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-->--'''Yahtzee''' on ''[[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/2092-Amnesia-The-Dark-Descent Amnesia: the Dark Descent]]'', ''WebOriginal/ZeroPunctuation''
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-->--'''Yahtzee''' on ''[[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/2092-Amnesia-The-Dark-Descent Amnesia: the Dark Descent]]'', ''WebOriginal/ZeroPunctuation''
''WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation''
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Exactly What It Says On The Tin is NOT \"Contains what it says on the tin and a whole bunch of other things\", it\'s \"Exactly what it says on the tin\", meaning there is either literally or almost nothing else. The game includes many more important elements than the title implies.
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* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: You have amnesia, and must make a descent in the dark. The Dark Descent also implies a descent into madness.
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** Even worse, later in the game, Daniel finds a glass jar. He uses it to transport acid, then oil. After that, he can use it to [[spoiler: prepare Weyer's tonic - the potion Agrippa's survival depends on.]]
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* {{Uberwald}}: The {{Prussia}}n woodlands that surround Castle Brennenburg, including the tiny village of Altstadt just down the road. Most of the information on it is revealed through diary entries, notes on the location, and [[AllThereInTheManual supplemental materials]].
* VindicatedByHistory: The game, over time, became a financial success by word of mouth.
* VindicatedByHistory: The game, over time, became a financial success by word of mouth.
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* {{Uberwald}}: The {{Prussia}}n woodlands that surround Castle Brennenburg, including the tiny village of Altstadt just down the road. Most of the information on it is revealed through diary entries, notes on the location, and [[AllThereInTheManual supplemental materials]]. \n* VindicatedByHistory: The game, over time, became a financial success by word of mouth.
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* VindicatedByHistory: The game, over time, became a financial success by word of mouth.
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* FanNickname: The monsters are never directly named, so [[spoiler:the jawless ones]] have gone by [[FacialHorror Mr. Face (or Mr. Flappyjaw)]] while [[spoiler:the metal-infested [[TheFaceless faceless]] ones]] have gone by Mr. Tall. Both "Mr. Face" and "Mr. Tall" were names given to them by {{Mangaminx}}. They have also been called "Mister Struts" and "[[MeaningfulName Anti-Struts]]" respectively, by [[http://www.youtube.com/user/NewfZ Spike and Barley]].
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* FanNickname: The monsters are never directly named, named in-game (but are so in the game files) so a variety of nicknames sprung up. Grunts, [[spoiler:the jawless ones]] ones,]] have gone by [[FacialHorror Mr. Face (or Mr. Flappyjaw)]] while Brutes, [[spoiler:the metal-infested [[TheFaceless faceless]] ones]] have gone by Mr. Tall. Both "Mr. Face" and "Mr. Tall" were names given to them by {{Mangaminx}}. They have also been called "Mister Struts" and "[[MeaningfulName Anti-Struts]]" respectively, by [[http://www.youtube.com/user/NewfZ Spike and Barley]].
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* DarknessEqualsDeath: Largely inverted. A core strategy to evade monsters essentially requires you to hide in the shadows, whereas carrying a lantern or being in a well-lit area simply makes you easier to find.
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* DarknessEqualsDeath: Largely inverted. A core strategy to evade monsters essentially for survival pretty much requires you to hide in the shadows, dark areas from monsters, whereas carrying a lantern or being in a well-lit area simply makes you will make it easier for them to find.find you.
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* DarknessEqualsDeath: Largely inverted. A core strategy to evade monsters essentially requires you to hide in the shadows, whereas carrying a lantern or being in a well-lit area simply makes you easier to find.
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[[quoteright:250:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Amnesia_The_Dark_Descent_Cover_Art_8899.jpg]]
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[[quoteright:250:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Amnesia_The_Dark_Descent_Cover_Art_8899.jpg]]
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You can\'t even read that text.
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[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Amnesia_TheDarkDescent_6048.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: This will be you by the time you hit the sewers of Castle Brennenburg.]]
[[caption-width-right:350: This will be you by the time you hit the sewers of Castle Brennenburg.]]
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[[quoteright:250:http://static.tvtropes.
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natter
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* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: You have amnesia, and must make a descent in the dark.
** Not quite. The Dark Descent implies a descent into madness.
** Not quite. The Dark Descent implies a descent into madness.
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* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: You have amnesia, and must make a descent in the dark. \n** Not quite. The Dark Descent also implies a descent into madness.
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* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Implied with Justine and Clarice, at least once upon a time. A paper indicates that Justine actually cared enough about Clarice to comfort her when she cried, although it seems that Clarice was actually forbidden from playing with her. [[spoiler: Clarice has apparently grown up to be Justine's servant, and she herself seems to be on good terms with Justine, though utterly oblivious to her employer's "games".]]
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* FoodChainOfEvil: As you head into the second half of the game, you find [[spoiler:''the grunt's eviscerated corpse on the floor'' and are left to the realization that now you get to run from whatever did ''that''.]]
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Extremely redundant Natter
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** Someone who designed this either really knew their stuff or watched the History Channel a lot. All of those devices, save the aforementioned Iron Maiden, were used-the chains to dislocate the shoulders, the Brazen Bull, the Wheel-look up Machines of Malice on Youtube if you dare. These things were actually used on REAL PEOPLE. Sleep well!
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** Someone who designed this either really knew their stuff or watched the History Channel a lot. All of those devices, save the aforementioned Iron Maiden, were used-the chains to dislocate the shoulders, the Brazen Bull, the Wheel-look up Machines of Malice on Youtube if you dare. These things were actually used on REAL PEOPLE. Sleep well!
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-->--'''Yahtzee''' on ''[[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/2092-Amnesia-The-Dark-Descent Amnesia: the Dark Descent]]'', ''ZeroPunctuation''
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-->--'''Yahtzee''' on ''[[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/2092-Amnesia-The-Dark-Descent Amnesia: the Dark Descent]]'', ''ZeroPunctuation''''WebOriginal/ZeroPunctuation''
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* DoomMagnet: [[spoiler: Everywhere Daniel goes, people die. It turns out it's The Shadow hunting him. By the time the games events begin, he is almost a WalkingWasteland.]]
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''Amnesia: The Dark Descent'' is a [[http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/amnesia-the-dark-descent/critic-reviews critically acclaimed]] mix of {{Survival Horror}} and {{Adventure Game}} from the Swedish indie studio [[http://www.frictionalgames.com/site/ Frictional Games]]. It's a {{Spiritual Successor}} to their previous ''{{Penumbra}}'' series of games, sharing many elements of gameplay and storytelling with them.
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''Amnesia: The Dark Descent'' is a [[http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/amnesia-the-dark-descent/critic-reviews critically acclaimed]] mix of {{Survival Horror}} and {{Adventure Game}} from the Swedish indie studio [[http://www.frictionalgames.com/site/ Frictional Games]]. It's a {{Spiritual Successor}} to their previous ''{{Penumbra}}'' ''VideoGame/{{Penumbra}}'' series of games, sharing many elements of gameplay and storytelling with them.
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* DiegeticInterface: As in ''{{Penumbra}}''.
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* DiegeticInterface: As in ''{{Penumbra}}''.''VideoGame/{{Penumbra}}''.
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* FirstPersonGhost: As in ''{{Penumbra}}''. Averted only by your left hand, which visibly holds the lantern.
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* FirstPersonGhost: As in ''{{Penumbra}}''.''VideoGame/{{Penumbra}}''. Averted only by your left hand, which visibly holds the lantern.
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* MythologyGag: In the intro, you get a throwaway reference from Daniel about him living in Mayfair, London. That's the same place where the protagonist of the ''{{Penumbra}}'' series goes to retrieve the heirloom of his missing father (which kicks off the plot of the first game).
** Also, the "memory capsules" are very similar to the [[spoiler:Tuurngait artifacts]] in ''{{Penumbra}}''.
** Also, the "memory capsules" are very similar to the [[spoiler:Tuurngait artifacts]] in ''{{Penumbra}}''.
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* MythologyGag: In the intro, you get a throwaway reference from Daniel about him living in Mayfair, London. That's the same place where the protagonist of the ''{{Penumbra}}'' ''VideoGame/{{Penumbra}}'' series goes to retrieve the heirloom of his missing father (which kicks off the plot of the first game).
** Also, the "memory capsules" are very similar to the [[spoiler:Tuurngait artifacts]] in''{{Penumbra}}''.''VideoGame/{{Penumbra}}''.
** Also, the "memory capsules" are very similar to the [[spoiler:Tuurngait artifacts]] in
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* PsychologicalHorror: The backbone of the whole game, even moreso than in its predecessor ''{{Penumbra}}''.
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* PsychologicalHorror: The backbone of the whole game, even moreso than in its predecessor ''{{Penumbra}}''.''VideoGame/{{Penumbra}}''.
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A sequel is due fall 2012, entitled Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs.
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A sequel is due fall 2012, entitled Amnesia: ''Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs.
Pigs''.
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A yet-to-be-named follow-up of some description is announced, though it's all [[AlternateRealityGame rather vague]] [[http://www.nextfrictionalgame.com/ at this point]].
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A yet-to-be-named follow-up of some description sequel is announced, though it's all [[AlternateRealityGame rather vague]] [[http://www.nextfrictionalgame.com/ at this point]].
due fall 2012, entitled Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs.
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* DVDCommentary: Developer Commentaries are able to be toggled, and appear in-game in the form of the Frictional logo (a 6-sided gear) surrounding a microphone. Since most players will want to go the first round without the commentary, this gives a bit of a boost to its replayability.
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* DVDCommentary: Developer Commentaries are able to be toggled, and appear in-game in the form of the Frictional logo (a 6-sided gear) surrounding a microphone. Since most players will want to go the first round without the commentary, this gives a bit of a boost to its replayability. The commentaries are a PreOrderBonus.
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YMMV trope move.
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* {{Narm}}: In the 1st area of the game you can hear a strange sound coming from some sort of animal outside. While not the scariest thing by ''far'', it's been known to spook some players. Unless those players are from Canada or the UK, who will probably recognize is as the call of the majestic aquatic bird known as the Loon or Diver.
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* {{Narm}}: In the 1st area of the game you can hear a strange sound coming from some sort of animal outside. While not the scariest thing by ''far'', it's been known to spook some players. Unless those players are from Canada or the UK, who will probably recognize is as the call of the majestic aquatic bird known as the Loon or Diver.
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A yet-to-be-named follow-up of some description is announced, though it's all [[IncrediblyLamePun rather vague]] [[http://www.nextfrictionalgame.com/ at this point]].
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A yet-to-be-named follow-up of some description is announced, though it's all [[IncrediblyLamePun [[AlternateRealityGame rather vague]] [[http://www.nextfrictionalgame.com/ at this point]].
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A yet-to-be-named follow-up of some description is announced, though it's all [[IncrediblyLamePun rather vague]] [[http://www.nextfrictionalgame.com/ at this point]].
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* FlowerMotifs: Roses. Rose petals appear at key moments when memories start to return to Daniel. [[spoiler: And when he [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence goes through the gate.]]]]
* GameBreakingBug: The game flatout ''refuses'' to run on anything except very specific video cards.
* GameBreakingBug: The game flatout ''refuses'' to run on anything except very specific video cards.
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* FlowerMotifs: Roses. Rose The "amnesia" potion is made of oil-of-roses, and rose petals appear at key moments when memories start to return to Daniel. [[spoiler: And when he [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence goes through the gate.]]]]
* GameBreakingBug: The gameflatout flat out ''refuses'' to run on anything except very specific video cards.
* GameBreakingBug: The game
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* RoomFullOfCrazy: "The tattered yellow king shall dethrone", "Climb the highest tower, "Oh Father", "The skinless one is waking", "The inside", "Gluttony", "I am emerging", "The beautiful pain", "Lonely", "It will be the end of everything","What will that perfect sphere bring", "It will be again, It's coming", "From within", "Playful", "Death shall move across the floor", "Spin the wheels crank the engine", "My darlings", "Liar! Alois does to use dust as a sore muse", and who could forget "Suffer the trial" and "Stay alive".
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* RoomFullOfCrazy: "The tattered yellow king shall dethrone", "Climb the highest tower, "Oh Father", "The skinless one is waking", "The inside", "Gluttony", "I am emerging", "The beautiful pain", "Lonely", "Through the gates", "It will be the end of everything","What will that perfect sphere bring", "It will be again, It's coming", "From within", "Playful", "Death shall move across the floor", "Spin the wheels crank the engine", "My darlings", "Liar! Alois does to use dust as a sore muse", and who could forget "Suffer the trial" and "Stay alive".
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* ShoutOut: ''Justine'' has several coy references to ''{{Portal}}'', especially towards the end.
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* ShoutOut: ''Justine'' has several coy references to ''{{Portal}}'', ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'', especially towards the end.
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->''Amnesia isn't a perfect game, but it's almost unmatched as [[BringMyBrownPants a constipation aid]].''
-->--'''Yahtzee''' on ''[[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/2092-Amnesia-The-Dark-Descent Amnesia: the Dark Descent]]'', ''ZeroPunctuation''
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Amnesia_TheDarkDescent_6048.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: This will be you by the time you hit the sewers of Castle Brennenburg.]]
''Amnesia: The Dark Descent'' is a [[http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/amnesia-the-dark-descent/critic-reviews critically acclaimed]] mix of {{Survival Horror}} and {{Adventure Game}} from the Swedish indie studio [[http://www.frictionalgames.com/site/ Frictional Games]]. It's a {{Spiritual Successor}} to their previous ''{{Penumbra}}'' series of games, sharing many elements of gameplay and storytelling with them.
Daniel, the playable NonActionGuy, wakes up in the dark of an ancient [[HauntedCastle creepy castle]], Brennenburg, without memories. The first thing he finds is a [[NoteToSelf note to himself]], which informs him that his amnesia is purposely self-inflicted and that he needs to kill a man named Baron Alexander, who's currently hiding in the depths of the castle. As he journeys further within the bowels of the Prussian estate, Daniel comes across old diary entries of his hinting at [[EldritchAbomination otherworldly]] influences, particularly the dangerous living 'shadow' that pursues him unrelentingly for something he did in his past. He also finds notes left by an assortment of people that had been at the castle that elaborate upon the sinister events that took place.
A free expansion pack, ''Justine'', was released in April 2011 as part of a cross-game AlternateRealityGame promotion for ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}'', featuring a new player character and a brand-new scenario to play.
----
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder: ''Amnesia: The Dark Descent'' provides examples of:]]
* AboveGoodAndEvil: Alexander expresses disdain for concepts like "good" and "evil", thinking them only good for comfort and not something to be concerned about. [[spoiler: He reminds Daniel that they are NotSoDifferent after Daniel calmly went along with Alexander's plans to torture and kill in order to preserve his own life from [[EldritchAbomination The Shadow]], pointing out that Daniel has no better claim to "goodness" than he does.]]
** [[spoiler: Which nicely sidesteps the issue that Alexander was the one who made Daniel this way in the first place.]]
* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: Apparently justified by being used to carry spring water which surges seasonally. It also functions as a cistern system to retain excess water and carefully control its pressure to power water mills.
* AdvancingWallOfDoom: The Shadow of the Orb manifests as an advancing wave of decay and corrosion that you have to run away from at certain key points in the game.
* AlienGeometries: [[spoiler: The Choir and Chancel towards the end of the game seem to be this. Daniel also has visions of these when he first finds the orb.]]
* AlternateRealityGame: Is one of the 13 indie games that form the bulk of the material of {{Valve}}'s "[[http://valvearg.com/wiki/Valve_ARG_Wiki PotatoFoolsDay]]" ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}'' ARG.
* AlwaysABiggerFish: An offscreen variant. Boy, that Grunt sure is scary, isn't he? You can't do anything to stop him and if he finds you you're dead in moments. [[spoiler: So exactly what was capable of dismembering one so easily?]]
* ArtificialStupidity: One of the few breaks you'll ever get in the game when encountering monsters. Most of them have horrible vision when you're not in light, get bored chasing you after a while, or are generally unable to notice you when you're literally right next to them. In areas with bottomless pits and other falls, you can lure them to falling to their death (despawn). Also, they cannot attack you if you're on top of them or they are somehow stuck on top of barrels, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEvlauKxJ3g and they can't see you if you can't see them]].\\
\\
Probably justified in-game, as the monsters are described as "feeding off of your fear" in a way and are more likely to see you if you keep staring at them, and their strength is dependent on ''your'' mental strength: If you're good at avoiding them, don't expect much ArtificialBrilliance.
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: As you learn about various torture victims, the severity of their supposed crimes seems to lessen. The worst were accused of rape and arson, but a forger got thrown into the iron maiden as well.
* ArtisticLicenseBiology: When Daniel has to (quoting TvTropes here), "drill a hole in the head of ''a corpse'',[sic] insert a copper tube into the hole, and stick yourself on the needle to give yourself an injection of a vaccine". God only knows if they're the same blood type or how long the body's been dead, or if he had any infectious diseases.
** When you touch the body while not holding anything, it states that it "Can't be more than a day old."
** Though depending on the ending, Daniel's long-term physical health won't be an issue anyway...
** As Lanipator puts it in his LetsPlay: "The ''least'' sanitary thing I could possibly do!"
* ArtisticLicenseChemistry: According to ''Amnesia'', combining aqua regia, orpiment, cuprite, and calamine all together[[hottip:*:no idea how much of each, which one goes first, etc.]] creates simply "acid". No, the pH isn't known either.
** Aqua Regia is already a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acid able to dissolve Gold. Why you add a copper-based mineral (cuprite), Arsenic Trisulfide (orpiment, once used for poisened arrows) and Zinc Oxide (calamine, used in cosmetic creams and poweders) is up to you to guess. Royal water alone would have done the job of dissolving organic tissue.
** After you use the "acid" to melt the organic tissue, the container it was in isn't washed out, and is ''re-used for something else later, '''despite the traces of acid.'''''
* ArtisticLicensePhysics: A minor one: you can still light candles and torches that have fallen over and are lying sideways. If you do, the flames still shoot out parallel to the barrel of the candle or torch (IE sideways, instead of towards the ceiling).
* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: What may have happened to [[spoiler:Weyer, Agrippa, and Daniel]] if you choose the right ending.
* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler: Agrippa in the GoldenEnding. The potion Daniel makes for him allows him to resurrect in his home world.]]
* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: [[spoiler: Agrippa and Weyer were real historical figures, Agrippa being a 16th century alchemist and Weyer being his apprentice. This game indicates that Weyer, like Alexander, actually came from... elsewhere...]]
** Agrippa ''was'' also an occultist in RealLife, about 300 years before Amnesia takes place. [[spoiler: He 'presumes' that he was held prisoner by Alexander for hundreds of years, which would make the numbers match up.]]
* {{BFS}}: The Brute's left forearm is one '''[[WolverineClaws FUCKING HUGE BLADE]]'''. And getting hit just once by one of these things is sometimes enough for a OneHitKill.
* BlackBugRoom: Virtually ''[[FridgeHorror any room]]'' where your sanity meter drops low enough to give you bizarre hallucinations about your surroundings.
* BodyHorror:
** Just try looking at the monsters [[spoiler: or Agrippa]] without cringing a bit at the thought that they all ''used'' to be men.
** In the [[AbsurdlySpaciousSewer sewer beneath the castle]] - in order to keep from being killed by poisonous fungi, you need to [[spoiler: drill a hole into the head of a corpse, insert a needle into a copper tube, insert that tube's base into the skull, and then ''stick yourself on the needle'' to immunise yourself.]] That's BodyHorror, AfraidOfNeedles, and a makeshift transfusion all in one scene.
** The TortureCellar; see below.
* BookcasePassage: Two in the main campaign, one in ''Justine''.
* BrainBleach: The player will feel like they need one after visiting some of the later portions of the game. [[spoiler: Daniel himself eventually needs (and uses) some after the weight of all the things he has seen and done catches up with him and he is forced to ask himself "MyGodWhatHaveIDone"]]
* BreatherLevel: The Back Hall. It's downright serene and pleasant compared to the Archive Tunnels you have to run through to get there. [[spoiler: At least, until giant fleshy tumours sprout everywhere and the fountain starts pouring blood.]]
** The Back Hall portion was discussed in the Dev commentary, in which they invoked this trope, going along the lines of "This is meant to relax the player a bit so the upcoming horrors will be even worse by comparison."
** Also the main Cistern area and [[spoiler: where you meet Agrippa in the Nave, which works as a breather room]]
* ButItReallyHappened: Used by the developers to add certain elements of additional horror, such as a flashback of someone buried alive in a room full of corpses (an occurance that occasionally happened during the Bubonic Plague.) [[ItGotWorse And then]] there is the TortureCellar...
* CatScare: An odd instance where this [[TropesAreNotBad trope is done]] ''[[TropesAreNotBad well]]''. The scarcity of it makes those few instances much more effective.
** Not a cat, but [[spoiler:opening a drawer full of bones has the same effect.]]
** [[spoiler: Also, the iron maiden near the end]]
** There's also the torch that turns on by itself. Which is not traditional fire.
* ColdBloodedTorture: [[spoiler: How both Daniel and Alexander treat those that the Alexander has captured.]]
* CollapsingLair: [[spoiler: At the end of the game when you exit the castle, if you look behind you, you can see rocks completely obstructing the way back to the Entrance Hall. Also, you can hear crumble noises while Daniel opens the big door.]]
* ContemptibleCover: Someone should have told whoever made this box art that the monster is scary [[NothingIsScarier because you can't see it]]...[[http://www.amazon.com/Amnesia-Pc/dp/B004FZ9822/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1297461562&sr=1-1 it doesn't help that it is drawn to look like a duck]].
* ComedicSociopathy: The game is horrifying to play, especially alone at night, but watching other people play it while freaking out is inherently hilarious. [[HypocriticalHumor You will probably]] be screaming profanity during gameplay, but that doesn't stop it from being terribly amusing. Playing it with observers on OnLive is a good example of this.
** You know it is scary when it [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIRo0iT0qNw#t=01m58s scares the British accent out of you...]]
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4w0_n1Yras&feature=related&t=4m25s This one]] might be the best known, and is notable for being the source of the minor fandom meme "Oh shit, I have a bag of Milky Ways."
* TheCorruption: The Shadow of the Orb.
* CosmicHorrorStory
* CowerPower: Literally, the best way to survive a monster is to find a dark corner, curl up with your nose to the wall, and ''pray it leaves before it stumbles over you''. Justified, as Daniel has no means by which to fight back against these monsters, they can generally outrun him when they break into a sprint, and closing doors will only slow them down at best.
* CreepyCathedral: The area names of one section of the castle suggests it is this. [[spoiler: [[AlienGeometries It doesn't look]] [[TortureCellar much like one]], but it's hinted that much of it may have been made by members of a forgotten culture]]
* DeadLittleSister: A possible fate for [[spoiler:Daniel's IllGirl little sister]] is her [[spoiler:death a few years previous]]. Whether this happened, or [[spoiler:she survived long enough to see Daniel off to Algeria]] depends on the actions you take within the game, and [[spoiler:how willing you are to help others]]. This is only ever revealed in LoadingScreen notes, though, and has no further effect on the plot other than additional characterization.
* DiegeticInterface: As in ''{{Penumbra}}''.
* DoomedByCanon: The written supplementary materials focus on characters who were mentioned in-game as dying or disappearing without a trace. Each story ends ''right'' before the event that kills them.
* DramaticSpotlight: During the Archives bit, there is a (barely) playable flashback from when Daniel first laid hands on an Orb, during the expedition in Algeria. There is a pedestal with the Orb on it, in a circle of light. Everything else is darkness.
* DummiedOut: Apparently, the character of [[spoiler:Daniel's sister Hazel]] (though occasional references to [[spoiler:her]] are still present in the above mentioned developer's commentary and in some late-game LoadingScreen notes).
* DVDCommentary: Developer Commentaries are able to be toggled, and appear in-game in the form of the Frictional logo (a 6-sided gear) surrounding a microphone. Since most players will want to go the first round without the commentary, this gives a bit of a boost to its replayability.
* EasterEgg: See [[spoiler: that tiny six-digit code at the bottom of the screen when you finish the game]]? Get all the endings and write down the codes, because you can use them to unlock the "super secret" .rar file in the game folder, containing ConceptArt, design documents, DummiedOut audio and footage of the game's alpha versions.
* EvilMentor: Part of why Danie] finally snaps in the first place and drinks the amnesia potion is because he learns that [[spoiler: not all of the Baron's victims are criminals... victims that Daniel has happily tortured in the past]].
* EyeScream: One of the flashbacks in the TortureCellar contains this... thankfully in text form, but given the limitations on character models, that might be ''worse''.
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: You have amnesia, and must make a descent in the dark.
** Not quite. The Dark Descent implies a descent into madness.
* FacialHorror: If the player is caught by a monster, this is likely to be the last thing they see. [[spoiler: Also applies to Agrippa, though his friendly attitude tends to undermine the horror after the initial shock wears off.]]
* FanNickname: The monsters are never directly named, so [[spoiler:the jawless ones]] have gone by [[FacialHorror Mr. Face (or Mr. Flappyjaw)]] while [[spoiler:the metal-infested [[TheFaceless faceless]] ones]] have gone by Mr. Tall. Both "Mr. Face" and "Mr. Tall" were names given to them by {{Mangaminx}}. They have also been called "Mister Struts" and "[[MeaningfulName Anti-Struts]]" respectively, by [[http://www.youtube.com/user/NewfZ Spike and Barley]].
* FirstPersonGhost: As in ''{{Penumbra}}''. Averted only by your left hand, which visibly holds the lantern.
* FissionMailed: Near the end, where [[spoiler:Daniel is captured and put into a prison cell. Complete with a special game over message!]]
* FlowerMotifs: Roses. Rose petals appear at key moments when memories start to return to Daniel. [[spoiler: And when he [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence goes through the gate.]]]]
* GameBreakingBug: The game flatout ''refuses'' to run on anything except very specific video cards.
** Note that the first patch remedied this to some extent: Amnesia now runs on any [=GeForce=] 6 or higher Nvidia card, or any Radeon x1300 or higher.
* GeniusLoci: Seriously, Castle Brennenburg is not a nice place to spend the night...
* GoldenEnding: [[spoiler:By tossing Agrippa's severed head into the portal, Agrippa gets through the portal, leaving Daniel and Alexander trapped in the Inner Sanctum. The Shadow kills Alexander and seemingly kills Daniel too, but Daniel is saved and taken through the portal by Agrippa before dying. Agrippa and Weyer both begin to tend to Daniel's wounds. Agrippa tells Daniel "everything will be alright."]]
* GoMadFromTheRevelation: [[spoiler:The revelation in this case being a HeelRealization. Voluntarily erasing memories is an attempt to cope with it.]]
* GothicHorror: Dark, decaying, (kinda) haunted castle? [[HauntedHeroine Haunted Hero?]] Mysterious, morally ambiguous, (kinda) vampiric Baron? Madness and curses? Check, check, check, double check.
* HaveANiceDeath: When you die, the game will give you advice such as, "Tread carefully..." and, "Block the path. Run..."
** "[[CaptainObvious Stay out of the water...]]"
* HauntedCastle: [[spoiler: Turns out that's because of Daniel.]]
* HeelRealization: [[spoiler:Daniel]], once he finds the final [[spoiler:Diary entry]] - the ''player'' will realize it beforehand, though.
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Daniel in the Agrippa ending. Arguably doubles as RedemptionEqualsDeath.]]
* HollywoodDarkness: Completely shattered - if you try to peer into a dark room from a lit hallway, you will see ''[[NothingIsScarier nothing]]'' beyond the doorframe.
** Played around with throughout too; [[spoiler: a lot of areas do have subtly blue ambient light, and standing in darkness helps Daniel see in the dark in bluish hues, but then there's an area with no ambient light at all that is stated to be "unnaturally dark" and areas with similar lighting appear throughout as a sign of incoming HighOctaneNightmareFuel.]]
*** Suffice to say, the game is ''definitely'' gloomy, rather than brightly lit. Even the light sources are fairly weak.
*** However, the complete aversion of this trope does makes it strangely satisfying and calming to completely light up a room, even if it is very wasteful of tinderboxes.
* HumanoidAbomination: If you happen to run into the visible monster in a room, it looks something like this.
* HumanResources: [[spoiler: Humans are tortured and killed to collect Vitae.]]
* HypocriticalHumor: It's not hard to see many LP'ers commentary incidentally working out quite well as the character's internal thoughts.
* IdentityAmnesia: Done via a LaserGuidedAmnesia potion which wipes Daniel's memory about himself - thankfully he still knows how to use tinderboxes and refuel his oil lamp!
* IllGirl: Daniel's sister/cousin will either have died or survived depending on how "kind" you are in the game. (She is only mentioned in loading segments.)
* ImmortalityImmorality: It's strongly indicated that [[spoiler: the Baron, being stuck in human form, needs vitae (cosmic life force) to prolong his life until he can find a way back to his own dimension. Unfortunately, the only viable source of sufficient quantities of vitae is the prolonged torture and agony of human beings. Daniel, likewise, needs to regularly perform human sacrifices to keep the Shadow at bay.]]
* InterfaceScrew
* InterfaceSpoiler: Early on, a helpful hint appears instructing you to hide in darkness from enemies... [[ParanoiaFuel even if you had no idea anything was there.]]
** [[spoiler: Subverted as there isn't actually any threat yet. It is played straight when the game tells you about being able to hide in cupboards though]]
* IronicEcho: [[spoiler: Fail to escape the cage filling with MeatMoss and you hear echoes of other Brennenberg prisoners pleading for mercy. Their fate is now yours!]]
* JustOneMoreLevel: A design decision. The game's levels were designed to be short and bite-sized to provoke this effect.
* LargeHam: The guy they got to voice The Baron seems to be ''really'' into it. Some of his line readings border on mood breaking, especially a couple at the very beginning of the game, most notably the first time he says "'''The Inner Sanctum'''".
--> "...in fact, it lies beneath the very stone of ''Brennenburg!''"
** The way Daniel says ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKpbcJVpl1I "impossible geometry!"]]'' is hilarious.
* {{Leitmotif}}: Each character has their own associated piece of theme music. Each piece has several variations to represent different moods. Most commonly this can be heard while reading notes written by various characters. Specific songs also "give away" when a monster is lurking around, and of course, the screech when a monster is actively chasing you.
* LetsPlay: A popular game for [=LPers=] due to the audience wanting to see them scared. One particular one is by {{Helloween4545}}.
* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: Both Daniel and Alexander]] depending on the ending.
** [[spoiler: Though, some endings can be interpretted as the Shadow brutally killed Alexander and leaving Daniel alone completely. He had gone through Hell via the entire ordeal of killing Alexander and that was his penance, so to speak.]]
** However, the definitive example, in the ''Justine'' expansion, is [[spoiler:Justine herself.]]
* MadnessMantra
-->[[spoiler: '''Daniel''': Paint the man, cut the lines. Cut the flesh, watch the blood spill - let it come!]]
** Many players have their own. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8k2neQVbko&feature=related "RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN JUMP JUMP JUMP JUMP JUMP" etc.]]
* MaleFrontalNudity: This game is not at all shy about full frontal male nudity, [[spoiler: and the final confrontation will remind you more than a little of ''Comicbook/{{Watchmen}}''.]]
* MeaningfulName: The title itself is one... just play it if you want to know why.
* MeatMoss: All over the place, and more growing all the time. It is strongly implied this is a residual effect of the Shadow that is pursuing Daniel.
* MultipleEndings: [[spoiler: If you break Alexander's machine before it opens the portal, Alexander dies and Daniel leaves Brennenburg free of his curse and content that he did the right thing. If you let the portal open and didn't help Agrippa, Alexander will go through the portal and the darkness will kill you. If you let the portal open and throw Agrippa's head through it, both you and Alexander will die, but Agrippa will call out to you in the ethereal realm and ask Weyer to help you, before assuring you "it will be alright."]]
* MusicalSpoiler: You can easily tell if the enemies are nearby or still chasing you.
** Averted when hiding from monsters, [[spoiler: the music will still play until you man up and make sure by yourself that the monster is gone]].
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler: Daniel, detailed in a note found late in the game.]]
* MythologyGag: In the intro, you get a throwaway reference from Daniel about him living in Mayfair, London. That's the same place where the protagonist of the ''{{Penumbra}}'' series goes to retrieve the heirloom of his missing father (which kicks off the plot of the first game).
** Also, the "memory capsules" are very similar to the [[spoiler:Tuurngait artifacts]] in ''{{Penumbra}}''.
* NightmareFace: The FacialHorror of the monsters is one major source of this. [[spoiler: The other source is the paintings of Alexander when viewed ThroughTheEyesOfMadness.]]
* NoBudget: Would you believe that Frictional Games, the developers of ''Amnesia'', had to work for no pay for a month or two? It's impressive that it turned out as well as it did, given their methods of motion-capping the monsters.
* NoteToSelf
* NothingIsScarier: In spades. The monsters are scarce enough to keep them from being a source of frustration, but frequent enough to ramp up the HighOctaneNightmareFuel. Add to that [[HellIsThatNoise ambient sounds]] that, at times, sound like footsteps, and you'll be cowering in a corner for fear of a monster you haven't even ''seen'' yet. The game doesn't even ''let'' you get a good look at the monsters, ever, because just looking at them drops your sanity meter and [[InterfaceScrew causes the screen to blur]]... and ''[[ItGotWorse makes them notice you]].''
** The splashing water scene. A ''lot'' of players claim the scene nearly gave them a heart attack.
--> '''Yahtzee''': ''Amnesia'' understands that a monster stays scary the less you see of it.
** One of the measurements of your low sanity is simply "..."
* OffscreenTeleportation: The monsters are capable of this.
* OntologicalMystery: The beginning of the game. After you struggle through a few corridors and staircases, you find your notes and learn a bit more about who you seemingly are and what you supposed to do after willingly inducing amnesia on yourself.
* PoweredByAForsakenChild: [[spoiler: Vitae, a substance containing the cosmic lifeforce Baron Alexander needs for his alchemy, can only be obtained through the prolonged torture and suffering of human beings. This, more than anything else, is why Castle Brennenburg is such a gallery of horrors.]]
--> '''Baron Alexander''': [[spoiler: As long as the body suffers, it will continue to produce the vitae and saturate the blood with its properties.]]
* PrimalFear: Plays heavily on several of these. Fear of the dark is, as the title suggests, a frequent one, but that is also subserviant to a more general fear of the ''unknown''. The game uses lots of little tricks to ensure this fear is invoked, such as HellIsThatNoise to suggest what might be near, and TeleportingKeyCardSquad to ensure that monsters can be ''anywhere'', and NothingIsScarier to keep players tense and on-edge. Even if one tries looking at the monsters ({{Body Horror}}s though they are) Daniel's vision will be blurred and distorted, ensuring that they retain an element of mystery and unknowability, in addition to their role as predators after a helpless prey.
* PsychologicalHorror: The backbone of the whole game, even moreso than in its predecessor ''{{Penumbra}}''.
* PsychoStrings: When monsters are chasing you.
* QuestForIdentity: The reason you'll want to pick up the Diary entries.
* RedemptionQuest: Not revealed until [[spoiler: the final Journal entry]], though strongly hinted at prior.
* RunOrDie: Your only two choices when a monster spots you.
* SanityMeter: The bad thing is that it's an ''accurate barometer of the player's mood.'' Well, except for needing to stay near lights to keep sane.
** Your decaying sanity doesn't only diminish your sight. It also [[SanitySlippage makes you gradually hear more and more deranged and ominous aural hallucinations]]... ''[[FridgeHorror and the quiet grinding noise of your own teeth]]''...
* ShownTheirWork: Evident when you turn on the commentary.
* ShutUpHannibal: Able to be done in 2 of the 3 endings.
* SpookyPainting: Toyed with - as your SanityMeter depletes, portraits of an old man become grotesque to look at. [[spoiler: It's a portrait of Alexander, by the way. It may be what he really looks like.]]
* StealthBasedGame: You don't even have a weapon to fight back.
* StoryBreadcrumbs: Diary entries, miscellaneous documents, and the occasional flashback.
* StrongAsTheyNeedToBe: Most of the terror of the game comes from the fact that you're playing as a [[NonActionGuy regular human]] who lacks any skill or ability that would allow him to fight back against the creatures stalking him. This is somewhat undermined by the fact that Daniel seems to be crazy strong, judging by various puzzle sequences in which he busts open stone walls with a shovel or smashes through foot-thick wood pillars with his bare hands.
** Also discussed in-game in one of the notes. Given what Daniel's facing, it's not surprising he can pull it off from time-to-time.
--> '''Baron Alexander''': Even the most timid creature can break out in fits of violence where their strength exceeds their expected prowess.
** It also bears mentioning that, in those particular instances, the wall or floor's already been weakened to the point of the mortar being loose enough for it to happen.
** This is actually {{Lampshaded}} by {{Lanipator}} during his LetsPlay [[http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/ir/tfstar/lanipator/lani-plays/29733-amnesia-part-4 of the game.]]
* SympatheticMurderBackstory: Daniel is [[spoiler:manipulated by Alexander into sacrificing what he thought were criminals. He is devastated after he was forced to kill a little girl, and nearly loses his sanity. He vows revenge on Alexander for that. Amongst the flashbacks in-game involve the cries of the lives he took (children's voices were amongst them).]]
* TechnicolorScience: The acid is bright, glowing green. Even without a heat source, it boils dramatically to the point of hurling out glass bottles dropped in it.
* TeleportingKeycardSquad: Unfortunately played straight some of the time: Generally when there's a puzzle-relevant pickup in plain sight, you can bet that a monster is going to spawn two rooms back to terrorize you after you pick it up. Of course, knowing this makes it ''even more tense'', because you'll be afraid to even ''find'' the pickups because you know it could cause a monster to spawn.
** To quote Yahtzee again: "It's like they're being summoned by the autosave function."
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Delivered by Alexander when you reach the 2nd half of the torture chambers.
* TheReveal: Why Daniel is in the castle, of course! It wouldn't have the amnesia factor without a reveal as to how he got there, after all.
* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: The paintings, especially [[spoiler:the portrait of Baron Alexander]], change as your sanity gets lower. Although, given that he is [[spoiler:explicitly stated to be from a different world]], this might actually be a somewhat bizarre case of GlamourFailure.
* TitleDrop: A note discovered late in the game indicates that the elixar Daniel drank just before the game begins (which he reads a NoteToSelf about in the first level) is actually titled "Amnesia", because it is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Exactly What It Says On The Bottle]]. [[spoiler: The real purpose of it is to erase the memories of torture victims, so that they forget the specifics of the torture, and leave them to only wonder what caused their scars, their minds constructing fresh horrors anew in anticipation of the next session.]]
* TortureCellar: Oh '''God''' the torture cellar... [[spoiler: brass bulls that people are crammed into to be broiled alive, torture wheels that allow for multiple bone breaks - and worst of all, the cells that permit the neighbor to hear nothing but the anguished screams emitting from the torture chambers.]] Even worse is the reason behind the torturing -- see PoweredByAForsakenChild.\\
\\
Worse still than that is this: Almost all of those items are ''[[TruthInTelevision real medieval torture devices]]'' that ''[[NightmareFuel actually existed and were used on people]]''. The Iron Maiden, despite its many appearances throughout popular culture and inside some historical "tours", is purely fictional as a means of torture. This does little to remove the terror though, as it's the least terrifying of the torture devices featured in the game, and the rest of them are completely real.
* TortureTechnician: Alexander is implied to be one, judging by his notes on the subject. [[spoiler:He leaves instructions on how to best inflict prolonged suffering, and deliberately pipes the sound of ongoing torture into the cell areas of the other prisoner awaiting their turn, knowing that the anticipation will only make it worse for them. This is further backed up by use of a memory-erasing draught called "[[TitleDrop Amnesia]]" after each session, just so their imaginations will produce new horrors afresh in anticipation of next time.]]
** The [[DVDCommentary Developer Commentary]] [[LampshadeHanging points out]] that the techniques laid out by Alexander are quite similar to the techniques they use to keep the player on edge throughout the experience.
*** Parallel to how [[spoiler: the prisoners have to hear their cellmates torture and death]], the player is also subjected to [[spoiler: auditory hallucinations featuring each of the torture apparatus and [[{{Squick}} their effects]] before we see them and how they function]].
* TraumaInducedAmnesia: Subverted. Daniel induces amnesia on himself willingly, by drinking a certain type of potion. The game starts at the point when he wakes up from his dreamless sleep, now only knowing his name and nothing else.
* {{Uberwald}}: The {{Prussia}}n woodlands that surround Castle Brennenburg, including the tiny village of Altstadt just down the road. Most of the information on it is revealed through diary entries, notes on the location, and [[AllThereInTheManual supplemental materials]].
* WhatTheHellHero: When you find out what Daniel's been up to at Alexander's behest.
* TheWikiRule: [[http://amnesia.wikia.com/wiki/Amnesia:_The_Dark_Descent_Wiki Right here]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder: ''Justine'' provides examples of:]]
* BodyHorror: ''Justine'' is terrible about this, because we learn that the monsters stalking the protagonist are [[spoiler:still alive, and very much human ''thanks to Justine''. No wonder they want to kill her.]]
* EvilIsEasy: Killing the three men is easier than solving the puzzles required to save them. On the other hand, you have to save them in order to get OneHundredPercentCompletion... And the potato.
* EyeScream: A phonograph has some of this. [[ItGotWorse It's also fully voice acted.]]
** And the result of this? ''That monster trying to kill you.''
* HiddenPurposeTest: Averted. Justine tells the PlayerCharacter that she is in Justine's dungeon at the beginning for Justine's entertainment and to test whether humans will take the easy, selfish way out of a problem or look for a harder way out that does not hurt others. [[spoiler: The secret part is that Justine is testing herself.]]
* NothingIsScarier: ''Justine'' doesn't quite follow this...to an extent. There is only one type of monster [[spoiler:Justine's former fiancee Alois, and yes, he's still alive and human, a guy named Basile who Justine blinded and calls you profane names, and Malo, who wants to eat you]], you encounter each once throughout the expansion, and while looking at Basile drops your sanity, it doesn't always make him more likely to see you... because he's ''blind''. However, he can ''hear'' you, and if any of them hits you ''once'', you die, and the game closes, not to mention there are no save points in the expansion whatsoever.
* RoomFullOfCrazy: "The tattered yellow king shall dethrone", "Climb the highest tower, "Oh Father", "The skinless one is waking", "The inside", "Gluttony", "I am emerging", "The beautiful pain", "Lonely", "It will be the end of everything","What will that perfect sphere bring", "It will be again, It's coming", "From within", "Playful", "Death shall move across the floor", "Spin the wheels crank the engine", "My darlings", "Liar! Alois does to use dust as a sore muse", and who could forget "Suffer the trial" and "Stay alive".
* ShootTheShaggyDog: [[spoiler: Even if you save the hostages, at the end Justine just locks them up in the basement to either starve to death, or to be used again in a later "game".]]
* ShoutOut: ''Justine'' has several coy references to ''{{Portal}}'', especially towards the end.
* TheWallsAreClosingIn: The final challenge room, the player must overcome this. [[spoiler: The exposed gears on the wall and various dodads scattered about the floor to jam into them are red herrings to give the player a HopeSpot, though FailureIsTheOnlyOption. There is no way to stop the walls from closing... until they stop on their own.]]
* WholePlotReference: [[Videogame/{{Portal 2}} A psychotic woman forces a seemingly mute woman to run through a series of death traps while making clever remarks.]]
* WhamEpisode: The entire ending. [[spoiler:Justine willingly created the monsters ''from her own friends and lover''. The entire story was all a sick "game" she plays purely for her own twisted amusement. And depending on what you did in the final areas, she now has the resources to do it all ''again''.]]
** TwistEnding
[[/folder]]
----
-->--'''Yahtzee''' on ''[[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/2092-Amnesia-The-Dark-Descent Amnesia: the Dark Descent]]'', ''ZeroPunctuation''
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Amnesia_TheDarkDescent_6048.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: This will be you by the time you hit the sewers of Castle Brennenburg.]]
''Amnesia: The Dark Descent'' is a [[http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/amnesia-the-dark-descent/critic-reviews critically acclaimed]] mix of {{Survival Horror}} and {{Adventure Game}} from the Swedish indie studio [[http://www.frictionalgames.com/site/ Frictional Games]]. It's a {{Spiritual Successor}} to their previous ''{{Penumbra}}'' series of games, sharing many elements of gameplay and storytelling with them.
Daniel, the playable NonActionGuy, wakes up in the dark of an ancient [[HauntedCastle creepy castle]], Brennenburg, without memories. The first thing he finds is a [[NoteToSelf note to himself]], which informs him that his amnesia is purposely self-inflicted and that he needs to kill a man named Baron Alexander, who's currently hiding in the depths of the castle. As he journeys further within the bowels of the Prussian estate, Daniel comes across old diary entries of his hinting at [[EldritchAbomination otherworldly]] influences, particularly the dangerous living 'shadow' that pursues him unrelentingly for something he did in his past. He also finds notes left by an assortment of people that had been at the castle that elaborate upon the sinister events that took place.
A free expansion pack, ''Justine'', was released in April 2011 as part of a cross-game AlternateRealityGame promotion for ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}'', featuring a new player character and a brand-new scenario to play.
----
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder: ''Amnesia: The Dark Descent'' provides examples of:]]
* AboveGoodAndEvil: Alexander expresses disdain for concepts like "good" and "evil", thinking them only good for comfort and not something to be concerned about. [[spoiler: He reminds Daniel that they are NotSoDifferent after Daniel calmly went along with Alexander's plans to torture and kill in order to preserve his own life from [[EldritchAbomination The Shadow]], pointing out that Daniel has no better claim to "goodness" than he does.]]
** [[spoiler: Which nicely sidesteps the issue that Alexander was the one who made Daniel this way in the first place.]]
* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: Apparently justified by being used to carry spring water which surges seasonally. It also functions as a cistern system to retain excess water and carefully control its pressure to power water mills.
* AdvancingWallOfDoom: The Shadow of the Orb manifests as an advancing wave of decay and corrosion that you have to run away from at certain key points in the game.
* AlienGeometries: [[spoiler: The Choir and Chancel towards the end of the game seem to be this. Daniel also has visions of these when he first finds the orb.]]
* AlternateRealityGame: Is one of the 13 indie games that form the bulk of the material of {{Valve}}'s "[[http://valvearg.com/wiki/Valve_ARG_Wiki PotatoFoolsDay]]" ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}'' ARG.
* AlwaysABiggerFish: An offscreen variant. Boy, that Grunt sure is scary, isn't he? You can't do anything to stop him and if he finds you you're dead in moments. [[spoiler: So exactly what was capable of dismembering one so easily?]]
* ArtificialStupidity: One of the few breaks you'll ever get in the game when encountering monsters. Most of them have horrible vision when you're not in light, get bored chasing you after a while, or are generally unable to notice you when you're literally right next to them. In areas with bottomless pits and other falls, you can lure them to falling to their death (despawn). Also, they cannot attack you if you're on top of them or they are somehow stuck on top of barrels, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEvlauKxJ3g and they can't see you if you can't see them]].\\
\\
Probably justified in-game, as the monsters are described as "feeding off of your fear" in a way and are more likely to see you if you keep staring at them, and their strength is dependent on ''your'' mental strength: If you're good at avoiding them, don't expect much ArtificialBrilliance.
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: As you learn about various torture victims, the severity of their supposed crimes seems to lessen. The worst were accused of rape and arson, but a forger got thrown into the iron maiden as well.
* ArtisticLicenseBiology: When Daniel has to (quoting TvTropes here), "drill a hole in the head of ''a corpse'',[sic] insert a copper tube into the hole, and stick yourself on the needle to give yourself an injection of a vaccine". God only knows if they're the same blood type or how long the body's been dead, or if he had any infectious diseases.
** When you touch the body while not holding anything, it states that it "Can't be more than a day old."
** Though depending on the ending, Daniel's long-term physical health won't be an issue anyway...
** As Lanipator puts it in his LetsPlay: "The ''least'' sanitary thing I could possibly do!"
* ArtisticLicenseChemistry: According to ''Amnesia'', combining aqua regia, orpiment, cuprite, and calamine all together[[hottip:*:no idea how much of each, which one goes first, etc.]] creates simply "acid". No, the pH isn't known either.
** Aqua Regia is already a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acid able to dissolve Gold. Why you add a copper-based mineral (cuprite), Arsenic Trisulfide (orpiment, once used for poisened arrows) and Zinc Oxide (calamine, used in cosmetic creams and poweders) is up to you to guess. Royal water alone would have done the job of dissolving organic tissue.
** After you use the "acid" to melt the organic tissue, the container it was in isn't washed out, and is ''re-used for something else later, '''despite the traces of acid.'''''
* ArtisticLicensePhysics: A minor one: you can still light candles and torches that have fallen over and are lying sideways. If you do, the flames still shoot out parallel to the barrel of the candle or torch (IE sideways, instead of towards the ceiling).
* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: What may have happened to [[spoiler:Weyer, Agrippa, and Daniel]] if you choose the right ending.
* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler: Agrippa in the GoldenEnding. The potion Daniel makes for him allows him to resurrect in his home world.]]
* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: [[spoiler: Agrippa and Weyer were real historical figures, Agrippa being a 16th century alchemist and Weyer being his apprentice. This game indicates that Weyer, like Alexander, actually came from... elsewhere...]]
** Agrippa ''was'' also an occultist in RealLife, about 300 years before Amnesia takes place. [[spoiler: He 'presumes' that he was held prisoner by Alexander for hundreds of years, which would make the numbers match up.]]
* {{BFS}}: The Brute's left forearm is one '''[[WolverineClaws FUCKING HUGE BLADE]]'''. And getting hit just once by one of these things is sometimes enough for a OneHitKill.
* BlackBugRoom: Virtually ''[[FridgeHorror any room]]'' where your sanity meter drops low enough to give you bizarre hallucinations about your surroundings.
* BodyHorror:
** Just try looking at the monsters [[spoiler: or Agrippa]] without cringing a bit at the thought that they all ''used'' to be men.
** In the [[AbsurdlySpaciousSewer sewer beneath the castle]] - in order to keep from being killed by poisonous fungi, you need to [[spoiler: drill a hole into the head of a corpse, insert a needle into a copper tube, insert that tube's base into the skull, and then ''stick yourself on the needle'' to immunise yourself.]] That's BodyHorror, AfraidOfNeedles, and a makeshift transfusion all in one scene.
** The TortureCellar; see below.
* BookcasePassage: Two in the main campaign, one in ''Justine''.
* BrainBleach: The player will feel like they need one after visiting some of the later portions of the game. [[spoiler: Daniel himself eventually needs (and uses) some after the weight of all the things he has seen and done catches up with him and he is forced to ask himself "MyGodWhatHaveIDone"]]
* BreatherLevel: The Back Hall. It's downright serene and pleasant compared to the Archive Tunnels you have to run through to get there. [[spoiler: At least, until giant fleshy tumours sprout everywhere and the fountain starts pouring blood.]]
** The Back Hall portion was discussed in the Dev commentary, in which they invoked this trope, going along the lines of "This is meant to relax the player a bit so the upcoming horrors will be even worse by comparison."
** Also the main Cistern area and [[spoiler: where you meet Agrippa in the Nave, which works as a breather room]]
* ButItReallyHappened: Used by the developers to add certain elements of additional horror, such as a flashback of someone buried alive in a room full of corpses (an occurance that occasionally happened during the Bubonic Plague.) [[ItGotWorse And then]] there is the TortureCellar...
* CatScare: An odd instance where this [[TropesAreNotBad trope is done]] ''[[TropesAreNotBad well]]''. The scarcity of it makes those few instances much more effective.
** Not a cat, but [[spoiler:opening a drawer full of bones has the same effect.]]
** [[spoiler: Also, the iron maiden near the end]]
** There's also the torch that turns on by itself. Which is not traditional fire.
* ColdBloodedTorture: [[spoiler: How both Daniel and Alexander treat those that the Alexander has captured.]]
* CollapsingLair: [[spoiler: At the end of the game when you exit the castle, if you look behind you, you can see rocks completely obstructing the way back to the Entrance Hall. Also, you can hear crumble noises while Daniel opens the big door.]]
* ContemptibleCover: Someone should have told whoever made this box art that the monster is scary [[NothingIsScarier because you can't see it]]...[[http://www.amazon.com/Amnesia-Pc/dp/B004FZ9822/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1297461562&sr=1-1 it doesn't help that it is drawn to look like a duck]].
* ComedicSociopathy: The game is horrifying to play, especially alone at night, but watching other people play it while freaking out is inherently hilarious. [[HypocriticalHumor You will probably]] be screaming profanity during gameplay, but that doesn't stop it from being terribly amusing. Playing it with observers on OnLive is a good example of this.
** You know it is scary when it [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIRo0iT0qNw#t=01m58s scares the British accent out of you...]]
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4w0_n1Yras&feature=related&t=4m25s This one]] might be the best known, and is notable for being the source of the minor fandom meme "Oh shit, I have a bag of Milky Ways."
* TheCorruption: The Shadow of the Orb.
* CosmicHorrorStory
* CowerPower: Literally, the best way to survive a monster is to find a dark corner, curl up with your nose to the wall, and ''pray it leaves before it stumbles over you''. Justified, as Daniel has no means by which to fight back against these monsters, they can generally outrun him when they break into a sprint, and closing doors will only slow them down at best.
* CreepyCathedral: The area names of one section of the castle suggests it is this. [[spoiler: [[AlienGeometries It doesn't look]] [[TortureCellar much like one]], but it's hinted that much of it may have been made by members of a forgotten culture]]
* DeadLittleSister: A possible fate for [[spoiler:Daniel's IllGirl little sister]] is her [[spoiler:death a few years previous]]. Whether this happened, or [[spoiler:she survived long enough to see Daniel off to Algeria]] depends on the actions you take within the game, and [[spoiler:how willing you are to help others]]. This is only ever revealed in LoadingScreen notes, though, and has no further effect on the plot other than additional characterization.
* DiegeticInterface: As in ''{{Penumbra}}''.
* DoomedByCanon: The written supplementary materials focus on characters who were mentioned in-game as dying or disappearing without a trace. Each story ends ''right'' before the event that kills them.
* DramaticSpotlight: During the Archives bit, there is a (barely) playable flashback from when Daniel first laid hands on an Orb, during the expedition in Algeria. There is a pedestal with the Orb on it, in a circle of light. Everything else is darkness.
* DummiedOut: Apparently, the character of [[spoiler:Daniel's sister Hazel]] (though occasional references to [[spoiler:her]] are still present in the above mentioned developer's commentary and in some late-game LoadingScreen notes).
* DVDCommentary: Developer Commentaries are able to be toggled, and appear in-game in the form of the Frictional logo (a 6-sided gear) surrounding a microphone. Since most players will want to go the first round without the commentary, this gives a bit of a boost to its replayability.
* EasterEgg: See [[spoiler: that tiny six-digit code at the bottom of the screen when you finish the game]]? Get all the endings and write down the codes, because you can use them to unlock the "super secret" .rar file in the game folder, containing ConceptArt, design documents, DummiedOut audio and footage of the game's alpha versions.
* EvilMentor: Part of why Danie] finally snaps in the first place and drinks the amnesia potion is because he learns that [[spoiler: not all of the Baron's victims are criminals... victims that Daniel has happily tortured in the past]].
* EyeScream: One of the flashbacks in the TortureCellar contains this... thankfully in text form, but given the limitations on character models, that might be ''worse''.
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: You have amnesia, and must make a descent in the dark.
** Not quite. The Dark Descent implies a descent into madness.
* FacialHorror: If the player is caught by a monster, this is likely to be the last thing they see. [[spoiler: Also applies to Agrippa, though his friendly attitude tends to undermine the horror after the initial shock wears off.]]
* FanNickname: The monsters are never directly named, so [[spoiler:the jawless ones]] have gone by [[FacialHorror Mr. Face (or Mr. Flappyjaw)]] while [[spoiler:the metal-infested [[TheFaceless faceless]] ones]] have gone by Mr. Tall. Both "Mr. Face" and "Mr. Tall" were names given to them by {{Mangaminx}}. They have also been called "Mister Struts" and "[[MeaningfulName Anti-Struts]]" respectively, by [[http://www.youtube.com/user/NewfZ Spike and Barley]].
* FirstPersonGhost: As in ''{{Penumbra}}''. Averted only by your left hand, which visibly holds the lantern.
* FissionMailed: Near the end, where [[spoiler:Daniel is captured and put into a prison cell. Complete with a special game over message!]]
* FlowerMotifs: Roses. Rose petals appear at key moments when memories start to return to Daniel. [[spoiler: And when he [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence goes through the gate.]]]]
* GameBreakingBug: The game flatout ''refuses'' to run on anything except very specific video cards.
** Note that the first patch remedied this to some extent: Amnesia now runs on any [=GeForce=] 6 or higher Nvidia card, or any Radeon x1300 or higher.
* GeniusLoci: Seriously, Castle Brennenburg is not a nice place to spend the night...
* GoldenEnding: [[spoiler:By tossing Agrippa's severed head into the portal, Agrippa gets through the portal, leaving Daniel and Alexander trapped in the Inner Sanctum. The Shadow kills Alexander and seemingly kills Daniel too, but Daniel is saved and taken through the portal by Agrippa before dying. Agrippa and Weyer both begin to tend to Daniel's wounds. Agrippa tells Daniel "everything will be alright."]]
* GoMadFromTheRevelation: [[spoiler:The revelation in this case being a HeelRealization. Voluntarily erasing memories is an attempt to cope with it.]]
* GothicHorror: Dark, decaying, (kinda) haunted castle? [[HauntedHeroine Haunted Hero?]] Mysterious, morally ambiguous, (kinda) vampiric Baron? Madness and curses? Check, check, check, double check.
* HaveANiceDeath: When you die, the game will give you advice such as, "Tread carefully..." and, "Block the path. Run..."
** "[[CaptainObvious Stay out of the water...]]"
* HauntedCastle: [[spoiler: Turns out that's because of Daniel.]]
* HeelRealization: [[spoiler:Daniel]], once he finds the final [[spoiler:Diary entry]] - the ''player'' will realize it beforehand, though.
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Daniel in the Agrippa ending. Arguably doubles as RedemptionEqualsDeath.]]
* HollywoodDarkness: Completely shattered - if you try to peer into a dark room from a lit hallway, you will see ''[[NothingIsScarier nothing]]'' beyond the doorframe.
** Played around with throughout too; [[spoiler: a lot of areas do have subtly blue ambient light, and standing in darkness helps Daniel see in the dark in bluish hues, but then there's an area with no ambient light at all that is stated to be "unnaturally dark" and areas with similar lighting appear throughout as a sign of incoming HighOctaneNightmareFuel.]]
*** Suffice to say, the game is ''definitely'' gloomy, rather than brightly lit. Even the light sources are fairly weak.
*** However, the complete aversion of this trope does makes it strangely satisfying and calming to completely light up a room, even if it is very wasteful of tinderboxes.
* HumanoidAbomination: If you happen to run into the visible monster in a room, it looks something like this.
* HumanResources: [[spoiler: Humans are tortured and killed to collect Vitae.]]
* HypocriticalHumor: It's not hard to see many LP'ers commentary incidentally working out quite well as the character's internal thoughts.
* IdentityAmnesia: Done via a LaserGuidedAmnesia potion which wipes Daniel's memory about himself - thankfully he still knows how to use tinderboxes and refuel his oil lamp!
* IllGirl: Daniel's sister/cousin will either have died or survived depending on how "kind" you are in the game. (She is only mentioned in loading segments.)
* ImmortalityImmorality: It's strongly indicated that [[spoiler: the Baron, being stuck in human form, needs vitae (cosmic life force) to prolong his life until he can find a way back to his own dimension. Unfortunately, the only viable source of sufficient quantities of vitae is the prolonged torture and agony of human beings. Daniel, likewise, needs to regularly perform human sacrifices to keep the Shadow at bay.]]
* InterfaceScrew
* InterfaceSpoiler: Early on, a helpful hint appears instructing you to hide in darkness from enemies... [[ParanoiaFuel even if you had no idea anything was there.]]
** [[spoiler: Subverted as there isn't actually any threat yet. It is played straight when the game tells you about being able to hide in cupboards though]]
* IronicEcho: [[spoiler: Fail to escape the cage filling with MeatMoss and you hear echoes of other Brennenberg prisoners pleading for mercy. Their fate is now yours!]]
* JustOneMoreLevel: A design decision. The game's levels were designed to be short and bite-sized to provoke this effect.
* LargeHam: The guy they got to voice The Baron seems to be ''really'' into it. Some of his line readings border on mood breaking, especially a couple at the very beginning of the game, most notably the first time he says "'''The Inner Sanctum'''".
--> "...in fact, it lies beneath the very stone of ''Brennenburg!''"
** The way Daniel says ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKpbcJVpl1I "impossible geometry!"]]'' is hilarious.
* {{Leitmotif}}: Each character has their own associated piece of theme music. Each piece has several variations to represent different moods. Most commonly this can be heard while reading notes written by various characters. Specific songs also "give away" when a monster is lurking around, and of course, the screech when a monster is actively chasing you.
* LetsPlay: A popular game for [=LPers=] due to the audience wanting to see them scared. One particular one is by {{Helloween4545}}.
* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: Both Daniel and Alexander]] depending on the ending.
** [[spoiler: Though, some endings can be interpretted as the Shadow brutally killed Alexander and leaving Daniel alone completely. He had gone through Hell via the entire ordeal of killing Alexander and that was his penance, so to speak.]]
** However, the definitive example, in the ''Justine'' expansion, is [[spoiler:Justine herself.]]
* MadnessMantra
-->[[spoiler: '''Daniel''': Paint the man, cut the lines. Cut the flesh, watch the blood spill - let it come!]]
** Many players have their own. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8k2neQVbko&feature=related "RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN JUMP JUMP JUMP JUMP JUMP" etc.]]
* MaleFrontalNudity: This game is not at all shy about full frontal male nudity, [[spoiler: and the final confrontation will remind you more than a little of ''Comicbook/{{Watchmen}}''.]]
* MeaningfulName: The title itself is one... just play it if you want to know why.
* MeatMoss: All over the place, and more growing all the time. It is strongly implied this is a residual effect of the Shadow that is pursuing Daniel.
* MultipleEndings: [[spoiler: If you break Alexander's machine before it opens the portal, Alexander dies and Daniel leaves Brennenburg free of his curse and content that he did the right thing. If you let the portal open and didn't help Agrippa, Alexander will go through the portal and the darkness will kill you. If you let the portal open and throw Agrippa's head through it, both you and Alexander will die, but Agrippa will call out to you in the ethereal realm and ask Weyer to help you, before assuring you "it will be alright."]]
* MusicalSpoiler: You can easily tell if the enemies are nearby or still chasing you.
** Averted when hiding from monsters, [[spoiler: the music will still play until you man up and make sure by yourself that the monster is gone]].
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler: Daniel, detailed in a note found late in the game.]]
* MythologyGag: In the intro, you get a throwaway reference from Daniel about him living in Mayfair, London. That's the same place where the protagonist of the ''{{Penumbra}}'' series goes to retrieve the heirloom of his missing father (which kicks off the plot of the first game).
** Also, the "memory capsules" are very similar to the [[spoiler:Tuurngait artifacts]] in ''{{Penumbra}}''.
* NightmareFace: The FacialHorror of the monsters is one major source of this. [[spoiler: The other source is the paintings of Alexander when viewed ThroughTheEyesOfMadness.]]
* NoBudget: Would you believe that Frictional Games, the developers of ''Amnesia'', had to work for no pay for a month or two? It's impressive that it turned out as well as it did, given their methods of motion-capping the monsters.
* NoteToSelf
* NothingIsScarier: In spades. The monsters are scarce enough to keep them from being a source of frustration, but frequent enough to ramp up the HighOctaneNightmareFuel. Add to that [[HellIsThatNoise ambient sounds]] that, at times, sound like footsteps, and you'll be cowering in a corner for fear of a monster you haven't even ''seen'' yet. The game doesn't even ''let'' you get a good look at the monsters, ever, because just looking at them drops your sanity meter and [[InterfaceScrew causes the screen to blur]]... and ''[[ItGotWorse makes them notice you]].''
** The splashing water scene. A ''lot'' of players claim the scene nearly gave them a heart attack.
--> '''Yahtzee''': ''Amnesia'' understands that a monster stays scary the less you see of it.
** One of the measurements of your low sanity is simply "..."
* OffscreenTeleportation: The monsters are capable of this.
* OntologicalMystery: The beginning of the game. After you struggle through a few corridors and staircases, you find your notes and learn a bit more about who you seemingly are and what you supposed to do after willingly inducing amnesia on yourself.
* PoweredByAForsakenChild: [[spoiler: Vitae, a substance containing the cosmic lifeforce Baron Alexander needs for his alchemy, can only be obtained through the prolonged torture and suffering of human beings. This, more than anything else, is why Castle Brennenburg is such a gallery of horrors.]]
--> '''Baron Alexander''': [[spoiler: As long as the body suffers, it will continue to produce the vitae and saturate the blood with its properties.]]
* PrimalFear: Plays heavily on several of these. Fear of the dark is, as the title suggests, a frequent one, but that is also subserviant to a more general fear of the ''unknown''. The game uses lots of little tricks to ensure this fear is invoked, such as HellIsThatNoise to suggest what might be near, and TeleportingKeyCardSquad to ensure that monsters can be ''anywhere'', and NothingIsScarier to keep players tense and on-edge. Even if one tries looking at the monsters ({{Body Horror}}s though they are) Daniel's vision will be blurred and distorted, ensuring that they retain an element of mystery and unknowability, in addition to their role as predators after a helpless prey.
* PsychologicalHorror: The backbone of the whole game, even moreso than in its predecessor ''{{Penumbra}}''.
* PsychoStrings: When monsters are chasing you.
* QuestForIdentity: The reason you'll want to pick up the Diary entries.
* RedemptionQuest: Not revealed until [[spoiler: the final Journal entry]], though strongly hinted at prior.
* RunOrDie: Your only two choices when a monster spots you.
* SanityMeter: The bad thing is that it's an ''accurate barometer of the player's mood.'' Well, except for needing to stay near lights to keep sane.
** Your decaying sanity doesn't only diminish your sight. It also [[SanitySlippage makes you gradually hear more and more deranged and ominous aural hallucinations]]... ''[[FridgeHorror and the quiet grinding noise of your own teeth]]''...
* ShownTheirWork: Evident when you turn on the commentary.
* ShutUpHannibal: Able to be done in 2 of the 3 endings.
* SpookyPainting: Toyed with - as your SanityMeter depletes, portraits of an old man become grotesque to look at. [[spoiler: It's a portrait of Alexander, by the way. It may be what he really looks like.]]
* StealthBasedGame: You don't even have a weapon to fight back.
* StoryBreadcrumbs: Diary entries, miscellaneous documents, and the occasional flashback.
* StrongAsTheyNeedToBe: Most of the terror of the game comes from the fact that you're playing as a [[NonActionGuy regular human]] who lacks any skill or ability that would allow him to fight back against the creatures stalking him. This is somewhat undermined by the fact that Daniel seems to be crazy strong, judging by various puzzle sequences in which he busts open stone walls with a shovel or smashes through foot-thick wood pillars with his bare hands.
** Also discussed in-game in one of the notes. Given what Daniel's facing, it's not surprising he can pull it off from time-to-time.
--> '''Baron Alexander''': Even the most timid creature can break out in fits of violence where their strength exceeds their expected prowess.
** It also bears mentioning that, in those particular instances, the wall or floor's already been weakened to the point of the mortar being loose enough for it to happen.
** This is actually {{Lampshaded}} by {{Lanipator}} during his LetsPlay [[http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/ir/tfstar/lanipator/lani-plays/29733-amnesia-part-4 of the game.]]
* SympatheticMurderBackstory: Daniel is [[spoiler:manipulated by Alexander into sacrificing what he thought were criminals. He is devastated after he was forced to kill a little girl, and nearly loses his sanity. He vows revenge on Alexander for that. Amongst the flashbacks in-game involve the cries of the lives he took (children's voices were amongst them).]]
* TechnicolorScience: The acid is bright, glowing green. Even without a heat source, it boils dramatically to the point of hurling out glass bottles dropped in it.
* TeleportingKeycardSquad: Unfortunately played straight some of the time: Generally when there's a puzzle-relevant pickup in plain sight, you can bet that a monster is going to spawn two rooms back to terrorize you after you pick it up. Of course, knowing this makes it ''even more tense'', because you'll be afraid to even ''find'' the pickups because you know it could cause a monster to spawn.
** To quote Yahtzee again: "It's like they're being summoned by the autosave function."
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Delivered by Alexander when you reach the 2nd half of the torture chambers.
* TheReveal: Why Daniel is in the castle, of course! It wouldn't have the amnesia factor without a reveal as to how he got there, after all.
* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: The paintings, especially [[spoiler:the portrait of Baron Alexander]], change as your sanity gets lower. Although, given that he is [[spoiler:explicitly stated to be from a different world]], this might actually be a somewhat bizarre case of GlamourFailure.
* TitleDrop: A note discovered late in the game indicates that the elixar Daniel drank just before the game begins (which he reads a NoteToSelf about in the first level) is actually titled "Amnesia", because it is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Exactly What It Says On The Bottle]]. [[spoiler: The real purpose of it is to erase the memories of torture victims, so that they forget the specifics of the torture, and leave them to only wonder what caused their scars, their minds constructing fresh horrors anew in anticipation of the next session.]]
* TortureCellar: Oh '''God''' the torture cellar... [[spoiler: brass bulls that people are crammed into to be broiled alive, torture wheels that allow for multiple bone breaks - and worst of all, the cells that permit the neighbor to hear nothing but the anguished screams emitting from the torture chambers.]] Even worse is the reason behind the torturing -- see PoweredByAForsakenChild.\\
\\
Worse still than that is this: Almost all of those items are ''[[TruthInTelevision real medieval torture devices]]'' that ''[[NightmareFuel actually existed and were used on people]]''. The Iron Maiden, despite its many appearances throughout popular culture and inside some historical "tours", is purely fictional as a means of torture. This does little to remove the terror though, as it's the least terrifying of the torture devices featured in the game, and the rest of them are completely real.
* TortureTechnician: Alexander is implied to be one, judging by his notes on the subject. [[spoiler:He leaves instructions on how to best inflict prolonged suffering, and deliberately pipes the sound of ongoing torture into the cell areas of the other prisoner awaiting their turn, knowing that the anticipation will only make it worse for them. This is further backed up by use of a memory-erasing draught called "[[TitleDrop Amnesia]]" after each session, just so their imaginations will produce new horrors afresh in anticipation of next time.]]
** The [[DVDCommentary Developer Commentary]] [[LampshadeHanging points out]] that the techniques laid out by Alexander are quite similar to the techniques they use to keep the player on edge throughout the experience.
*** Parallel to how [[spoiler: the prisoners have to hear their cellmates torture and death]], the player is also subjected to [[spoiler: auditory hallucinations featuring each of the torture apparatus and [[{{Squick}} their effects]] before we see them and how they function]].
* TraumaInducedAmnesia: Subverted. Daniel induces amnesia on himself willingly, by drinking a certain type of potion. The game starts at the point when he wakes up from his dreamless sleep, now only knowing his name and nothing else.
* {{Uberwald}}: The {{Prussia}}n woodlands that surround Castle Brennenburg, including the tiny village of Altstadt just down the road. Most of the information on it is revealed through diary entries, notes on the location, and [[AllThereInTheManual supplemental materials]].
* WhatTheHellHero: When you find out what Daniel's been up to at Alexander's behest.
* TheWikiRule: [[http://amnesia.wikia.com/wiki/Amnesia:_The_Dark_Descent_Wiki Right here]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder: ''Justine'' provides examples of:]]
* BodyHorror: ''Justine'' is terrible about this, because we learn that the monsters stalking the protagonist are [[spoiler:still alive, and very much human ''thanks to Justine''. No wonder they want to kill her.]]
* EvilIsEasy: Killing the three men is easier than solving the puzzles required to save them. On the other hand, you have to save them in order to get OneHundredPercentCompletion... And the potato.
* EyeScream: A phonograph has some of this. [[ItGotWorse It's also fully voice acted.]]
** And the result of this? ''That monster trying to kill you.''
* HiddenPurposeTest: Averted. Justine tells the PlayerCharacter that she is in Justine's dungeon at the beginning for Justine's entertainment and to test whether humans will take the easy, selfish way out of a problem or look for a harder way out that does not hurt others. [[spoiler: The secret part is that Justine is testing herself.]]
* NothingIsScarier: ''Justine'' doesn't quite follow this...to an extent. There is only one type of monster [[spoiler:Justine's former fiancee Alois, and yes, he's still alive and human, a guy named Basile who Justine blinded and calls you profane names, and Malo, who wants to eat you]], you encounter each once throughout the expansion, and while looking at Basile drops your sanity, it doesn't always make him more likely to see you... because he's ''blind''. However, he can ''hear'' you, and if any of them hits you ''once'', you die, and the game closes, not to mention there are no save points in the expansion whatsoever.
* RoomFullOfCrazy: "The tattered yellow king shall dethrone", "Climb the highest tower, "Oh Father", "The skinless one is waking", "The inside", "Gluttony", "I am emerging", "The beautiful pain", "Lonely", "It will be the end of everything","What will that perfect sphere bring", "It will be again, It's coming", "From within", "Playful", "Death shall move across the floor", "Spin the wheels crank the engine", "My darlings", "Liar! Alois does to use dust as a sore muse", and who could forget "Suffer the trial" and "Stay alive".
* ShootTheShaggyDog: [[spoiler: Even if you save the hostages, at the end Justine just locks them up in the basement to either starve to death, or to be used again in a later "game".]]
* ShoutOut: ''Justine'' has several coy references to ''{{Portal}}'', especially towards the end.
* TheWallsAreClosingIn: The final challenge room, the player must overcome this. [[spoiler: The exposed gears on the wall and various dodads scattered about the floor to jam into them are red herrings to give the player a HopeSpot, though FailureIsTheOnlyOption. There is no way to stop the walls from closing... until they stop on their own.]]
* WholePlotReference: [[Videogame/{{Portal 2}} A psychotic woman forces a seemingly mute woman to run through a series of death traps while making clever remarks.]]
* WhamEpisode: The entire ending. [[spoiler:Justine willingly created the monsters ''from her own friends and lover''. The entire story was all a sick "game" she plays purely for her own twisted amusement. And depending on what you did in the final areas, she now has the resources to do it all ''again''.]]
** TwistEnding
[[/folder]]
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