10 Amazing Video Games That Didn't Rely On Combat

6. Amnesia: The Dark Descent

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Frictional Games

Combat is a key feature in most games. In fact, even in games in which it isn't key, there's normally a shadow of combat, some simple means of fighting back against an enemy, even if it's something as simple as jumping on their head.

The idea of a game filled with monsters in which you have no means whatsoever of fighting them is enough to fill players with a sense of determined dread.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent offers just this. As well as a health indicator, the player must manage their character's sanity level, as well as evade monsters by hiding. There is no means of fighting them at all, so escaping their sight and hiding from them is your only option.

Set in 1839 in a dark and dusty old castle, Amnesia: The Dark Descent sends players on a quest to find the truth about their past and about the monsters that are hunting them armed with little more than a lantern and a tinderbox.

It was an incredibly bold choice, but it was executed so spectacularly that Amnesia: The Dark Descent is up there with all the best survival horror games, without all that burdensome combat.

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Antisocial nerd that spends a lot of time stringing words together. Once tried unsuccessfully to tame a crow.