Amnesia is a true test of courage. If you manage to pass it, an amazing and horrifying experience awaits you.
The best way to play this game is in a dark room with a headset. Make sure you're alone and that no one will interrupt you. Don't play to win and try to immerse yourself.
You are Daniel and you wake up in Brennenburg Castle. You lost your memory, hence the title "Amnesia", and you're afraid of the dark. You'll soon start finding notes written by yourself. These notes are quite important because they explain why you're here and what you should do next.
It shouldn't come as a surprise that you're not alone in the castle. Strange creatures show up every now and then and they'll try to kill you. One of the brilliant concepts of Amnesia is that you have no way to defend yourself. If you want to survive, there's only one thing you can do: run and hide. Hide in a dark corner and hope that the monster won't see you.
At first, it seems like a smart decision to stay out of the light and sneak past the monsters. However, since Daniel is afraid of the dark, staying in the darkness for too long will slowly drive him insane. If you become insane, monsters can spot you more easily, you'll start to see hallucinations and sometimes you even lose consciousness for a while. If you want to decrease your insanity factor, you must find a light source and stand next to it for a while.
Combine these two elements, the monsters and the insanity feature, and you get a game with a lot of tension. You'll never feel safe. You cannot always stay in the light, because monsters will see you, but you can't stay in the darkness either because that'll drive you insane. Even looking at monsters will make you insane so when you hide in a dark corner, you should always face the wall. Another tip: don't ever look back. I was being chased, decided to take a quick look and the monster was right behind me. I panicked and he struck me down.
Since this game was created by only five people, I wasn't expecting much of the level design, graphics and sound effects. However, the level design is superb, with a lot of creepy and good looking areas, the graphics serve their purpose and the sound effects and voice overs are very well done and really add to the atmosphere. It took me around 12-14 hours to complete this game and I've already started a second playthrough, so that's plenty of value for your money. It really is amazing that Frictional Games created such a great game with limited resources.
Amnesia is, in my opinion, the best horror game ever. Amnesia has mastered the worst of our fears: our fear for the unknown. What was that sound I just heard? That monster, was it a hallucination or not? This game will play tricks with your imagination. Sometimes you'll be too scared to continue playing. Safety doesn't exist in this game. But despite all that, you always want to continue playing because the storyline is so interesting and well-written. If you're a fan of horror, you should buy this game immediately. If not, you should probably still consider buying it because this game is simply a masterpiece.