Disappointed with AAMFP

[PutraenusAlivius]

It seems like you only care about the scares and didn't give a shit about the story.

Since TCR is a pro in story telling, AAMFP is in favor for Story more, but less for scares.
I mean the dead children and pigs. They kinda get into you, y'know?

Like bluel0bster said, some crazy shit goes on behind the curtain. That means something crazy is happening BEHIND the curtain, not in front.
What I mean is shit happens in the Story, not in the scares.

[Diango12]

Previously they promised the community a game that would make the "TDD veteran quiver in fear". That clearly is not what they have presented us with. Perhaps you disagree? Do you find this game scary at all?

I would be completely okay without these mechanics as long as it was a scary game, but it is not. Something is missing, and I believe it is these core mechanics from TDD. I am just telling you why I think the game is bad. And no.. there is nothing stupid about that.

I find the game more intellectually horrifying. In other words, just thinking about what the narrative is saying is really scary. Some crazy shit goes on behind the curtain, if you pay close attention. You don't always see it, but it's way more disturbing than what happens in TDD in my opinion.

I agree with this to an extent. Everyone is going to have their own experience and while for most people the playthrough was about 4 hours, it took me a solid 7 to finish. The implied horror and ambiguous expositions didn't deliver all the way through.

Early game spoiler:

Spoiler below!

The scariest moment for me in the game was entering the secret walls of the mansion and discovering that the walls used to house a resident, most likely Mandus himself, and that he had rigged the paintings to be see through one way. There was a see through painting looking directly at a bathtub and he had drawn some really disturbing pictures all around. The whole scene just screamed terrifying obsession.

Sadly thats the only scare I got out AAMFP. The story was simply too dry and I feel like TCR tried to hard to be ambiguous, but did not have substance. The remaining horrible discoveries were so very predictable by the time I had some evidence that they happened it didn't really phase me.

[Draug]

What atmosphere is everyone talking about? The sound of pounding machinery and lack of chase music removed any type of a sense of dread brought about by suspenseful and terrifying music, a key element of scare factor in any type of game. This was a key element of TDD imo. Rich story? The lack of a twist and the painful predictability more like. The horror element was piss poor and the story average at best, not even gonna talk about the gameplay.

Fully agree. AMFP is inferior to TDD in every possible way.
Story was obvious from title and first 15 minutes of play: protag's wife died, children are probably dead too, he built a machine that has something to do with pigs and probably turning men into pigs, now he's going to go thru guilt trip and commit suicide.

I see you totally understand the story... "has something to do with pigs"... very obvious.

[Kreekakon]

The lack of a twist

Where do you get the idea that a good horror story, or any story for that matter requires a twist to be good?

[Sanji202]

... why... how... how could they fail so hard with this game. All they had to do was keep all the mechanics from "The dark descent" and implement the new story and new environment. Apparently that was to much to ask.


This game had so much potential, but the following points ruined it all:

-The lantern now has infinite oil.

-Not that it makes much of a difference, since they removed the darkness mechanic. Your character no longer starts to shiver in fear after long periods in the dark.

-In addition, the enemies are pathetic. You can take several hits without dying. You will also regenerate health... YES... REGENERATE... this is not F#%&ING CALL OF DUTY.


This is a gigantic disappointment. Massive fail!

The lantern has an infinite light source and from memory some of the letters in the game allude to how that is.

As for the rest of your extraneous complaints it seems you have completely missed the point. Rather than complain about what has been removed why don't you see what this game is doing? It's purely story driven, it puts you in a position of complete exposure and uncertainty, it has a thought provoking story and as for the enemies I fail to see how it matters how many hits it takes for the player to die because once again, that's not the point. Your health can regenerate in TDD too by the way.

I was expecting a video game, not Dear Esther 2.

[PutraenusAlivius]

... why... how... how could they fail so hard with this game. All they had to do was keep all the mechanics from "The dark descent" and implement the new story and new environment. Apparently that was to much to ask.


This game had so much potential, but the following points ruined it all:

-The lantern now has infinite oil.

-Not that it makes much of a difference, since they removed the darkness mechanic. Your character no longer starts to shiver in fear after long periods in the dark.

-In addition, the enemies are pathetic. You can take several hits without dying. You will also regenerate health... YES... REGENERATE... this is not F#%&ING CALL OF DUTY.


This is a gigantic disappointment. Massive fail!

The lantern has an infinite light source and from memory some of the letters in the game allude to how that is.

As for the rest of your extraneous complaints it seems you have completely missed the point. Rather than complain about what has been removed why don't you see what this game is doing? It's purely story driven, it puts you in a position of complete exposure and uncertainty, it has a thought provoking story and as for the enemies I fail to see how it matters how many hits it takes for the player to die because once again, that's not the point. Your health can regenerate in TDD too by the way.

I was expecting a video game, not Dear Esther 2.

Do you even know that The Chinese Room made this, not FG?

[Artyom]

... why... how... how could they fail so hard with this game. All they had to do was keep all the mechanics from "The dark descent" and implement the new story and new environment. Apparently that was to much to ask.


This game had so much potential, but the following points ruined it all:

-The lantern now has infinite oil.

-Not that it makes much of a difference, since they removed the darkness mechanic. Your character no longer starts to shiver in fear after long periods in the dark.

-In addition, the enemies are pathetic. You can take several hits without dying. You will also regenerate health... YES... REGENERATE... this is not F#%&ING CALL OF DUTY.


This is a gigantic disappointment. Massive fail!

The lantern has an infinite light source and from memory some of the letters in the game allude to how that is.

As for the rest of your extraneous complaints it seems you have completely missed the point. Rather than complain about what has been removed why don't you see what this game is doing? It's purely story driven, it puts you in a position of complete exposure and uncertainty, it has a thought provoking story and as for the enemies I fail to see how it matters how many hits it takes for the player to die because once again, that's not the point. Your health can regenerate in TDD too by the way.

I was expecting a video game, not Dear Esther 2.

Maybe amnesia isn't your type of game then.

[felixmole]

-In addition, the enemies are pathetic. You can take several hits without dying. You will also regenerate health... YES... REGENERATE... this is not F#%&ING CALL OF DUTY.

Did you know that in TDD, your health regenerated by itself too?

I think what lacks in this game, are encounters like in TDD where monsters could break through doors. The chases sequences aren't intense because the music and the terror meter (which sounds like a steam-powered train) are too low.

As to the rest... the lantern and the oil, seriously, who cares. AMFP has its own way to force the player to use their lantern by making some levels very dark and by implementing a very poor night vision.

[Janakev]

And the storytelling in TDD wasn't passive? All one did in TDD was walk down hallways, hide from monsters and do puzzles. The levels were slightly less linear but still linear (ie you could technically go to an area before the other but oftentimes you'd have to backtrack to find the items that were in the other rooms). That's still linear design. And besides, why do people care so much about it being linear? Some of the best games i've played have been linear. It's all about how a developer uses it and TCR used it well. And how did TCR use that linearity? To tell a cohesive and well written story and to show off their level design skills. TDD's levels were boring. You really can't do much with a setting such as a castle but I found it lacking. While in AMFP the level design is such a treat to behold.

I must strongly disagree with this. Both were linear games but I felt AMfP hid it far worse than TDD. In TDD you can at least branch off and even circle around; it may only be an illusion of freedom but at least there is that illusion. In AMfP doors are conspicuously locked across the game and you're funnelled along corridors. I never felt as if I had a real choice except to push on.

While AMfP had some beautiful aesthetic choices in its architecture and the scale and design of the machinery I wouldn't say the design of the levels was good in terms of its ability to disguise its linearity or otherwise provide a convincing world.

I barely remember any setpieces from TDD besides the water chase sequence and the ending. That's it. The game was such a hit in youtube and such because people tended to play it as a haunted attraction and ignored the meh writing. It seemed like such a lost opportunity to me, especially after playing through the Penumbra series years before. I came into the game being so excited and by the time the credits rolled I was a little disappointed. I know FG can write a good story, they did so with the Penumbra series so hopefully their secret project delivers. So far it looks like they're on the right road.

Funnily, it's because of Penumbra that I enjoyed TDD so much. It retained what I loved about it while improving on those aspects. AMfP... the puzzles felt far less rewarding to complete and in all honesty I just didn't enjoy the narrative.

I scoured the game to find every note I could, as I've done in the rest but I've still come away shaking my head in confusion about most of it. I won't cry pretension but I do get a feeling of vagueness for its own sake.

And so far the writing in AMFP has been, with all due respect to FG, incredibly better than FG's attempts in TDD. FG's usual Lovecraft tribute-y writing started well and then it fell flat and turned dreadfully boring and uninteresting. TCR are skilled at storytelling and it's pretty obvious to me.

Again, we've had opposite experiences. The writing in AMfP has left me deeply dissatisfied and it's because despite finding every note I've still come away with more questions than answers as to what was going on. Maybe it's that I tried to much to tie the narratives of TDD and AMfP together but frankly when they share the same title--and indeed, there are a number of references to the events of TDD--I don't think that's unreasonable.

While TDD focused almost purely on scares and atmosphere, AMFP focused on storytelling and a more cerebral fear, a less jump scare-y fear. And don't get me started on the useless sanity system, i've already talked enough about it.

I would contend that it was AMfP that relied on jump scares: the monsters that are mostly glimpsed than being real threats, the constant (and very irritating in how cliché it is) chatter of the children, the music which further directed one's attention in a very pointed manner... And it all only served to pull me out and remind me that I was playing a game.

The story in AMFP isn't a ''who-dunnit'' or the usual, it's deeper than that but that'd require actually immersing one's self into the game and paying attention.

And Daniel?

Easy to bond with?

He was a coward that was afraid of his own shadow. At least Mandus was screwed up by his wife's death and that trip to Mexico. Not only is Mandus a better written character but he's also a more interesting one. There wasn't a single character worth writing about in TDD (besides Justine but that's just my bias towards me liking female characters). He actually had beliefs, passion and the intelligence to do what he thought was right...regardless of how insane and wrong placed those three characteristics were.

I've already said my piece about Mandus elsewhere so I'll just quote it:

I'll be slated for saying this, I'm sure but I have to go with Daniel. Mandus feels... almost cartoonish in his villainy. He's the archetypal "well-intentioned extremist" who damns humanity to save it from itself. I couldn't connect with him because everything he does is so much larger than life, like a Dickensian villain who's been turned up to hyperbolic proportions.

Daniel, for me, is the classic tragic hero who dooms himself in his attempts to save himself. He starts out looking for something to take back to the British Museum, maybe motivated by personal glory as well but still a noble pursuit. His pursuit by the shadow, his slow slipping into evil--contrast his initial reluctance to do wrong with the flashback at the alter near the choir where he chides Alexander for interrupting him in cutting a man and later expresses concern that another will be killed 'too quickly'--realisation of what he's become and his attempts to undo his evil.

I suppose Mandus has that in common with him but as I've said, it's hampered somewhat by how ludicrous it all is. I never got a sense that Mandus wrestled with his conscience, he just snaps and throws himself off the deep end. Daniel just feels more personal; he's pushed by desperation into doing what he does. His evils are much more personal as the pain and fear he inflicts isn't simply lost in numbers. He isn't jovial in his insanity (cf. the note about Selwyn (I forget his title)), he's clinical interspersed with bouts of guilt.

I'll happily discuss all of that, I'd be interested to hear differing opinions on it.

Mandus's pontificating was just that and only made worse by the copious purple prose. It was tiresome instead of profound.

[Tesseract]

I was expecting a video game, not Dear Esther 2.

Dear Esther and AMFP are not the same thing from what I recall, though both games are quite poetic and thought provoking. I still think you have missed the point.