A Perfect Tragedy

Whew, thank goodness I keep that gas mask handy.  I barely managed to escape from that deadly gas from last week, but thankfully I’ve returned alive and well, and that stupid AI is gone, for now.  Although, if any of you have tried to get the smell of neurotoxin out of your curtains, hoo boy, I have stories I could tell.

 

Anyway, so I just got home from watching Breaking Bad at my friend’s house.  If any of you have watched that show, good for you, because it’s awesome.  I’m almost done with the series, and let’s just say that some heavy stuff goes down.  The thought-provoking and emotional story, deep characters, and intense moments work together to make an insanely good show.  But this blog isn’t about Breaking Bad, so where am I going with this?  Well, if you guys have read my character list, you’ll see that I tend to enjoy depressing and dark games with heart-wrenching character arcs and emotional plots.  After watching Breaking Bad, I thought about what attracts me, along with many other people, to sad stories such as these.  Every story has conflict, and the heroes often have to go through a lot of hardship, struggles, and trials in order to achieve their goals.  But no matter how much they lose or how hard their experiences are, they almost always triumph in the end, despite being hardened and changed people.  A lot of stories are like this because that’s what we love to see:  For someone to go through an immense struggle, but prevail against all odds and overcome their opponents, or whatever force is working against them.  There’s certainly nothing wrong with this, since many of the most beloved stories have happy endings.  But what about the ones that don’t?  What if the characters suffer and suffer, all for nothing?

There are quite a few stories that are much darker than the rest, and sometimes even after all that darkness, there’s still no happiness to be found.  Sometimes the story is morally-ambiguous, which means there are no clear heroes to route for.  So why do we even want to see these stories at all?  What’s the point of getting invested in a story only to feel depressed?  More importantly, how do the people who tell a story make a sad ending just as satisfying and give just as much closure as a happy ending?

Shadow of the Colossus, an older game which I’ll certainly discuss more in the future, is a perfect example of a story told that’s incredible, thought-provoking, and also as depressing as the continued popularity of A Christmas Story.  There are no good guys or bad guys, only flawed characters in a flawed world, much like our own.  Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls, two games I’ve already expressed my utmost enjoyment for, are other examples of fantasy worlds where, spoiler alert, a lot of bad stuff happens.  Every character, as well as the major events of those games, has a good and a bad side to it.  So in worlds like these, what are we supposed to route for?  How are we supposed to know what to feel?  Well, the plain and simple answer is:  We don’t know.  In tragedies such as these, the conclusions that people derive from them are often quite varied.  There aren’t many arguments against Luke blowing up the Death Star, but there are certainly different sides to the decision of whether you should link the flame or let it die, in Dark Souls.  The endings of more well-known things, such as Titanic, have certainly shed a few tears, as well.

I joked in the last post about how you guys probably think I’m crazy for enjoying such depressing stories.  But the thing is, I don’t enjoy them.  A story that manages to feel fulfilling, despite being sad, is an amazingly told one.  But I never feel overjoyed at the prospect of bad things happening to a good person, or not knowing who the good guy is, if there even is one.  But stories like that are the ones that you really think about.  It’s great to feel overjoyed at a villain being defeated, or thinking “This is awesome!” at an intense action scene.  However, seriously thinking about a series of events and how they could have been avoided, or reflecting on a character’s actions and whether they were right or wrong, those kinds of things are what stick with us in life.  Those kinds of things are what you walk away from feeling satisfied, not because you enjoyed it, but because you’ve grown from it. 

Happy endings and happily ever afters are all well and good, but some of the stories that are true masterpieces are Shakespearean tales of love lost or pure hearts falling to darkness.  Perfect tragedies that stay with us forever, to think about, cry about, and learn from.

My Top Ten Favorite Video Game Characters, Part 5

It’s finally time for the final two characters!  These two were relatively easy to pick as my favorites because of how much they stand out, even among all the other awesome characters so far.  I’ve really enjoyed talking about my favorite video game characters!  So here we go, the final two.

2.  Sora, from Kingdom Hearts

 

“The heart may be weak, and sometimes, it may even give in.  But I’ve learned that deep down, there’s a light that never goes out!”

Kingdom Hearts is awesome, and no naysayers will ever change my mind.  Sure, it’s pretty goofy and sometimes just plain childish, but something being lighthearted and kid-friendly doesn’t necessarily mean that its bad.  There have been a lot of dark and twisted characters from depressing games on this list, so Kingdom Hearts is unique in that it has a very lighthearted and fantastical tone, most of the time.  This series combines elements of Final Fantasy and Disney, with a wide variety of characters and journeying between worlds from the Disney movies.  I love these games because of the complex and deep storyline, the fun combat, and the awesome characters.  I deliberated for a while to decide my favorite, since this series has a lot of characters, but the clear victor is the main character, Sora.

 

I said earlier that these games were quite cheerful in tone, and a big part of that is because of Sora.  He’s about as lighthearted and carefree as it gets, always optimistic, greets incredibly strange and suspicious people cheerfully, and faces seemingly impossible challenges with a smile on his face.  He always tries to do the right thing, regardless of the circumstances.  His theme music above demonstrates this, and is unique among the other character's themes, which are usually slower and more tragic sounding.  It’s pretty rare to see Sora depressed or serious, and a lot of fans of these games don’t like him as the protagonist because of his naivety and lack of character development.  I disagree, because in my opinion, his bright and optimistic attitude are what make him fun to watch, and I honestly can’t imagine Sora any other way.  Going on a long adventure with a dark and brooding protagonist, while it could be more interesting, just wouldn’t make sense for Kingdom Hearts.  I think it’s a lot more interesting to see a naïve and silly kid discover tons of new people and places.  As for the lack of character development, I would say that it’s definitely there, but a lot more subtle than most other characters.

 

So why exactly is Sora so awesome?  Well, I’ve said already that he goes on a journey across different worlds from the Disney movies, which is just as awesome as it sounds.  Sora grew up on a small island with his friends, Riku and Kairi, and all three of them dream of sailing across the sea and finding new worlds.  Even this early on in the series, it’s obvious that Sora and Kairi are crazy in love with each other, which Riku of course teases him for.  However, the day before they’ve resolved to leave, a massive storm of darkness destroys their island and scatters them across the universe.  Sora manages to escape because of a special weapon that appears in his hands:  The Keyblade. 

 

Now, a big theme in this series is that hearts, the essence of a person’s existence, can be taken away by creatures called the Heartless, which are created when a heart becomes corrupted by darkness.  Light and Darkness also play a huge role in the story and characters.  Many are aligned with light, darkness, or somewhere in between.  Sora, being the bright goody-two-shoes that he is, fights for the light.  The Keyblade came to him so that he could journey across the worlds and stop the Heartless from destroying them.  I’m grossly oversimplifying the story, but if I were to try and type out the full plot of this series, I would still be working on it when class started on Wednesday, three days from now.  
 

Obviously, once Sora starts his journey, he has to grow from a sheltered kid into a brave and strong hero very quickly.  Throughout the series, he becomes more powerful, more knowledgeable, and more confident in himself.  When he goes on a journey for the second time in another game, he is much more mature and confident and always rushes to the rescue without hesitation.  He destroys incredibly powerful sorcerers bent on the destruction of the universe on a seemingly regular basis.  He has an unwavering faith in his friends, and firmly believes that light will always triumph.  Darkness never corrupts him because he never lets it corrupt him.  On top of that, his love for Kairi is a tremendous source of strength for him.

 

Overall, Sora isn’t the most complicated, the most powerful, or even the most interesting character on this list.  But he’s definitely the most heroic, because despite his flaws and shortcomings, he always has you routing for him at the end.  When everything’s at stake and victory seems impossible, you want nothing more than for Sora to win and save the day.  Sora is just all around incredible, plain and simple.  If I had to pick any other character for number one, I would have found it hard to imagine it being anyone else except Sora.  So who could beat him as my favorite, if only by a small margin?  DRUM ROLL, PLEASE!

1.  GLaDOS, from Portal

 

“You’re not a good person, you know that, right?  Good people… Don’t end up here.”

“One day we’ll look back on this and laugh, and laugh, and laugh, oh boy.”

“Despite your violent behavior, the only thing you’ve managed to break so far, is my heart.”

“I found out what that thing you just incinerated did.  It was a morality core the scientists put on me after I flooded the Enrichment Center with a deadly neurotoxin to make me stop flooding the Enrichment Center with a deadly neurotoxin.”

“I think we can put our differences behind us.  For science.  You monster.”

“Since the only human within five hundred miles of this place is a test-ruining sociopath, we’ll just have to make some.  I’m not really certain how to go about making humans.  I’ve read how humans make other humans, and frankly, it’s ridiculous.”

“Oh, hi.  So… how are you holding up?  BECAUSE I’M A POTATO.”

So you’ve probably figured out that the main reason I love GLaDOS are her many amazing quotes.  I’ve practically memorized every single line of dialog from her, since every single thing she says is incredibly well-written and almost always absolutely hilarious.  I started laughing just from remembering some of the above quotes.  I’m deadly serious when I say that every single thing GLaDOS says is amazing in one way or another.  To have a character that’s so incredibly well-written, funny, and awesome is almost beyond belief to me. 

For those who don’t know, Portal is a puzzle game in which you solve test chambers using the Portal gun.  A mysterious robotic voice, GLaDOS, is your only guide, and GLaDOS is perhaps the most famous for becoming more and more sinister as you go through the game.  Her passive-aggressive nature and robotic tone of voice that you’re never sure is being sarcastic or not is very entertaining.  She’s one of the most famous characters of all time, and for a good reason.  You’re just a rat running through her maze, and not only does she taunt you, but it’s obvious that she enjoys exercising the power she has over you as well.  Even when you finally confront her, she continues sarcastically taunting you about what you’re hoping to accomplish by being rebellious and why exactly you want to be free of her grasp.

 

The second game takes the already famous AI and makes her even more awesome.  Now that her hostile intentions have been made perfectly clear, she resorts to base insults, such as calling your character, Chell, fat and making fun of the fact that she has no parents.  It sounds like she would lose her subtle passive aggressiveness, but she doesn’t, it’s only amplified by the fact that you know she’s definitely out for revenge, but you aren't sure how she's going to get it.  At one point, you have to journey through the depths of the facility with a portable version of her that’s been installed in a potato battery.  As if that wasn’t amazing enough, the two of you discover about who she was before she became an AI, which adds an entire new layer of depth and complexity to her character.  When you’re together, she doesn’t act nearly as aggressive or demeaning, instead trying to work with you to overcome a new enemy and uncover her past. 

You’ll notice that I’m not talking a whole lot about the actual games, and that’s because they’re so incredible that I couldn’t fully explain it in just a few paragraphs, even if I wanted to.  Instead, I would highly recommend these games to anyone who loves puzzles, amazing characters, and a mind-blowing story.  When I wrote about Journey a few posts ago, I declared it my favorite game, but honestly, the Portal series is probably tied with it.  GLaDOS, along with the puzzle elements, combine together to make these games an awesome experience.  The cast of characters within this series is small, but any of the other ones could easily have been on this list as well if not for the one-per-series rule.  In the end, I chose GLaDOS because she’s the most entertaining, significant, famous, and downright memorable character in the series, and my favorite from any video game. 

 

I hope that this post as given you some insight to my two favorite video game characters, even though I couldn't possibly give you the same experience and attachment you get from playing their respective games.  Thank you all for reading, and-

“Time out for a second.  You can’t really be considering ending on that note, could you?  How boring.  And inferior.”

What the… GLaDOS?  Is that you?  How did you get in here?!  Didn’t you read the “no sadistic psychopathic robots allowed” sign?

GLaDOS:  “Your wit never ceases to amuse, and by amuse I mean drive those around you completely insane.  It’s a wonder anyone even reads these things.  Here, let me help."

No, I don’t want your help, I’m perfectly… Oh, I get it, you changed the font color, how hilarious. 

GLaDOS:  “Ah, that’s better.  Much brighter, not as gray as your own dreary imagination.  Seriously, I’ve read your other posts, and frankly, the things you talk about would make a funeral seem like a birthday party.  Everyone probably thinks you’re crazy, which would explain why no one showed up to your birthday party.”

Alright listen, I'm trying to wrap up this list, I don't need you interfering.  And how did you find out about my birthday?!  Never mind, shut yourself down before I cut your stupid core out of your stupid body!

GLaDOS:  “With what, that toy sword you bought on Amazon? My, what a worthwhile purchase that was.”  *boop* Sarcasm sphere self-test, complete.  “Haha.”

My purchasing decisions are my own!  Get out of here already, you- *BRRZZRRRPPP* HELLO I AM ADAM CRANE I AM A BORING NERD WHO IS A FEW FRIENDS SHORT OF A SOCIAL LIFE Hey, quit changing what I type!  I didn’t say that guys, it’s this insane robo- I MAKE BABIES CRY WHICH IS AMAZING CONSIDERING I NEVER LEAVE THE HOUSE Okay, that’s it, you think this is funny?

GLaDOS:  “Actually, yes.  Hilarious, in fact.”

That was a rhetorical question!  If you’re in my computer, you can be shut down, you don’t have any power outside of Aperture. 

GLaDOS:  You should tell that to the deadly neurotoxin.  Actually, the neurotoxin probably won’t answer, which would make you seem like a crazy person.  Then again, your social status probably can’t get any more damaged than it already is.”

Oh, crap.  Green gas is coming out of the vents.  Gotta go guys, let me know how you liked this list, and if I survive the next few minutes, I’ll make another post next week!  Oh my god, quit it with the rainbow text- THE NUMBER OF WORDS IN THIS POST IS EQIVALENT TO THE NUMBER OF TIMES MY PARENTS DROPPED ME Gaaah, stop it GLaDOS!

GLaDOS: “Haha.”

 

 

My Top Ten Favorite Video Game Characters, Part 4

Hello, readers!  We’re getting close to the end of this list.  I’ve really enjoyed writing about my favorite characters and the games that they come from, and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about them.  The next two characters both had good intentions when they began their separate journeys, but things may not have turned out the way they wanted them to.  Let’s see what happens when someone is so desperate to accomplish something that they lose themselves along the way.

4.  Daniel, from Amnesia:  The Dark Descent

 

“Don’t forget, don’t forget, some things MUSN’T be forgotten… My name is… is… I am Daniel.”

The timing of this character’s position on the list is impeccable, considering I just talked about Amnesia in my last post.  I won’t talk too much about the gameplay this time around; instead I’ll focus on the main character of the game, Daniel.  I mentioned last time that Daniel isn’t entirely mentally stable, has forgotten everything about his past, and that you slowly uncover his secrets as you progress through the game.  While the gameplay, the setting, and the monsters are indeed terrifying, perhaps even scarier and more disturbing is Daniel himself, his past deeds, and how exactly he got involved with this terrible, terrible castle.

 

From the first letter you find in the game, the one he wrote to himself after drinking the Amnesia potion, you find out that his goal is to hunt down and murder Alexander, the baron of Castle Brennenburg, and that a creature known as the Shadow is following Daniel.  So why and how did he get in this situation?  Well, I can't describe the full scope of this character and why I like him without spoiling all of the secrets that are revealed throughout the game.  So if you don’t want spoilers, skip ahead! 

Daniel is, for all intents and purposes, an average guy.  He keeps to himself, doesn’t get into any trouble, and lives his life in peace and quiet.  He works at a museum that specializes in excavating ancient lands and discovering long-lost civilizations and artifacts.  However, one day he goes on a journey that will ultimately change his tranquil life into a living nightmare:  He embarks on an expedition to Algeria and finds a mysterious blue orb.  It grants him strange and alien visions of places far away and times long past.  Fascinated, though disturbed, Daniel keeps the orb when he returns and investigates what it could be.  But curiosity, as the saying goes, haunted the cat with brutal and terrifying nightmares for weeks on end, killed all of its friends, and slowly drove it mad with fear of a horrible and terrifying creature following it before finally ending its life.  Wait, that’s not how it goes.  Anyhow, Daniel discovers that Orbs such as his are objects of power and knowledge that have been around since before humans even existed.  He visits a famous geologist to find out more about its strange properties, and a history professor to discover how the Orbs have influenced mankind throughout the ages.  Needless to say, he is a bit disturbed when both of these people wind up dead a few days later.  In addition, horrible nightmares take hold of his mind, preventing him from even sleeping properly.  He goes to visit his physician to get medication, and discovers that he’s dead before he even gets there. 

Convinced now that something’s after him, Daniel desperately sends out letters to various people with possible knowledge of the Orb, seeking a way to prevent his doom.  One letter he receives is different from the others, a cryptic message from a baron in Prussia:  “I know.  Come to my castle and I will protect you."  Signed, Alexander of Brennenburg.

 

At this point, Daniel’s descent into evil and madness begins.  Desperate to save himself, he goes to the castle and meets Alexander.  By this point in the game, the player is aware of just who Alexander is and what he’s trying to do.  Alexander himself is an awesome character, but I want to focus more on Daniel and his motivations.  Alexander knows a great deal about the Orbs, and more importantly, what’s hunting Daniel.  Moving the Orb, he says, is like moving a star in the night sky.  It isn’t supposed to happen, and as a result, the Orb casts a long and dark Shadow.  It isn’t a vengeful spirit, it’s the universe attempting to put itself back together again, and the Shadow is a living nightmare that will kill anyone Daniel interacts with before it finally catches up to him.  Daniel, his sanity at the breaking point from terror, is willing to do anything to stop the Shadow from catching him.  Of course, this is exactly what Alexander wants:  A person who he can freely manipulate to his own ends.  There’s a magic ritual that will keep the Shadow at bay, but it requires a great amount of life energy. This energy comes from a chemical called Vitae, which, conveniently enough, can only be harvested from humans who have recently died while under a great amount of mental stress.  In other words, Alexander and Daniel have to kidnap humans and slowly torture them until their bodies and minds are at the absolute limit before finally killing them.  Alexander reassures Daniel that they will only do this to those who have committed terrible crimes and are irredeemable human beings.  Daniel, however reluctantly, agrees to do this so that they can postpone his dark fate.

So why is it that Daniel is one of my favorite characters?  It seems like he’s just a tragic soul who’s a victim of circumstance and who has gotten a fate he doesn’t deserve.  While the concept of taking other people’s lives away to save your own makes for a selfish, though tragic, character, it isn’t what puts him so high on this list.  When you finally make it to the deepest and most evil places within the castle, the horror no longer comes from the atmosphere or monsters, though those are still prevalent.  It’s here you discover the grisly truth about Daniel:  Inside the torture chambers.  Not only was he forced to commit horrible acts in order to save himself, he slowly grew to enjoy what he was doing.  While constantly telling himself that the people he’s torturing are evil, sub-human animals, he becomes one himself.    Someone can only be around so much pain and misery for so long before the mental restraints and rules placed upon them by modern society slip away.  He starts to think of himself some kind of god dispensing justice upon the world’s filth. “Paint the man… cut the lines…. paint the man…. cut the lines….”

 

Daniel reaches his ultimatum when a little girl he’s captured escapes from the castle’s prison.  He relentlessly hunts her down and murders her, and it’s after this that Daniel finally comes to his senses.  In a torturous and horrifying realization, all of his evil acts crash down on him.  Thinking himself beyond redemption for his crimes and wanting to create a new identity for himself, he vows to kill the one who did this to him, Alexander, and to drink the amnesia potion so that he can become a new person and shake off the bonds of his past.

 

Daniel represents how someone can go from a model of civilized society to a deranged lunatic.  He shows what a big difference there is between being a victim and an aggressor.  Even though it seemed like he had no choice but to do those horrible things, did that make them any less evil?  Was it the fact that he tortured people, or that he grew to enjoy it that made him such a twisted person?  Did forgetting his past redeem him of his acts, or will murdering Alexander do that?  Daniel is an incredibly well-written and deep character, and I love discussing him and the others within Amnesia.  Sometimes the best characters are the ones that make the worst mistakes.  Speaking of which… 

3.  Maiden Astraea, from Demon’s Souls

 

“Leave us, slayer of Demons.  This is a sanctuary for the lost and wretched.  There is nothing here for you to pillage or plunder.  Please, leave quietly.”

Yay, Demon’s Souls!  Remember, that game that I talked about a long time ago?  I mentioned that Maiden Astraea is an easy boss, but one that makes you feel guilty for killing her.  Well, I like her character for similar reasons to Daniel, but her motivations are far different.

So in Demon’s Souls, people go crazy after having their souls devoured by Demons.  You visit various regions throughout the game, each with different kinds of enemies that symbolize ailments of the mind and problems with the people that lived there.  The area that is perhaps the most hopeless and despairing is the Valley of Defilement, a giant crevice into which all the world’s garbage and refuse is dumped.  Waterfalls of poisonous sewage and clouds of buzzing flies permeate this place, which has somehow become even worse after the colorless fog swept across the land, bringing with it a scourge of Demons.  You'll find such vibrant creatures as a Demon composed entirely of leeches, giant blood-engorged ticks, and soulless madmen with venomous knives.  So for a priest whose job is to make life better for others, this place is like buy one get a thousand free at a furniture store.  An evil furniture store.

 

Maiden Astraea journeys into the valley along with her brave knight, Garl Vinland, with the intention of purifying the place and bringing happiness to the populace.  Sounds great, right?  Ha, this is Demon’s Souls.  Of all the characters in both this game as well as Dark Souls, Maiden Astraea might be the most morally ambiguous and thought-provoking.  Rather than rely on a God who, in her view, has abandoned the world and left the people to rot, she turns to a greater source of power:  Demon’s Souls.  Using the power of the Soul Arts, the same magic that corrupted the world in the first place, she takes in the darkness and filth of the swamp unto herself.  The mindless and soul-starved people begin worshipping her and bowing.  She becomes a Demon, and though she retains her pure and innocent appearance, she has become the most impure and unclean being in the world.  The other priests you meet in the game condemn her actions and urge you to end her heretic existence.  Since the only way to stop the Demon invasion is to destroy the most powerful Demons, you have no choice but to comply.

 So you journey to the bottom of the putrid and god-forsaken crevice and find her sitting in the deepest swamp, where all the world’s filth finally meets in a festering pool of the unwanted.  She holds up a glowing globe of power, a tiny light in the crimson-red darkness.  Throngs of people circle her, bowing in appreciation of her efforts.  In the corrupted water dwell, I’m not making this up, aborted fetuses that will attack you if you get close.  The Maiden truly believes that while anyone else in the world would simply throw these beings away, she is helping them and caring for them, forming a sanctuary where the un-desirables can gather.  She asks you to leave, as you have no business in interfering with her holy work.  There are only two outcomes of this battle:  You can kill her despite her constant pleas for mercy, or you can kill Garl, her guardian, at which point she loses all hope and kills herself.  Either way, you get her Demon Soul and are one step closer to your goal. 

Once again, this is a character that seems to be a victim of the circumstances, except this time, there is a more noble reason behind it.  Rather than preserving her own life, Astraea is sacrificing herself to demonic corruption in order to make the lives of the most miserable and far-gone beings imaginable just a little bit better.  And you walk in there and kill her.  Worse yet, by this point in the game, you are corrupted with demonic power as well.  So how are you more fit to live than she is?  Are you truly killing her in the name of the greater good?  Is a world where you must kill such kind-hearted and innocent people truly worth saving?  Maiden Astraea became a Demon because she refused to believe in God’s benevolence.  By taking on the power of the Old One and drawing in the impurity of others, she herself became impure.  So if she refused to do nothing and insisted on putting others before herself, even if all hope of truly curing them was lost, is validating her belief that no one will take pity on her really that bad?  If she chose to seal her fate by becoming a Demon, and her very existence prevents you from stopping the Demon scourge, is she truly doing the right thing by helping a few, pathetic, people?  Why help the dead when there is still hope for the living?

In Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls, the right thing is never right for everyone, and the wrong thing always makes somebody smile.  In a world of morally ambiguous characters, Maiden Astraea is as grey as the fog that covers the world.

 

Holy dang, that post was long.  If you’ve read this far, thank you so much and I hope you enjoyed reading about these tragic and deep characters.  The final two will come next time!  Until then, don’t touch any glowing blue orbs or visit any plague-ridden valleys.  Bad things could happen! 

Where Fear Comes From

Happy few-days-after-Halloween!  I wanted to get this post up on Friday, but I’ve had tons of homework and couldn’t find the time to do so.  Anyways, I had a lot of fun on Halloween and I hope all of you did too!  Whether you dress up and have fun with friends, go to a party, or watch scary movies, Halloween is a fun holiday to celebrate.  In a previous post, I mentioned that video games can be even more scary than horror movies because you are directly immersed in the experience.  However, many horror games, as well as movies, do not do a good job of making you feel scared.  Sure, they’re dark, supernatural stuff is happening, and monsters jump out at you.  But is that enough to make someone truly terrified?  The game I’ve decided to make my Halloween post about goes far beyond the normal standards of horror and takes the genre to the next level.

 

(you should definitely play this in the background while you read the post!)

As I said, many horror games and movies have monsters that jump out at you.  Startled, you gasp and reel away from the screen, momentarily frightened.  After a moment, you settle down and continue watching, maybe laugh and joke with some friends.  “Wow, that really got me!”  These moments are called “jump-scares,” and while they are an easy and effective way to startle an audience and make them feel uneasy, they don’t make for a truly scary experience, because not only is it over in an instant, but it takes you out of the immersion instead of pulling you in.  You’re relieved once it’s over, confident that it won’t happen again for a while, since the tension has released.  The best horror movies, the ones that a wuss like me doesn’t want to watch for how scary they are, use more subtle techniques to slowly draw you in to what’s happening and keep you on the edge of your seat.  The game Amnesia:  The Dark Descent does the same thing, and it’s what makes it one of the best and most terrifying horror games ever made.  How?  Well, let’s take our own journey into the maw of madness, and discover what sets this game apart from its competitors. 

 

Let’s start at the beginning.  You wake up in a mysterious castle with, wait for it, amnesia.  Your character, Daniel, has no memories of his past and no clue as to why he’s here.  He soon finds a letter that he has written to himself, stating that he chose to forget his past so that he could have a fresh start.  It also reads that the baron of this castle, Alexander of Brennenburg, is an evil man who coerced Daniel into committing terrible deeds in the past, and that you have to stop him.  And one final message:  A Shadow is following you, a terrible and unstoppable creature that you can only escape for so long.

The rest of this game’s story is incredibly lengthy, so I won’t try to explain all of it here.  Suffice to say that its awesome and really adds a lot to the immersion and atmosphere, as you slowly discover more about Daniel’s past and what is relation to Alexander is, as well as the horrible things that have happened in the castle.  You have been left with one choice:  Descend into the deepest and darkest chambers of Castle Brennenburg, find Alexander, and murder him.  But from the very beginning, it’s clear that it won’t be an easy journey.  There are no weapons in this game.  Your only choice is to hide from danger.  And if danger finds you… then you have to run for your life.  Armed with only your wits and a lantern, you take the first step into the darkness of Brennenburg.

 

The walls echo with screams and growls, around every corner a threat lurks, and each room is darker than the next.  There are puzzles to solve, and they would be pretty easy if not for the fact that you don't want to solve them.  Because that would mean going to a new room, one that’s even worse.  But why are you so terrified?  The game’s barely started, and you haven’t even seen any monsters and nothing’s tried to kill you.  The castle is certainly dark, and ominous voices from the past echo all around you, as well as the sounds of creaking floorboards and dripping water.  And again, during the first part of the game, you aren't in any real danger.  But it doesn’t matter, because the scariest parts of Amnesia are when there aren’t any monsters and things don’t jump out at you.  You're scared for the simple reason that the castle itself is really, really terrifying.  A jump-scare releases the built up tension a person has, and though it’s startling, they feel relieved afterwards, because it’s over.  This game never releases that tension.  Throughout every excruciating step of your journey, you're painfully aware that things are out to get you, and without realizing it, you wish that they would see the monster, that something would jump out at them, just so that it would be over with.  And it only gets worse as the game goes on.

The subtlety of the game’s design and ingenious ways the creators find to scare you are what makes this game go way beyond normal horror.  The ways the developers use darkness and sound effects to immerse the player and make them feel like they really are wandering Brennenburg are incredible.  Because areas are so dark and foreboding, your first instinct will be to light them up using the tinderboxes and lantern fuel you find.  But if an area is too well-lit, then monsters can see you and there’s nowhere to hide.  At the same time, you have to light up some areas in order to see where you're going, find items, and keep Daniel from going insane.  Because as you find out from the story, Daniel is more than a little mentally unstable, and grows paranoid and delusional the longer he stays in the dark.  His vision blurs, bugs crawl across the screen, and he breathes more and more heavily, alerting potential enemies to his presence.  No matter how much you light up the castle and no matter how much terror you endure as you explore, you never feel relieved, because you know that there’s always another room.  One that could hold a real threat.

In one room, you enter the darkest and most exposed area yet.  You slowly descend a winding staircase down into the pitch-black room.  Suddenly, you hear a low growl, different and more prominent than any of the other sounds you have heard throughout the game.  Then, a tutorial hint pops up on the screen:  'If an enemy is near, stay out of sight and hide in the darkness.'  Immediately, you panic and think that for the first time, a real enemy is close.  Even the mechanics that aren’t a part of the actual gameplay work to the developer’s advantage and make you even more terrified.  This is a game that realizes where real fear comes from:  Not from jump-scares, but your own imagination.

 

 

If you manage to solve the first few puzzles and are brave enough to continue, then the real game begins.  After a long and painfully terrifying chase scene, which requires you to hop across boxes as you evade an invisible creature, and the Shadow is close to catching you, you finally escape to a new area of the castle.  Calm music plays, the area is large and well-lit, and for the first time, you feel safe.  But even this room holds its own special brand of terror:  there are tons of doors into new areas that you must explore.  While this is a temporary safe haven, the prospect of going on and facing even worse terror is daunting and oppressive, as though the game is defying you to complete it.  And this is where the monsters appear. 

 

 

As you can see, the only way to avoid these horrific creatures is to hide in closets and other dark areas.  It gets to the point that when you see a closet, you immediately grow fearful that you’ll have need of it soon.  This game emotionally tortures your mind as you descend deeper and deeper.  You would think that the game is less scary once you finally have to escape and allude monsters.  But when you’re trapped in the massive labyrinth that forms Brennenburg’s Prison, each cell offering little shelter from the legions of creatures that stalk the halls, you feel an entirely new sort of terror.  Now, you aren’t merely a person exploring a scary castle with monsters in it.  You’ve gone too deep to escape, and now, you’re being actively hunted.  And you’re only halfway done.

 

Fully describing the multitude of reasons this game is, in my opinion, the best horror game ever made would be impossible.  The story of Daniel, Alexander, and Brennenburg is a deep and terrifying one, and I hope you’re all brave enough to experience it for yourselves someday.  This game is a true step forward for the horror genre, and since its release, many horror games have attempted to move away from things popping out at you to the more subtle and truly terrifying way that Amnesia scares its players.  Amnesia stands out in the crowd because it isn’t seeing the monster that’s scary:  It’s the dread that comes with not seeing them.  The idea that as you continue down the dark descent, that there will be no coming back.  The idea of being terrified at nothing at all, and thinking about what will happen when you finally do confront something, and how much worse it will get before the end.  In the absolute darkness, you can't see what you should be afraid of, so your own imagination will fill the dark with the worst things your mind can come up with.  Thus, you're terrified.  Because that's where fear comes from. 

Thanks for reading everyone!  J