The reviews Elysium syndrome

[Babomancer]

AAMFP:
Wow! So rivetting so far. It took me 1.5 hours to get to the first fuse box so I have no idea how anyone could finish the whole game in 4 hours. Always running? Playing it like it was CoD?

I finished in 4-5 hours, and I was by no means rushing. The game is just not very long (and I don't think 1.5 hours to the first fuse box is particularly long, IIRC).

Incidentally, I don't think the "Elysium syndrome" has very much at all to do with the scores this game is getting. It's a completely different issue: AMFP was developed by a different developer with a different agenda than the original team, and it's very very VERY obvious in the design choices. If you realize this and you like both developers' prior works, then you're probably going to like AMFP. Most people don't realize this or don't care or simply don't like Dear Esther / AMFP type games.

The game really shouldn't be compared with TDD because it's completely different, the only major relationships being the presentation, basic game design choices, and a loose connection to the original story. But that's just the nature of sequels, people are going to compare them, and when you combine these "failed expectations" with the scores you would expect from a Dear Esther-esque game, you get precisely the kind of scores this game is getting.

Compare:
Dear Esther | Critic: 7.5, User: 6.5
AAMFP | Critic: 7.2, User: 5.7

(Also compare the distributions of positive, neutral, and negative reviews)

...QED