Critique (spoilers)

[Flakk]

Amnesia scared me and I enjoyed the game very much. I was terrified of the monsters and at parts I couldn't play more than a 30 minutes to an hour without having to quit out of sheer fatigue.

But it wasn't quite as good as it could've been. Largely because of the voice acting. I did a quick search a couple of pages back with very few comments about it. So I thought I'd go a bit deeper.

My biggest gripe is with Daniel. Not only his acting but also the voice direction. His tone of voice sounds very modern and casual. His intonation is exaggerated and feels fake. There's too much "singing" in his voice. Too much intonation. I would've liked him to be darker, more monotone, more "film noir" with a subtle subtle hint of terror. He reads the "scary" parts in this stereotypical mock-scary type of voice that sounds like something out of a children's movie. I had to fight my dislike for his roll interpretation to stay immersed in the story.

Agrippa is also a very odd character. Was he meant as a comic relief? The German accent and jovial mannerism mixed with his grotesque appearance just felt comical to me and I didn't like that at all. Nothing in his voice told me he had been chained there for centuries and somehow linked to this vague other dimension/world.

Alexander's voice stuck out as the best one. Especially in the end where he speaks of the portal opening. Very believable how his voice suddenly changed when he saw visions of his supposed home.

As far as the story itself goes, I liked it, only it could've been even more vague and hard to grasp. Horror is as we know much dependent on mystery. I felt that the story was sometimes a little too well grounded and down to earth, believe it or not. I could follow it quite easy. I would've liked more room for my own imagination. Or, it could possibly have needed more of a horrific twist. As I progressed, I slowly got to know Daniel's terrible actions, and wasn't very surprised about it in the process. Instead, something more of a shocking revelation of some sort could've been more effective. Lead the player into thinking one thing and then shock her by suddenly twisting the story in the other direction... pretty standard formula though, I guess. But I like it.
Also, in the beginning I got the feeling you were playing more on "ethereal" horror but as I progressed it got more and more physical. Down to taste, I guess, but I would've liked it to go the other way around.

Also, briefly about the dangers you face. That didn't accelerate or change much at all through the game. Dark rooms and the occasional monster. Effective at first, oh yes, but I would've liked it to change more in the course of the game. Just to keep the player guessing and wondering. Because quite quickly I got the feeling that I had the formula down in my head. Sure, I could never anticipate when the monster would show up, but I COULD always count on it to do so and in what way and how I would escape. So in that way, it quickly got pretty predictable.

Ending on a positive note. I've tried to spread the game to friends and people online. Despite my gripes, it's still a very original game that I enjoyed very much. Oh, I almost forgot. Phenomenal sound work.

[Crabski]

I agree with a lot of what you said here; however, I'm pretty sure that the budget concerns really cut back on what they could do. There are some areas in which they found creative ways to get around the budget problems without hurting the game too much (the water horror, for instance; an original and terrifying encounter with a monster that didn't require any modeling, animation, etc.). Voice acting sadly isn't one of those areas. If you don't have the money to shop around a bit and find the right voices, you just have to settle for what you get.

[marzy]

I agree with a lot of this but I found Daniel's voice acting suprisingly good on the whole. Frictional definitely improved in this area since the first few games. The odd line had strange delivery but I could count these on one hand.

I think the inquisitive tone of Daniel gave some kind of relief from the horror of the whole thing but sometimes he did seem to understate his fear

[Kein]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgx2oLKJVFU

Physics - the only thing I can criticize

[NGW]

I rather liked the voice acting myself. Daniel and especially Alexander I felt were done quite well and worked great together I feel.