||Mood||: Feeling a bit spinny coz staring at monitor for too long for the past few days, but heck, I'm feeling much better now that I've finally finished watching the gameplay~ ^^ <3
||Currently listening to||
> Glow - Miku Hatsune APPEND
> Shiver - The GazettE ("Kuroshitsuji II" OP)
> Dear - Miku Hatsune
(had to listen to some ballad & rock songs to put my mood back on track~ ^^)
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Ohai, everyone!!!! ^^ <3
It's been a couple of days since I last updated my blog, coz I was quite...."hooked" with watching a gameplay of a new and particularly famous PC horror game, called.......
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
I know it's not like me to actually play or even watch gameplays of a horror game (especially something as mind-boggling & mind-murdering as "Amnesia: The Dark Descent" !!!!!!!!!!!) but somehow the story sparked my interest.
Apart from the long dark situation of the game, current appearances of the monsters and the long long long walking about in the castle in search for what is needed to move on, the game was pretty amazing overall.
So, for this post, I'm going to give you some informations on the game, which is the gameplay information, the story and also the characters in the game~ ^^
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|| GAMEPLAY INFORMATION ||
In a similar vein to the developer's previous games, Amnesia is an exploration-based adventure game played from a first-person perspective. The game retains the physical object interaction used in Penumbra, allowing for advanced physics based puzzles and interactions such as opening doors and fixing machinery.[5]
Amnesia does not give the player access to weapons, giving them no defense against the gruesome creatures that wander Brennenburg Castle. As such, the player must use their wits to escape and hide from the monsters until they lose interest in finding the player. However, monsters are very capable of tearing down doors in their path and kicking obstacles out of the way. Players can also choose to hide in the shadows at the cost of slowly losing their sanity. Another thing Daniel can do is barricade doors with rocks, chairs, and other obstacles. But the monsters do move very quickly when alerted, so the player has to be quick.
Separate from the player's health bar is an indication of the character's sanity. Being in darkness too long, witnessing unsettling events, or staring at the monsters for too long will reduce the character's sanity. As the sanity level decreases, visual and auditory hallucinations start to occur and the player is noticed by monsters more easily. Using tinderboxes to light candles and other light sources, as well as a lantern found near the beginning of the game, the player can stop their sanity from draining. However, the number of tinderboxes is limited, and the lantern cannot be used when the oil is depleted. This forces the player to find a balance between the amount of time they spend in light and shadow. Sanity is restored to full once the player completes an objective or progresses the game's story. It may also be restored by staying in the shadows until the player character passes out, but this makes him extremely vulnerable to any nearby monsters.
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|| STORY OF "AMNESIA: THE DARK DESCENT" ||
[WARNING: CONTAINS TOTAL SPOILERS. XD]
Set in the year 1839, the game casts the player in the role of Daniel, a young man from London, who awakens in the dark halls of the Prussian Brennenburg Castle with little to no memory about himself or his past. All he can remember is his name, that he lives in Mayfair and that something is hunting him.
Daniel's situation and additional information about the backstory is found through diary entries and notes that the player can find during their journey, and flashbacks as Daniel recalls old memories of the castle. Shortly after waking, Daniel finds a note written by himself that explains how he purposely made himself forget his past, for reasons yet unknown. The note urges Daniel to descend into the castle's Inner Sanctum and murder a man named Alexander, the baron of the castle. The note gives a final warning that a "living nightmare" is chasing him, and Daniel must escape it for as long as he can. As he travels Brennenburg, he is also chased by terrifying, deformed monsters that hunt him down and try to murder him. They are not of the Shadow's creation though.
Daniel decides to follow his former self's advice and explores the castle halls to descend to the Inner Sanctum. As he explores, Daniel occasionally finds a fleshy substance growing on the walls and doors, a sign of the "nightmare" getting closer and closer. Through the diary entries scattered around the rooms, the cause of the castle's fall into ruin begins to become clear. Before his arrival at the castle, Daniel went on an archaeological expedition to Africa with his friend and colleague Professor Herbert in order to research an ancient burial chamber. Whilst there, Daniel encountered a large underground chamber during a dig, much older than the one they had expected to find based on their research. A sudden collapse of stone trapped Daniel inside the chamber where he began to suffocate, but also experienced a strange vision of a glowing blue sphere of light. Attempting to grab it, he suddenly blacked out and woke up being rescued by Arab diggers with the pieces to an ancient Orb in his hands.
Daniel returned to England at the request of Herbert and attempted to fit the pieces together but was puzzled to find out that they did not fit together. Stranger still, the pieces appeared to be changing shape and texture. To find out more, Daniel visited famed geologist Sir William Smith. The geologist was unsure of what was causing the changes, and assumed it was just a natural occurrence. Later, Daniel received a letter about the fate of the expedition he left behind and it was revealed that only the empty campsite was found. Herbert and his men had vanished and the lone survivor, who was grievously injured, kept rambling about something hunting down the expedition. Some of Herbert's journals were sent back to England and Daniel picked them up. Herbert claimed to have descended into the ancient chamber and retrieved the Orb himself, making it impossible for Daniel to have the fragments.
Daniel continues to explore Brennenburg Castle and is soon hunted by disturbing, nightmarish mutilated creatures as well as the "Shadow". He also begins to experience visions of the events in the castle's past, including what Alexander, his target, had done in many of the chambers. Daniel is shocked to realize Alexander had been performing inhumane experiments on animals in order to find "vitae", a substance he saw as essential for some sort of mystical ritual. He is also shown to be ruthless, even going as far as to poison and kill his own men to prevent them telling the outside world what he had been doing inside the castle. It is also hinted at that the monstrosities that chase Daniel may have created through their experimentation. Daniel also experiences flashback visions of him and Alexander talking to one another, presumably on their way to the Inner Sanctum. Daniel continues his journey down into the depths of the castle through the use of Alexander's elevator, which takes him down into the underground prison area of the castle.
Further diary entries show that despite being haunted by nightmares every night, Daniel was able to reassemble the Orb after one such dream told him it could be done. The object fitted together without any adhesive and now sat in Daniel's drawing room in a complete form. Daniel went to Herbert's university to get some answers about the relic, and saw Professor Taylor to find out more. He learned that the Orbs appeared to have left a mark on English culture, even inspiring royal symbology. The Orbs had, supposedly, originally been wielded by priests. On his way out, he overheard a conversation from which he learned that William Smith had been killed only a fortnight after Daniel spoke to him. Through more flashbacks, Daniel learns he went to see Dr. Tate about his nightmares, but was not able to get a diagnosis. Days later, both Professor Taylor and Dr. Tate were killed in horrific ways, and convinced Daniel that he was somehow to blame for their deaths. Thinking he would be next, Daniel tried contacting many names in Herbert's address book and received a cryptic response from a baron in Prussia who claimed he could protect him from some unknown force. The letter was signed 'Alexander' and urged Daniel to come to Brennenburg Castle immediately.
Once at the castle, Daniel began to assist Alexander in various tasks designed to keep the living nightmare away from him. Revealed to be a Guardian of the Orb, the "Shadow" would not take long to arrive. During this time, Daniel also allowed Alexander to use his Orb in their attempted rituals to banish the Shadow later on. On a tour of the castle, Alexander revealed not only Brennenburg's function as a prison, but also that the inmates would be used in arcane rituals needed to save Daniel. The Shadow began to draw even closer, until finally the partial failure of a ritual allowed it into the castle. Panicking, Daniel told Alexander he would do whatever it took to survive and unwittingly played right into the baron's hands.
Back in the current time-line, close to the Inner Sanctum, Daniel meets an old frail man chained to the wall near the castle's laboratory. The man is Agrippa, a friend of Alexander's, who helped him gain knowledge of the Orb's powers many years ago. His consciousness is now trapped in a dead husk so that Alexander may use him as a source of information. Agrippa asks Daniel to create a concoction to set him free from his body and stop Alexander from using the Orbs. Searching for ingredients, Daniel finds himself in a part of the castle littered with gruesome torture rooms. Through flashbacks and more diary entries, it becomes clear Daniel chose to lose his memories in order to forget the atrocities he committed.
Alexander began telling Daniel about different methods of extracting vitae from the prisoners [whom Alexander claims are murderers and vile men, but it is suggested that many were not] down in the castle depths, claiming the process would keep the Shadow away from him. Daniel followed him without question because of his increasing desperation and helped to perform gruesome rituals on the prisoners using various methods of torture, thinking that he would save himself through the process. Using such items as an iron maiden and a brass bull, Daniel ended up becoming the very thing he was killing and even went as far as to kidnap local villagers and children from outside the castle to use for the rituals. Consumed by grief, regret and disgust at his actions, Daniel drank a memory-destroying Amnesia tonic to have a fresh start and fix what he had done. He realized that Alexander had manipulated him in order to obtain the Orb to achieve his goal and swore that the baron would die for his actions, leading to the events at the start of the game.
As he progresses, Daniel is attacked by a monster and is locked up in one of the castle prison cells. He hears Alexander speaking to him telepathically, thanking him for his role in everything and for keeping the Shadow away from the baron. At this point, it is possible to end the game- Alexander asks Daniel to wait in the cell and let the shadow consume him, and it is possible to do just that. The cell will fill with the fleshy substance, Daniel will hear the voices of the people he's tortured, and then the shadow will kill him. If Daniel manages to escape, he will be able to return to the laboratory and find that the Shadow's influence has grown over absolutely everything. Agrippa asks Daniel for the potion. If the player has found the ingredients, then the potion can be made in the lab and fed to Agrippa. The old man then asks that his head be cut off and taken with Daniel to stop Alexander and get into a "portal" before he does. If the player did not find the ingredients, then Daniel enters the Inner Sanctum alone. He uses the power of his own Orb to open the way and goes to complete his objective.
Inside the massive chamber, Daniel finds Alexander floating naked in midair, engulfed by a blue-glow. Surrounding the Orb are three fragile pillars that are feeding blue-hued energy to it in order to complete the ritual. Alexander thanks Daniel once again and rants about how he can finally return "home" once again. Three possible endings to the game can happen at this point.
If the player chooses to knock over the pillars, then the ritual fails. Alexander screams as his body disintegrates, and Daniel leaves the chamber. The Shadow's influence is assumed to be gone through his redeeming actions, and the game ends with Daniel leaving Brennenburg Castle behind with a guilt-free conscience.
If the player does nothing at first, the portal Alexander wants to open appears and he begins to float towards it, leaving Daniel to face the Shadow alone. If the player uses Agrippa's head on the portal, then the ritual will be completed before Alexander can get through, resulting in his death. Daniel is seemingly killed by the Shadow but wakes up in darkness with small blue lights visible in the distance. The voice of Agrippa assures him everything is going to be all right and the game ends.
The third possible ending occurs if the player does nothing at all, either not having Agrippa's head to use in the portal, or choosing not to use it. As Alexander enters the portal, The Shadow and the souls of the tortured consume Daniel, killing him.
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|| CHARACTERS & MONSTERS ||
Daniel - The main protagonist of the game. Apart from his English nationality, not much is known of him except for the diary pages that suggest that he is an archaeologist, his sister Hazel had a sickness growing up, and his father was an artisan who beat him. In the African desert on an expedition with his friend Herbert, Daniel discovered a tomb containing the mysterious Orb. From then on, a "shadow" had been hunting him, killing almost everyone he had contact with. He sought the help and refuge of Alexander of Brennenburg. Alexander told Daniel that he could ward off the Shadow only with the use of mystical vitae extracted from tortured prisoners. Desperate to escape the Shadow, Daniel complied, convincing himself that his victims were worthless criminals who deserved no better. After Alexander abandons him, Daniel swears revenge and, suddenly filled with remorse over his deeds, drinks the Amnesia mixture at the start of the game to purge his horrible memories and seek redemption.
Alexander of Brennenburg - The main antagonist of the game. Alexander is a being who has been masquerading as a succession of Prussian barons during his centuries-long life. He gathered as many of the Orbs as he could find in hopes of opening a portal, possibly to reunite with his long dead wife or to his original homeland/world. He tortured captured victims to extract a mystical "vitae" from them, with which to perform mystical rituals in order to achieve this goal. Alexander displays a sociopathic level of remorselessness and manipulativeness. He manipulated Daniel into helping him with his horrific experiments, promising him protection from the Shadow in return. However, as soon as Daniel's work was complete, Alexander sealed himself in his Inner Sanctum and abandoned Daniel. It is worth noting that he is not a completely evil character; in his notes he expresses some remorse for Daniel's corruption and of the things he has done.
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa - The infamous occult writer and supposed magician. Not much is known about his relationship with Alexander, aside from the fact that they were working together and researching the Orbs. Alexander keeps him imprisoned in a dead husk of a body so that he could use his knowledge to perform rituals involving the Orbs.
The Shadow - An unseen force that is hunting Daniel. Its sole purpose is to guard the Orb that Daniel took from the burial chamber and has killed numerous people to achieve that end. While it is not seen as a physical being, it is described as a huge sluggish mass of darkness and leaves behind a fleshy damaging substance over anything it touches. One note hypothesizes that it is the will of the universe seeking to catch up with and contain the unnatural force of the Orb itself, but this might only have been colorful speculation.
The Gatherers - The main enemies of the game. They are Alexander's servants who became victims of the Shadow, and are seen as monstrous humanoids with deformed facial and bodily features. These enemies come in two variations, Grunts and Brutes, and patrol parts of Brennenburg Castle, attacking Daniel if sighted. Since Daniel is weaponless, they cannot be killed and have to be avoided. Grunts are horrifyingly disfigured monstrosities which have had their hands cut off and replaced with iron claws. They appear to have had their lower jaw severed, and it now flops out over their chest. Brutes are malformed humanoids wearing overalls and with Frankenstein-esque bolts and nails jutting out of their flesh. They attack with a blade on an iron pole sticking out of their arm. An interesting note on the possible origin of the Gatherers can be found in the Cellar, where a flashback Daniel has depicts a group of Alexander's men having horrific bodily reactions to wine they consumed, saying things such as "I feel like my chest is going to burst!". One Particular note, however, states that they are deserters of the Thirty Years' War, who got lost in the forests around Brennenburg, forced to forever haunt it, dragging with them anyone unlucky enough to venture in.
The Water Lurkers - These enemies only appear in areas of the castle filled with water. They are completely invisible to Daniel and their position can only be identified by the splashes they make in the water. If Daniel stays in the water for too long the monsters will give chase and attack him. The only way to avoid them is by staying out of the water and maneuvering using objects such as floating crates or pieces of wood. The monsters can be distracted if Daniel throws a piece of human flesh into the water, which they will voraciously feed on. During this time Daniel can sneak away from the monster's line of sight. As with the other enemies of the game, there is no way to attack the water lurkers and thus Daniel must attempt to avoid them at all costs. A note discovered near the end of the game names the creatures as "Kaernk". When rearranged, these letters also spell "Kraken", although probably done on purpose, there is no specific reason stated as to why.
If a monster spots Daniel, it will chase him until he's out of sight. If Daniel gets out of their line of sight they will proceed to search for Daniel for a time, but will eventually leave and vanish. At several points in the game, they are required to advance, as they will tear down a problematic obstacle in their path.
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Haha, I guess that's basically the FULL information of the game.
And this is my review on the game based on the gameplay that I've watched:
The player, upsignerman (his YouTube user's name), is a particularly a very very funny player. Coz he constantly randomly picks up some stuffs, like chairs, boxes etc. and randomly throws them into another direction, out of the window, down a well, down from a stairs and just......anywhere~ XD
And I find that he's really good at figuring out how to solve puzzles and also how to walk in the dark without the aid of his oil lantern. Yesh, he constantly runs out of oil and always walk in the dark...I admire that~ XD I bet if I was the one playing it, I can never know where the hell am I walking and maybe just walk down and into the well and fall fall fall. And oh, he knows where to walk to, despite the extreme darkness~ o.o
The game is really scary coz you can never expect when will the monster will pop out in front of you. If it does, all you got to do is run, run, run, hide, run, hide and more running. If you escape, you're lucky. But if you can't get away from that (especially the cruel and crazy Brute) then, sayonara to your life. Hurhurhurrr~~~
and, whoa, the one that scared the lights out of me is the invisible monster that is in the parts of the castle that is lowly submerged with water. It's invisible, and you HAVE to know where it is to escape it. And if you are careless, then you'll be killed by it. Ridiculously scary especially if your timing is out of track and you are unable to run away in time from it. Hohohooooo~~ once you fail to run away from them, then you're dead.
But, if you ARE dead, the game still starts from the point where you died. So it's pretty okay considering that you don't have to start all over again and wasting more of your precious time.
One part of the castle that I really like is the Back Hall. Coz when the player first enters, they are greeted with a calm and relaxin background music, which was played at the end of the game as well.
All in all, I think this game really successfully freaks people out.
*Salutes Frictional Games*
but, somehow, after watching it all finish, I'm glad that I've finished it and I was, amazingly, less scared of it. Well, thanx to non-stop-marathon watching all 42 parts of it~ XD
If you are interested in watching the gameplay due to lack of courage to actually play the game, then start off with part one:
Title: Amnesia: The Dark Descent Playthrough [1/42] - Old Archives
Uploader: upsignerman
Start with this one and work your way through the next part and all. ^^ <3
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Well, that's about it naa~ :D
I'm still a bit traumatic of the game due to it's constant darkness and also plenty of unexpected surprises, but I'm pretty okay now. But, it WILL take me some time before I can pick up myself to continue watching more gameplays of horror games. ^^
So, now that I'm done with the gameplay, I can finally resume to my usual life. Yayyy~ :D
Til then,
this is your cosplay/KHR/Kuroshitsuji/yaoi fanatic blogger, Yukino...
SIGNING OUT!!!!!!!!!!
XOXO,
SEE YA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(P.S: Now that I'm done with the gameplay, I shall now FINALLY resume on my fanfic project. Lol, I've ditched it for as long as I was still watching the gameplay~ ;w; I have to finish up chapter 5 quick, coz I've already postponed the publication due date for close to one month now~ QWQ)
