Poll: What would you rate AMFP out of 10?

**Tesseract** · 09-10-2013, 03:39 PM

I thought the game was absolutely brilliant, the environments were vast the storytelling was brilliant the assets were well made and I was on the edge of my seat through the whole thing.

There is so much I can say about this game but I have to go to bed, I rate it a 10/10 to me this was definitely worth the wait.

**GOAT** · 09-10-2013, 03:42 PM

I mean everyone knows that the kids were killed it was such a predictable story...

**Tesseract** · 09-10-2013, 03:51 PM

(09-10-2013, 03:42 PM)GOAT Wrote: I mean everyone knows that the kids were killed it was such a predictable story...

That wasn't the only part of the story.

What about understanding who Oswald is? Or understanding your situation? Or understanding what the machine was? Or understanding what the machine did?

**GOAT** · 09-10-2013, 03:56 PM

You are right Delirium. Those loose plot ends were fulfilled and I guess thats more of thechineseroom at work with making a kickass story which I wont argue with. Its just the game seems too tame with such an awesome story you know? I wished it was just as unsettling as TDD. The monsters did not register as scary enough to me maybe its just personal opinion but other people are saying the same too.

**Tesseract** · 09-10-2013, 04:05 PM

(09-10-2013, 03:56 PM)GOAT Wrote: You are right Delirium. Those loose plot ends were fulfilled and I guess thats more of thechineseroom at work with making a kickass story which I wont argue with. Its just the game seems too tame with such an awesome story you know? I wished it was just as unsettling as TDD. The monsters did not register as scary enough to me maybe its just personal opinion but other people are saying the same too.

From what I have experienced the game is very unsettling but the feeling is different from TDD. Through the game I felt nauseated by some of the things I read. I was even nervous as I learned more about the monsters and what they are and just coming face to face with them was terrifying to me.

**eliasfrost** · 09-10-2013, 04:08 PM

I haven't been posting here for quite some time but I'd like to give honest opinion on the game.

Basically, it's a disappointment. I get that the game was supposed to be story driven and not like the previous Amnesia but they utterly fail to deliver the story in the game. If they were less pretentious with their writing and focused more on creating narrative environments and scenes in the actual game instead of spending all their time on writing notes that are so pretentious (albeit well written) and uninteresting, this would be a good storyteller, but it isn't. I don't know what happened but if story was their focus, shouldn't they have focused on delivering the story better instead of just having it written out on paper (literally)?

TDD was centered on scares and immersion, and thus they sorta resorted to having most of the story on paper. But AMFP just handles it so badly, most of the time I did things not knowing why I really did them, and at times I did things before I were meant to, making the whole situation rather inconsistent and confusing. When I play a game, I want to play the story, not just read it, and especially when I play a story driven game, the gamesplay should reflect the narrative, they simply failed.

One thing that I really disliked about the game was that they stripped so much from the gameplay of the previous game that it basically became a hunt for notes and nothing else, there are no mechanics to speak of, just walking and reading, but then, you shouldn't expect The Chinese Room to deliver on mechanics, it's been proven that they are not the brightest when it comes to actually involve the player in their games.

The scariness factor is entirely gone, there's no tension in the game anywhere, the pacing is too fast, it's like they rushed the game even though it was delayed almost a whole year. The encounters with the enemies were super anti-climatic and the AI was too stupid to provide any sort of panic because they could only see you from three feet away and you could easily hide behind a box in plain sight and they would've lost you, I don't see the reasoning here.

The music is fantastic, I loved every score and it fits perfectly with the athmosphere, but I would've like if they ramped up the stress and panic factor of the chase track, it felt too weak and thus the encounters felt completely flat. But like I said, they soundtrack was overall superb, pretty much the best thing in the game is the music sadly.

And thus I get to the overall verdict, it's sadly a disappointment as I really looked forward to this, shame that they gave TCR the amount of freedom that they got, I'm not sure if this is what they would've invision another installment in the franchise to be if they made it themselves but I personally think it was a pretty bad move and it's unfortunate.

tl;dr

pros:

- music
- atmosphere

cons:

-everything else

score (as if anyone care about scores) 5/10. Mind you that 5/10 means average, moderate but then again 7 is the new 5. So if it makes you feel better, put a 7 there. It's mediocre, average, sort of a disappointment. I hope that the next time they decide to make a new installment, get someone else to do the job, TCR didn't cut it, sadly.

**Mr. Plankton** · 09-10-2013, 05:40 PM

Completely disappointed. I waited so long for this game only to get an even shorter experience than TDD with next to no interactivity, exploration or scary encounters.

Thanks TCR. Stick to your pretentious walking simulators and get the hell away from my survival horror games.

Please come back to us, Frictional. Really, I hate to be so rude but the minute this game was announced I was worried that TCR would treat this game like Dear Esther. And they did.

TDD had such a simple formula and they completely screwed it up with this. Didn't even try to improve upon it at all; instead they completely strip away game-play elements and didn't try something more interesting like randomizing monster spawns.

**WhiteClarity** · 09-10-2013, 05:51 PM

Ok I played the game without rushing it. I have a lot to say so bear with me.
The spoilers are meant for people who have cleared the game

Gameplay:
I liked how A:MFP didn't have lantern fuel. Especially removal of tinderboxes was something I especially loved in the game. Lantern fuel kinda made you want to do an amnesia speedrun. Also people who might have taken more time to solve puzzles, lantern fuel was a b***h.
I have split feelings about no inventory. In A:TTD it added a little twist in the game, but overall I actually didn't like having an inventory. No-UI (user-interface) games are much more immersive for me anyways.
For people that aren't interested in making or playing custom stories (I'm only assuming we will get level editor etc soon), 16€ might be a lot of money for 4-5 hours of gameplay.

Sounds:
This is one of my weak points since I can only hear with my other ear, but I'll try.
Sounds are very immersive.
Although, like in A:TTD, I don't like sounds like footsteps and npc "warning sounds" without the actual npc making them.
For example:
I hear a roar-type-of-sound --> The sound seems to be super close to me --> However I don't hear footsteps --> I wait for the footsteps to tell me how far the creature is --> footsteps never came, so I stop giving a ***** and just go around the corner knowing nothing is there (except if they intentionally forced a monster in my face).
What I don't like about that is, that I can actually run around like a madman and never run in to the source of the sound, even when I have just recently heard a noise right around the corner.

A big minus from me sound-vice was actually that the notes weren't voice acted like they used to be in
A:TTD.

Spoiler below!

Lighting:
I personally loved how the game wasn't pitch black all the time. It was dark ok. (personal preference)
However, the lighting was so unauthentic..
The overall light of the game didn't seem to come from the lightsources on the map (lamps etc).
I turned on a tablelamp and I was mesmerized how little it made difference (AKA: not at all).

At least in A:TTD the candles seemed to be the real source of light, even though nearly everything light-emitting in that game seemed to lack "power".

Story:
The story could have done so much more.
From all the trailers I got the impression that we're dealing with something ultra horrifying.

Spoiler below!

Am I the only one left feeling that the story was simple, but the explanations were super complicated and missed background?

Overall:
I loved this game still. I might even like it more than apparently the majority of players of this new game.
Still the game is super short without custom stories and just left me somewhat unsatisfied, wanting for much more than the game had to offer.

**eliasfrost** · 09-10-2013, 05:59 PM

Quote:Am I the only one left feeling that the story was simple, but the explanations were super complicated and missed background?

This, the story is superficially complicated and give the player the illusion of complexity and depth (mainly because of the extremely pretentious and unnecessarry writing, unsupported by gameplay) but fundamentally it's very shallow and uninspiring.

**CorinthianMerchant** · 09-10-2013, 06:34 PM

I'd give it a 7.5-8/10. I liked the atmosphere, story and writing, loved the soundtrack and sound design, however the pacing and the gameplay was pretty sloppy.

Poll: What would you rate AMFP out of 10? You do not have permission to vote in this poll.
1-2	6.99%	20	6.99%
3-4	10.14%	29	10.14%
5-6	22.38%	64	22.38%
7-8	33.57%	96	33.57%
9-10	26.92%	77	26.92%
Total		286 vote(s)	100%