[SPOILER] My thoughts, expectations, reactions of Amnesia.

[Damascus Rose]

I love how there's some asshat rating every thread that remotely deals with AMFP in a positive way with 1 star round here. Goes to show that we've acquired some matured and brilliant new members with the release of AMFP.

Also, good review DR, I do agree with most of the points you made, interested to see your thoughts on the other parts of the game.

Wow, I didn't even notice the 1 star. Nice


Anyway I updated the post a little bit so check it out and share your thoughts.

[Alex Ros]

...I'll start off with the lantern... Overall I think this is more positive than negative, but I'm not 100% on this. If someone else could share their thoughts that'd be great.

My own opinion is that the removal of the tinderboxes was just really nice decision. As for the lantern I think that it was also right decision to remove the ever-forever seeking for the oil. It was very annoying in the Dark Descent at least that is what I felt. But at the same time I do think, I am sure (!!!) that infinite source of light is also not a good one decision. I think that it could be better for some certain reasons if the lantern burning would be long enough, but it would still require periodic refueling, 3-4 times during the whole playthrough.

They've made all those cute table lamps. But they are useless with an infinite lantern in my hands. Somehow they ruined with their own hands an opportunity to enjoy the level design and lighting. That's just an example with table lamps. I am not even talking about those cool incandescent lamps with spirals. If shortly, infinite lantern just deprive me of the opportunity to enjoy the level design and lighting. So it's not just about the gameplay.

...More gameplay elements/puzzles gets in the way of narrative, immersion etc. But I feel that this removed gameplay took away a lot of what made Amnesia good, without enough positive results to justify it...

As for puzzles I think it's a real cool decision to get rid of the inventory and seamlessly inject all of the puzzles right into interactions with the world. That way there's no clear separation, here we have a puzzle and there we have an interactive world. Now everything is merged. But! The puzzles themselves were in truth simply very poorly made. The only one puzzle that was just fine is the puzzle with the creation of the chemical. I felt satisfied by completing that one. Sadly that single one. No other. IMO of course.

The main problem with a Machine for Pigs puzzles that you can't make a mistake. Just can not and that's all. The option to make a mistake is critical with building good satisfying puzzles. That simple. Just let me make mistakes (at least sometimes, not every time) with puzzles and I'll throat them all without a single complaint.

[Fortigurn]

The main problem with a Machine for Pigs puzzles that you can't make a mistake. Just can not and that's all. The option to make a mistake is critical with building good satisfying puzzles. That simple. Just let me make mistakes (at least sometimes, not every time) with puzzles and I'll throat them all without a single complaint.

This is something I felt very strongly too. I actually overthought the chemical puzzle with the centrifuge, and went off in search of several items I thought I would need, which took me a very long time because they didn't actually exist. I felt sure the glass flask would be important during the process, so I dragged it around with me all over the place, then left it in a room while collecting a canister for the centrifuge.

Next thing I know the doors slammed shut, and I couldn't return to the room where I had left the glass flask. At first I thought 'Oh no, I've done it now, who knows if I can get back to that flask?', but almost immediately I realized 'Oh yeah, the game is a hand-holder, if it let you lose something that means it's not important', and sure enough the puzzle was over seconds later. Far less complicated than I had thought (and hoped).

From that point on I did my best to test the game in various places. Tried to jump to my death over a couple of balconies with no railing or a very small one, but the game somehow stopped me going over the edge. Went down into a massive pit filled with blood, offal, and human bones (some of which I could actually throw around, much to my surprise), and since the ladder was too high to reach I thought 'Aha, I've stuck myself here', but no, after I'd fooled around for a while wondering if I was going to die of starvation, the game actually went to all the trouble of lowering a new ladder for me, complete with animation and sound effects.

Quite incredible to see the extent to which the game was programmed to stop you doing anything which might test your patience for more than five minutes, or which might result in actual failure.

[Kein]

I didn't post this in the review thread because this isn't a review.

That does not mean it does not belong there.

[Paddy™]

It does look suspiciously like a review haha. It would probably cause way too much confusion for the post order if it were to be merged with the review thread now, though.

[Damascus Rose]

I didn't post this in the review thread because this isn't a review.

That does not mean it does not belong there.

Does it matter? I wanted to post my thoughts and have a discussion, if I posted it in the review thread it would get lost among 27 pages of reviews, nobody would read it and a meaningful discussion won't be had.

I also can't call this a review even if it might look like one, it's more just like a blog post where I just empty my thoughts. I'm not trying to rate the game either.

Anyway, I updated the post again for anyone who cares