Disappointed with AAMFP

[Draug]

For people saying it's story based please don't lie to yourselves, it wasn't scary... end of story. Sure the story was interesting enough but I expected this to be horror and TCR said it was horror but it really wasn't horror at all...

Please don't speak for other people.

[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.

[Darkchef]

For people saying it's story based please don't lie to yourselves, it wasn't scary... end of story. Sure the story was interesting enough but I expected this to be horror and TCR said it was horror but it really wasn't horror at all...

Please don't speak for other people.

I wasn't speaking for you and if you can't take an opinion then you will struggle in life.

[Draug]

For people saying it's story based please don't lie to yourselves, it wasn't scary... end of story. Sure the story was interesting enough but I expected this to be horror and TCR said it was horror but it really wasn't horror at all...

Please don't speak for other people.

I wasn't speaking for you and if you can't take an opinion then you will struggle in life.

"For people saying it's story based please don't lie to yourselves, it wasn't scary... end of story." doesn't sound like you can take another opinion serious. I say it's story based and I find it was scary (not on the same level like TDD), end of story... so? Which genre would match to aamfp in your opinion? Imo it's a great horror tale in the style of HPL.

[Kreekakon]

I wasn't speaking for you and if you can't take an opinion then you will struggle in life.

The way you worded it very well seem like you were:

For people saying it's story based please don't lie to yourselves, it wasn't scary... end of story. Sure the story was interesting enough but I expected this to be horror and TCR said it was horror but it really wasn't horror at all...

The bolded sentence implies that the people who did think it was scary were completely ignorant, and weren't really scared.

If that's not trying to force your opinion on other people I don't know what is. Even if you didn't mean this initially I would greatly recommend you word your sentences so you don't come across as that way.

[Tesseract]

For people saying it's story based please don't lie to yourselves, it wasn't scary... end of story. Sure the story was interesting enough but I expected this to be horror and TCR said it was horror but it really wasn't horror at all...

Please don't speak for other people.

I wasn't speaking for you and if you can't take an opinion then you will struggle in life.

"For people saying it's story based please don't lie to yourselves"

That is not an opinion, you're implying that people who say the game is good are in denial.

I sure as hell am not, I'm serious when I say the game terrified me and I'm serious when I say that I think it's a brilliant game.

[Alardem]

For people saying it's story based please don't lie to yourselves, it wasn't scary... end of story. Sure the story was interesting enough but I expected this to be horror and TCR said it was horror but it really wasn't horror at all...

Please don't speak for other people.

I wasn't speaking for you and if you can't take an opinion then you will struggle in life.

It's amazing how all the nay-sayers happen to be both arrogant and rude.

[Doomed316]

I agree it was a mistake to remove interactivity.

Note that this was made for technical reasons. Blame the outdated engine, I guess.

HPL2 was used for TDD adn amnesia a machine for pigs used the same engine. TDD had tons of interactivity with the environment and much more. Now we have almost everything besides chairs that are mystically bolted down for no reason. I can understand the bolted drawers but seriously? I can't screw around with the physics anymore? I like the idea of blocking doors and stuff but seeing that is not in this game and the monsters don't really burst open doors as much, I guess blocking doors is not necessary. I just wish I could at least pick up a hammer and give me a false sense of security.

[Khelim]

AMFP looks bleak in the shadow of TDD. Less immersion, less bonding with protagonist (quite early in the game story becomes obvious and I had this "Mandus, you pig, die already" feeling), no thrill or horror-factors, no interesting sanity management mechanic etc etc.
If we strip the Amnesia part from game title, A Machine for Pigs is much Dear Esther 2.0 (for good or bad), yet it was marketed as Amnesia game which is disappointing.
Wish I played TCR's Dear Esther (which I got really cheap on one of Humble Indie Bundles) before pre-ordering AMFP. In that cause I would skip AMFP and wait for next title by Frictional Games instead.

Of course it's up to Frictional Games how to use their IP, but fanbase expects some standards to be respected. Penumbra: Overture, Black Plague, The Dark Descent.... and now this.

(I omitted mentioning Requiem on purpose, it deviates from first two games' gameplay for sake of finalizing storytelling).

[Darkchef]

For people saying it's story based please don't lie to yourselves, it wasn't scary... end of story. Sure the story was interesting enough but I expected this to be horror and TCR said it was horror but it really wasn't horror at all...

Please don't speak for other people.

I wasn't speaking for you and if you can't take an opinion then you will struggle in life.

"For people saying it's story based please don't lie to yourselves, it wasn't scary... end of story." doesn't sound like you can take another opinion serious. I say it's story based and I find it was scary (not on the same level like TDD), end of story... so? Which genre would match to aamfp in your opinion? Imo it's a great horror tale in the style of HPL.

What I meant is that there was no real challenge presented, in TDD this was perfectly executed but in aamfp like I literally just stood there staring at an enemy and all it did was squeek for ages before it started to attack which was then slow. The lack of sanity effects didn't help things either. All i'm saying is it seemed to be too easy on the player.

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I wasn't speaking for you and if you can't take an opinion then you will struggle in life.

The way you worded it very well seem like you were:

For people saying it's story based please don't lie to yourselves, it wasn't scary... end of story. Sure the story was interesting enough but I expected this to be horror and TCR said it was horror but it really wasn't horror at all...

The bolded sentence implies that the people who did think it was scary were completely ignorant, and weren't really scared.

If that's not trying to force your opinion on other people I don't know what is. Even if you didn't mean this initially I would greatly recommend you word your sentences so you don't come across as that way.

No not at all, if people did find it scary then great because I wish i did... I just didn't get anything from it. What I actually meant in my post is that it seems to me like people are just trying to be convinced that it was scary. But maybe I just expected too much, i've been waiting for this for like a year or more and with all the hype I expected something that was a little more hard hitting...

---

For people saying it's story based please don't lie to yourselves, it wasn't scary... end of story. Sure the story was interesting enough but I expected this to be horror and TCR said it was horror but it really wasn't horror at all...

Please don't speak for other people.

I wasn't speaking for you and if you can't take an opinion then you will struggle in life.

"For people saying it's story based please don't lie to yourselves"

That is not an opinion, you're implying that people who say the game is good are in denial.

I sure as hell am not, I'm serious when I say the game terrified me and I'm serious when I say that I think it's a brilliant game.

Really? Well I wish I could say the same thing...