I don't think Amnesia really falls under that category. I was playing for about 30 minutes until I even encountered anything, and it was alot more subtle than just a noise.
I was backtracking through a wing and I kept noticing small things being different than how I remembered them; doors being closed, lights being on, I also closed the lid on a piano and now it was open. A few minutes later I was going down a long corridor and I heard the piano playing faintly way back down that wing and I swiveled around to check my back. Nothing there, so I turned to get the hell out of that area. At the corner of my eye, I saw something turn down a hallway in the distance, and I fuckin lost it.
You can't tell me that game doesn't know horror, because I'm a grown man and that game creeps me the hell out
yeah. monsters you can't fight. COME ON! you know that if you were in a room with acid around you YOU'D THROW THAT SHIT IN THE MONSTER'S FACE! Simple common sense of the fight or flight response. you can't use Flight because you're stuck in the bottom of a castle so the only reaction should be to Flight. With Acid. or a chair. or a rat. or a spike.
I actually like the fact that you can't fight back, it adds to the ambiance alot. I feel the point of the game is that you are very confused, weak, and the idea of fighting ethereal forces scares the shit out of you, which is pretty realistic. If I was stuck in a room with a semi-transparent demon, my first instinct wouldn't be to find something to stab it with, it would be to shit myself and cry like a little girl. I guess it just depends on how much you let the game immerse you. I played it with large headphones in a totally dark room, and I was sucked right in.
EDIT: Plus the transition from Flight to Fight isn't a smooth, instantaneous decision, there's a big ass gap between them fulled with the fear of death. This is coming from someone who has been shot at before.
The first few "levels" of the game are just psychological horror. like "who opened that door? it was closed a minute ago!" but its never dead silent then BANG! your scared. there are constant creaking and wind blowing sounds. You encounter like ONE bad guy while mixing up the acid potion, but I'm at a part where I need to go through these torture chambers to find ingredients for a crazy tonic and piece an orb back together. I really like the game because as you go along, you are discovering that there is a VERY good explanation for the monsters. Not just horror for the sake of it.
