Amnesia: The Dark Descent - Part 1

Now I Growl When I'm Pleased, And Wag My Tail When I'm Angry. Therefore I'm Mad

That's a quote from the Chesire Cat, and it kinda sums up Amensia a lot of different ways so far. Granted, I'm only an hour in, but the sheer madness of it all is already playing with my head. While being hunted, you hide in the darkness, but the darkness drives you mad, so you go to the light, but in the light, the hunter finds you and the whole cycle repeats itself. The game makes you want to take refuge in the darkness, because you'd rather go insane than be killed, but both have the same result. The game makes you do the complete opposite of what you would expect to do in any other game.

You and me both, buddy

If I'm honest, the game isn't even that scary, it's just constantly tense and has brilliant ways of making you feel uncomfortable, which works wonders on me unfortunately. And also has good ways of fucking with you. From previous experience playing it, I knew where I would first see the Shadow, and decided to just charge it down to see what would happen and to try and ease some fears, but when it rounded a corner, the bastard disappeared!

Ew...

The first real task of the game is to make it past that...wall? It involves finding four chemicals and mixing them. That sounds easy enough, but add that you have a monster chasing you every step of the way and having to manage the oil in your lantern with not staying in darkness too long in case you go mental makes it a bit trickier. But I managed to do it in the end and, despite it being the first, relatively easy, task of the game, I actually felt like I had accomplished something, which isn't an easy feat.

So I'll continue my descent into madness and keep you posted. I'll leave you with this amusing Facebook post from my brother which kinda tells the experience of playing Amnesia.

This game will be the death of me