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Best Sound Effects: Amnesia: The Dark Descent
You swear you just heard something. A scraping noise… something like that. Where did it come from? Somewhere behind you, maybe? Or above you? Wait… is it getting louder? What's making that sound? There's something in here with you. But what IS it? You don’t even want to think about those horrific cries of anguish and pain echoing in the distance. It’s terrifying enough right here, because the only thing scarier than a nightmarish flesh-eating monster lumbering straight at you is the nightmarish flesh-eating monster that you can hear but not see.
Frictional Games understands the power of imagination in creating fear, and it's the sound design of Amnesia: The Dark Descent that will set your heart racing and your mouse hand trembling. Sure, the game has its fair share of loud, sudden noises that will make you jump out of your chair, but it's far more impressive how every faint trickle of water, panicked footstep, or tortured moan raises the tension right to the breaking point until you can't take it anymore. Just as powerful is the interplay between the game's sound and its signature physics engine. Sometimes that scraping noise is a monster, and sometimes it's just you crashing into a nearby desk. Either way, you'll freak out. For making players forget that they aren't actually in constant mortal danger through a brilliantly-crafted soundscape, Amnesia wins the Aggie for Best Sound Design in 2010.
Runners-Up: Heavy Rain, Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse
Readers’ Choice: Amnesia: The Dark Descent
They say that when one sense is blocked, your other senses are heightened. Since so much of Amnesia is spent skulking about in the dark, it’s no wonder we were all so attuned to the game’s incredibly terrifying soundscape. The unseen denizens of the Brennenburg castle do a whole lot more than go bump in the night, and we not only heard each hair-raising shuffle, scream, wail, and skitter – we felt them. Now THAT is effective sound design.
Runners-Up: Heavy Rain, Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse
Next up: An all-new addition: Honourary Aggies!
Continued on the next page...
Heavy Rain
Platform(s): PlayStation 3
Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse
Platform(s): Mac, PC, PlayStation 3
Last Window: The Secret of Cape West
Platform(s): DS
Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth
Platform(s): DS
Puzzle Agent
Platform(s): PC, Wii
The Whispered World
Platform(s): PC
Professor Layton and the Unwound Future
Platform(s): DS
Also known as Professor Layton and the Lost Future
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Platform(s): Mac, PC
I see “Black Mirror 2” got runner-up in pretty much every category, AG staff AND readers!
Heavy Rain, champion of the people! It was a great game , the Origami Killer is amazing. My favorite characters were Gaius James Rover, Sadwick and the Origami Killer of course. I haven’t played one game the staff picked besides Heavy Rain..hmmm time to get busy!
I found Norman Jayden to be the most lovable character. Mixing virtual reality and drug addiction was a really nice idea)
So glad Amnesia took a handfull of prizes. Frictional Games deserve it so much.
Yes it was a surprising choice for best adventure of 2010! But a fair one. And good for AG and good for Cing, despite them not being anymore.
Wow! The Whispered World! And I didn’t even vote!
Most surprising: Sadwick. (After all the complaints about his voice).
My personal choice from the same game would have been ‘The Rock Bros.’.
I totally love how they sound exactly like I had imagined them when I translated their parts.
Big thanks to the AG community and of course the team.
Cheers, Dan.
Now I really must play Last Window. I actually found it at my local electronics store, didn’t even know there was a newer release from Cing than Again, but picked it up for 25£ and put it in my DS shelf, where it has been since (together with Again that’s also unplayed)..
Also need to finish the Whispered World, Sam and Max season 3, Heavy Rain and force my bf into playing Amnesia while I watch, as there is no way I’m playing that one alone..
At least I should have a lot to look forward to!
Now, this is a twist at the very end! This is the first time I hear about the Cing game and the fate of the developer. Must be for a good cause that the AG staff decided to put the spotlight on them! Unfortunately, the PC world may never find out the merits of this game. So sad…
As for the readers’ choice award… Interesting! The Whispered World is a very good game indeed, but does have some major flaws too. In my eyes S&M and Lost Horizon deliver a better overall package than it. My take - hype campaigns still work wonders for getting ahead. Alas!
An interesting Awards season with no easy picks amongst the contenders. Many thanks to the AG staff for making it all happen once again. Salute!
It’s great to see Cing getting the recognition they so rightly deserve. I bought The Last Window at launch but I still haven’t played it in fear of it being the last Cing game I’ll ever experience :-( Maybe now’s the time to get over it and play this wonderful game.
A great list of deserving titles, and a nice send-off to Cing. I anticipated every release and was heartbroken to hear they were being shuttered.
And a big thank you to the staff and readers of AdventureGamers.com for doing my favorite genre proud. I love visiting this site.
So happy to see all the love for The Whispered World; it’s easily one of the best adventure games I’ve played since the LucasArts era.
I won’t judge AG choice for best game because i haven’t played Last Window, but i’m really happy to see that community loved The Whispered World. It may not the a perfect adventure, but it really tried and at most cases succeded to catch the spirit of those “golden days” being original along the way as well. Black Mirror 2 and The Lost Horizon deserved to win some of the category i think, but - every award needs to have it’s “Scorcese” 
And a big thank to AG editors who put this all together, now when you look at it, 2010. wasn’t that bad at all. I also hope that in the future we’ll get to see German releases much sooner in English localizations. I also hope to see more companies doing games and more adventure game publishers.
I have to say I’m VERY surprised that Sadwick was voted “best character.” Even once you gave in and turned off his atrocious, unlistenable voice, he was still a mopey, insufferable whiner in a stupid hat…
Surprised to see Heavy Rain win this. The story starts strong but falls to bits the closer you get to the end.
