Have You Played... Amnesia: The Dark Descent?
Never forget
Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives and PC miscellany. One a day, every day, perhaps for all time.
I have a limited patience for scary games. I enjoy a surprise jump-scare here and there, but I struggle to enjoy an incessant barrage of them making every step an anxiety-inducing moment. And yet, wow, I love Amnesia.
I also really enjoyed the Penumbra series that came before it, but Amnesia felt like such a big step forward, such an improvement in overall quality. And bloody hell, it's so frightening.
Paint the man, cut the lines. Paint the man, cut the lines. Paint the man, cut the lines.
What makes it so damned effective is the character's fear, palpable and infectious, his increasing heart rate and panicked breathing inducing a physical sympathetic response. It's so much more than just shouting "BOO!" at you every fifteen seconds - Amnesia offers a connection between player and character like few other games have ever achieved. Oh, and the splashing water. The splashing!