The Story: Daniel is the main character here. He's a London guy who was a part of an archaeological expedition to Africa and found an orb in one of the ruins there. He brought the pieces home and assembled it, after which he started to have nightmares and the people who came across him and the orb died in the hands of the "Shadow". When he got desperate and depressed after these strange turn of events, he received a letter from a Prussian baron named Alexander who promised to protect Daniel if he would go to his castle.
Alexander then employs Daniel as a personal torturer for vile criminals and explains the use of the "vitae", a kind of blood that can only be harvested from agonized humans which will be the key to separate the shadow from Daniel forever. At first, Daniel embraced his role to become a torturer. They also fed their prisoners an Amnesia potion, which makes them forget about their torture. Daniel only rejected his faith in Alexander when he killed a little girl when she tried to escape from her prison. After he realized that he was just used by Alexander who was actually a lifeform from another world who just wanted to go home by collecting vitae and using the orb to go back to his own world, he drank the Amnesia potion to pay for his sins.
The Gameplay: this game allows you to explore and use your mouse to interact with objects around you. Daniel also has a health indicator and also a "sanity" indicator which adds to the challenge of the game because you'll have to balance as you go through the game or else he'll experience hallucinations and be vulnerable to monsters. To preserve his sanity, Daniel must stay near light sources and avoid the dark, scary events, and staring at monsters. You'll know that he's hallucinating when you see blood around and blobs of slime that looks like it's breathing. Light sources help restore sanity, and if none are available Daniel may use tinderboxes to ignite candles in wall sconces and candelabra, or use an oil-burning lantern found near the beginning of the game. However, the number of tinderboxes and the amount of oil available are both limited, and standing in a light source also makes the player more noticeable to monsters (so how the hell am I going to do this?!).
If a monster spots Daniel, it will chase him until he's out of sight. If spotted, Daniel must run away, as Amnesia does not give the player access to weapons. Daniel must find hiding places or barricade doors with rocks, chairs and other obstacles; however, monsters are capable of tearing down doors in their path and kicking obstacles out of the way, and move extremely fast once they have spotted their prey. Players can also choose to hide Daniel in the shadows, at cost to sanity. Monsters who lose sight of Daniel will search for him for a time, but will eventually leave and vanish. At several points in the game, Daniel must lure them into destroying an obstacle in his path.
What I love: "The fact that you can interact with everything in the game! from beds, to tables to the lights and the prison chains! You can even throw stuff! It's all too cool!"
The Sounds: Most of the sounds in the game are the same sounds that you'll hear in any scary castle filled with creaking doors and freaking heart-stopping ambiance that makes you paranoid and think that there's something behind you as it gets quieter (I know you experience that too. So don't hide it anymore.)
The Places: It's a spooky castle filled only with candles and wall scones. The walls are well-made in this game and the lightning and foggy, shadowy, effects actually give more tension and a hint of fear. You'll notice neat rooms at first with paintings all around. and as you go through the game you'll see the messed up rooms and torture chambers with unrecognizable naked bodies lying there.
What I love: "The part where Daniel gets dizzy and the turning, zooming in effect takes place. It's kinda creepy and feels like something really, really BAD is going to happen. Nice!"
The Baddies: The monsters in the game are actually the prisoners who get warped and ugly from drinking the Amnesia potion at toxic levels as well as being continuously tortured, of course. They lurk everywhere in the game, chase you when they see you, and hit you if they get close enough. One is the "Servant Grunt" who has a deformed mouth flapping in his chest and iron claw-hands. The other is the brute who has an open head and has an iron pole for a hand. There's also a water monster which you'll encounter in the game where you'll have to cross puddles and such. It attacks when you step on the water and you'll notice splashes there. you can use boxes to cross or use dismembered bodies to distract it. And the last one is Alexander. At the end of the game he'll look like a naked old ghost man floating in some weird portal contraption. It's rather disturbing to see him like that. I think I'm scarred for life.
The Good Samaritans: You will be helped by Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa who is a German occult writer and supposed magician who helped Alexander in his research about the orbs. He got imprisoned in a dead body so Alexander can use him to perform rituals regarding the orbs. He also has a student named Johann Weyer who will also help you at the ending.
The Ending: There are a few endings to this game. One is you'll throw Agrippa's head into the portal, Alexander will die, and you will be saved by Johann Weyer. Another one is you will get stuck in prison and die from hallucinating. At least you killed the shadow with you. The next one is where Alexander gets to go back home through the portal and Daniel dies (after the survival adventure you suddenly die in the end. Hu-rrah.) And the last one is the good ending (i think) where Daniel pushes one of the portal columns over and kills Alexander. Then he walks around the castle a little and steps into the light which I don't know if it lead outside or to heaven.
What I love: "I love it when they give you a lot of endings to choose from and try. It makes you all the more merrier when you finished the game."
What I hate: "It kinda sucks that the endings leave you hanging on thought here. I actually have a lot of questions on my mind after the endings but that's what always happen when you finish the game right?
Over-all: I'll say that it was a great game when you want a first-person game that motivates you to survive and pee in your pants rather than to win. I feel sorry for Daniel in this story though.
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