Amnesia: The Dark Decent - The Scary Side of Atmosphere and Character Traits

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Frictional Games specializes in two things, first-person survival horror adventure games with stealth mechanics and quirky physics engine puzzles, and spontaneous bowel movements. The two of which are not mutually exclusive.

Although the story is nothing to wright home about, the way the game is presented, and the way it scares you is. FG realized a few things within the genre and implemented them flawlessly within the game, them being:

Atmosphere, when done well, will force you into the setting.

Atmosphere and the use of subtle set-pieces create an environment in Amnesia that becomes so incredibly engrossing that you only realize you weren't actually walking around a spooky castle until after you've slammed your laptop closed. It hangs over you like a black curtain and forces your brain to accept the false reality that you are treading the echoing, cobbled halls of Brennenburg Castle...and then strawberry jam starts seeping out of the ceiling and every sense of reality breaks down and you can't do anything but become incredibly uncomfortable or at least mildly disturbed and, and, and...it is truly an environment that can only be experience by playing the game for yourself. 

A fine example of how a game's environment can be the scariest thing about the experience, simply be recreating in excruciating detail what it would be like to walk around a creepy castle.

The less you see the big spooky monster, the more your imagination becomes the monster.

If you end up staring into the face of a monster that is supposed to be killing you horrifically, you might end up getting lost in its eyes. What I mean is, the less you see of the monster, and the more of its breath that hits the back of your neck, the better.

With the inability to defend yourself, and limited sources of light, something that could pop out of the shadows and kill you in the blink of an eye seems to be lurking everywhere. Of course, the monster is probably lumbering around two stories above you on the opposite side of the castle, but every dark room, every unlit hallway, every creak and moan of the castle's structure becomes a hint towards this threat that is always ready to pounce. It is a situation where you never know if you are safe or not, and when this guy finally shows his pretty face, it is a million times scarier.

Character traits can be turned into brilliant game mechanics.

Daniel, the character that you have the pleasure of playing as, suffers from Nyctophobia; he's afraid of the dark. You can probably tell that this sort of fear isn't very helpful when all you have at your disposal are matches and an oil lamp, both being unreliable at best.
But the way they are implemented is something that defines this game's stealth and 'sanity' mechanic.
The way this works is; in the light, you are very visible and enemies can easily spot you. In the dark, your 'sanity meter' goes down. If your sanity meter gets too low, your vision will blur, monsters can hear your heavy breathing and will find you in the dark, and in the worst case scenario you will collapse to the ground and lose a bit of health, the latter leaving you very vulnerable to anything that might want to bite your sweet human rump.

The situation that is set up here forces the player to manage the availability of well-lit rooms where your sanity meter is safe, and rooms that they can dip into and duck for cover when a monster happens by.

To end on a funny note, what everyone [or at least me] does in their first moments of playing the game is make the false assumption that light is a very good thing. So good, in fact, you decide to light all the candles you can, which really brings up the mood around the place, and Daniel seems to appreciate it too.
Right about when every dark corner has been brightened, a monster shows up, and it chases you as you frantically run through the brightly lit corridors in search of the very thing you sought to eliminate. Oh, the irony.