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Asemblance Plays the Amnesia Card

Asemblance Plays the Amnesia Card

A new very cool looking psychological thriller is coming out this year, by the name of Asemblance . But as is usual with the horror genre, it plays the amnesia card. I don’t think this game graduates at all from the formula of the amnesia trope, however I hope that the element of illusion in the trailer keeps me hooked for the whole game. The amnesia trope can be beyond boring, like the Bourne series, when the entire plot revolves around Jason Bourne’s quest for identity and nothing else. Asemblance ‘s trailer certainly doesn’t make any promises in this regard, focusing solely on the amnesia trope and only hinting at other, far more scary, elements.

The amnesia card, as I like to call it, is a trope used in nearly all forms of media. Ususally, the character has forgotten everything about themselves and the plot is often centred around rediscovering their identity. An example of when this works really well in a horror game is Amnesia . The player is dropped in a situation that doesn’t make much sense, and they work to uncover not only who they are, but the mystery of the game as well. The amnesia card works here because it is not the sole focus of the plot. In Amnesia , surviving the game is what drives the story forward. Hopefully, Asemblance will do the same and put a new twist on the amnesia card. The trailer, however, does not give out very many hints towards this. With Asemblance , we have a murder case to solve in addition to not remembering a thing. However this mystery is undermined by the implication that everything the player experiences might not in fact be real. How the story will function this way is yet to be known, and I certainly hope the trailer isn’t revealing everything.

The disembodied voice in the trailer guides the player into a very specific line of thinking. This isn’t bad, it happens all the time when a game needs the player to notice certain environmental and visual cues. However with a horror game, the guiding voice becomes less subtle and can undermine the enjoyability of the entire game. In the trailer for Asemblance , for example, the voice asks very guiding questions. Even the initial “what do you remember?” tells the player that their character has some sort of amnesia and the quest for identity begins. That this is the focus of the trailer, and what makes the trailer so ominous, does not bode well for the game itself because amnesia should not be the main focus of the plot. If a game called Amnesia can manage it, then Asemblance should too.

If so, then Asemblance ‘s trailer should use that disembodied voice for more than just hammering in that the main character doesn’t remember anything. The phrasing the voice uses would put anyone on edge: “just enter the simulation and relax” is a coax to the player, no better than saying “no really, it’s fine, you can trust me” which evokes immediate distrust. However, the horror part comes the moment the voice says “are you sure you want to remember?” Again, using amnesia to make the game sound scary. Suddenly the player is aware that who their character is might be the villain of the story, and looks for clues. The focus of the shot shown in the trailer is a shadow against a doorway. Objectively, it is the most innocuous shadow in the world, there is nothing threatening or inherently wrong with it – I make the same shadow on the return trip from the kitchen at night. Coupled with the question and the music, however, the shadow becomes a murder in progress or a hairy monster about to attack. With how obviously this voice railroads the trailer, I hope the same cannot be said for the whole game. Again, they should not be relying solely on the amnesia part with a voice that questions everything you clearly don’t remember.

Asemblance Plays the Amnesia Card

According to the developer , Assemblance is inspired by various TV shows’ unique ability to pull the viewer into a narrative that isn’t always logical and keeps you engaged by asking what is really true. This approach influenced the developers to create a narrative where you’re never quite sure what’s real or what’s not. Well, I certainly hope this doesn’t mean it will be just like those TV shows. As always, we need something new and fresh. We’ve seen this all before. Hopefully these apparent illusions are more intriguing than the amnesia itself.

Nonetheless, judging by the trailer and statements from the developers, this game will follow the amnesia formula. We won’t know for sure until the game is out, but I doubt the voice and illusions are the only things that put the horror in this game. Perhaps the false memories are more nightmarish than the real ones and everything is totally fine in the end. Regardless, I do hope that amnesia is not the only thing driving the plot of Assemblance and that the illusions are more than literal.

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