Thursday, September 9, 2010

"Super secret" Amnesia easter eggs detail scrapped weapons, NPCs

Super secret Amnesia easter eggs detail scrapped weapons, NPCs

If we didn't give you enough reasons to pick up horror title Amnesia: The Dark Descent in our review, here's another great one: easter eggs. The title was just released yesterday, and already fans have discovered completing each of the three endings unlocks a code -- combining these codes into one and using them on the "super_secret.rar" file unlocks a ton of design documents, a hidden diary, concept art, early footage, and lots more. No, we won't give you the code -- we'd much rather have you suffer the horrors three times over -- we're sadistic like that.

One of the more interesting items is an early concept document which details weapons. In its current state, one of the primary selling points of the title (to those open to new experiences, at least) is the complete lack of combat and weapons, so it's a bit funny to think not only did Amnesia once have weapons, but a "rare flint lock gun", in addition to ammunition, a bow and arrow, throwable alchemy potions with explosive effects, and other melee weapons, many of which also served "a secondary purpose apart from fighting." Combat is described as a last resort. There were also environmental means by which to take down enemies, like frying them with electricity when standing in water, cutting a rope to drop a boulder on them, etc.

NPCs were another major component, intended to "drive the story onwards and interact with the player by helping out, giving hints, and/or trying to stop the player's progress", whether by trying to kill you or trap you and so on. A pretty cool element, actually, but certainly not one that fits in with the game's current state. NPCs do of course still exist, though for the most part only though diaries.

Coins and "strange statues" were two collectable items planned, each of which were used to unlock secrets (hidden level sections, additional story bits, etc.), items, and so on.

A lot of things have stayed the same, however, including the presence of mod tools and their purpose. Developer Frictional writes, "Copy protections that so far have been used in boxed releases of our games have been counterproductive; it has been more difficult and sometimes even impossible for a user to play the game due to copy protection - while an illegal copy simply has worked... What we want to achieve is a way to battle piracy without using copy protection, creating additional value that is only accessible by having a purchased copy of the game." You heard 'em!

Section:PC Games

|

Super secret Amnesia easter eggs detail scrapped weapons, NPCs

moreRelated news storiesTorchlight 2 will support multiplayer and single player modsSeptember 08, '10'Elemental' random map generator released by fansSeptember 07, '10Amnesia: The Dark Descent PC, Mac, Linux demo releasedSeptember 03, '10Direct3D 10 renderer enhances Unreal, Deus Ex, RuneAugust 09, '10Starcraft II trailer prepares you for battleJuly 22, '10Valve unleashes an Alien Swarm for freeJuly 19, '10Civilization V able to import Civ IV mapsJune 24, '10Mod Database folks launch IndieDBJune 21, '10The Sims 3 1.12/2.7/3.3 patch out now, new Ambitions infoJune 03, '10StarCraft II mod features Final Fantasy-style battlesMay 31, '10