AMFP Member Review Thread

[NicoNico]

Hi guys,

In the end it all comes down to this, criticism should include both positives and negatives, but for most of the "fanbase" it seems to all be negative, and makes me ashamed to have anything to do with these people.

I really do believe that a lot, and I really mean A LOT, of Amnesia fans are not playing or enjoying the game for the "good" reasons (although it's a good reason to them so... well, you get my point^^)
They just want to be scared.
Ok, I get it, the scary parts are a big aspect of the game, but I really think that the story, atmosphere and everything that goes with it are the most important part.
I watched a Let's Play of AMFP yesterday and here's what I saw :
A guy ALWAYS RUNNING everywhere, hitting every switch he found, saying "I don't know what that does, but, I do it !"
At first, he was paying attention to the story and was reading every notes, so, he was really into it and really enjoying it (at one point, he even said that the game was better than TDD) but, at some point, he picked up an note and said "Hey, there's a lot of reading in this !" and just let it go. Then, he began not reading the notes, not paying attention to what Mandus or the Machine was saying, always saying "Whatever you say, man !" just running around, always saying "come on game, give me what I want ! I want to be scared !"
He then passed the London is Burning sequence and seemed very disappointed, stating that "it wasn't subtle". Yes, it's not. That's OBVIOUSLY the point of the sequence. It's supposed to be spectacular and show that all hell breaks loose in the streets.
By the end of the game (he finished it in like 4 hours, so, you can tell that everybody who claims that they finished it in 3-4 hours and were taking their sweet time were just running all the time) as he didn't pay attention to the story, he was just sitting there and saying "I don't even know what was the Machine built for in the first place ?"
Overall, he enjoyed the game but his conclusion was "Not what I expected. Shouldn't be called Amnesia. Good game, though"
I've been talking to some people now and I happened to notice that a huge majority of them were playing the game this way.
All I can say is : no wonder why you didn't enjoy the game that much, you were just running around hunting for the jumpscares.
I guess that explains a lot of the complains (I'm not saying that the game is perfect. It has its flaws).

Having played through more times, however, I've come to appreciate AMFP in the same way I do Silent Hill 2 (and I freaking LOVE Silent Hill 2). Sure, it wasn't scary, but it wasn't really trying to be (except for those random popping pig masks when you climb ladders, which still make me ask why). The experience is in the story, the atmosphere, the music (Oh GOD, the music!), and the incredible depth that can leave you analyzing anything and everything that happens in the game and seeing things that make you wonder what else is there.



As a final score I'd give a 7.5 or 8. Why not higher? Despite all it's merits, it is still very lacking gameplay-wise, most notably in the completely stupid puzzles (Oh, it's missing a cog? Let me just grab this one that's right next to the machine I need to fix.). TDD's puzzles were simplistic, but they weren't stupid.

Hey, I like that you compare it with Silent Hill 2 ^^You got a point here !

Yes the puzzle were... not really puzzles in fact. That's a disappointment.