Amnesia Collection

Amnesia: The Dark Descent is a first-person survival horror adventure game. The player takes control of Daniel, an archaeologist who must navigate Castle Brennenburg while avoiding various hazards and solving puzzles. The gameplay retains the physical object interaction used in the Penumbra series, allowing for physics-based puzzles and interactions such as opening doors and fixing machinery. Smaller items can be stored in an inventory menu, while larger objects can be raised by holding down a mouse button and pushing or pulling the mouse.

Objects such as doors or levers can be manipulated by using the mouse in a fashion that imitates moving the said object. The difficulty level can be adjusted before starting the game, but cannot be readjusted once the game has begun.

On 19 August 1839, a young man awakens in the dark and empty halls of Brennenburg Castle in Prussia with no memory about himself or his past. All he can remember is that his name is Daniel, that he lives in Mayfair, and that someone or something is hunting him. Shortly after regaining consciousness, Daniel finds a note he wrote to himself, which informs him that he has deliberately erased his own memory and is being hunted by a "Shadow", an unearthly presence that manifests itself through fleshy, acidic growths spreading throughout the castle. The note instructs Daniel to descend into the Inner Sanctum of the castle in order to find and kill its baron, Alexander.

As he makes his way through the castle, Daniel gradually learns both about its mysteries and about his own past, through notes and diaries he finds as well as through sudden flashbacks and visions. The origin of his situation is a mysterious orb that he recovered from the Tin Hinan Tomb in Algeria. When the orb was shattered, Daniel received a vision which enabled him to reassemble it, unleashing the Shadow in the process. Each of the experts he consulted in person about the orb were later found gruesomely dismembered.

Work began on the game while Penumbra: Requiem was still being developed, with the company working on both projects at the same time. The game was first known under two working titles: Unknown and Lux Tenebras. It was not until 3 November 2009 that it was announced as its current title, Amnesia, and 13 November with the release of the game's website and a game trailer. Initial designs of the game varied considerably from the final game, with the developers interested in reintroducing more combat elements similar to those utilized in their first commercial title Penumbra: Overture. The developers soon discovered that they encountered many of the same problems and difficulties that plagued the combat in that game, and the design was further changed to be more similar to the style set out by Overture's sequel Penumbra: Black Plague.

On 5 February 2010, it was announced that the game had reached the alpha stage of development on all platforms. Two weeks later the developers released a new teaser trailer that showed actual gameplay footage, and the developers began accepting pre-orders for the game through their website. Also revealed was that the game was at that point being tested on all three intended platforms. It was also announced that the game would be released simultaneously for all of them in August 2010.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent received "generally favorable" reviews according to review aggregator website Metacritic. Josh Tolentino of Destructoid, Adam Biessener of Game Informer, and Bev Chen of PALGN saw Amnesia as a return to true survival horror, contrasting it with action-heavy titles like Resident Evil or Dead Space. Its focus on powerlessness and psychological horror was seen as a bold, influential move, with Ashton Raze of The Telegraph calling it a "masterwork of horror" and Al Bickham of PC Gamer noting its superiority to modern blockbusters.

Critics unanimously lauded Amnesia for its oppressive, terrifying atmosphere. The game's use of darkness, sound design, and minimalistic music was said to create a constant sense of dread. Biessener, Adventure Gamers's Nathaniel Berens, and IGN's Charles Onyett described it as one of the scariest games ever made, with moments that induce genuine panic and fear of the unknown. The game's lack of combat was widely appreciated as a bold choice, emphasizing vulnerability.

An indirect sequel called Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs was released on 10 September 2013, developed by The Chinese Room and published by Frictional Games. It takes place in the same universe as The Dark Descent, but in an alternative history with different characters.

The third game in the series, titled Amnesia: Rebirth was announced on 6 March 2020. Rebirth is the second Amnesia game to be developed by Frictional Games. A gameplay reveal trailer was uploaded on 2 October 2020 to a positive reception. The game was released on 20 October 2020 for PlayStation 4, Linux and Windows.