Amnesia: The Dark Descent/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Alternative Character Interpretation:
    • Daniel. Is he as dense as the flashbacks imply, or is it an act? Is he a Complete Monster or was he Just Following Orders?
    • Another question: was he actually that nice of a guy before his trip down Insanity Lane or was he just a naive young man who was pushed too far by fear? Remember, when the men who were exploring the passage beneath the dunes began to visibly become fearful and wanted to leave, Daniel shouted at them and forced them to continue. At the very least, it is heavily implied that he is a selfish man and very much concerned with his own wellbeing above anyone else's... or at least before his Heel Face Turn after he murders the young girl, anyway. Also:
    • Alexander. There is no denying he is a monster, but it is made clear in the notes, diaries and odd cylinder thingies that he is originally from a race far more advanced than ours and a dimension beyond humanity's reach. Many times, Alexander displays his callous attitude towards humans as if they were no different from the canines he had experimented on previously... but when Daniel himself turns on his own kind with an heavy bloodlust and begins to fall further into vicious insanity, even Alexander is disturbed by his behaviour; to quote, he "senses a darkness" in Daniel. Of course, he uses this to his advantage, being the Magnificent Bastard he is, but you can't help but wonder about his seemingly sincere sorrow at being trapped in an alien world, seperated from his wife and anyone of his own kind, doomed to die a slow and lonely death unless he finds a way back home. Consider also his concern and disgust at the depravity to which Daniel himself sinks, something which a trigger-happy maniac would not react to or feel disturbed by. Ultimately, let's put it like this: would a displaced human being in a strange dimension feel the same way about torturing and murdering animals of a lower intelligence if it was the only way to get back to their plane of existance? Is Alexander simply trying to escape from a world in which he does not belong, committing his horrific acts of torture on murder on the grounds of a sense of alien superiority and hopeless necessity?
  • And the Fandom Rejoiced: A sequel known as Amnesia: Machine for Pigs has been announced.
  • Breather Level:
    • The Back Hall. It's downright serene and pleasant compared to the Archive Tunnels you have to run through to get there. At least, until giant fleshy tumors 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 where you meet Agrippa in the Nave, which works as a breather room.
  • Complete Monster: Baron Alexander, as made abundantly clear in the flashbacks... but possibly not quite over the Moral Event Horizon. Also, depending on your viewpoint, Daniel.
    • Add a third to that list: Justine. Oh, dear God, Justine.
  • Crazy Awesome: Did Lanipator really play through that game without becoming a sniveling wreck like it seems or did he play ahead? He did seem to get very quiet when a monster saw him as well as a little frantic by Daniel's very slow climbing ability. However, he never really panicked like most let's-players did, so did his comedy relax him? He even figured out that if you can't see the monsters, they can't see you. Most people would be too scared to figure that out.
    • Consider the plot. A man with no memories got through a haunted castle filled with horrible monsters and took out the Big Bad. Many people call it the scariest game of all time, but they weren't physically in the game. How many people could actually make it through a situation like that?
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Many. The monsters, Hazel, Alexander, Justine's suitors and Agrippa. Heck EVERY character is insanely popular, no matter their connection to the story!
    • They don't even have to be characters... thanks to PewDiePie's Let's Play, the golden statues of a kneeling Arab with a sword are often presented as a character named Stephano who speaks in a thick Spanish accent and gives advice to the player.
    • The Kaernk, the invisible monsters that appear in the flooded areas. Despite not having very much lore, they're popular enough that "the water part" is all most people want to see in playthroughs and are considered the scariest part of the game by many.
  • Evil Is Sexy: Alexander... or at least his voice. Daniel too, for many fangirls, though he does seek redemption.
  • Foe Yay Shipping: Alexander/Daniel is a surprisingly common pairing, mostly because Alexander has so many shades of Magnificent Bastard to him, it's not completely out of the question, and players inclined that way find both their VAs have sexy voices.
  • Hell Is That Noise: The entire game, but especially the monsters' roars and the horrible, horrible song that plays whenever one is chasing you.
    • Less of a "song" and more of a distorted screaming noise that loops. Have a listen for yourself. Do it at night. All alone. With headphones on.
    • Whenever a monster breaks into a run when it's chasing you, THIS will play along with the chase music linked above. Try playing both at once. Now imagine the sound of a monster's feet behind you and enraged grunting sounds as it gets closer as all this plays. That is what the game puts you through.
    • On a piano that doesn't make sense, no less.
  • Hype Backlash: It's still a good game, but new players have started to see the flaws in the horror aspect. Depending on who you ask, the Nothing Is Scarier parts can get boring after a while, the monsters look more silly than scary, their AI is pretty poor, and the fact that you can easily avoid them can ruin the sense of danger, making them more of a nuisance than a threat. The game also still deploys some cliches of the horror game formula such as a monster appearing whenever an important item is picked up.
  • It Was His Sled: The game was designed to keep the monsters out of sight so their appearance would be a mystery to players. But the monster designs have become so well-known that the Grunt-type enemy is practically a mascot for the game!
  • Memetic Mutation:
    • Milky Way candies are connected with the game a surprising amount, thanks to a popular video of a guy playing it while on Skype with friends, in which one mentions having a bag of fun size-versions of the candy while the Amnesia player is freaking out.
    • The same video introduced "That is not... traditional fire!", which briefly became a Fun T-Shirt!
  • Most Annoying Sound: If you aren't super attentive about keeping your sanity meter high (which isn't easy, considering how many things can drain it and how quickly lamp oil burns out), prepare to spend a lot of time listening to the sounds of insects crunching away through your speakers.
  • Most Wonderful Sound: That deep breath you hear as the screen flashes blue, signifying that you've solved another puzzle and replenished some sanity to boot.
  • 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.
    • But listen to the bird on YouTube... It's haunting. "It stays with you for the rest of your life", indeed.
    • At some points in the game, you can hear a strange crunching sound. It might be intended to be the cockroaches, but it sounds more like someone is eating potato chips somewhere off-screen.
  • Nausea Fuel: Oh so much.
  • Nightmare Retardant:
    • Generally occurs when you're laughing at videos of people crapping themselves, but Jeno, the dude with the British accent, does some things that make encounters with monsters hilarious, for a whole different reason...
    • *Sees a Brute's idle animation* "What the fuck is he doing?" RAVING MONSTERS FTW.
    • "Oh, fuck this shit." *Rushes towards the monster suicidally* "HEY WANKER! I'M GONNA PUNCH YOU IN THE FACE-" *Gets cut down* "Did he see you?" "Mmmmmmmmmaaaaaaaaabbbyyee."
    • *Jumps around in the open near a monster* "COME ON MONSTER, YOU WANNA PARTY WITH ME? COME ON, MAN, LET'S PARTY!" *Gets cut down again* "OH, FUCK. AW, COME OOOOOOONNNN."
    • "HELLO, NAKED MAN."
      • Pretty much anything related to the "penis penis penis" Running Gag is comedy gold.
      • In fact, if you're particularly immature, the fact that Alexander fights you while flying around butt-naked can be an example in itself.
    • This exchange:

"No, this sounds like the monsters are having buttsex."
"SA-WEET!"

      • And later:
  • hears monsters groaning* "NICE! They're having buttsex in there!"

Rutskarn: Funny, just jumping down a haunted corridor, real spooky, "doot doot doot doo".
Shamus: The monsters are all like, "I'm not going after him; that's a Counter-Strike player, screw that guy".

    • PewDiePie's play throughs are brilliant in their own right, but his reaction of pure joy whenever he discovers Stephano (A little bronze or gold figurine often found just lying around in many rooms on the map), Piggeh, Mister Chair and Skully, his distrust of barrels and suits of armour and his yelling at "Teleporting Naked Guys" makes the game a lot less scary to watch.
    • Lanipator is just so calm when he played. He makes the game look like an average scary game. He makes great jokes. He makes the scary moments funny by mocking Daniel's weakness or demonstrating how stupid the monsters are. He doesn't usually scream when something scary jumps out. He just uses logic and hides or runs away all the while staying focus on how he can survive. It's just unbelievable how calm he is and he even lampshades it. It's almost like it's just another day at work for him and it actually kind of is.
  • Paranoia Fuel:
    • Directly related to Nothing Is Scarier: monsters really don't appear that often, and none of them actually attack you until a good 1/3 of the way into the game... but you'll be surprised at how often you wind up hiding in a cabinet or corner because you think you heard a monster.
    • In addition to that, there is the fact that if you are killed and have to reload, the game will occasionally make the monster that killed you not spawn at all. Occasionally. It doesn't happen enough to be something you can rely on helping you, but happens enough that you will spend an extra 5-15 minutes sneaking and running frantically from a monster in an area the game has suddenly decided to empty out. And the game gives absolutely no indication of when it decides to do this. And you usually don't find out whether the game is giving you a present or a box of spiders until you round a corner and run into another monster that the game has spawned for kicks and giggles.
    • This game will make you hydrophobic.
    • Not to mention that the castle is *filled* with hissing cockroaches. They don't do anything, but when you get near one, it quietly hisses at you. This can be unsettling.
  • Player Punch:
    • While you might suspect what Daniel had done prior to his amnesiac state, the full grasp of it won't hit you until you reach the Torture Cellar. These are scattered about to lesser degrees throughout the Torture Cellar, as well: you'll feel like you've bruised your ribs by the end of it.
  • Sequel Displacement : Arguably this towards the Penumbra series, probably because it's a stand-alone and had more adamant marketing (mainly by word of mouth on the internet via Frictional's long-time fans).
  • Surprisingly Improved Sequel: Well, it may be a Spiritual Successor to Penumbra but still: It's amazingly improved over their last effort.
  • That One Boss: Malo from Justine. While you only have to avoid the other two suitors, Malo you have to outrun through several puzzles that the physics engine can make frustrating. Worst of all, Malo is at the end, and if he kills the Player Character you have to go all the way back to the beginning. Which is made worse by the Player Character being a One-Hit-Point Wonder.
  • That One Level: The Choir. It's huge. It's open. It's easy to get lost in. And there are Brutes everywhere. There are no dark places to hide in either; when one appears, all you can do is duck behind one of the room's many pillars and hope he doesn't come too close. The three rooms you're supposed to go into will drain your sanity just by being inside them, and they're loaded with Schmuck Bait that will reduce you to a gibbering wreck quickly.
  • Uncanny Valley: Deliberately invoked with the Grunt; in what looks like a pale, drooping corpse, it looks as if Salvador Dali himself designed the jaw for Mr. Face's face.
  • Vindicated by History: The game, over time, became a financial success by word of mouth.
  • The Woobie:
    • Yes, even in this horror filled game there is still a woobie. Daniel, believe it or not. Listen to some of his dialogues (especially the one where he is in the storage "but why is it so dark?" and the one about the morgue).
    • The little girl as well "Please let me go! I won't tell anyone I swear! I just wanna go home..."
    • The second Suitor from Justine. Justine is a bitch.
    • Just listen to Alois' dialogue and try not to feel sorry for the poor lad. Even after everything Justine did to him, he still adores her and just wants to be with her. Albeit murderously.

Alois: Is that you, my love? You came for me!... Where did you go?! Come back! Please, come back!

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