I suck at scripting

[TheGreatCthulhu]

That's good advice, but what you linked to is not Visual Studio itself, but rather the Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package - which is a set of libraries required to run programs developed with Visual C++ (I don't think that it includes the command line compiler.)

Actually, Microsoft publishes a free version of the Visual Studio IDE with every release, called Microsoft Visual Studio Express - and it's not some crappy version with limited functionality, it's really good - it can satisfy the needs of even intermediate developers, or advanced enthusiasts. What it lacks are some advanced/professional features that a beginner will not need anyway. So, it doesn't have to be VS 2010, you can take your pick from any of these:

Visual Studio 2010 Express
Visual Studio 2012 Express
Visual Studio 2013 Express - scroll down to where it says Express 2013 for Windows Desktop


P.S. If you want to understand amnesia scripting a bit deeper, you can check out my Script Language Reference and Guide on the wiki. It's unfinished, but it covers pretty much everything you'd normally encounter when scripting. I'll see if I can add some more content one of these days - the final section is a bit rushed/confusing, and I'd love to write about classes and objects before SOMA is released.