There's a demo on Steam. It is indeed scary. I followed the urgings of the game which has screens telling you to turn off the lights and use headphones. I was playing in the middle of the night and couldn't make it all the way through the demo because I felt like I was going to have a heart attack. Last game I had to turn off because it was freaking me out was Doom 3, which I played almost six years ago now.

The scariest thing I've ever really played was the demo for F.E.A.R.

My friend and I were in a smallish room with the curtains closed (which was in retrospect, silly, because the night was overcast anyway) and sitting maybe 5 feet from the t.v. with a surround sound system.

We went in not knowing anything about the game.

Walking through the demo we went through a sewer and some little girl crossed ahead, so we went to see what the hell she was doing there and nothing.

We continued on and a few other weird things happened, but nothing major. We ended up in a combat situation where we spent a small while fighting the enemies and getting very immersed in the combat aspect.

We then went into a building, but the door lead to a small landing you had to take a ladder down from. So, we walked over and hit the "use" button. The camera looked down and spun around as the main character positioned themselves properly to descend, only to hear one of those violin squeals and see the little girl standing RIGHT there looking down at us.

Scared the absolute shit out of use, we both had our backs pressed against our chairs, and just sat there going "FUuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu...."

Good fun.

Thanks for the reminder that this just came out, shagen! Picked it up last night. Lasted about 10 minutes before deciding to go to bed. I don't think I'm firing this one up at 11 PM again.

Looks great, speaking of headphones, I saw a Logitech 7.1 headset. Anyone ever tried anything similar? I might invest for this kind of game.

The invisible splashing water monster was genius. I had to replay that segment a few times, it was terrifying me so much I had to take off my headphones to progress. I was freaking out. The sound design (field recorded sound) is absolutely terrific. A little too terrific at points maybe.

There is nothing like being beside some grotesque being and slowly melting away in the darkness trying not to look at it. Sends chills down my spine. The crucial part is that they use the monster device very minimally. This game has serious game design class.

I'm embarrassed to say that the game sounds too scary for me to play. The thought of having to run and hide from monsters in the dark instead of blasting them with bullets is pretty scary in and of itself.

No way, Internet. You've already got me once with Marble Hornets. I'm not falling for that again !

Prey, FEAR, and all the other games that use children screaming/crying/laughing scare the crap out of me. I don't know why, but developers can throw all the freakish monsters, exploding steam pipes, etc at me that they want and I'll be fine. Toss a little girl's laugh in there and I'm fucked. Oh, and that part in Doom3 with the bathroom mirror... I had to turn the game off, take a break and come back to it the next morning when my friend the Sun could accompany me.

I'll be trying this in an hour or so when the wife goes to sleep. What can I say, I'm a glutton for adrenaline abuse.

"amnesia is a game you won't soon forget" oh hoh hohoho.

>> ^Shepppard:

We then went into a building, but the door lead to a small landing you had to take a ladder down from. So, we walked over and hit the "use" button. The camera looked down and spun around as the main character positioned themselves properly to descend, only to hear one of those violin squeals and see the little girl standing RIGHT there looking down at us.
Scared the absolute shit out of use, we both had our backs pressed against our chairs, and just sat there going "FUuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu...."
Good fun.


LOL the exact same thing happened to me.. first game to nearly knock me off my chair. Some days not a good game to play alone but hopefully you played through the whole retail game, multiple times at that.. you'll be surprised how often that little girl was watching you. Lots of good hair raising moments in that game.

I see via my Steam Friends list that @JiggaJonson actually went and bought this game recently. I've DLd the demo for now and am looking forward to hearing more reviews from Sifters, specifically your thoughts regarding gameplay and controls, since they look a bit clunky (but then again so did Dead Space and I freaking loved everything about it).

Sweeeeeeeeet. The Penumbra games were great (well, mainly the second one), so if this game is half as good, it will be fantastic.

edited to add: Just read a news article that this game was almost canceled and that if it's not a success, it could spell trouble for the studio. So hopefully people will actually buy this game instead of pirating it.

@EDD

The controls are what you'd expect from an FPS (a lot better than FUCKING Bioshock 2)(I am NOT bitter). My one complaint right now is that object rotation can be, as you said, a bit clunky but still it's not so bad. That being said, I've played about an hour or so into the game as of last night and thoroughly enjoyed it.

You'd think that a game with no weapons, where you barely ever encounter monsters, and where the visuals/noise could drive you insane; would be a the definition of a bad game. But I found myself consistently wanting to continue through the castle and, insanity be damned, even hide in the dark and peek around corners just in case something was there.

I don't know if i would count this as a flaw necessarily but the audio/atmosphere of the game is dependent upon you sitting in a dark room and wearing headphones. I tried playing earlier in the day, with sunlight pouring through my window and my wife constantly asking me what I thought about her grad class homework, surprisingly, I couldn't get into it. Later on, i got into game mode ala headphones and a dark room and I was as startled if not more-so than when I first played Doom 3 in the same room environment. Any game that can do that to me and be a fun puzzler at the same time is a winner in my book! Plus it was only $20 :-p

Bought the game without trying the demo. Haven't had too much time to play yet but definitely loving what little I have. I really hope the gaming community supports great independent efforts like this and that pirating it is kept to a minimum. It's gems like this that keep PC gaming alive and well.

>> ^moodonia:

Looks great, speaking of headphones, I saw a Logitech 7.1 headset. Anyone ever tried anything similar? I might invest for this kind of game.


Corsair also have a good looking 7.1 out that I'm interested in giving a whirl, would be perfect for this game (I think I'll buy a brown pair of boxer shorts at the same time, running around in the dark with something hot on my tail always freaks me out in games...)

Support Frictional Games! The Penumbra series scared the bejeezus out of me. If you find yourself liking Amnesia, definitely also buy the Penumbra games. The mechanics and atmosphere give the game a great feeling of "presence" if you will. Like an above poster said, its exactly the infrequency with which you find monsters that makes you so cautious, because when they finally do come they scare the piss out of you. Like any great horror film, it's all about the anticipation. Also, they develop for linux, which is very cool for an indy developer. There are few high quality games I can play on my primary tower boot.

@JiggaJonson

hehehehe, you has a bitter.

I have never liked horror movies especially the stupid way they try to inject comedy. Modern video games like this, however, scare the crap out of me occasionally and the adrenaline is worth the price of admission. I remember scenes from Half Life and Bio Shock that felt about like jumping from a plane. I'm going to check this game out on Steam.

>> ^Shepppard:
We went in not knowing anything about the game.

This is the key to making a game scary, IMO. It's also why I haven't truly been scared by a game since the 1990s. By the time you get your hands on a game nowadays, you already know everything about it.

The original Doom is still the scariest game I've ever played and it was mostly because I had no idea what to expect. I didn't know the monsters; I didn't know the weapons; I didn't know what the engine itself was capable of. My first encounter with a pinky was quite memorable. I had heard it growling in the distance for several minutes. The sound was a new one; I had only seen zombies and imps up to that point; so I was cautiously creeping around trying to pin it down. I finally came face to face with it as I came around a corner in a very tight hallway; the ideal location to fight 500lbs of teeth and muscle.

XCom 2 is my other noteworthy game for being scary, though it was more of a nervous tension than outright fear.

Since then, games have startled me with "boo!" tactics, but none of them have really been scary.

i can't play this game for more than 20 minutes at a time...i am such a puss. every time i hear a monster i turn the game off and go, "ok, maybe ill come back to this a little later."

This game has made me run like I have never run before in a game.

In completely unrelated news, I don't plan on going swimming or even stepping in a puddle for long, long time.

Bought, played (at night with headphones) and beaten.

Just get the negatives out of the way first: too short & I still found Shalebridge Cradle from Thief 3 scarier/moodier/ more atmospheric than anything this game had to offer.

Positives: Just about everything else. I did enjoy this game better than anything from Penumbra. For me it's no Shalebridge, but damn for $20 and so many years after that experience in Thief 3 this was a joy. I'm glad there are developers out there willing to take risks with these kinds of games.

This game was almost canceled several times, for more information please visit the Frictional Games forums. This game seriously nearly died a number of times. I'm thankful it didn't.

Support Frictional, buy this game and enjoy it. Play at night, with headphones as suggested by the development team. Let yourself get immersed by this game, and don't try playing it like an FPS. Support them, and hopefully they continue to make games of this quality at such a bargain price.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag.(show it anyway)

The dream scenes in Max Payne were the scariest things I've experienced in gaming.

The secret to making a scary game: Flying Penises!

I game with a pair of the classic Sony MDR-V6's + Headphone AMP + X-Fi Soundblaster. I'm really thinking of moving up to this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132018

I've tried everything, including the Tritton 5.1 AX-Pro's and I keep coming back to my MDR's.