Oppressive, tense atmosphere
Mentioned in ~1 in 2 positive reviews
“the main scary factor is not jump-scares but the atmosphere and great sound effects”
Steam review · 11.8 h played ↗
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.
Overwhelmingly PositiveOverwhelmingly Positive · 95%Frictional Games2010Horror · Psychological Horror · Survival Horror
The verdict
A landmark first-person horror game about hiding rather than fighting, with superb atmosphere, sound and story. Skip it if you dislike obscure puzzles, slow pacing or blurry sanity effects.
Great for
Horror fans who like slow-burn atmosphere, lore from notes, and defenseless hide-and-seek tension
Main risk
Obscure puzzles, predictable scripted monsters and dated design can make it feel slow and not scary
What players love
Gripping story told through notes and lore
Mentioned in ~1 in 3 positive reviews
“the game slowly feeds you pieces of this information through notes, flashbacks, environmental details”
Steam review · 10.5 h played ↗
Excellent sound design and voice acting
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 positive reviews
“Sound design, atmosphere and voice acting are all top notch.”
Steam review · 17.7 h played ↗
Physics-based interaction and sanity mechanic
Mentioned in ~1 in 8 positive reviews
“Their physics model of interaction with every object where you must open and close doors, move drawers and stuff by hand actually "feeling" their weight gives +300% to atmosphere”
Steam review · 9.7 h played ↗
Helpless hide-and-seek with no combat
Mentioned in ~1 in 8 positive reviews
“There are no guns, no fighting back, and honestly, that's what makes it so scary.”
Steam review · 33.9 h played ↗
Great modding scene and replayability
Mentioned in ~1 in 19 positive reviews
“once you finish the main game and Justine you can download a bunch of story mods”
Steam review · 10 h played ↗
What players complain about
Boring, slow walking-sim feel
Mentioned in ~1 in 3 negative reviews
“Its basically an endless walking and puzzle simulator set in a dark castle”
Steam review · 51.5 h played ↗
Not scary: predictable scripted monsters
Mentioned in ~1 in 5 negative reviews
“"optimal gameplay" boils down to crouching in a corner and waiting for an enemy to "disappear".”
Steam review · 6.4 h played ↗
Aged badly, overrated by nostalgia
Mentioned in ~1 in 5 negative reviews
“I can appreciate Descent being the first of its kind, but its many successors far outshine it in gameplay and story.”
Steam review · 5.5 h played ↗
Blur and white flashes cause discomfort
Mentioned in ~1 in 6 negative reviews
“your vision gets so blurred and messy that it genuinely causes headaches and motion sickness”
Steam review · 14.9 h played ↗
Obscure, frustrating puzzles
Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews
“the amount of times I had to go into youtube just to see what am I supposed to do is crazy”
Steam review · 4.8 h played ↗
Crashes, bugs and resolution problems
Mentioned in ~1 in 8 negative reviews
“too many crashes and due to the nature of the game you can't ignore them”
Steam review · 8.7 h played ↗
System requirements
From the Steam store page
Steam Deck: PlayableController support3 GB
Minimum
OSWindows XP/Vista/7
Processor2.0Ghz - Low budget CPUs such as Celeron or Duron needs to be at about twice the CPU speed
Memory2 GB
GraphicsRadeon X1000/GF 6 - Integrated graphics and very low budget cards might not work.
Storage3GB
OSWindows XP/Vista/7
Processor2.0Ghz - Low budget CPUs such as Celeron or Duron needs to be at about twice the CPU speed
Memory2 GB
GraphicsRadeon X1000/GF 6 - Integrated graphics and very low budget cards might not work.
Storage3GB
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