Game: Amnesia Collection
Genre: Adventure, Survival Horror
System: Nintendo Switch (also on PC, PS4 and Xbox)
Developer|Publisher: Frictional Games
Age Rating: EU 16+|US M
Price: US$29.99 US | CA$37.79 |AUS$ 27.30 | £25.20 | €27,99
Release Date: 12th September 2019
Review code used, with many thanks to Frictional Games!
I Don’t Think You Can Handle This, WOO!
It’s that time of year folks: Halloween! The time of year for costumes and candy, horror movies and haunted houses. That whole idea of the barrier between the spirit world and our world being very thin… oh and, of course, spooky video games!
And this game, Amnesia, is terrifying!
I played Amnesia: The Dark Descent when it first came out on PC, waaaaay back in the day – it originally came out in 2010. Since it has been 9 years, I have honestly forgotten most of it.
Here are the main things that I remembered about the game from playing it in 2010: you have amnesia, a really spooky monster-thing is chasing you, and when you get too insane your character starts grinding his teeth – a noise that just made me cringe!
So here I am now, in 2019, 30-something years old and deciding it would be super fun to give Amnesia a go again on my Switch, JUST in time for Halloween! Whee!
BUT OH MY GODS! IT IS SO SCARY! What has happened to my constitution?! Is it just a rule of adulthood that you become less and less able to handle things? I mean, I used to be fascinated by getting my vaccines, I’d watch the needle and be very brave; but now when I go in to get my flu shot I have to look away, take deep breaths, and even after doing all of that I STILL get lightheaded and sweaty!
As soon as I started Amnesia up, and it gave me some pre-game warnings about how this game isn’t played to win, and that the shadow chasing you can’t really be beaten – even just then I was panicking and thinking “Oh my goddess, I want to turn this off right now and play something cheerful!”
But I didn’t do that! I had a review to write!
I’m A Survivor! I’m Not Gonna Give Up!
The story begins and you are dropped into this big old castle looking place.
Wait, back up! To be perfectly honest the game begins by making you adjust the gamma so that you can have the spookiest experience possible; as well, the game tells you to play with headphones in the dark. All excellent advice if you are looking to get maximum-spooked.
So you are dropped into this castle, your vision is foggy and you’re about to black out, and you keep telling yourself not to forget your name. Your name is Daniel, Daniel…
There’s a montage of fading in and out images, and then you wake up on your side with no idea what’s going on. If you go into your menu (which, on the Switch, is your X button) you can see your health, sanity, items, and a little notebook.
Going into this notebook pulls up your – you guessed it – notes! You have one note to help you get started: to follow the trail. Sure enough, one glance at the stone floor shows a strange red trail of drops is on the floor. Is it blood?
As you follow it, strange stuff starts happening – doors creepily open up for no reason, and wind will suddenly swirl around you and blow out every torch.
Oh, and here comes the fun part: Daniel is very afraid of the dark (as he very obviously should be considering his situation), so when you are in the dark, Daniel’s sanity is slowly draining.
THIS IS VERY VERY BAD! You do NOT want to be insane!
There’s not really any indication of when Daniel is hitting his breaking point. There are audio cues, such as: Daniel will start breathing heavily, you will hear his heartbeat pounding, and the classic teeth grinding. All of these are clues shouting that you should get Daniel into a light source ASAP. If you look in your menu and hover over the brain image, you will be told Daniel’s sanity in a way, from being “crystal clear”, to having a “slight headache” to “…”, it’s not precise, but it’s certainly easy to understand.
After walking around the (kind of) tutorial area, you will pick up a lantern, and a letter that your past self has written to you.
The note says you willingly drank a concoction to wipe all of your memories, and to trust that it is much better this way. Then your past self gives you a mission: to descend into the darkness, find a man that you HATE named Alexander of Brennenburg, and kill him. Oh but be wary, a shadow is chasing you, a shadow that cannot be killed.
…
SPOOKY! I hadn’t even seen this shadow yet, and I was already wanting to turn the dang game off for fear of it.
Show Me The Way
So Amnesia was originally a PC game; luckily, the Switch port looks, sounds, and feels fantastic too.
The game is in the first person perspective. You control Daniel with the two joysticks: Right for walking and left for looking around (pretty dang standard). You interact with things with the right-trigger.
The biggest game mechanic is the sanity meter.
As previously mentioned, you lose sanity when you’re in the dark for too long or you witness spooky goings-on. Which means this game is all about keeping Daniel in the light.
You have your lantern, which you bring in and out with the Y button; sadly, it is very thirsty for lantern oil, and lantern oil happens to be in very limited supply. So you’re going to have to learn to ration and plan when it comes to running, and rummaging through dark areas.
Throughout the game you will also pick up tinderboxes; you can use tinderboxes to light various immobile light sources in rooms such as torches in brackets on the wall, fireplaces, or candles on desks.
Keeping Daniel sane should be one of your top priorities, unless you are really wanting the spooks, because the more insane Daniel gets, the more the shadow chasing you seems to appear.
Obviously, getting caught by the creature equals a game over. So… don’t get caught! The monster can’t be killed, and you have no fighting skills, so you have to use your wits to stay alive (the game even says so in the intro before you start).
Most things can be interacted with. Drawers and cabinets can be opened and searched through, books and bottles and chairs picked up and thrown (throw with L), and closets can be conveniently opened and hidden in.
So Good
As I briefly mentioned before, the visuals in this game are (still) very good and atmospheric. Each area is creepy and looks just as cold and haunted as it’s supposed to portray. When you are just wandering around in the dark it feels like everything is against you, and when you are standing in the light, or are holding your lantern, the game feels warmer – my body literally felt warmer and safer playing the game when my character was in the light.
That’s masterful scene and world building! Kudos!
The sound is, in my opinion, the game’s true masterpiece. The sound effects are creepy and will get your heart pumping along with Daniel’s. When they recommend that you play the game with headphones, they aren’t being flippant, you should definitely play the game with headphones.
Even just the noises Daniel makes; the heavy breathing and teeth grinding, really will enhance the fear you are feeling while playing as Daniel.
The more insane Daniel gets, the more the sounds intensify, and the more your fear-sperience (that is me combining fear and experience – fear-sperience!) will be enhanced. Even the loading screens as you move from area to area have cryptic, and oftentimes slightly disturbing text to read and eventually figure out how it all fits into the story.
Cater 2 U
So I’ve talked a lot about Amnesia: The Dark Descent, which was the first game in the Amnesia series, and incidentally was the first game I played on this Switch release.
The game on the Switch is titled Amnesia Collection which means it is all of the Amnesia games: The Dark Descent, Justine, and A Machine For Pigs. Each title puts you in the shoes of a different character, Daniel, Justine, and Oswald.
That’s three games for the extremely decent price of one!
The Little Niggles
My biggest gripe with the Switch port is the controls. It’s not the fault of the game creators or anything, it’s the fact that the tiny little items – such as the tinder boxes – are much easier to click on with the precision of a mouse than they are with a joystick-button combo.
So many times I found myself trying to pick up that little tinderbox item, but I would spend so much time wiggling my cursor back and forth over it, missing the TINY little hitbox it had where the little hand would appear indicating I could interact with it and pick it up.
A frustrating thing, especially when you’re panicking!
Like I said, it’s not really the game’s fault. It was a PC game first, it’s just that the control scheme isn’t perfect when using a controller of any kind (it would likely be the same with an Xbox or PS controller).
Verdict: I Like it a Lot
If you are a fan of Lovecraft and Cthulhu-mythos stuff, Amnesia definitely has that kind of feel and you are guaranteed to get much enjoyment out of this game. Anyone else play those Lovecraft-inspired board games? Mansions of Madness, or Arkham Horror? They are a blast; I highly recommend.
If you played Amnesia on PC and, like me, you forget most of it and want a scary Halloween-time experience on-the-go, then Amnesia is the game for you. Even better, Amnesia Collection is THREE spooky games, and the price is more than reasonable, affordable, and worth it.
I would definitely recommend it; have friends over Halloween night, and turn off your lights and play the game… whoever screams first is the loser.