Best Custom Stories
By Theater Thug
My personal recommendations for Amnesia: The Dark Descent mods with brief reviews.
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Guide Index
Overview
Introduction
Dark Case
A Coward's Debt
The Attic
Followed by Death (Chapters 1 and 2)
The Raven
Penumbra: Necrologue
A Late Night Drink
Alma
With Deadly Greetings
BONUS: Slaughterhouse Demo (Machine for Pigs Mod)
Comments
Introduction
All of the following Amnesia mods are available to Mac and Linux users (many custom stories are unavailable to said platforms if they are a total conversion.)
These are my personal favorite Amnesia custom stories in no order.
Dark Case
Dark Case is a very interesting hybrid of Amnesia The Dark Descent, Penumbra Black Plague, and Half-Life 1, combining story and gameplay elements from all of the above (there's no HL action, sorry FPS fans.) It is not a total conversion mod, thus allowing easy playability for Mac users. Dark Case follows a very similar gameplay style to Amnesia and Penumbra where the player will travel through hubs connected to other maps and eventually move onwards to the next hub.
The story of Dark Case is very good for an Amnesia mod, and it features both memorable new enemies as well as more of the same monsters. Dark Case is also notable for significantly decreasing the amount of monster music used, which makes enemy encounters all the more terrifying and challenging.
Overall Dark Case is my favorite Amnesia mod and I actually enjoyed this custom 4 hour campaign more than The Dark Descent itself. Be sure to give this one a try.
A Coward's Debt
From the developer of the popular mod "The Great Work" comes A Coward's Debt, one of the absolute best Amnesia mods. A Coward's Debt is about 2 hours long and is heavily influenced by Machine for Pigs; it focuses on story and exploration rather than gameplay, has the same look due to MFP assets being used, and removes sanity loss in darkness.
While the original monster in A Coward's Debt is greatly designed and has very intelligent AI the monster encounters tend to be the mod's main shortcoming. The horrific creature has only two direct run-ins with the player. When the player dies there is really no consequence, which is unfortunate as the monster is amazing as far as original enemies in Amnesia mods go.
If you're looking for a story driven mod similar to Machine for Pigs, A Coward's Debt is a great custom campaign for you.
The Attic
The Attic is to gameplay as A Coward's Debt is to story. It is one of the most popular Amnesia mods ever created, and for good reason. The Attic is full of memorable and exciting monster encounters, even if all of them are the same four often seen in Amnesia mods (Grunt, Brute, Suitor, Kaernk.)
The story of The Attic isn't great but is certainly not lackluster. For a 3 - 4 hour gameplay driven horror mod the story does fine. Furthermore, for players with an eye for detail that like to explore, there are plenty of secret rooms in The Attic full of extra items.
Towards the end The Attic begins to run out of momentum and is ultimately anticlimatic. Despite its dissapointing final monster encounter, it is still great fun.
Followed by Death (Chapters 1 and 2)
Followed by Death was originally going to be a trilogy of Amnesia mods but was cancelled before chapter 3 could come out. Even with the last chunk of the story missing, Followed by Death is an amazing mod.
The story is good, the puzzles are good, but the monster encounters are fantastic, a true triumph in horror gaming. All of the monsters are straight from The Dark Descent and Justine, but the level design is so great that it manages to make these old monsters feel new again.
The Raven
The Raven is not your typical Amnesia mod at all. There are no puzzles or monster encounters and the entire mod takes place within one map.
As far as The Raven goes, it is about fifteen minutes in length. The player can explore their dark house a little bit, but other than that all there is to do is listen to a narration of Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven. Occasionally there is minimal interaction with objects related to the story.
The Raven works so well because of its flawless presentation of a classic horror poem. A slightly interactive Raven game would be easy to f*ck up with pointless monster encounters and jumpscares, but the atmosphere and beautifully dark visuals of the home stay true to the source material.
Penumbra: Necrologue
The most obvious choice for a list of the best Amnesia mods.
Penumbra: Necrologue is available on Steam for free and follows the story of the original Penumbra games. It features the return of several old Penumbra monsters as well as two horrific new enemies.
While it is a great mod, Necrologue suffers from a number of flaws. The puzzles are often cryptic and frustrating, the second new monster is barely in the game while old monsters appear again and again, and the story is awful even by free to play mod standards.
Penumbra: Necrologue is still a very fun game and is generously long for a free to play game with a fifteen hour campaign.
A Late Night Drink
A Late Night Drink succeeds in what most Amnesia mods don't even attempt: identity.
The vast majority of Amnesia mods I've played try to replicate The Dark Descent's gameplay, and often times fail miserably. A Late Night Drink is no imitation, nor could it really be called a horror game.
It is a fantastic, innovative adventure game which cleverly uses Amnesia's assets. Not much more can be said without spoiling its great story.
Alma
Alma was the first mod made by the developer of Dark Case. While it certainly has gameplay flaws it is still a fantastic custom story with horrifying monster encounters and an engaging storyline.
With Deadly Greetings
While one of the lesser entries on this list, With Deadly Greetings deserves praise for its gameplay.
With Deadly Greetings is the kind of mod I like to call "Amnesia in a bottle" - its story is incredibly bland and unoriginal, but the gameplay sucessfully captures The Dark Descent's gameplay. The mod is about thirty minutes in length, making it perfect to play with a friend in the same room. Haven't you ever wanted to show your friends how scary Amnesia is but you don't have the time/patience to play the whole game? This mod is for you. The Grunt, Brute, and Kaernk all make appearances and are great fun to sneak by.
BONUS: Slaughterhouse Demo (Machine for Pigs Mod)
What?! A mod for Machine for Pigs?!
Yes, while they are quite scarce, there are mods for Amnesia's amazing sequel. While Slaughterhouse is still in development, its demo has been released and it is a blast.
I exptected short gameplay length since it was a demo, but it took me 2 hours to beat the Slaughterhouse demo. Let me tell you, Slaughterhouse is not for the casual Amnesia player!
The monster encounters are insane! All in one area the player encounters a large group of manpigs. Slaughterhouse manages to demonstrate how much better the manpigs' AI is than the original Amnesia monsters; even after running out of their sight the damnations will relentlessly chase the player. The Slaughterhouse demo will be sure to challenge even the best Amnesia players.
The gameplay is basically the same as The Dark Descent except with no inventory. Puzzles, monster encounters, and spooky environments are all present, as well as the great Machine for Pigs OST.
To each is own, Machine for Pigs is one of my favorite games and is my favorite horror game. I don't give a rat's ass what the community thinks because it has been overrun by PewDiePie fanboys who wanted a total rehash for an Amnesia sequel rather than a game with its own identity.