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| Winner of the "Scariest Game Ever" Award |
Few things are more frightening to the human psyche than
darkness, though we truly fear the unknown which lurks inside the darkness
rather than the darkness itself. It stands to reason, then, that the most
frightening villain of all is one that we cannot see, and that is truly the
case for The Shadow from the game “Amnesia: The Dark Descent.” This is, without
a doubt, one of the scariest games I have ever played, period, and this is a
direct result of the effect of The Shadow on both the character and the player.
Why is this villain so terrifying? Read on to find out.
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| The residue left behind by The Shadow |
While not truly the main villain of the story, The Shadow is
the driving force behind the plot. The Shadow is nothing more or less than a
presence which follows the protagonist of the story, Daniel, who has stolen a
mystical Orb that it guards from an old tomb. It leaves no evidence of its
passing other than a fleshy residue, and it doesn’t ever physically interact
with the protagonist or the environment. Rather, the main danger that the
Shadow poses to the player is that of Daniel’s sanity. No, that’s not a typo;
The Shadow can literally cause your character to go insane. You must carefully
preserve Daniel’s sanity throughout the game, or he may become temporarily paralyzed
from fear. Staying in the light preserves his sanity, but makes him easier to
spot by other enemies, that I will detail in a moment, whereas hiding in the
darkness can protect you from those enemies, but at the risk of losing your sanity
if you remain too long. This chiaroscuro, or juxtaposition of dark and light,
is the main strategy of the game; balancing the healing properties of the light
with the stealth of the darkness.
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| Holy crap, he's scary-looking! |
One of the common misconceptions among casual gamers is that
the physical enemies of the game are The Shadow, or agents of The Shadow.
However, these enemies, called The Gatherers, are actually malformed
zombie-like agents of the main antagonist, Alexander of Brennenburg, whose
inhumane experimentations have created these monsters, as well as brought the
wrath of The Shadow down upon Daniel. While the true intentions of The Shadow
are unknown past the fact that it is the guardian of the Orb that Daniel found,
it kills all those who make contact with the possessor of the Orb as it follows
in its wake, desperately attempting to reclaim it. In fact, hardly anything is
known about the Orb and its powers, even upon completion of the game, other
than the fact that it was used in an ancient religion. In a way, this enhances
the experience even further, as the game focuses on the unknown and why we fear
it.
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| Go ahead, enter the darknes... If you dare... |
There is precious little else to tell about this villain. Its
aim is simple, the recovery of the artifact it was tasked to protect for all
eternity, and its tactics even more so. While this villain is not truly evil in
the common sense of the word, The Shadow definitely ranks at “Crap-Your-Pants-Terrifying”
on the Fear-O-Meter. It is honestly quite difficult to explain with words just
how terrifying this force is, but you can rest assured that The Shadow will
haunt your nightmares for weeks after playing this game. If you want to
experience the thrill and horror for yourself, go buy the game yourself, or
watch SanCo654 play it on YouTube at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcmjjXTA00U.
For the full experience, turn off all the lights in the room, plug in a good
pair of headphones, and pull it up on fullscreen. Just don’t say I didn’t warn
you.
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