Denying fear? Mind over matter? Does it work for you?

[Fomzo]

Well, I couldn't, and I didn't even want too. It would've messed up all the fun...

[Kraggdog]

Initially... the game was frightening for me because of what I had heard and seen from reviews. The first few monster free levels were a careful crawl lol.

I began playing with the HPL editor at around the prison part of the game.

This was a mistake.

With the editor I got the chance to create my own nightmares etc.. but when you are replaying it over and over to get that encounter "just right"... you have no fear whatsoever. Because the mystery is gone. I had spent so many hours playing with my monster minions.. that when I got around to playing single player again.. they were just my loveable minions in different zones.. I knew exactly how they would behave and how to easily deal with them lol.

Relating to my first few hours though, familiarity is a downside to playing a horror game.. but it can also be an asset. Sometimes knowing something is about to happen can be more frightening (and often is) than the actual encounter.

[Scraper]

Just laugh out loud through the whole game and you're not scared.

[Sergiy]

(05-09-2011 01:14 PM)Scraper Wrote:  Just laugh out loud through the whole game and you're not scared.

Desperate laughter?

I immersed myself into that game taking it very slow, I was even scared to light anything and ended the game with about 50 tinderboxes and 15+ oil bottles.
In some of the chase scenes (water was involved) I literaly lift my feet off the floor when the thing was splashing near.
God damn my imagination, Frictional is very good at giving us scares, without even showing anything.

No, I connot deny fear, however, I can accept it and move on.

[csm]

Try playing with no sound. I dare you.

[Disruption]

I've just started using a walkthrough and it removes most of the fear...but it's not fun at all! So now I've stopped using it. Being scared is just too damn fun.

[Nycticorax]

Amnesia had its terrifying moments, one of the most intense for me being when you have to escape this thing in the water/the monster wandering on the top floor/ through that rusty door/hidden in the closet, but Overture/Black Plague was just insanely scary. I think this depends at least on the following factors:
- I had not played anything like that before Overture/Black Plague
- the sound, a crucial element for triggering fear, is used I think more minutely in O/BP
- the contrast between (mild) hard logical puzzles and manhunt in the dark was more vivid
- since you had only one source of (continuous) light (torch vs. tinder+oil lamp), you were obliged to creep in the dark, thereby noticing monsters before they notice you)

[smapho123]

There's a bunch of people on Youtube that say they're not scared of Amnesia, but that's a task that's easier said than done. I personally thing it's the atmosphere, the music, and the suddenness of the monsters spawning. I think the scariest thing about it is the chase music, because while you can't see it chasing you, you know that it is, but you don't know how far behind you it is. When I was being chased in the prison, I started panicking, because I didn't know if the monster was going to catch me or not (fortunately it didn't). It left me so scared, I refused to play the next part for days.

[ferryadams10]

(05-08-2011 03:14 AM)graykin Wrote:  Amnesia, while being tense and having some good horror moments, didn't scare me like, say, Black Plague did. I think there was just too much familiarity, on my part, with the game's overall concepts (as Penumbra and Amnesia are similar enough in how they play).

I think it's possible for anyone to completely deny their fear when playing a horror game like this. The real question is, do we really WANT to deny that fear?

This one I don't understand cause penumbra was way less scary then Amnesia TDD

[Finska]

(05-08-2011 12:07 AM)Disruption Wrote:  Can anyone deny the emotion of fear wile playing Amnesia? Can you just tell yourself it's just a game and refuse to be afraid? If not, what do you think it is about Amnesia that convinces our minds it's a real threat?

No, I cannot. I'm not that scared but my heart always start beating faster...