YMMV / Amnesia: The Dark Descent

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Daniel. Is he as dense as the flashbacks imply, or is it an act? Does he really regret torturing and killing all those people or is he just mad at Alexander for lying to him regarding his promise to keep him safe from the Shadow?
  • Alexander. Many times, Alexander displays his callous attitude towards the humans he tortures as if they were no different from the dogs he had experimented on previously, but it is made clear in the notes, diaries and cylinders that he is originally from an alien race far more advanced than ours, and you can't help but wonder about his sorrow at being trapped in an alien world, separated from his wife and anyone of his own kind, doomed to die a slow and lonely death unless he finds a way back home. To put it another way, would a human being trapped on another world torture and kill animals of a lower intelligence if it was the only way return to Earth? And it should be noted that Alexander doesn't enjoy torturing people.
  • The Shadow. Initially it appears to be no more than a characterless spirit, simply there to act as a Big Bad and railroad Daniel into completing the game. However, certain quirks of its past and present behavior suggests that it is far more complex than that.
• Awesome Music:
  • The peaceful music that plays in the back hall after escaping the water monster. It is a beautiful and calming piece that provides much-needed relief from the terrifying chase earlier.
  • Daniel's theme is very moving and epic track with a gothic undertone.
  • The end credit theme that plays if you chose the Downer Ending is a very somber track that gives out the feeling of defeat.
  • Agrippa's theme gives out a sense of mystery and wonder.
  • Servant Brute's theme when present, being an iconic theme that perfectly encapsulates the extreme danger of the most powerful enemy in the game, its grotesque and otherworldly appearance, and the terror of what will happen if it finds you.
• Better as a Let's Play: One of the earliest and most well-known examples of this phenomenon. Considered by many to be one of the scariest games ever made, people who didn't have the courage to actually play it found out just how entertaining it was to watch other people getting scared by it instead, with the popularity of Amnesia playthroughs/compilations arguably kick-starting Let's Plays' push into the mainstream throughout the early 2010s.
• Breather Level:
  • After the heart-stopping panic of the water demon in the cellar Daniel arrives at a peaceful (if slightly bizarre) Back Hall. Then it turns From Bad to Worse. So much worse.
  • It's worth noting that this was an Invoked Trope by the Dev team, as the dev diary in the area notes that they wanted to give the players a break to "reset" before ramping up the scares again.
• Complete Monster: Justine Florbelle—revealed to be the Player Character—growing into a narcissistic psychopath, takes innocents and places them in her "Cabinet of Perturbation" to test them, torture them—both physically and psychologically—and murder them. Taking her lovers, or her "Suitors", Justine tortures them and blinds them, driving them insane and turning them into murderous monsters that will target anyone in her chambers while leaving innocents there to even test herself on saving them. A gleeful and sadistic psychopath, Justine feels alive upon testing her humanity and will imprison any survivors to torture and kill later.
• Crossover Ship:
  • Daniel/Alice has gained quite a following because of their similarities (both being British and mentally instable, for starters.)
  • On the Ho Yay side, there's Daniel/Wilson.
• Crowning Moment Of Funny: Now has its own page.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: 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.
• Fan Nickname:
  • The monsters are never directly named in-game (but are so in the game files) so a variety of nicknames sprung up. Grunts, the jawless ones, have gone by Mr. Face (or Mr. Flappyjaw) while Brutes, the metal-infested faceless ones have gone by Mr. Tall.
• Foe Yay Shipping: Alexander/Daniel is a surprisingly common pairing, mostly because Alexander has so many shades of Affably Evil and Evil Is Cool to him it's not completely out of the question, and players inclined that way find both their VAs have sexy voices.
• Genius Bonus: Those with knowledge of Victorian era medicine will immediately recognize laudanum, the game's "healing potion" - up until the early 20th century, it was widely available without a prescription from any pharmacy, and used as a sort of cure all for a large variety of different ailments. The stuff is about 10% opium, though, so in modern times it is a very strictly controlled substance throughout most of the world. The main purpose it is used for today is treating newborn infants whose mothers abused opiate drugs during pregnancy.
• Genre Turning Point: Coming from a genre that had wound up stagnating throughout the mid-to-late 2000s, Amnesia would almost single-handedly revitalize Survival Horror for the brand new decade, with it's Unbroken First-Person Perspective, stealth-driven gameplay, complete lack of combat and Invincible Boogeymen-driven horror spawning countless imitators and inspiring some of the most well-known titles in both indie and eventually AAA horror gaming. In addition, the game's massive viral success would, for better or worse, make survival horror heavily associated with the YouTube Let's Play community from then on afterwards, with many future games in the genre owing a huge chunk (if not the vast majority) of their success to being played and promoted by big-name YouTubers, most (in)famously Five Nights at Freddy's.
• Hype Backlash: Inevitable, as Amensia has long since built a reputation as being one of the scariest video games of all time. Though still regarded as a great game in its own right, people have begun picking apart its flaws in recent years. For starters, to some gamers, the monsters look more silly than scary, coupled with fairly poor AI and the fact that you can easily avoid them can make them feel more like a nuisance than a dangerous threat. The game also deploys common 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. The monster designs have become so well-known that the Grunt-type enemy is practically a mascot for the game along with the Brute. The Brute usually being an Insta Kill Mook further boosted this gatherer's mystique.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Milky Way candies, 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 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 first 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 it as the call of the majestic aquatic bird known as the Loon or Diver.
  • But listen to the bird on YouTube... it's a haunting sound. "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.
  • Some screams in the game sound really awkward.
• Nightmare Fuel: See the game's NF page.
• Nightmare Retardant:
  • The infamous NA boxart features a Grunt that tries its hardest to look scary, but due to bad artwork and lighting, it ends up looking like a silly yellow duck man thing instead. Daniel's clueless facial expression doesn't make things any better.
  • If you're particularly immature, the fact that Alexander fights you while flying around butt-naked can be an example in itself.
  • The severed dog's head becomes Nightmare Retardant if you have a sick sense of humor.
    (Holds dog in front of camera.) I'm ridin'. (Beat) I'm ridin' my ghost dog!
  • Agrippa's introduction can come with a bit of a Jump Scare when you see his Facial Horror. However, do what he asks and pull the lever, and you'll see he's actually a nice guy (though his sense of humour is a little odd).
  • The flashback scene where Daniel ritually kills a prisoner would be otherwise horrifying, but the way he mockingly recites their pleas for mercy comes across as hilarious.
    Daniel: Please! I didn't do anything! Nyeh, nyeh, nyeh.
  • There are instances of a portrait of Alexander around the game. If your Sanity Meter is low enough, it changes to a monstrous inhuman face that is spooky in a vacuum... but has been widely compared to the face of Minecraft's notably goofy-looking Creeper.
• Older Than They Think: Amnesia might have popularized the concept of a Sanity Meter, but it certainly wasn't the first to have one. The Sanity Meter was patented by Nintendo with their game Eternal Darkness in 2002. However, the earliest example of one is Friday the 13th: The Computer Game, which was released in 1985.
• 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. Maybe. Occasionally. It doesn't happen often enough to rely on, but it does happen often enough that you will spend an extra 5-15 minutes sneaking and running frantically from a monster in an area the game has decided to clear, just for you. 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.
  • The castle is filled with enormous (hand-sized) hissing cockroaches. They don't do anything and they can't hurt you, but when you get near one, it 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.
  • The Tenebris Lake mod's ending can be that depending of the route chosen in the ending. In the ending, when the building starts to collapse you have the choice of saving the player character's wife and kids, albeit resulting in the player character's death due to him not making it on time and being buried by the falling debris, or you can save yourself and leave the player character's wife and kids, who are locked in a room, to die in the crumbling building. You're either living an asshole or dying a hero.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: ** Alexander/Daniel pair has gained the shipname Xaniel.
• 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).
• Slow-Paced Beginning: The first few levels focus more on build-up rather than terror, you are in no danger and you will only get a few sightings of the monsters. However, the first few levels do a great job of creating Paranoia Fuel due to the ambiance and atmosphere. The terror truly begins when you reach the cellar archives in which you have to escape the infamous water monster.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: Well, it's a Creator-Driven Successor rather than a direct sequel to Penumbra, but either way it's amazingly improved over their last effort.
• 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.
• 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.
• The Woobie:
  • Daniel. His backstory is very tragic, he had an abusive father, he was bullied in school, and his sister was terminally ill. When Daniel stumbled onto the orb, he was constantly followed by the Shadow and all of the people he tried to reach out to got brutally murdered by the Eldritch Abomination. He was also manipulated by Alexander into torturing and killing innocents in the hope that it will defend him against The Shadow. When he murdered a girl in cold blood, he realized what type of person he had become. He had to take an amnesia potion in order to be able to get his revenge on Alexander without having the immense burden of guilt on his shoulders.
  • The little girl as well: "Please let me go! I won't tell anyone, I swear! I just wanna go home!"
  • All three Suitors from Justine. She used Aloïs to her advantage and is still lovesick despite all that torture he endured, and Malo's insanity process started long before he became physically tortured and Driven to Madness by starvation, being forced to eat his own flesh to survive.
  • Just listen to Alois's dialogue and try not to feel sorry for the poor guy. Even after everything Justine has done to him, he is still madly in love with her, and just wants to be with her. Albeit via murder.
    Alois: Is that you, my love? You came for me!... Where did you go?! Come back! Please, come back!