You can’t see even the little bit that you can in the dark. You walk more slowly and the soundscape fills with strange noises. When you’re in the dark, your sanity meter drops and your vision distorts. The castle that you are exploring is a very dark place. In the Silent Hill games, it’s more about health. In Resident Evil, the resource will be ammunition. Monsters are scattered around a large area and the player has to get through them, usually by fighting. The player never quite has enough of something that is essential to progressing in the game. Survival-horror games at the design level are about resources. For newcomers, it will set a standard that few titles come close to. For longtime fans of horror games, it is a breath of fresh air in a genre that is now more about thrills than genuine fear.
It readily borrows their ideas and adapts them while dispensing with their flaws. Eternal Darkness, Silent Hill, and the previous Penumbra games are all present in one form or another here.
Amnesia: The Dark Descent is a well designed survival horror game.
