AMFP Member Review Thread

[Cuyir]

Needed more jumpscares so my friends and I could screech like harpies in front of a webcam and upload it on youtube.

Reading notes and paying attention to the game's universe?

You're kidding me.

[MonkEsquire]

There was no more emphasis on story than TDD. Infact I'd say there's less emphasis since TDD had voice acted notes and voice acted flashbacks where Hamnesia just had all its story telling through the notes and your journal.

[ExpectedIdentifier]

I'll keep my review short :-) Obviously this is all my own opinion.

The good:
The maps. The maps just looked fantastic. Surprised they could get maps of that size and that graphical fidelity working at a decent framerate with HPL2 (not really bothered about the lack of interactivity although a little more would have been nice..)


The sound - this may have been even better than the maps themselves, so well done.

The bad:
-The gameplay, or lack of gameplay... very repetitive fetch and put item in thing or turn valve "puzzles". By the end of the game it was basically a walking simulator, found this very disappointing. No strategically hiding or sneaking past enemies due to the level design either.

The pigs - Amnesia TDD is known for being one of the scariest games ever made, people were expecting AMFP to be scary too. The pigs were not scary whatsoever.

Linear levels!

The London scene at the end - wayy over the top, not scary, killed the game for me.. Random naked dude, pretty lolz worthy really.

Too many notes.. Find other ways to narrate the story.

No dark areas, just blue areas.. One thing I loved about TDD was the contrast between light and dark. The lantern in AMFP doesn't light up much and the levels are fairly light without it anyway..

Overall impression:
Not what I was expecting at all. This shouldn't have been advertised as a horror game but more as a story based game.

[bluel0bster]

This shouldn't have been advertised as a horror game but more as a story based game.

One might say this is more ideologically horrifying than visually horrifying. In my opinion, it has plenty of both.

[The Raining Brains]

Do you whiny lot complaining about a lack of gameplay realize that's just as bad as people complaining that the original game didn't have guns?

This is really not the same principle as the guns thing. The removal of weapons in TDD merely altered the way we played. The idea there was to emphasize the true focus. Not re-direct it.

For the record, I liked AAMFP also. But I also find it completely understandable that some people didn't. The game doesn't seem to accommodate the majority of the fanbase unfortunately.

It really comes down to one of two things. Either TCR thought their game was scarier than it actually is...or it was falsely advertised.

[bluel0bster]

This is really not the same principle as the guns thing. The removal of weapons in TDD merely altered the way we played. The idea there was to emphasize the true focus. Not re-direct it.

That's my point. Not having guns was a big deal. It emphasized the survival horror aspect of the game. My point is that the removal of some of these extraneous gameplay elements emphasizes the horror and narrative especially.

It really comes down to one of two things. Either TCR thought their game was scarier than it actually is...or it was falsely advertised.

... Or you just personally weren't scared by it. I personally was.

[General Consensus]

My review is over on http://www.theweavingknight.com/2013/09/...eview.html if anyone is interested.

For everyone else, I loved it. It might have barely constituted a "game" per say (heck, we awarded "The Walking Dead" game of the year for even less!)... But the Chinese Room should be lauded for bringing about a mature and captivating view upon some big real world topics.

Its not a game that I'd recommend to everyone, it requires something from its audience: patience and attention, something most games of today do without.

[LarryV]

Do you whiny lot complaining about a lack of gameplay realize that's just as bad as people complaining that the original game didn't have guns?

This is really not the same principle as the guns thing. The removal of weapons in TDD merely altered the way we played. The idea there was to emphasize the true focus. Not re-direct it.

For the record, I liked AAMFP also. But I also find it completely understandable that some people didn't. The game doesn't seem to accommodate the majority of the fanbase unfortunately.

It really comes down to one of two things. Either TCR thought their game was scarier than it actually is...or it was falsely advertised.

I'm going with that.

I mean, horror can be a very subjective thing and what I truly think is that TCR made a horror game but in their vision of what horror is.

I can't view this as false advertisement, imo

[The Raining Brains]

That's my point. Not having guns was a big deal. It emphasized the survival horror aspect of the game. My point is that the removal of some of these extraneous gameplay elements emphasizes the horror and narrative especially.

... Or you just personally weren't scared by it. I personally was.

Yes but it's not really that black and white. It's about balance and how all of the different elements of the game relate to one another. TDD achieved that balance by removing weapons. AMFP took it slightly too far. Just slightly.

Also I didn't say I wasn't scared by it. I was at first. It's just that there weren't enough scary moments. It was like being built up then let down.

[crisosphinx]

AAMFP: 1/10
ATDD: 9/10



Though The Dark Descent was something of a scary and weird game, the ending was severely lacking in fulfillment. I knock off one point for that and for some of the weird issues I received all along the way. It was the scariest game I've ever played, just because you were helpless.


A Machine for Pigs has been thoroughly disappointing. I love the sounds, I love the new bits of the environment... BUT HONESTLY? It's a freaking mod! The characters glitch everywhere, the textures are broken when the models are scaled up (I'm only an hour into the game, maybe two and everywhere, this is apparent!), AND WOW... THE ANIMATIONS ARE HORRENDOUS. Even items from The Dark Descent were used! There are no puzzles, there is no inventory, nothing to invoke curiosity...

Not to disrespect The Chinese Room, but, holy crap, I'd have animated these characters better for you, FOR FREE. I would've taken time out of my own schedule to MAKE THEM LOOK GOOD.

The lack of immersiveness, lack of items to move or carry, the lack of hiding spots, the blatant scripted deaths, a totally foreseeable game, and a lack of scary monsters makes this such a freakin' boar (pun intended).

I'm sorry, but no. Just no. I spent money on something that I want to quit. I loved Dear Esther because it had a POINT. There was a reason for it. This, I'm not seeing any reasons.

1/10 for the nicer materials on your newly modeled items. Good normal maps, good diffuse and specular maps. Nice job on the environments. But everything else... No.