If you love the idea of the Amnesia games but find it just a little too much to handle (there's no judgement here, my friends), a new mod has created a standalone adventure that retains the spooky atmosphere but removes the "chases, scares, complex mathematical puzzles [and] mind-bending monster encounters".

The Shadow of the Ramlord is an hour-long standalone game created using assets from The Dark Descent and its sequel, A Machine for Pigs, spread across seven maps. It offers "a deeply Lovecraftian tale, woven tightly into a framework of Occultism, Necromancy, and Gothic Horror".

"Our custom story is very much directed towards the player who enjoys a deliberate pace, absorbing the narrative and level design clues, and feeling immersed in a story-first experience," states a recent update (thanks, PC Gamer).

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Frictional Games' terrifying Amnesia: The Dark Descent is getting an official Hard Mode next week, on September 28th, almost eight years after it first released on PC.

We can can thank the recently announced Xbox One version of the Amnesia: Collection for this surprise addition. Frictional explained that that, as part of its work on the collection, it decided to "spice it up with a little treat".

As you can probably surmise, Hard Mode makes the already exhausting The Dark Descent more difficult by making a number of tweaks to the original's design. Autosaves are disabled, for instance, and you'll require four tinderboxes in order to perform a manual save.

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Those with a love of the macabre and a steely constitution are in for a treat; Amnesia: The Dark Descent and its follow-up A Machine for Pigs are currently free on the Humble Store.

Developed by Frictional Games (the studio responsible for the terrifying SOMA), Amnesia: The Dark Descent unfurls among the tenebrous stones of a vast and loathsome castle. It's as much a masterclass in psychological manipulation and suffocating atmosphere as it is in jump-scares, and is generally considered to be one of the finest horror experiences a person can have in front of their video game machine. I can personally only vouch for the excellent first few hours however, because it all got a bit too much for me after that.

A Machine for Pigs, meanwhile, continues on with the series' Lovecraftian stylings, albeit with a touch more political subtext as you battle your way through a terrible, subterranean factory in search of your children, somewhere beneath the deserted streets of Victorian London.

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