Intial Research - Amnesia/Penumbra

Much like Haunting Ground, Amnesia makes it impossible to confront enemies, making the player need to run and hide. The game is an exploration-based adventure game that is in first person perspective and involves physic puzzles and interaction.

The game does not give the player access to weapons, unlike in Frictional Game's other works such as Penumbra where you could either run form an enemy or fight it, the player must tatically avoid monsters or use their wits to evade and hide. The monsters move very quickly when alerted, and will relentless chase the player when they are in sight. When they can no longer see the player the monster will search for them for a short period of time before giving up. Interestingly enough, there are some points in the game where the monsters are needed to advance as they can tear down the obstacles in their way.

The Penumbra series on the other hand has a number of differences. Much like Amnesia, the game is a first person survival horror but can also blends in the first person shooter genre. Stealth is key in this game as the AI react to both light and sound. The player can defend themselves in the game using improvised weapons such as hammers or pickaxes or by throwing objects at the creatures. The key to survival however is avoidance and the game is designed to emphasize stealth. For example, the player can close doors behind them to hold off enemies.

The main focus is that of classic adventure game object interaction. To progress you must collect and examine items to help you solve puzzles. In addtition, Penumbra also offers several physics based puzzles where several pbjects must be moved in real time. Like Amnesia, doors, drawers, switches and other environmental objects must be opened using realistic movments and to complete certain puzzles or to get out of an area the player must use certain objects in a specific way. For example; in Amnesia there is an unseens hostile in the water, the player must place boxes in the water in order to create stepping stones to cross safetly. In Penumbra the player must stack boxes up in order to get over obstacles such as an electric fence.