AMFP Member Review Thread

[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.