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Games Like Amnesia: Hide in the Dark, Don't Fight

Amnesia: The Dark Descent made a whole kind of horror: first person, no weapons worth the name, a light source to manage and something in the dark that you must avoid rather than fight. These games follow its rules, starting with the rest of the series and Frictional Games' own work.

The games

  1. Amnesia: The Bunker art: a soldier's hands, one holding a revolver, as a pale clawed creature reaches out of a dark tunnel SurvivalAmnesia: The BunkerA WWI bunker, a single bullet, a generator to keep fuelled and a creature in the walls that hunts by sound.
  2. SOMA key art: a battered diving-suit robot with glowing lights beside a woman's face pressed to a wet glass window PsychologicalSOMAFrictional again: no weapons on a failing undersea station, with horror that turns inward.
  3. Penumbra: Overture key art: a man with a red backpack stands alone between snow-covered rooftops, facing a white Greenland snowstorm SurvivalPenumbra: OvertureFrictional's game before Amnesia: an abandoned Greenland mine of physical puzzles and creatures to hide from.
  4. Amnesia: Rebirth key art: Tasi holds up a lit match, a pale clawed creature lurking in the dark beside her PsychologicalAmnesia: RebirthMatches, a lantern and growing fear across the Algerian desert, in the series' own rules.
  5. Outlast key art: a grinning, scarred inmate with glowing eyes looms beside a dark asylum corridor seen through green night vision SurvivalOutlastAn asylum, a camcorder with night vision and nothing you can fight, in Amnesia's footsteps.
  6. Still Wakes the Deep key art: the silhouette of a man filled with the image of an oil rig, glowing over a dark sea SurvivalStill Wakes the DeepA 1970s oil rig breaking apart as its crew turns into monsters, with no weapon, only hiding, climbing and swimming.
  7. Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs key art: a painted Victorian engine room of brass pipes, gauges and a ladder beside a red armchair, with a round hatch smeared with blood PsychologicalAmnesia: A Machine for PigsThe Chinese Room's story-led Amnesia: an industrialist's descent into his own factory and machine.
  8. Monstrum key art: a hulking orange-lit monster with a glowing face fills a dark ship corridor SurvivalMonstrumA randomised cargo ship, one of three monsters each run, and permanent death.
  9. Visage art: a veiled ghostly figure seen through a rain-spattered window in the dark PsychologicalVisageA house where families died, with light as your only defence for your sanity.
  10. ROUTINE key art: a cosmonaut in a pale spacesuit holding the boxy C.A.T. device, framed by white flowers and a dark robot silhouette in front of a large full moon SurvivalROUTINEAn abandoned lunar base with no waypoints, where you run and hide from hostile machines.
  11. Layers of Fear screenshot: a first-person hand holds up a glowing lantern before a mansion staircase buried under a heap of framed paintings, with a dark figure in the glow PsychologicalLayers of FearA painter's mansion that rebuilds itself behind you, with no fighting at all.
  12. Song of Horror key art: a dark robed figure with roots spreading below and two huge ink-smeared eyes above it on a pale wall SurvivalSong of Horror Complete EditionHelpless survival horror in fixed cameras, where the Presence hunts you and characters die for good.

Start with the series. Amnesia: The Bunker is the most like a survival game: a World War I bunker, a revolver with a single bullet, a generator to keep fuelled and a creature in the walls that hunts by sound. Amnesia: Rebirth sends Tasi Trianon across the Algerian desert with matches and a lantern, solving puzzles and hiding as fear builds. Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, made by The Chinese Room, is the most story-led, a descent through an industrialist's factory with fewer encounters.

Frictional Games' other horror is just as close. Penumbra: Overture came before Amnesia: a Greenland mine, physical puzzles and creatures you hide from in the tunnels. SOMA keeps the no-weapons rule on a failing research station on the sea floor, and turns its horror toward questions about the mind.

Outside Frictional, Outlast follows the same rules: an asylum, a camcorder with night vision, and nothing you can fight. Still Wakes the Deep, also from The Chinese Room, puts you on a 1970s oil rig breaking apart as its crew turns into monsters, with only hiding, climbing and swimming. Monstrum randomises an abandoned cargo ship and one of three monsters each run, with permanent death, and ROUTINE leaves you on an abandoned lunar base with no waypoints, running and hiding from hostile machines.

For slower, more psychological dread, Visage is a house where families died and their ghosts close in, with only light to protect your sanity, and Layers of Fear is a painter's mansion that rebuilds itself behind your back. Song of Horror moves to third-person fixed cameras, but keeps the helplessness: an entity called the Presence hunts you, and any character can die for good.

If you only try one, play Penumbra: Overture to see where Amnesia came from, or SOMA for a slower story about what makes a person.

Questions

What is the closest game to Amnesia: The Dark Descent?

The other Amnesia games, especially The Bunker and Rebirth, and Frictional Games' Penumbra: Overture and SOMA, which share its no-fighting first-person design.

Who makes the Amnesia games?

Frictional Games made The Dark Descent, Rebirth and The Bunker, and published A Machine for Pigs, which was made by The Chinese Room.

Are there games like Amnesia with no combat at all?

SOMA, Visage, Layers of Fear and Outlast give you no weapons; The Bunker gives you a revolver with very little ammunition.

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