It's there in the scattered notes and loading screen exposition of Dark Descent, and even more present in the audiograph ramblings of A Machine for Pigs. About to be re-released to fresh screams of terror as the Amnesia Collection on PS4 (which includes the two main games, Amnesia: Dark Descent and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs as well as the free DLC Amnesia: Justine) the series is marked not just by an ability to evoke fear, but by something more complex too a fascination with psychological depths that betrays a sophisticated nature. That's the guiding principle of the Amnesia series. Paintings and drawings are used throughout the Amnesia games to suggest unseen acts of torture and suffering. We've all felt it, we all know it, why not leave it at that?īut what if there's something underneath that fear? What if it's just a mask, a layer, which sits on top of something else? What if we are looking at the tip of an iceberg, but beneath the dark, choppy waves lies a vast unknown mass, a container of emotions, ideas and secrets that we never knew was there. In some senses it doesn't matter: When it comes to video games fear is fun. Maybe it was the draw of the unknown, a desire to plumb the darkest depths in search of something other, something new. But why? Perhaps it was the rush, the adrenaline of an imagined brush with death. Spurred on by these brave pioneers, players flocked to the game, eager to test their mettle. The success of the first game in the series, Frictional Games' 2011 Amnesia: Dark Descent, was contingent on its terrifying nature its cat and mouse chases featuring in a hundred Let's Plays and streams, where grown adults hid in corners, faced the wall and whispered to themselves repeatedly that 'everything is going to be OK'. I've certainly come across several claims that they are the 'scariest games of all time' and even a few people have suggested that the games are too scary to complete.

If you've heard of the Amnesia games before, then you've probably also heard that they're scary.

Amnesia dark descent endings