• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Amnesia: Dark Ascent

Page 3 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
TheUnk said:
Well I give up.. I can't get this thing running on my 480. Its just unplayable. Sometimes it starts and only goes up to 16fps, othertimes it will start at 24fps. Either case it's crap.

I guess that's OpenGL for ya? =p I dunno, this seems to be the first game I've played in a very very long time that wasn't DX.
Click to expand...

You said you have SLI right? Have you tried turning it off? I'm running with everything turned all the way up on my rig. Everything runs perfect even with Vsync on.
 
LessThanDan said:
I've gotten a little further, after finding the note at the beginning and getting into that one main hallway, I heard the woman screaming. I decided to avoid going that way and check out the upstairs ballroom/study halls.

I swear I can hear footsteps through the walls sometimes, like feet treading across carpet, sometimes I think it's just my own feet and sometimes I'm definitely sure it was something else. Every little sound puts me on edge. When I was tip-toeing out of the local history room back into the ballroom, I sudenly heard this GROWLING - it was definitely growling - and I jumped like hell, turned around, and hid in a corner. Realizing that my only way out was that doorway into the ballroom, I sucked it up and walked back. There was nothing there.

This game will make you think there's an enemy nearby, but then you gather up the courage to peek around the corner and it's gone. That growling though, that was definitely not subtle. I keep hearing footsteps in this part of the castle but damn... that growl was a new one.

Then I walk out of the ballroom for my last time, and as I round the corner in the hallway, I hear the piano back in the ballroom start slowly playing music. *shudder*
Click to expand...

I actually played some more later in the night and got further, and like you, I jumped out of my chair the first growl I heard and going through the ballroom when I saw my first monster I jumped out of my chair again. This game is seriously freaky and the mood they set for you is the scariest in any game yet I've played. Sure the graphics aren't the best but they make use of what they have very well. I've played about 90 min now. I'm scared to play it but at the same time want to know what the hell is going on with the character.
 
It definitely isn't the prettiest game of 2010, but I don't understand all the complaints about the "horrible" graphics. It looks decent to me.

Besides, this game isn't about graphics. It's about atmosphere and scaring the living shit out of you. Of course, inevitably there'll be people posting here within weeks (days?) saying "This game sucks! I ran through the whole game and nothing scared me at all!" and "WTF NO GUNS?!?!"

😉
 
God this game does a good job of playing with your head. I'm putting spoiler tags around the next section - describing the order that I've done the next ~30 minutes of game play, and things I've discovered.

I skipped the initial staircase down where the trail of liquid ended, as I figured that would be where they want me to go and I wanted to explore first. I started out by going down into the laboratory first and noticed the four spots for different chemicals. They hinted that the chemicals are in the wine cellar, and on the way back out I heard footsteps on the floor above me. I tried the wine cellar next, but it was locked. Then I went into the archives, poked around, got three journals about a guy's trip to Africa, and had a part of the ceiling cave in next to me. After hearing the piano start playing itself and several growls, I completed a puzzle, and found the wine cellar key. I immediately heard a loud, uh... growl? coming from the next room and immediately jumped into the large wardrobe in the key room. I stopped there. 😛

Time to go play some MW2 to lighten the mood. :O The game isn't "jump every time you turn a corner because something jumped out at you" scary, but it definitely does a good job of leaving you on edge and milking the suspense.
 
Last edited:
I'm with you, corey! Adventure games are better when you're stumbling into walls and forgetting why you went into rooms in the first place.

I'm being serious, btw.
 
Haha, this is the first game in a long time where I've heard numerous people (myself included) saying, "I have to turn it off, it was too scary / intense / nerve-racking."

It seems like most of us can only play for about half an hour at a time. 😱
 
I steam rolled all the way to the basement key section. I basically ran towards every sound i heard.

Doom3 and Undying have jaded me towards scary games so much. But I'm not going to lie, I'm thoroughly enjoying the atmosphere and I like that it can't scare me as much as games like this once could, it allows me to play it at a more normal pace.
 
skace said:
I steam rolled all the way to the basement key section. I basically ran towards every sound i heard.

Doom3 and Undying have jaded me towards scary games so much. But I'm not going to lie, I'm thoroughly enjoying the atmosphere and I like that it can't scare me as much as games like this once could, it allows me to play it at a more normal pace.
Click to expand...

You must be stone cold cus I played Doom 3, Undying, every Resident Evil game, Theif, and many others but none scare me like this. All those other games were not as scary cus in those other games you could defend yourself with weapons. In this game you can't. There's nothing you can do but run.
 
I <3 Penumbra. I am definately buying this today.

This with Minecraft= nice gameplay lined up for awhile. SC2 just didn't do it for me.
 
It's true, you do need a game that serves as a diversion between Amnesia horror sessions. Mine is Borderlands.

TF2 sounds like it could work, but I'd be too afraid that I'm going to get stabbed in the back RL in my computer chair.
 
Liet said:
It's true, you do need a game that serves as a diversion between Amnesia horror sessions. Mine is Borderlands.

TF2 sounds like it could work, but I'd be too afraid that I'm going to get stabbed in the back RL in my computer chair.
Click to expand...

ahaha I've been playing the same game when I'm not playing Amnesia.
 
By the way, if Amnesia's graphics intermittently stutter for anyone else, i.e. the framerate lags at random times, then turn off vertical sync. I just learned this. Yeah, there's screen-tearing, but it's better than the annoying lag.
 
Last edited:
Doh. I can't get it to play. It starts, but once I go to new game it just goes black..I can hear the guy talking, then like 1 minute later subtitles of what he said pop up. Guessing it's something with my old (x1900gt) gfx card and Win7. Guess I'll try in XP
 
zerocool84 said:
You must be stone cold cus I played Doom 3, Undying, every Resident Evil game, Theif, and many others but none scare me like this. All those other games were not as scary cus in those other games you could defend yourself with weapons. In this game you can't. There's nothing you can do but run.
Click to expand...

The problem with a game like this is that it told me from the start "don't worry about saving and don't worry about dying". Well if I don't need to worry about dying or saving then why worry at all? I haven't ACTUALLY died yet and I guess I'd be pretty pissed if I had to start the whole game over, but because the game takes care of all this stuff I've simply been very reckless.

This game does have a nice Eternal Darkness vibe though. Except Eternal Darkness did sanity much, much better. And you actually had to worry about surviving. Anyone who has a Gamecube or Wii that hasn't played this game definitely should! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_Darkness:_Sanity's_Requiem
 
skace said:
The problem with a game like this is that it told me from the start "don't worry about saving and don't worry about dying". Well if I don't need to worry about dying or saving then why worry at all? I haven't ACTUALLY died yet and I guess I'd be pretty pissed if I had to start the whole game over, but because the game takes care of all this stuff I've simply been very reckless.

This game does have a nice Eternal Darkness vibe though. Except Eternal Darkness did sanity much, much better. And you actually had to worry about surviving. Anyone who has a Gamecube or Wii that hasn't played this game definitely should! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_Darkness:_Sanity's_Requiem
Click to expand...

I like the fact that you can only save the game when exiting. It stops me from mashing the quick save button before turning every corner, which IMO takes the challenge out of the game. Of course, I could just save / exit before each corner, but that's far more tedious and time consuming, which is a good deterrent.

Not being concerned about dying is probably my only gripe. I haven't played through the entire game so I don't know entirely what's in store for me, but I sort of feel like the way to beat the game is to either crawl slowly through each room and corridor, staying completely out of sight, or to run as quickly as you can through everything and hope for the best. I wish they'd add some enemies that are best to sneak by or find a different way (sort of how it is now), and some that will actually stalk you if you linger too long, essentially forcing you to make quick decisions and go on gut instinct.
 
Yea Curse, but see, the game is all about atmosphere, the sooner you realize that the sooner it becomes easy. Compare it to Eternal Darkness (not sure if you've played that) but a lot of things could kill you and set you back pretty far so not only were you scared but you needed to be cautious, on top of that you had a sanity meter where things that scared you would make you insane and the more insane you got, the more "unexplainable" things you'd see.

Here is hoping these guys get to that level for their next game.
 
Wow... this game is frikken awesome if you let yourself become immersed...

I find myself running like a scared little girl if a monster sees and chases me [which happens quite a lot]. And my heartbeat literally skipped a few beats when my wife's computer speakers picked up her cell phone text message transmission. I don't smoke...but hell, I need a smoke break now just to settle down. 🙂
 
I tried the demo and the only part that really "scared" me was when you are in the basement I guess with the water on the ground. I watched whatever the hell it was coming at me in the water and I watched it like wtf is that? Once it hit me I figured I needed to move lol. What about the 2nd door where you have to manually crank the wheel while the "monster" is chewing on the body parts? I just about shat myself trying to crank that fucker as fast as I could LOL.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top