The beginning

"My name is Daniel. I live in London at…at…Mayfair! What have I done? This is crazy! Don't forget. Don't forget! I must stop him…Focus!"

This is how Amnesia begins. You play as a man named Daniel, tripping over yourself en route to an unknown location as you repeat your name and address over and over.

Eventually you pass out and, ultimately, awake within a castle. You're disoriented and unsure what's going on but you know one thing - there's a trail of mysterious liquid leading the way you came. So you follow it, slowly but surely. The castle is dark and you don't seem quite sane - you fall down frequently and hear strange noises in the distance. Doors blow open and you shriek; voices echo down corridors and you shiver.

These are my first experiences with Frictional Games' Amnesia: The Dark Decent, a horror adventure game that has sucked me in like no other. Frictional is best known for the Penumbra series, a trilogy of horror that is akin to Amnesia the same way that Silent Hill is skin to Resident Evil. It may appear the same and may copy many of the same themes and mechanics, but it is very different.

As I explored the castle I found a note - from myself. My name is Daniel. I've chosen to forget the past via a potion (hence the title Amnesia) but must carry on regardless. The quest seems simple - I must kill the owner of this castle, an old man named Alexander.

Of course nothing is ever as simple as it sounds.