The game looks and sounds great - which made the beginning very tense and had me enjoy it a lot. But this tension vanished soon, mainly because of two things:
Funny instead of scary enemies
I remember how I instantly felt the urge to hide from the very first enemy I encountered in Amnesia:TDD. It was nothing like that in AMFP. These chubby pigmen waddling about are rather amusing than scary. All the tension from the beginning, created by great atmospheric sound, vanished when I saw the first enemy in the church. Later they become invisible electro pigs out of nowhere and could be scary - if they made sense.
Lack of actual gameplay
Next thing I was hoping for was at least something of a puzzle-factor. But nope, whenever there was something to interact with you could bet the place to use it was just a few meters away - unless it was a chair obviously. But it got worse, many reviewers have already said it similarly: This felt like a ghost train on a fair. It was never unclear where to go. From a level design perspective that is great as it avoids frustration of the player. But there is the problem: You aren't really a player anymore here, but rather the operator of a movie. Even worse: When I found the next set of wheels to turn (a mechanic that I loved in Penumbra and A:TTD for how it immersed me into the games), I just felt like a monkey who had been given toy blocks for a few seconds. People are saying all of this is alright because you are supposed to immerse in a great story, but I disagree - I found the plot crude, stereotypical and boring.
Random other things that annoyed me:
The Journal popping up served no purpose at all since as described above it was always clear what to do next and where to go. Moreover, I couldn't relate to the text at all, but that might have been due to being annoyed by the described shortcomings. Finally, the Journal symbol would often pop up when I was climbing a ladder, while the J-key to read the text doesn't work when on a ladder - this might seem very small, but annoyed me a lot.
The not-use of the water monster: On the one hand it is there (unfortunately with silly electro effects), on the other hand it serves no purpose as I'm not in danger of being attacked. Except that one time which was over after running two meters. I didn't even get to toss flesh in the water to distract it - another puzzle chance missed.
The random naked man in the The-pigs-roam-London-scene.
(09-11-2013, 12:48 PM)Kreekakon Wrote: @wretch: Please don't repeat your posts.
Why not delete the previous one and keep the post on this page? I'm trying to talk some sense into him but he won't even see my post if it's on the 7th page.
(09-11-2013, 12:49 PM)wretch Wrote: Why not delete the previous one and keep the post on this page? I'm trying to talk some sense into him but he won't even see my post if it's on the 7th page.
If he cares enough he'll eventually find your post to respond to anyways. There's no guarantee anyone will see any of these posts as the newest page as they could very well be buried under another page of posts by the time he comes back online.
It's just common forum courtesy to not repost something again to a newer page just so you hope it gets higher exposure.
It was a few things that made this game a disappointment for me, but the largest one was the linear progression. I have never played a game that is this linear. I want to know how you guys that thought that the game was great, how did you actually enjoy walking down these linear hallways for such a large portion of the game? I mean you can't deny how linear it is, especially after you get to the part where you mix the two chemicals together. After that, without any hyperbole, it's one linear hallway to one linear catwalk to one linear steam tunnel. How can you guys play that and still have fun/find it scary?
Yeah, I felt like I was being pushed along a particular path for much of the game (locked doors left/right/center, barred gates and more). I suspect that's a consequence of the lack of inventory: since you can't carry items between areas, you can't really have any cross-area puzzles like in TDD with the Cistern area. And as a result, there isn't really any way you can have branching explorable areas that don't all just end with a big switch that moves something in the previous area (which would just be boring).
(09-11-2013, 12:31 PM)Derxor Wrote: People DO have the right to complain, and being a die hard fan, waiting for over a year and several delays just to not buy the game seems kind of well...stupid. But knowing that you aren't going to like the game beforehand and buy it anyways still seems equally "stupid". So I guess that die hard fans who had been waiting for the game for so long just had to buy it without a choice, even if they thought they weren't going to like it. But they bought it thinking the might have been wrong, you know, that maybe the game will surprise them. But when they discovered that they were right and all these elements they thought they were going to dislike they actually disliked them, they complained. So surpasing the insults I guess that you were actually right and I was wrong.
Edit: But still... don't blame it on FG, direct all your hate to TCR if you actually feel like hating on someone.
Sorry for the insult, I'm feeling as little on edge today for some reason and I tend to take it out on the first person who says something I disagree with. It was uncalled for.
Anyway, FG did make the conscious choice to let TCR develop this game, so I guess they have a bit of responsibility for how it turned out, for better or for worse. On my part, I hope they go back to a more involved gameplay experience and more exploration for their next game, whatever it might be.
(09-11-2013, 12:43 PM)wretch Wrote: The Dark Descent is one of the most popular games these couple of years, and AMFP is currently one of the highest ranking games in the "Top Seller" list of steam (it was #1 yesterday!)
You can't put FG out of business that easily, they are a success.
And what do you mean "every single game they make"? You think FG is going to be a small company forever? Lol.
It doesn't really matter whether TDD was popular or not or whether AMFP is the top seller on Steam. As long as they keep focusing on one game at a time, a single failure could mean the end of the company. Even if it doesn't completely bankrupt them, it could lead to insufficient funds or motivation to develop further games.
And it similarly doesn't matter what FG will become in the future. Right now, they are a small company developing one game at a time. The future is the future, but right now they are very vulnerable.
Just finished it. It was so beautiful. I'd give it a 7/10 because the gameplay was abit underwhelming, but everything else was 10/10, especially the story, imagery and sound. The Machine is one of the coolest places I've explored in a game. I just wish it had a was longer and more "fleshed" out, the story was amazing.
(This post was last modified: 09-11-2013, 01:31 PM by pinkribbonscars.)
^^ this "new page" shit doesn't even work if users have changed the default settings for the numbers of posts shown per page in their UserCP. Like I have. I keep seeing "bumped because of new page" in the middle of the friggin' page. Mindfulness is next to godliness!
Anyway:
My review is mainly an open love-letter to the developers; I've enclosed it in spoiler tags so that it may be more easily ignored by tl;dr types
Spoiler below!
AAMFP is a game which will undoubtedly be appreciated and respected more and more with time. When the dust settles from the initial release's explosion of knee-jerk opinion and vitriol from bratty teenagers, most of whom haven't even played the game for them-fucking-selves, I have complete faith that it will be seen as a masterpiece if it isn't already.
Samuel Justice and Jessica Curry (and anyone else involved with giving me eargasms) should be bestowed with golden ass-scratchers made from melted-down Grammy awards, because their work is beyond amazing and no actual award would suffice.
Pinchbeck's writing is so strong and full of unique character that his hand is undeniably the guiding force of the game; had I not been told The Chinese Room were making the game and that Dan Pinchbeck was writing it I'd have come away from it saying "damn, that game could almost have been made by The Chinese Room!". Fuck me them's is some goodly-written words. And coupled with the voice acting? Bloody hell what a pleasure this game was to experience.
It's a sumptuous, nourishing, fattening experience which left me feeling fulfilled and exhilarated. The game felt so thick with presence and place, it was clear to me that an ungodly amount of effort and care had gone into it. The polish, skill and attention to detail slapped me in the face with its engorged vulva in every square foot of the world I explored (that means it was good, in case you were wondering).
I've been obsessively waiting for this game since February 2012 and although the game is not what I expected it to be (I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting) it has completely and thoroughly satisfied me. Had I waited another year for the game's release I'd have loved it just as much. Playing this game on release day was an event for me (one I enjoyed in tandem with my friend Ashteroth) and I'm still buzzing from it a day later. I don't remember the last time I was this jazzed up to play a game.
How does it stand up next to The Dark Descent? Well, that's the million dollar question, the answer to which is a resounding "who gives a shit?". TDD is the scariest game I've ever played, and I adore it to this day despite having played it 100 times over. AAMFP is a very different beast. The comparisons are forgiveable because they are obviously part of the same series, but I don't feel like it's fair to pitch them against each other because they each have their own distinct feel, style, nature, whatever you want to call it. TCR did exactly what they promised they'd do with the sequel and the game needs to be taken on its own merits. Had the game been released under a different name (perhaps the same name minus the "Amnesia" part) the response would be significantly more positive right off the bat. Most of the complaints are about the lack of an inventory, sanity meter, and so on. These points would never have been raised as negatives had TDD not been so front and centre in the minds of gamers and reviewers. BOLLOCKS, I say.
It might not be as important as I think it is, but the fact that the game is not called "Amnesia 2: A Machine for Pigs" should give you a sense of what I mean. This isn't a direct sequel - which has been stated numerous times by both TCR and FG - so we all need to stop judging it as if it were.
I don't care much for "ratings" but suffice it to say I love the game and appreciate the insane amount of work that went into it.
Search
Member List
IRC
Help
AMFP Member Review Thread
![[Image: Tv0YgQb.gif]](http://i.imgur.com/Tv0YgQb.gif)
I guess that you were actually right and I was wrong.
