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'Amnesia: The Bunker' is a new survival horror sandbox from Frictional Games
The latest 'Amnesia' horror game is an open-world title set during the First World War.
'Amnesia: Rebirth' gets an exploratory mode that makes the game less scary
We might actually finish the game now.
Indie horror classic 'Amnesia' is getting a sequel called 'Rebirth'
Amnesia: The Dark Descent was a breath of fresh air when it hit PCs in 2010. Rather than using Resident Evil, Silent Hill, or any of the other classic survival horror games as a template, it created a unique and exploratory take on the genre. It quickly became a classic -- both as a game and as a livestreaming sensation. Ten years later, fans will finally be able to play a sequel. Frictional Games announced Amensia: Rebirth today and assured players that the game will stay true to the original's roots.
Halloween Horror Streams: Overcoming our fear of Amnesia
We've run the horror gamut during our Halloween Horror Streams extravaganza. We've done old school, we've done new school, we've done zombie apocalypse and haunted zeppelin and even camp. What we haven't done, however, is pit a member of the staff against a game that originally scared them so much they had to quit. To close out our Halloween celebration, we're pitting Ludwig Kietzmann (@LudwigK) against Amnesia: The Dark Descent. The last time he played Amnesia, he lasted about five minutes and had to stop. Today he has no choice but to go an hour for the stream. It all starts on Joystiq.com/Twitch and right here in this post at 4:00PM EST. Joystiq streams every Tuesday and Thursday at 4:00PM EST with early looks at upcoming games, developer interviews, and play sessions with the weird old stuff we love. If you want to catch series like the Halloween Horror sessions, make sure to follow us on Twitch. [Images: Frictional Games]
Video preview: Diving into deep sea terror with Amnesia dev's Soma
Spoiler warning: This post and the video above contain light story spoilers for Soma, including the appearance of one of the game's enemies. Soma, from Amnesia creator Frictional Games, takes place deep under the ocean. As it turns out, the oppressive, high-pressure atmosphere of the sea floor makes for a pretty spooky environment (who knew?). We got to spend some hands-on time with Soma at GDC last month, and we also got to pick the brain of Ian Thomas, programmer and narrative designer. Like Frictional's other games, Soma focuses primarily on psychological horror and environmental storytelling. We didn't learn too much about the story in our short play session, other than the main character is exploring a submerged scientific facility of some sort, and that he's trying to locate his colleagues. Strange, alien-looking cables and machinery seem to have penetrated the facility and, we learned through a series of flashbacks, something went wrong. Exactly what went wrong is at the heart of the mystery, though the occasional bursts of static imply an air of technological horror. See it for yourself in our video preview and interview. Soma is slated to arrive on PC and PS4 in 2015.
Surprise! Soma is set under the ocean, not in outer space
A new trailer released today reveals that Frictional Games' upcoming horror-themed adventure game Soma takes place underwater, contrasting the game's previously assumed space setting. First revealed in October last year, Soma is the latest project from Amnesia: The Dark Descent developer Frictional Games. While little has been revealed regarding the game so far (thus the previous confusion regarding its setting), players in Soma are tasked with a salvage mission aboard a derelict craft where "machines are taking on human traits and alien constructions have started to interfere with routine." Soma is due to launch for PC platforms and the PlayStation 4 in 2015. [Video: Frictional Games]
New creepy environment video for SOMA-hhhhhhhhhh
Frictional Games' Soma, the sci-fi horror fest from the developers behind Amnesia: The Dark Descent, has a new environmental trailer out today featuring some ominous voiceover work. The suspense still has plenty of time to build. Soma won't launch on PC and PS4 until 2015.
New Soma video tours a creepy abandoned factory
Frictional Games, the developers behind Amnesia: The Dark Descent, has put out some new footage of its upcoming frightfrest, Soma. In this trailer, we tour a dimly-lit factory, though it's thankfully lacking in whatever scary things will mean us harm when Soma launches on PC and PS4 in 2015.
Gone Home began as an Amnesia mod, and you can play it
Amnesia: The Dark Descent developer Frictional Games revealed that The Fullbright Company's indie hit Gone Home began life as an Amnesia mod, but switched to the Unity engine after plans to license Frictional's HPL2 engine fell through. As a standard practice, Frictional Games co-founder Thomas Grip declines all HPL2 licensing requests, due to the engine's lack of documentation and support. After inquiring about licensing, Fullbright's Steve Gaynor received the same response from Grip, who advised the team to begin building Gone Home with Unity instead. After following up with Gaynor in the months after Gone Home's release, Grip received a copy of Gone Home's original prototype version, which is now available for download as a mod for Amnesia. While it's still in an early state, the prototype retains many of Gone Home's distinct themes and mechanics. "The prototype is quite short and very basic; it is really more of a proof of concept," Grip explains. "But it still gives a very good sense of the game, and having played the full version, I could recognize quite a bit. It does feel a bit awkward to play an early test like this though. Gone Home is a very personal game, and playing this prototype felt like a meta version of the game's voyeuristic thematics."
Amnesia developer reveals first Soma gameplay
Frictional Games, developer of super scary Amnesia: The Dark Descent and publisher of terror-fest Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, have lifted the sheet off their latest nightmare generator: Soma. Creepy sound design? Check. Atmospheric and foreboding visuals? Check. Me saying, "Nope, no no no no, noooooope. No." while watching the trailer? Check. So, yeah, Soma is looking great if you're into that sort of fear.
Second 'Soma' teaser video continues with the mechanical creepiness
Frictional Games unveiled a second teaser video for its latest project, Soma. Labeled "Item 4017: Mockingbird," the video shows a woman talking with a sentient machine, which doesn't quite seem to realize it's a machine. Things get more unsettling when she brings someone new into the conversation. We won't spoil what happens next, but it's perhaps relevant to mention that mockingbirds are known for mimicking the sounds of other creatures. The Amnesia: The Dark Descent and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs developer kicked off its mysterious Soma campaign with a teaser site that later featured a five-minute video of the same woman performing maintenance on a large computer-like machine found during a salvage mission. The project's teaser site also includes a quote from Philip K. Dick's VALIS: "It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane." The novel delves into topics of divinity, reality and consciousness.
Amnesia developer reveals Soma, hints at science horror project
Frictional Games, known for the Amnesia and Penumbra series, has revealed the first glimpse of its next project. The teaser site discovered last week now points to somasystems.org, which currently hosts a "case file," with the indication that more are on the way. The case file in question tells the story of a strange machine that was uncovered during a "salvage mission." The machine is described as "a heavily modified monitor fixed to a massive nest of cables and controls." You don't have to imagine it though, as the machine is featured in the live-action video above. Give it a watch, and be sure to wait for it. The case file is called "Vivarium," which is essentially an artificial habitat. Given the reference to a salvage mission, it's possible that Soma (if indeed that is the game's name) could take place in space, or possibly a ravaged Earth. Meanwhile, the word "soma" apparently refers to a ritualistic drink often associated with immortality. Finally, there appears to be a Philip K. Dick quote scrambled in an image on the Soma website: "It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane." The quote is taken from one of Dick's novels, VALIS, which deals with the nature of reality, consciousness and divinity. Whatever Soma is, it appears that the project is leaning toward science-related horror, and we're just fine with that.
Amnesia developer Frictional Games teases next endeavor
Frictional Games, the studio behind Amnesia: The Dark Descent and its sequel Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, is already teasing its next project. The above image is the result of visiting nextfrictionalgame.com, a placeholder site the studio has used to tease previous projects. The progress bar above seems to be increasing as more individuals visit the site or as time goes on. Presumably, once it reaches 100%, more information will be presented. Frictional Games shipped Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs earlier this month. In our review, we said the game is "punctuated by moments of disquieting and hideous awe," though we felt it ultimately wasn't able to reach the high bar set by its predecessor.
Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs review: Forgetting who you are
Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs has made me question my sanity, or, at least, it's made me question my memories of playing the original Amnesia: The Dark Descent nearly three years ago. Admittedly, I don't have an acute recollection of the entire experience, but the sheer, overriding terror that The Dark Descent instilled in me is something I will likely carry forever. But now I find the truth of that ingrained emotion in doubt, because the same terror is seldom to be found in Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs. Don't get me wrong, its gruesome world is lovingly crafted in disgusting detail, and its tale is horrifying in the truest sense of the word – but I wouldn't really call it frightening.
Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs sn-out in September
Amnesia indirect sequel A Machine for Pigs is set to finally freak out on September 10, priced at a 20 percent off pre-order tag of $16 on GOG. The follow-up to The Dark Descent was first slated for around this time last year, but saw delays as the PC, Mac, and Linux survival horror grew from a "short experiment" into a "fully fledged Amnesia game." A Machine for Pigs carries on Amnesia's brand of first-person scares, with development in the hands of Dear Esther studio The Chinese Room, with Dark Descent dev Frictional Games handling publishing duties. The second Amnesia is set in 1899, some 60 years after the first game, this time focusing on a business magnate who returns to Victorian London after encountering tragedy abroad - and we doubt it was food poisoning. The Chinese Room isn't just working on A Machine for Pigs; the British studio has signed up with an unnamed "major publisher" on a next-gen console game, due summer 2015.
Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs delayed to late summer
Frictional Games has pushed back the release date of its Amnesia: The Dark Descent follow-up A Machine for Pigs, citing a need to optimize the game on multiple fronts. "We are optimizing, tweaking and in general putting [our] expertise to good use," Frictional Games co-founder Jens Nilsson explains in a forum post at the developer's website. "[Co-developer thechineseroom] keeps putting in work as well," Nilsson continues. "There are companies working on the translations (will launch with 9 languages in addition to original English). The porting guys are porting away. Deals are being made. Things are prepared for launching the game through more online stores than any other [Frictional Games] game before." Amnesia introduced its unique brand of first-person horror to PC platforms in 2011, and while A Machine for Pigs was originally set to launch in time for Halloween last year, subsequent delays set its release back to the second quarter of 2013. Frictional Games has not announced a new release date for A Machine for Pigs, but notes that the game will launch "as the summer comes to an end."
Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs delayed once more to Q2 2013
An official blog post from Frictional Games now says that the publisher's Amnesia: The Dark Descent followup, subtitled A Machine for Pigs, is due out not in "early 2013," as last stated, but in "Q2 2013," which means in April of this year or later. That's another slight delay for the title, which was originally scheduled for release back at Halloween last year.What's the holdup? Frictional says that A Machine for Pigs was originally planned as "a short, experimental game set in the universe of Amnesia," but as developers thechineseroom filled out the project, it became apparent that the "short experiment" was becoming "a fully fledged Amnesia game." So Frictional has made the decision to do it up right, which means another few months of waiting for fans. Frictional also says pricing and availability information is coming soon, so we'll keep an eye out for that.
Amnesia sales surpass a million, dev working on new horror game
Frictional Games' Amnesia: The Dark Descent has sold over a million copies over the past two years. Breaking the math down, Frictional owner Thomas Grip says sales of 1.4 million is the "optimistic figure," since he doesn't think people purchasing multiple copies should count. The game's inclusion with the Humble Indie Bundle and Potato Sack account for many sales and overlap in his estimate."Despite that huge number of sales, what I think is more interesting is how good the monthly sales still are. Not counting any discounts, the monthly full price sales lie at over 10,000 units," wrote Grip. "This is totally insane to me. The figures themselves are far beyond any guesses we would have made two years ago. It is also insane, because this number is actually higher than it was around three months after initial launch. That a game can still be going this good two years after is truly remarkable."Grip concluded his second annual state of Amnesia post by teasing the company's next project, which he says will be a first-person horror game. Grip is hoping to deliver deeper themes with the next project, saying he was disappointed that Amnesia was a "more like a shallow fright-fest." The new game should be available in 2014, but there's no plans to rush it out.
Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs delayed to 2013
Excellent news for the sanity of survival horror fans everywhere: Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs will not be making its intended 2012 launch. Originally slated to arrive in time for Halloween, A Machine for Pigs will now be released in early 2013, thechineseroom creative director Dan Pinchbeck said in a recent interview with GameZone. "The quality of the game is the absolute first, last, and always with this development," he told the outlet, adding that the game "could do with a few more months' work."In a follow-up with Giant Bomb, Pinchbeck noted that thechineseroom will "definitely have more to show in the not too distant future."
Scared Stiff: Amnesia and the evolution of the modern horror game
If it's horror, Colette Bennett knows it. This column is dedicated to everything frightening gaming has to offer, from ghostly little Japanese girls to flesh eating zombie dogs. You fumble through the darkness, your feet slopping in the rain. You have no idea where you are or how you even got here. An unfamiliar sound reverberates in the distance, its tinny undertones stinging your ears and furthering your sense of confusion. You're alone and have nothing to defend yourself with. And the only sound you can hear is that of your breathing, ragged with panic.There's no mistaking it – this is survival horror.Unlike the basic action and platform genre, the evolution of horror titles has followed a slow, twisty path. By the mid-nineties, it was known for its signature talent: the ability to reel you into a dark, unknown world like a helpless fish. Titles like Silent Hill and Resident Evil acted as some of the first passports into the journey we now refer to as "psychological horror." System Shock, Parasite Eve, Fatal Frame, and Siren were memorable trips into less-than-reassuring territory. Throw in some unexplained, mysterious figures, watch the world spin out of control, and you've got one hell of a recipe for an addictive genre. Who would have thought that fog-choked towns and shambling creatures who greet you with a spray of vomit could be so appealing?%Gallery-148212%
