprisingly varied for a survival horror game. The game takes place in an enormous gothic castle with many different segments. Some areas feel intensely claustrophobic and force you down narrow corridors while making you continuously fearful of what might be around the next corner. Others feel impossibly massive and drown you in huge amounts of eerily empty liminal space. There are even some light platforming puzzles in a few areas.

However, what all of these different levels have in common is that they instill a deep sense of isolation and dread within the player. Most places in the game are extremely dark and can only be dimly lit by certain items that the player has access to (such as tinderboxes and lanterns). However, light can be a double edged sword in this game due to the monsters and the infamous sanity mechanic.

The monsters are attracted to the light and if the player looks at the monsters then their "sanity" will lower which can cause horrifying hallucinations and even death if it gets too low. What makes the sanity mechanic even more dangerous is that the player's sanity will also lower if they remain in total darkness for too long.

This forces the player into a delicate balancing act of trying not to spend too much time in dark areas but also not lingering in areas that are too bright lest they attract unwanted attention. Moreover, the player not being able to directly look at the monsters plays on the fear of the unknown and what you don't see which greatly amplifies the terror. The combination of all of these game mechanics working together creates an extremely suspenseful and daunting environment in which the player never feels safe no matter where they are.

The story of Amnesia is also worth mentioning for being a masterclass in creating a gripping mystery that is gradually revealed to the player through gameplay in ways that feel organic. The story is clearly heavily inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft and contains some very disturbing lore that the player can uncover through various handwritten notes and documents strewn about the castle.

Overall, this game still definitely holds up as an unforgettable survival horror experience. I can confidently say it's scarier than most horror games on the market today. In addition, the story has many complex themes and ideas that are well beyond most games in this genre. If you have even a passing interest in the horror genre then I would reccomend that you give this game a try. You won't be dissapointed.

the spooky factor is a little wasted on me but mechanically this game is freaking awesome and the atmosphere is just a notch above any horror game ive ever played

It's been over a decade since I first played this game.
To see how well it aged, I decided to get it here on Steam.

Oh boy, it's just as terrifying as the first time, even tho I already have an idea of when some of the scares are gonna pop up
It's the first run-and-hide horror game I ever played, and so far, it's still the best!
I wish new horror players wouldn't overlook this game, it's way better than Outlast imo.

This is a classic for a reasons. So good, so much deeply unsettling things happening in this house. Rare case where the written horror (best in class btw) surpasses the jumpscares.

One of the scariest games I have ever played. The game may be fairly old, but the atmosphere is still chilling. I think it gets less frightening as it goes along, and some puzzles are quite difficult but still achievable. 8.5/10

I played about 8-9 months ago, since then I got really bussy w/ school and never got around to finishing or even geting past the intro of the game but now that I started a new save I can say that its atmosphere and the game in general is designed to give you an immersive experience overall and I would seriously recomend it to anyone who is looking for a more classic style horror game, it can be a bit janky sometimes (maybe its just my computer, IDK, I use a laptop because... school) but other than that really fun and most importantly terrifying.

One random great thing worth mentioning: Opening a drawer physically and the tinderbox rolls from the back to the front. A lot of physical prop manipulation to open or turn things.

One random bad thing: You might get your first jump scare by just touching some fleshy walls.

This is one of the definitive psychological horror games ever made and in my opinion has yet to be topped. Frictional Games unintentionally started an entire Youtube genre that every single one of us has interacted with when they made this game: Let's Plays, and that alone should be an award. At first glance without seeing much of this game, it might seem like a walking simulator with moody graphics that mainly focuses on puzzles with horror elements thrown in, maybe something your mom would play, but it's so much more. This game is different from others in the genre not only because it popularized the psychological horror genre, but because it changes the name of the game from cat and mouse with big scares then a relief that is so prevalent with the copy paste clones of today, to constant and unrelenting anxiety which never let's up. This game will lie to you and toy with you, it won't let you breathe for longer than a few minutes before throwing you into the deep end where you HAVE to progress while in close proximity to danger. You will not get your hand held here, you have to keep moving even if you're too afraid to move. One of the most ingenious ideas is the sanity system and how it never lets you rest. If you thought that you could sneak around in the darkness and avoid anything that comes your way, you'd be sorely mistaken as Daniel has a crippling fear of the dark and if you stay outside of the light for too long then you will have far worse problems on your hands. The gatherers have one of the most iconic designs of any monster in gaming, maybe even in pop culture as a whole, but it's ingenious with how it barely lets you get a good look at them. Amazing game that froze me in fear when I was a child watching PewDiePie on his original channel, every year on Halloween I try to remuster the courage to play through once again.

I'm geting chased.
By Handsome unique white manster.
lol
He will never get me unless if I forget how to open the door again.
Haha get juked manster now i run to the door.
Wait how door work!?
I FORGOR HOW TO OPEN DOOR!!
QUICK HEEELP HEEEEEEELP AAAAAA-

Amnesia: The Dark Descent is still a timeless classic to this very day and it remains as one of the most enjoyable puzzle horror games I've ever played. It's an incredibly rewarding game, all the while I'm completely cacking my pants at the incredible atmosphere that's terrifying yet tasteful. What can I say that hasn't already been said before other than me rambling about my love for this game and my disappointment for many other games of its ilk? It became a massive sleeper hit and a beloved cult classic for a damn good reason and it ended up spawning countless clones and imitators, yet not a single one of them has ever come close to just how great everything is in The Dark Descent.

The puzzles are really great and brain teasers without being too difficult or too easy. The resource management is tense enough to always worry about but just lenient enough so you can stay fully immersed in the game's world, narrative and atmosphere. The atmosphere is so superbly done that the intense build up from frame one upon hitting start game is truly palpable and manages to hold me in its grip all the way to the end. The tension as the game builds up a good long while until you find your first monster is amazing and upon finally seeing it, they never stop being scary - the pure anxiety of trying to hide or run away from one, that is always faster than you, is peak horror gaming for me. Despite the game's extremely troubled development, pretty much every aspect hits hard in all the right places for me,

Many people seem to blame Frictional and Amnesia for the death of more classic style survival horror back when it released, but I'm going to come to its defense and say big publishers were the killer of classic survival horror. They deemed the genre "not viable" and either killed off horror franchises and refitted them into action games. Frictional struck gold with Amnesia and proved that horror never died and there was always a demand for it, it just came in a form and style that hasn't been done anywhere near as successfully previously, and the timing was perfect.

With how much of a cultural phenomenon Amnesia was in the indie space, so much so that many Youtube creators built their careers off the back of this game, it was inevitable that The Dark Descent would spawn countless clones and imitators and unfortunately I cannot think of a single one that comes even close to matching the greatness of this absolute classic. And yet again many people would continue to blame Amnesia for killing survival horror to this day because indie horror games for a long time was dominated with this "run and hide" style. But yet again that's not the fault of this game, but rather the fault of many developers rushing into this genre like it's a gold mine and trying to take what The Dark Descent did so well and yet botched their games so hard because they didn't get it.

Many Amnesia clones seem to believe The Dark Descent is boiled down to just lots of impenetrable darkness and spooky monster chases, when in actuality it's far closer to a point and click adventure game with monsters hunting you down while you try to solve the game's many puzzles. And yet Amnesia's physics mechanics allow the player to barricade doors, create hiding spots, objects can be thrown to stun enemies in pursuit and create distractions for players to sneak by - the running and hiding allows players to get creative so long as they can find what they need and that's what makes the combatless design work so well. Amnesia does so, SO much with so little whereas many of the terrible and even decent clones often do so little with even less, as many games don't have those physics mechanics, multiple resource management, enjoyable puzzle solving and genuine sense of terror.

It sucks to say as I usually champion clones of other games and genres, such as souls-likes and boomer shooters, because those games can take a basic formula and do many unique and different things from many different developers that have great ideas. Don't get me wrong a lot of games in those genres of games can be bad, but I think this style of combatless horror game is almost completely awash with awful clones that simply aren't worth playing at all and so many of them keep coming out and continuing to not get what made The Dark Descent so special.

Heck I'll even apply that criticism towards Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs, Amnesia Rebirth and even Soma's stripped back gameplay, as I found them to be incredibly disappointing follow ups to the masterpiece that is The Dark Descent, even if their narratives can hold up exceptionally well. At least Amnesia: The Bunker was a fantastic return to form, and while I thought the puzzle aspect of that game was disappointing and I still rate The Dark Descent above it, I still think it's an incredible horror game and it managed to successfully marry that classic Frictional style with a good healthy dose of classic survival horror. And as someone who adores The Dark Descent AND survival horror games, The Bunker is pant soilingly glorious.

Luckily the community's love for The Dark Descent has endured with a fiery passion 14 years after release, with so many excellent and wonderful custom stories, mods and addons STILL being made and released by a really healthy community of talented modders and map makers. Many of them having fully custom assets, monsters and mechanics that make them stand out and even rival the quality of Frictional's work, thus making the base game an excellent taster introduction to an all-you-can-eat buffet of incredible high quality horror gaming from creators who do get and understand what made this game so special in the first place. So without a doubt, this game is your one stop shop for some delicious combatless puzzle-focused horror gaming.

Honestly I could gush about this game for days, I feel like my most recent replay has made me fallen in love with this game even harder than I did over a decade ago. Especially after discovering loads of brand new stuff I missed the first time around, such as the Justine expansion, the Remember short stories and the super secret stuff in the game's files - tons of new stuff to delve into always makes me giddy when revisiting my favourite games!

If you haven't played Amnesia: The Dark Descent, then PLEASE do so if you're a fan of horror stuff, you owe it to yourself to enjoy this absolute banger of a classic. And if you really don't like the idea of a combatless horror game, then I genuinely think you should give this game a real honest try with an open mind - it's absolutely worth it.

It's a horror game that's actually scary. The atmosphere, sound design, graphics, soundtrack, and the gameplay are absolutely incredible. This horror game is a must-have. The best horror game I have ever played. 10/10

The Good:
The game has great atmosphere and Ambieance; giving great tension. It is a staple for early YT.

The Bad:
The story and other elements of the gameplay felt dry to me. Just not memorable at all and I played 14 hours of it!

The Ugly: I think it is personal preference for how I do not like the setting, it is too similar and nothing new or crazy. Rebirth I have not touched yet and it is in my library; I'm worried the setting will not appeal to me. The Bunker however? I love the setting and atmosphere, it is amazing and great. Soma is my favorite horror game of all time. So, frictional is def improving and upping there game compared to older entries. This game just did not age well in my eyes.

I grew up in the golden age of youtube where every let's player was screaming at this game. Now i'm almost 30 and i'm finally i'm playing this for the first time and it still holds up as one of the best, and scariest horror games out there.

I liked it. Has an interesting lovecraftian story and overall disturbing vibe.

Game doesnt scale to 4k, uses windows desktop settings to scale. anything other than 100% windows makes the game unplayable by default because 50+ percent of the screen is unviewable and off the edge of the display, no hdr/or gamma option for setting darkness. game crashes if changing audio output to a headset instead of tv speakers. game crashes randomly and persistently even on a 3070 in 2024. no fov support.
game sticks in crash loop on the opening hallway tutorial level and upon crashing start new game has to be selected to restart the hallway again and progress isnt possible.

heard the game was scary and its one of the worst optomized, broken, unplayable games ive ever seen.

A very scary and fun game!

Every October I return back and always get too scared to continue!
I do get further and further into the game each year though!

Sound design is incredible and still holds up after all these years!
If you have still not experienced Amnesia you really need to give it a try!!

You might get so scared that you'll have to stop playing though!

It kinda blows chunks but it was a decent experience, fun puzzles but not too interesting, the only thing that I could really like about the game is the story.

this game is what sparked my love for horror video games over a decade ago, and for that i thank you. i always enjoy replaying it for the thousandth time.

This horror game really started it all and outside of some unrealistic dead bodies I have nothing bad to say about it. It executes psychological horror, atmospheric horror, fear of the unknown, story, and sound design perfectly.

Amnesia The Dark Descent is a game I remember mostly because of the old custom stories back when PewDiePie was playing them It's quite nice to play this game in 2024 as a sort of trip down nostalgia lane

A classic survival horror, still really enjoyable today and no doubt even more so with custom stories. Though some parts are annoying (never did figure out how to get through the cellar archives without taking a hit), other parts are very fun in contrast. Loved the Choir and admittedly cheesing it by just hugging the walls to my left until doing a full loop

I loved the story line, the game play holds up for its age. Very fun.

I have no words about this legendary horror game that Frictional Games developed it! I really recommend playing through the main story and Justine DLC.

You won't ever regret playing that game for sure!

In Amnesia: The Dark Descent you play as the personal assistant of Dracula from Castlevania. Iconic. 2010s was the golden age for vidyer games.

The game that started it all for the legendary Amnesia series. There were great games that did horror very well before this, but this was the first time that you had great storytelling mixed with a truly terrifying, interactive environment to work with in 3-D. There are so many elements at play here, and with the introduction of "insanity" to the player was one of the most novel ideas ever seen in a horror game.

I feel like this is where it all started for a whole new kind of fear from a video game. I know im not alone either.

i love this game and really wanted to get back into it, but it won't launch
there's no error codes, doesn't say anything is installing- i click play, it say it's launching, then instantly goes back to saying play again :c

i'd still highly recommend trying this classic, i think my computer is just super wonky even though i got it at full price pfff
if there's any solutions out there though, i'll edit this review with it
still giving it a thumbs up tho lol

Such a brilliant horror game! Its gothic atmosphere paired with an enthralling story and genuinely terrifying moments come together to create one of the best horror games of all time. Even in 2024, it still retains all the dread and horror it had 14 years ago. You can't call yourself a horror fan if you haven't played this game.

For an older title this is absolutely a banger game, atmosphere go crazy.

Amnesia is not my game. I found some of the puzzles/progression elements obscure enough that I had to look them up, like finding the loose brick in the prison cell after Daniel is captured. I also found the screen blur and shake to be frustrating rather than scary.

That said, Amnesia: The Dark Descent is otherwise a very well-crafted game. The voice acting is definitely above grade for a small studio like this. The narrative is well-written. The sound is superb. And it does a great job at being scary!

I first got Amnesia: The Dark Descent when it originally released, played it for half an hour, and then didn't touch it for over a decade. Now that I've actually gone and beaten the game, I can say that I really enjoyed it!

There's a good atmosphere, a good story, and some interesting puzzles to solve, so if that's what you're looking for, I will go ahead and recommend it.

I will say that the graphics are dated, and I disliked how a lot of puzzles required using the game's physics engine, which wasn't that great for immersion. I lost track of the number of times I would get stuck, look up a guide, only to have to be reminded I can pick up a rock and throw it at something I needed to break. Some puzzles were a bit too obscure, too, as I would run around in a panic trying to figure out what to do, only to alt+tab out and find out the solution required interacting with something I didn't even know was there.

Still, despite my frustrations, I love horror games, and Amnesia: The Dark Descent is a great one that still holds up despite its age. Recommended.

One of the greatest games of all time. Have so many more hours when I was younger, that aren't on steam.

Great Lovecraftian horror ruined by becoming streamer bait. Glad i gave this a full shot!

Bought it because it was on sell. Became one of my favourite games ever.
Hauntingly beautiful and great puzzles. A must play for any horro lovers.

Terrible controls, nothing happens. Music is okay, graphics suck, gameplay sucks. Too many notes that mean nothing at all. Ill never understand why people praise this game so much as they do. 2/5

Tormented me in my childhood, tormented me when i played it. But i fully conquered it, all the achievements as well. Now i forever torment this game.