AMFP Member Review Thread

[Fortigurn]

A Machine For Pigs story and imagery was far more horrific than a cheap sanity meter where your vision blurs and you get terrible mouse smoothing.

Then obviously you didn't play TDD.

The sanity meter was in no way "cheap". It showed that Daniel was only human, and his fears effected him in a huge sense. Staring at the monsters, or staying in the dark too long frightened Daniel to the point of tears, nervous panting, and eventually, pretty much passing out. Tell me, if you were in a similar situation, with similar fears, would you not react in a similar fashion that Daniel did?

Without the sanity meter, you're pretty much a superman, who is afraid of nothing and can just run through anything no matter how terrifying/horrible, which is completely unrealistic.

I agree with you. People seem to be forgetting that insanity in TDD was not a cheap effect simply to inform you 'Daniel is scared now'. It was a proper mechanic influencing gameplay, balanced cleverly with two other mechanics.

Darkness reduces your sanity, and light restores your sanity but makes you more detectable by monsters. In addition, solving puzzles restores your sanity while certain rooms reduce it, and some environments will change in appearance according to your sanity level (painting of Alexander, and various places in the church will change), all adding to the complexity of the mechanic.

The result is a constraint on player actions, requiring greater thought and consideration on the player's part. This is an important and intelligent gameplay challenge adding genuine immersion and encouraging attention to detail by the player.