In other words, the player was tricked into supporting the monster’s quest for redemption. If it wasn’t already clear, it should be now. The player themselves must now walk into each of these chambers and experience what Daniel did to innocent people before he attempted to erase his past via the potion. The buildup of Daniel’s backstory through notes comes to a climax in the auditory flashbacks in the castle’s torture chambers. The player has no means of defending themselves in any definitive way and is constantly being assaulted by the very nightmare Daniel created within the castle. However, just as the potion is only a temporary means of forgetting, the actions of hiding and building barriers are only a temporary means of stopping the monsters. While Daniel decided to drink the amnesia potion, it’s now the player who must survive the monsters and horrors of the castle.

Frictional has placed the player as the “new” Daniel who has forgotten his past. Daniel no longer exists as “Daniel.” The player has now become Daniel. But below the surface, Frictional Games - the studio who developed the game - is asking the player to redeem Daniel from his monstrous past.Įxamining Daniel’s in-game model, he’s actually only rendered as the arm that carries the lantern. However, Daniel becomes aware that these people aren’t actually criminals, drinks the potion, and in the first note to himself requests that he “redeem us both.” On the surface, this might lead one to believe that Daniel is referring to the Daniel before and after drinking the amnesia potion. Alexander promises Daniel a way to escape the “Shadow” by capturing criminals and torturing them within the confines of the castle to gather “vitae” (a kind of life force or life-energy). The short version of Daniel’s story: after taking a mysterious orb from a tomb in the Sahara desert, he begins to be hunted by the “Shadow,” an unknown presence that manifests itself through fleshy growths. But what Amnesia ultimately asks of its player once they glean enough information from these notes and flashbacks is something more dire: the task of judging the player-character, of deciding whether or not he can be redeemed. Amnesia seems simple in what it asks of its players: explore the castle while avoiding detection and death at the hands of its monsters, solve puzzles, pick up notes, and experience auditory flashbacks that fill in Daniel’s backstory. The player is left with a note, written by the “past” Daniel, instructing him to descend into the depths of the castle and kill someone named Alexander. But is Daniel a different person under the player’s control? Conventionally, gamers are pushed towards a “redemptive” or “good” choice for the character they control, but Amnesia asks the player if they are even fit to make those very choices for someone else.

Amnesia monster models