What do you think of the game's length?

[epitaxial]

Personally i think the length was perfect but that a little more time could've been spent polishing the ending which was weaker than the rest of the game and made it end slightly flat, this might be what people were responding to when they thought it was the length, these same people probably didn't comment on the exact same time/money value proposition that was portal because the end felt suitably final.

Agree. The ending didn't fit well within the rest of the game - horror filled with lots of blood and monsters chasing me all over the place...

An ending that might have fit with the rest of the game:

The screaming lady I heard near the end tied up on a table. I enter the room and have to make a choice:

- Try to save her, but Alexander would sacrifice her and complete the ritual. I would be slashed by whatever was slashing me before and fall to the floor. Alexander would be laughing evilly and leave the room.
- Kill Alexander - this would be the same ending as preventing him from entering the portal [where I escape the castle]
- use Aggripa's head as some weird side effect on Alexander [the monsters who were chasing me would appear and drag Alexander off kicking and screaming into a dark room where the door would slam shut] - the ending would still be the same [darkness surrounded by floating lights]

[mansarde]

The problem ist that Alexander is not inherently evil and therefore isn't really the polarised villain who would laugh evilly because he enjoys it. He does what he does out of necessity.
Not that it's good what he does, but he doesn't do it because he enjoys it.
He is not the evil man Daniel says he is. He is not any more evil that Daniel is.
And at least Alexander isn't lying to himself about it as Daniel did.

[Flakk]

A major negative point in reviews have been the game's length of 6 - 10 hours, which some consider too short. I have written a longer post about it here:
http://frictionalgames.blogspot.com/2010...ength.html

What are your thoughts on this? Please answer the poll and tell us what you think (here or in blog).

Please also state how long you estimate that you played the game. And if you did not like the length, tell us what would have been optimal.

Too short. I was unpleasantly surprised when I started getting the feel that "this is nearing the end". Could've used a longer more defined build up before the big revelation. So length-wise I was a bit disappointed I'm afraid.

[Bek]

One things I have to say though (Felt this way in Overture/BP too) is that the game feels longer than it actually is. I coulda sworn I'd been playing longer than I actually had according to xfire/steam etc.

[BulletInTheHart]

Your game is perfect. Reviewers who are saying its too short dont know what they're talking about. And I havent heard anyone say that in any of the reviews I've seen. I'd hate to see you guys substitute length for quality. Stick to what you're doing, it's great! And you need to make sure you listen to your fans who know the most about the game and are the ones that buy and play it. Not 'reviewers' who dont know what they're talking about. Ive played the demo itself for amnesia about 5 times. Plenty of replay in the game. Please I am BEGGING YOU dont fall into the trap of making it longer just to make someone who doesnt know what they're are saying happy. Cause i guarantee if you do the game wont be as good and they'll say that its not as good quality. I Your Games

[psilocybin]

i thought the length was fine

games have had to much filler for sometime now


the problem with putting the poll on your forums is that the vast majority of people that bought the game will not sign up and post, so you will have a hardcore base that like the pacing, length, and content, and their voices will be the majority


this will keep me happy, but it seems a relatively small group will not keep you guys out of the "poor house", and believe me, i would love for your team to keep producing quality games

cheers
mike

[BulletInTheHart]

I really hope these guys become big. Because all dev's have to start of somewhere and these guys are creating games with a team of 5 that mainstream games struggle to match in quality and its the quality and dedication of these developers that makes me love their games so much. I'm not one for horror but these guys games are so enticing and so intricate and immersive that I cant help but play their demos etc over and over again until My copy of overture arrives. And it would be a darn shame to see them go downhill because someone said the game wasnt long enough.

[Penguinmaster]

To me the games length isn't even important. To me the games get all their awesome from the ambient fear. I'm not gonna lie, but I have ~18 hours of gameplay on Amnesia and I haven't actually beat it yet I'm a bit of a pansy. No matter how much longer the game is, I'm enjoying the story and fear enough for this to be my favorite game.

[BulletInTheHart]

If you have a mediocre game that last say 16 hours chances are youll spend maybe 20 hours on it within a year youll complete then maybe get an incentive later whereas If you have a 4 hour game that is great delivers on every level, in this case giving us ambient, scary, story etc etc etc If it is an abseloute gem of a game. It will have you coming back and back and back no matter what. Just like people still play old games today and will have spent hours upon hours playing them you can do so. A games replayability is not in whatever extras they chuck in just to lengthen the game out if a game is truly amazing you will go back to it even with a simple basic single player campaign which is the way it was with the first games and i dont see why there is a need for it to be any different today.

[lumpi]

I thought I've been playing this game for 15 hours or more, but apparently, it's been only 3! That means, even by the lowest suggestions, I'm not even halfway through yet! Whoever rushes through a game like this is clearly missing the point (and must be a total wreck of a person by the end...). I say you're doing game length just right!

And I love lengthy games. I'm not the kind of guy who'd ever say that a game is better because it's shorter. Unless there's nothing but boring fillers (which you can find in short games as much as in long ones-- Kane & Lynch 2 is shorter and has more filler! At full price!), I say: The longer the better! I'd rather play 40 hours of a really good game than 8 games of 5 hour length that are mediocre. I just say that Amnesia feels really right in the position it is and I'm quite perplexed that any game reviewer would seriously consider this game too short. Next week the same reviewer will complain about how RPGs take too long to complete. Make up your mind! God, I hate game journalists... either clueless "buyers-guide" writers or super pretentious about the most pointless details.

I especially don't understand why, with you asking for the humblest price imaginable at launch, they'd still mention length as an influence for negative ratings. I mean, what the hell are you supposed to take away from this? That shorter games don't even count? That you can't even play in the 90+ league without multi-million-dollar-studio content? Amnesia is plain perfect at what it tries to be.