Stumbling in the Dark
Well, I blame Newbs for introducing me to the Minecraft reddit page. It is awesome to browse, but... well... I just blame Newbs. Anyway, while browsing the site, I noticed a page about how Minecraft could be the best horror game. As I went through the number of humorous stories of creeper assassins, it wasn't long before people brought up the argument that Amnesia: The Dark Descent was a better/the best horror game. Now, I have not played Amnesia before; though I have seen parts of a number of "let's play" series as well as watching a friend play it for a bit. I respect it and feel that what it tries to do, it does right. However, I still cannot believe it is better than...

Stumbling in the Dark
Well, I blame Newbs for introducing me to the Minecraft reddit page. It is awesome to browse, but... well... I just blame Newbs. Anyway, while browsing the site, I noticed a page about how Minecraft could be the best horror game. As I went through the number of humorous stories of creeper assassins, it wasn't long before people brought up the argument that Amnesia: The Dark Descent was a better/the best horror game. Now, I have not played Amnesia before; though I have seen parts of a number of "let's play" series as well as watching a friend play it for a bit. I respect it and feel that what it tries to do, it does right. However, I still cannot believe it is better than Minecraft simply due to one gaming feature.

Though I have not played Amnesia, I know what it suggests of the player. Frictional wishes for you to have the your gamma levels low, your headphones on, and for you not to play to win. That is where the issues start with Amnesia. Am I saying that it is bad to be immersed in a game? Not at all, but my feeling is that current game design expects players to play to win. It is the simplest way to motivate a player and it can be hard, if not impossible, for most gamers to break that habit and go with the flow. However, if you follow the rule, you will notice that this is where Amnesia shines. It can have such an effect on you psychologically that will not only cause you to be afraid, but to also shit bricks for weeks as you wake up panicked as you swear that you just saw a Gatherer. It is the superior horror experience, but not the superior horror game.

The horror elements of Amnesia do not really spawn from the game mechanics. There are mechanics that enhance them, such as insanity and lighting, but it is all psychological horror. Minecraft is inverted in that it uses the human psyche to enhance the horror that the game mechanics create. The gaming feature that makes Minecraft a superior horror game over Amnesia is that, when you die, you lose all of your stuff. Unlike Amnesia, there is no autosave or checkpoints for character progress in Minecraft. If you play Amnesia to win, players can easily just game the checkpoint system and reach the end with no real problems (even in a dark room with headphones on). On the other hand, if you play Minecraft to win, the player will become even more afraid of everything for anything can lead to the player's death which will cause them to lose their progress. If there is one thing that all gamers fear, it is lost progress.

Unfortunately, Amnesia's only downfall as a horror game when compared to Minecraft is that there is a wrong way to play it that will definitely reduce the whole "scare factor" of the game. This can be blamed on the forced saves. The beauty of Minecraft is that there is no wrong way to play it for each way will get you to where you want to go but also still keep failure a very constant and scary thing. Both games are great, though, and I couldn't recommend both of them enough if you want a good scare.

And once again, I blame Newbs.