Suggestions for Future Horror Games

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~imagine full post here~

Yes, well...that's pretty much what I said, right? Or what I meant to say at least. Whatever, good to see we're understanding each other

I really think Amnesia suffered a little because it sort of cast away more complex adventure game elements where it was possible to get stuck in exchange for more flow when facing immediate physical threats, but Amnesia had its own strong unconventional challenge in the form of sanity and light management. Keeping your lantern off had a better guarantee of safety, as monsters were less likely to spot you, whereas turning it on allowed for more clarity and, in a sense, security. Light was a limited resource too, so you really had to judge when it was appropriate if you were stumbling through the campaign the first time, and this was an especially hard decision because no light meant draining sanity and less clarity, leading to more unsettling occurrences.

Yes, the light/ sanity challenge was pretty strong indeed. The only thing that kinda bothers me about it was that it was quite easy to get used to being insane. The longer I played, the less I was using the lantern because going insane wasn't as frightening anymore. So what was an interesting choice at first became a choice with an obvious right answer later (keeping the light switched off for more security).

I'm not sure how one could get around that problem, especially since simple gameplay repercussions (HP loss, movement speed etc.) wouldn't help at all. Maybe the effects of insanity could change during the course of the game to stay "fresh" or they could be integrated more into the environment. Since Amnesia has a strong story element, insanity could also be more "personalized" and make connections to Daniels past. Basically, whatever makes the player more afraid of the insanity itself, not of the consequences it might bring for gameplay.