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Horror games don’t have to be action-packed thrillers to be fun. Some of my favourites (or least favourite, depending on how you look at it) have been quiet journeys full of tension and anticipation with minimal fights—games like Amnesia: The Bunker or Little Nightmares. But there is a line between a psychological horror game and a walking sim that has a few jumpscares. Unfortunately, Amenti falls into the latter category.
This horror game sees a photographer break into the Great Pyramids to explore and capture a picture of Pharaoh Rudamon’s remains, but they unwittingly stumble upon a time warp, a curse, and some aliens that apparently helped build the pyramids.
The setting was probably the best thing about Amenti. Albeit that probably isn’t the hardest task considering what a great horror setting the dark winding and forgotten corridors of an ancient pyramid make—I wish settings like this one were explored more in horror games. The graphics were also impressive, the initial stint walking towards the pyramids was gorgeous, and the hidden and dimly lit throne rooms, tombs, and alters which you find within the pyramid itself were beautiful. But sadly, those features weren’t enough for me to say that I had an enjoyable experience with Amenti.
Amenti strips the horror out of this walking sim, leaving behind only some cheap jumpscares and halfhearted puzzles between all the wandering around. I had a corpse chase me, some kind of monster lurch out of the darkness towards me, and a cursed queen screamed at me, yet none of these made me feel remotely scared, let alone feel like I was playing a horror game. It’s not that the monsters looked goofy or that they were too calm—all the jumpscares were painfully predictable.
At one point, I walked up to a letter that was left on a table next to a small candle with a mysterious hole next to it. I picked up the letter and read it, but before I put it down, all I could think about was how something was going to jump out of that hole next to me as soon as I put the paper back on the table. And to no one’s surprise, I was right. As soon as the paper touched the table, a Pharaoh’s head popped out of the hole and blew the candle out, so I just walked away.
Another reason why these monsters aren’t as terrifying as they perhaps could have been is none of them ever really threatened my life. I didn’t die once in Amenti, which is rare for someone as clumsy as me. It’s not that you can’t die, I just don’t think the monsters are very good at killing you. During the final moments in Amenti, you get chased by a horde of undead corpses, but I managed to out pace them without even running. It was more of a brisk walk, but it was enough to survive that encounter. Without any consequences for making the wrong decision, picking the wrong path, or just taking too long to decide on my next action, all the tension is ripped out of the experience.
A couple of puzzles try to mix things up, but they are too straightforward to spend any real time on. Slotting artefacts into walls and mucking around with pressure plates is the caliber of puzzle we’re dealing with here. There are also a couple of mazes where you have to find clues or artefacts to help you later on, but these labyrinths are devoid of tension. The cursed corpses politely decided to leave me alone in these places, so I just ended up taking the slow and methodical approach.
Other than the occasional scream, there wasn’t anything to be alarmed about.
I probably spent about 10 minutes hugging the left side of the curtain-walled maze. It’s a cheap trick but one that led me through the maze with no problem. I even had time to read a letter from another explorer who had also been lost in this pyramid. However, I think he had a worse time than I did because it sounded like he had creatures hounding him through the maze and at every other moment of his explorations. I, on the other hand, had a pleasant and peaceful stroll through the few mazes I came across, and other than the occasional scream, there wasn’t anything to be alarmed about.
The story isn’t able to salvage this middling adventure into the pyramids, either. Despite having an interesting concept, it quickly becomes muddled even within the short playtime—it’s less than an hour long.
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In the Steam description for Amenti, the developers posit the question of what if aliens helped build the pyramids? But apart from seeing a couple of hieroglyphics scattered around the pyramid depicting aliens in and around the pyramids, there wasn’t really anything else that would suggest extraterrestrials had made any contact. No sci-fi depiction of Ancient Egypt or even an alien corpse lying around. But instead of feeling like some great discovery, it just felt like an excuse to put spaceships at the end.
It also presented a weird chicken and the egg conundrum. Aliens weren’t the only thing in this pyramid; there was also a curse that reanimated corpses and trapped explorers inside the stone walls. So, I spent most of my time walking around the pyramid debating what came first: the Pharaoh’s curse or the aliens.
The addition of aliens was just unnecessary. A cursed Pharaoh’s tomb is more than enough to create a scary atmosphere for a horror game and provide a great stepping stone for a mysterious narrative that’ll keep players engrossed in the story.
Not every horror game has to be some big critical masterpiece. But even still, if you’re in the market for a horror game that is actually scary, there are many other cheap options I’d recommend trying out, like Mouthwashing, Slitterhead, or Crow Country.
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Kurt Indovina
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