AMFP Member Review Thread

[bluel0bster]

I could spend hours critiquing all y'alls complaints, but I'm not going to bother in the slightest.

I'd give aamfp a 9.5/10. Absolutely phenomenal in my opinion. The narrative in this game even surpasses TDD's. The soundtrack and audio design was top notch.

The only real complaint I had was not having sanity effects/sanity meter; there was no real reason for me not to sit in the darkness until monsters pathed away.

People need to realize this is a different development team with a different design philosophy. TCR greatly emphasizes phenomenal narrative, as obvious in Dear Esther. This carries over to AAMFP. Just because the game doesn't have something that its predecessor has in terms of gameplay doesn't make it a worse game in any respect. That's not how you judge a game. The narrative in AAMFP is incredibly deep and thought-provoking, I found it to be one of the best story lines, rivaling bioshock infinite and even the original bioshock.

I really like how TCR approached the Amnesia series, and the idea of seeing how other developers approach Amnesia is an appealing idea. Along those lines, I'd like to quote Kotaku's review with respect to outside developers, "What would a Mojang Amnesia game look like? How about if Stanley Parable-maker Davey Wreden got to make one? Or Lone Survivor's Jasper Byrne, or Gone Home's Fullbright Company? With this template, a series like Amnesia could become less a continuous franchise and more of a philosophy, batted about and re-interpreted by the creators of our age."

[Mjarr]

(Obvious disclaimer is obvious: the following walloftext is purely subjective, so feel free to disagree.)

Amnesia : A Machine for Pigs - or as I like to call it - Amnesia : Piggyback Ride finds itself in tough position to begin with, as it is overshadowed by it's Prussian brother and the massive hype of “zomg scariest game evar omg so scary ur not playing it right”- and whatnot. For that reason my expectations were pretty neutral, if downright negative to begin with it would seriously end up suffering from the same problems The Dark Descent did, or feel like arbitrary sequel for the sake of “fan service” (term loosely applied here). To my surprise I was slightly wrong, but overall that Piggyback Ride is kind of like very mouldy piece of good cheese spread all over the place: the truly good bits simply cannot cover up for the rest. And no, not referring to blue cheese or something similar with that weird metaphor.

To elaborate, Piggyback Ride is textbook victim of X steps forwards X-1 steps backwards. Audio, general atmosphere, presentation and alike are still as superb as they were in The Dark Descent - and the writing is perhaps something which surpasses the original - and much to my surprise, Piggyback Ride distills pretty well my biggest issue of TDD's rail of gameplay predictability: take an item, doomy music of doomy doom begins to play, RAWR HAI GUISE I'M HUNGRY FOR KEBAB GUISE? GUISE?- appears, makes noises like they're trying to impress opposite sex and it's repeated again and again in most obvious set pieces ever. Very meta, but almost impossible to ignore after one hour of gameplay and even more poignant by the end. Yahtzee put it pretty well with his “It's like they're summoned by the autosave function.” line.

Problem with Piggyback Ride in this regard is, actual gameplay is quite limited to the point of making it pointless. There's what, barely two moments where you actually have to avoid someone and those are probably among some of the best parts of the game. No more TDD's arbitrary limited night vision and convenient hiding spots (few exceptions aside), but make your own instead. So the question arises: how do you fuck something like that up? On paper that was something I was actually very much looking forwards after the first real encounter, so much to be had when the game distills the idea of obvious trigger is obvious without pouring everything in your face, but in the end you barely get to avoid anything. At. All. The more Piggyback Ride progresses the worse it becomes and holy dear, after promising, if slow beginning it seems to throw pacing and gameplay out of the window all over the place.

Perhaps the biggest problem of all is, horror-factor has suffered and waned to rather nonexistent levels. I will say this very unpopular opinion: I already found The Dark Descent's horror factor bit lacking, but at least it had some effort and managed to scare me couple of times instead of just invoking the same old meh. Piggyback Ride at best, manages to be bit tense when you're hiding in the dark, you know something is very close, you're not sure if you're in “safe” spot but using the lamp would be sureway to expose yourself... but as noted, you have two of these moments in the entire game. Two. To clarify further, I personally consider overall atmosphere, horror-factor, and unsettley-ness bit separate parts of the experience. Atmosphere? Pretty good. Unsettley-ness? Has its own moments. Genuine creeps and\or going full shit bricks- mode and whatnot? Yawn. Oh, was that supposed to be scary?

Many good concepts, bit of perhaps unnecessary streamlining resulting in too sterile environments, and quality presentation cannot distract from the lack of overall gameplay, bit half-arsed utilisation of concepts, borderline atrocious pacing, and simply being all over the place. Piggyback Ride is an experimentation, quite interesting one at that to be honest, but if it would actually include more gameplay and wouldn't be so criminally short you can finish it in four hours with slow gameplay pace, it might be pretty decent despite being overshadowed by it's Prussian brother. As it stands, it's pretty lacking. Not bad, just meh. If on the fence, I wholeheartedly recommend looking forward for a sale.

Overall score somewhere between 5 and 6\10.

[Alardem]

I enjoyed it. A genuinely unnerving experience that reminds me of Silent Hill's glory days - the level design gets increasingly surreal, the soundtrack is wonderfully dark and moving, and the story is surprisingly more morbid than Amnesia 1's. I ended up not minding the loss of the battery-hunting mechanic, but the massively diminished interactivity and saturation of locked doors did take a while to adjust to. And say what you will - I actually felt terror more than I had in the predecessor.

My STEAM record says 4 hours. Well spent. Well done, developers.

[Fortigurn]

I've played for just over an hour and I'm still in the cellar (I enjoy playing slowly and exploring everything). To me Amnesia: Machine For Pigs (MFP), has a distinct Chinese Room flavour rather than an Frictional flavour, and I prefer my Amenesia games Frictional flavoured. I'm loving the atmosphere, the environments, and the overall presentation, but there are are few issues rubbing me up the wrong way because they're a significant departure from the original Amnesia: Dark Descent (DD). I cannot see MFP being received with the acclaim which DD earned so easily, and the reviews I've seen both here and elsewhere confirm this.

1. Far fewer interactive objects. In DD, virtually every object you saw could be picked up or at least pushed around; books fruit, tableware, chairs, rocks, boxes, barrels, tools, etc. In MFP, this is simply not the case. I was struck by this almost immediately, but dismissed it at first as possibly the game's way of leading me gently into the environment, expecting greater levels of interaction and more manipulable objects would become available later. That hasn't happened. I find it particularly disruptive that so many free standing items on tables and desks (such as candlesticks, bottles, glasses, and tableware), are absolutely immovable. You can't pick them up, and you can wallop them with a chair but they will simply not budge. I find this to be a serious breach of immersion.

2. Far more limited range of player mechanics. No inventory system, no wound system, no sanity mechanic, no light mechanic, no consumable items. This is a shocker. Those were critical elements contributing to the immense immersion and deeply satisfying gameplay of DD. I am highly concerned that without these elements, MFP gameplay will inevitably feeling like a kind of Amnesia: Dear Esther (and I loved Dear Esther, but it is a completely different gaming experience to DD), instead of another great Frictional classic.

3. Puzzle mechanics. I have obviously only completed a few puzzles so far, and a couple of them I really enjoyed.

Spoiler below!

I figured out how to open the secret door by lifting the rifle, simply by observing the scratches in the wall indicating it had been lifted up and down many times (I only read the relevant journal note after I had opened the door). The prompt for the bathroom puzzle was not too explicit, and I liked that. I found the door behind the bear entirely by accident, and I was pleased by that.

But the lack of a inventory means puzzles can't and won't be as complex as they were in DD, which concerns me, and the general lack of interactive objections means any object with which you can interact is far more likely to be a puzzle solving element, making some puzzles a lot easier to find than they should be.

4. Lighting; often clearly unrealistic. Not drastically so, but sufficiently inconsistent to irritate at times.

5. No support for the modding community (yet?). Wait, what? Really?

6. I've felt spooked quite a few times already, but I haven't yet been scared of injury or death, meaning I'm more inclined to run and explore boldly instead of creeping along the ground and peering cautiously around corners as I did in DD. I hope that changes.

[Istrebitel]

...You cannot really remove features from a game when you make a sequel and get away with it... This is a sad problem, but even if the game would be better without it, you cannot remove features in sequels...

Really? Who said so? Problem? Why a developer can't do something? Isn't the word "independent" means that developer is free to experiment with their products? There's no responsibility to deliver a customers what he waits for.

Sad problem? What sad problem? It's a customer sad problem if one gets not something he wants to. For example to make it clear, it's my own problem if I am expecting to get Thief game series resurrection in a way I imagine that resurrection, but finally would get something that I didn't dreamed of. It will be only my personal "sad problem". Isn't it?

...But you can't be upset if some people are displeased with it...

I am not upset ))) I am just laughing at those "displeased" crowds )))))) If they cannot enjoy innovations and experiments, then I presume they are half-people ))) Isn't it a lot more interesting to achieve experience, then fucking game? To play or not to play? I vote for immersion, the less I play, the more I am immersed into imagery world. Presumably, that's why I am absolutely satisfied by Dear Esther. And I am a lot more satisfied with a Machine for Pigs, because the story itself is a LOT MORE intriguing, chilling and frightening. And what is more important unlike Dear Ester it's interactive and that interactiveness is injected into gameplay and plot intrigue. Interactive David Lynch or Hitchcock.

Well, you see, first of all, presuming someone is "half-people" is a sure way to get people to dislike you or outright hate you. Really-really. Because, who are you really to judge?

But anyways, on topic of independence and feature removal.

"Independent" developer only means one thing - not constrained by publisher. Full creative control. This does not mean that there are no BAD decisions that an indie dev can make! Like, if you're independent from your parents, it doesn't mean you can't do a bad thing - like, rob an old woman of her purse, or betray your friend to earn something valueable.

When I talked about the removal of features and how it's bad to do so in a sequel, I didn't say that they aren't allowed by someone to do so. I said that a large part of the audience (if not the majority) will not like such action. Look at the frigging facts, what is it that fans of TDD speak the most about? Lack of custom stories (yes I know they actually now promise to update TDD with features from MfP), lack of inventory, lack of sainity system... That's what I was talking about.

If MfP would have limited latern "fuel", inventory, sainity system and the thing about custom stories features being included into TDD would be properly advertised in advance, there would be way less bark and negativity. Noone would say "why the game still has that useless inventory", noone would stay "who do we still have limited latern usage", noone would say "why do we still have problems with staying in pitch black areas for prolonged time / looking at the monster"! So yes, the game WOULD be viewed better with these features staying by the audience. And you have to consider your audience, your fans.

When you make a sequel, you don't just make a new game. Amnesia: TDD would not be viewed the same if it would be called Penumbra 4, and it could suffer from the fact it had less complex technical puzzles, unability to stay in the darkness (and no "night vision" like in penumbra) and so on. Quake would not be viewed the same if it would be called Doom 3. When you make a sequel, fans expect to have everything they had in the previous game, except what was deemed as an obvious limitation or a flaw by majority (and even then, someone will argue that it was important to the gameplay, like, transition in RPGs from grid-based movement to free movement was argued to be dumbing-down the tactical aspect, for example Might and Magic 4/5 -> 6, 7, 8).

[Ahiam94]

I'm extremely sad to say that I'm disappointed. I was up last night at 11:59 waiting for the install button to pop up so that I could play this game as soon as possible. Once I turned it on, I instantly noticed one gigantic flaw. No custom stories button. I'm not sure if that's going to be implemented later or what, but for now, that's as shocking as it is disappointing.

While playing the game I was shocked to see that you can't interact with barely anything. Also, when I pressed tab no menu popped up. I figured it was just because I was early in the game and it just wasn't available yet. But, it never came. Never. There were no keys to be found. There was no Laudanum, no insanity potion. Nothing. There was no health meter, no sanity meter.

Eventually, I got used to this. I figured, maybe these things aren't necessary to make a good Amnesia game, and after playing for a little while, I realized it was true. While it felt like it was missing something, the game was still good.

But, it was not nearly as good as it's predecessor. Never did I ever feel the same amount of fear in this game as I did with the first. There were times when I would feel my heart race, but one thing that was missing was the hiding. There was never a moment where I had to hide in a closet and pray for the monster to leave without noticing me. For the most part, if I just let the pigs wonder for a little while, they would just leave, eventually.

Then four hours after pressing the new game button, it was over. Really? Was my reaction. I was almost heartbroken to see the credits roll. The entire game, I thought they were holding back on the scares because it was just getting started, but there they were. The credits. I nearly shed a tear at the site. After so much waiting, so much anticipation, that was it. Four hours of scares that didn't even compare to the first Amnesia.

The only things positive I can say about this game is that I really did enjoy the story, the voice acting, and the music. The music mostly. It had some amazing songs through the tiny journey. The story was very dark and gruesome, although there are some plot holes and some unanswered questions. The voice acting was great. Too bad the game ended so soon that I was not really able to hear many conversations.

My final score would be a 6. While the game is good, it's nothing compared to the first, and it almost should have just been an expansion. Also, the $20 price tag may be asking too much for such a insanely small game.

I really would not complain about the size if there were custom stories to play, but there aren't. There is no custom story button. So, there is nothing left for me in this game. After waiting so long, in one day I'm done. It's over. There's nothing left to do with this game. This sucks. Sorry Frictional, but you guys failed at this one. Try releasing an expansion that will make the game at least take two days to beat. And make an update with a custom story button.

It hurts me to be saying bad things about this game. I was so excited. I feel kind of betrayed.

[Kein]

HOLYCRAP
I just noticed that the game has support for DirectInput (my old gamepad works). When you last time saw the game with DI support in 2013?

Yeah.
I voted 7-8, but now it easily gets +1 just for DI support.

[Draug]

Imo it was not as scary as TDD but it had by faaaar the better story. The most annoying thing for me in TDD was the ending, which was in aamfp really epic and gave me goosebumps. Great atmosphere, almost no jumpscares and absolutely great sound effects made it a great experience. I didn't get everything from the story, but it's an incentive for me to play it a second time.

My score: 8.7

[Alex Ros]

I am not upset ))) I am just laughing at those "displeased" crowds )))))) If they cannot enjoy innovations and experiments, then I presume they are half-people )))

Well, you see, first of all, presuming someone is "half-people" is a sure way to get people to dislike you or outright hate you. Really-really. Because, who are you really to judge?

LOTS of smileics were supposed to do the job ))))))

...If MfP would have limited latern "fuel", inventory, sainity system and the thing about custom stories features being included into TDD would be properly advertised in advance, there would be way less bark and negativity. Noone would say "why the game still has that useless inventory", noone would stay "who do we still have limited latern usage", noone would say "why do we still have problems with staying in pitch black areas for prolonged time / looking at the monster"! So yes, the game WOULD be viewed better with these features staying by the audience. And you have to consider your audience, your fans...

Well but what the reason for not doing what Frictional made? Is there a single objective reason why Frictional guys should so hardly think what customers might think. I think it works much better vice versa. I mean those fans should or just could try to think why Frictional made their new game in such a way and what was their goal. When you're watching a movie or reading a book the public is supposed to try to understand all the undertow meanings, etc. It's not amusement park to amuse people or satisfy their own hopes and dreams, it's more a kind of art as long games are far-long began to move people emotionally and force them to think about some particular themes. Surely, there are a lot more of "amusement park" games. Similar to Holywood where we have 90% of mass-chewable movies and 10% of something interesting. Same here in the gamedev industry. Frictional are not "Die Hard" makers, they are more like... Terry Gilliam, Larry Clark, Guillermo del Toro, etc. Not Stanley Kubrick yet )))))) Anyway, that's IMO of course.

[Jane18CZ]

After finishing this game in only 4 hours the only thing left was the greatest disappointment of this year! Let’s start from the beginning, shall we?

After starting the game, first thing I’ve noticed was no custom story button which wasn’t good at all. I pushed the new game button and started the adventure. In first hour or so, I was mesmerized by the level design of mansion and surrounding grounds. Hidden passages behind the walls, secret doorways ect. was to die for! To that point I really thought that they surpassed the previous Amnesia. From that moment it went straight to hell… At first I thought the inventory was disabled because it was a beginning of the game. Never in my darkest dreams I’d imagine that they would disable it forever. What about puzzles, what about combining things in your inventory, health potions, oil, tinderboxes? I was heartbroken at that point. This was one of the biggest mistakes. Where is some challenge? Do they really want me to walk around with infinite light? I felt this game was made for primitives. Sorry but this is my subjective opinion. Walking from point A to point B, no puzzles, no logical riddles, I didn’t even have to think once in the whole game! I wasn’t stuck on anything I just had to take stuff to certain locations, turn wheels, push buttons ect. and that was all. Even my 7 years old brother is playing harder games than this. I was also very annoyed by the locks on everything (closets, doors, drawers…). The whole surrounding felt so unreal. You couldn’t interact with anything. You threw a chair on a table and nothing moved. In the first Amnesia you could touch and move everything. You were part of the story, but here you could only watch, like if you weren’t even there. Just a ghostly walkthrough. I also spent half of the game by reading notes. I liked the story, don’t get me wrong, but most of it was written down in notes except my own thoughts. If I wanted to read Amnesia A Machine for pigs I’d buy a book not play this game. At least they could make some of the notes voiced.

Next thing I’d like to mention is the horror atmosphere. There was none.I agree it was atmospheric but not scary at all. In first Amnesia I was scared as hell, hiding in every closet possible, scared of the monsters and it took me few restless nights to complete it, that scared I was! I wasn’t very fond of the monsters they’ve created in this Amnesia. Walking pigs, electric pigs and electric lurker, what more is there to say? I even felt sorry for them when I was walking through the cells, seeing how they were playing or were chained in their tiny rooms. That is certainly not the impression you want to make from evil monsters that are hunting you through the night. In the whole game I had only 3 encounters “face to face” with pigmans and that was all. Really?? That was SO LAME! No horror atmosphere was certainly the second biggest letdown.

But I have to admit the ending was good, I really enjoyed those 20 minutes at the end. It was a decent ending to a decent story. At least this improved the game experience otherwise this could end up even worse.

To conclude:
Overall I liked the story, I loved the level design and music. It had a certain atmosphere to it. If it wasn’t the Amnesia game I’d say good job, BUT it was Amnesia game and Frictional games were producing it, so the game ended up as a disaster! The biggest mistake was to give it to The Chinese Room in a first place. I waited 3 years for this game and it disappointed me so badly I couldn’t even sleep afterwards. After 4 hours it was over and it was nothing like the Amnesia The Dark Descent. They shouldn’t call it Amnesia, but only A machine for pigs.

To FRICTIONAL GAMES: Please don’t make the same mistake ever again because for me it was a mistake to join up with The Chinese Room. I don’t understand how you could let them release this game with the title Amnesia when it’s nothing like Amnesia at all. You are amazing survival horror creators so please stay true to yourselves.