Disappointed with AAMFP

[Tomato Cat]

Personally I play games to be immersed and to enjoy the story; to escape reality and take one the role of the protagonist and I think AMFP was very well executed. Tinderboxes, puzzles, lantern refills, interaction and what not was not the point of the game.

I thought that AMFP's story was poorly executed.

I didn't "feel" Mandus' struggle. Really, he shows almost no impact after discovering his children are dead and that he was evil all along. What little he does show is in bland monologues in his journal. (By bland I mean not narrated.)

Basically, the game didn't provide enough depth and incentive to make me care about his children or Mandus himself.

In TDD, we felt and understood Daniel's plight through immersion as well as in his diaries and flashbacks. Narrated diaries and flashbacks, which, IMO produced a much more profound impact. You could hear the emotion in his voice, his fear of the guardian as well as his uncertainty of the morality of his decisions.

For the majority of the game, AMFP's story revolved around just GOING somewhere and performing maintenance rather than having a primary goal (killing Alexander) and having to overcome obstacles along the way. Say, the broken elevator.

And the map design, while aesthetically pleasing, was far too linear. Again, I didn't have to overcome any obstacle (take the padlocked door in the prison), just get from point A to point B.

Everybody slams the tinderboxes and lantern oil now and I'm not sure why. The sanity management mechanic was there to provide a source of constant anxiety and thus intensify the atmosphere. "Do I go crazy, or risk the monster seeing my lantern?" This aspect of immersion is now completely gone. I could have walked the entire game without using the lantern. There was reason to use it because there were no consequences for not using it.

I'm not saying AMFP is a bad game or wasn't an enjoyable experience. TCR and Frictional certainly worked hard on it and I'm very much glad I played it. It's just that I cannot stack it against TDD as a more immersive and terrifying experience.