Disappointed with AAMFP

[Cuyir]

I haven't really voiced my complaints here other than my first reply to this thread but i just want to say that a big part of why people (or at least me) are a bit disappointed with the game is because it has the name Amnesia in it's title and most of the marketing implied that it would be Amnesia 2. People were expecting Amnesia and they got something a bit different. Not that the game is bad but i feel a bit misled.

You made yourself misled, the title and change of developer should tell you exactly what to expect.

[Fortigurn]

I haven't really voiced my complaints here other than my first reply to this thread but i just want to say that a big part of why people (or at least me) are a bit disappointed with the game is because it has the name Amnesia in it's title and most of the marketing implied that it would be Amnesia 2. People were expecting Amnesia and they got something a bit different. Not that the game is bad but i feel a bit misled.

Clearly you have no one to blame but yourself. Let's review.

1. When the developers showed you a video of what they claimed MFP was 'shaping up to become', you should have understood what they really meant was that MFP was shaping up to become something different.

2. When the developers said MFP would be a 'survival horror' game, you should have understood what they really meant was that MFP would not be a survival horror game.

3. When the developers said 'You have to use all the tools in front of you, whether they're physics or AI or script', you should have understood what they really meant was 'You only have to use a few of the tools in front of you, and physics is one you can pretty much do without'.

4. When the developer said game designers should not 'obsess about having to tell the player everything', you should have known that what they really meant was 'We're designing a game which tells the player virtually everything, in a massive series of over 100 items of in game literature'.

5. When the developers said 'People want to be in believable, immersive worlds, they want to be able to construct those chains of plot and meaning - if you give them the tools to do so', you should have understood that what they really meant was 'People want to be in believable, immersive worlds, they want to be able to construct those chains of plot and meaning - but MFP won't give them all the tools to do so'.

6. When the developers said 'I hate being handheld too much in games', you should have understood that what they really meant was 'I think people who play MFP should have their hands held'.

7. When the developers said 'So that’s something we’ve tried to get at the core of Amnesia. The fear of dying', you should have understood that what they really meant was 'We've designed the game so it's impossible to die 90% of the time, and there are only about four life threatening encounters'.

8. When the developers said 'It’s fairly true to the spirit of the original game', you should have understood that what they really meant was 'It's fairly different to the spirit of the original game'.

9. When the developers said 'There’s a definite case of ‘don’t fix what isn’t broken’', what they really meant was 'We've 'fixed' a bunch of things we thought were broken, by removing them completely'.

10. When the developers said 'So yeah, there’s a bit more evidence of humanity. It’s not just you and the Grunts in the way that Dark Descent was', you should have understood that what they really meant was 'It’s not just you and the Grunts in the way that Dark Descent was, it's just you and the Pigmen'.

11. When 'Pinchbeck explained that The Chinese Room tried to look at protecting the sense of it being an Amnesia game and really belonging to the design template that was set up by its predecessor', you should have know that what he really meant was 'Mechanics will probably never be our core focus', and 'We decided to make a game which didn't really belong to the design template that was set up by its predecessor'.

12. When 'Pinchbeck explained he will be really disappointed if they don’t get as many cool YouTube videos of people having fits - with this new Amnesia game - as they did with Amnesia: The Dark Descent', you should have know that what he really meant was they were deliberately designing a game which was not for the screaming Youtube players.

13. When Pinchbeck said 'But the key thing is how do we protect the Amnesia experience and make sure it feels like an Amnesia game to people who’ve played a lot of it', you should have known that what he really meant was 'But the key thing is not how do we protect the Amnesia experience, and we make sure it does not feel like an Amnesia game to people who've played a lot of it'.

14. When Pinchbeck said 'The central tension in Amnesia remains the same: If you’ve got the lantern on you can see, but creatures can see you. That’s going to remain at the center of this but with a slightly different twist', you should have known that what he really meant was 'The central tension in Amnesia will be different: If you’ve got the lantern on you can see, but creatures can see you, and there's going to be a very different twist; you can use the light without it ever going out, staying in the dark will have absolutely no effect on your gameplay, and monsters will be able to see you in the dark anyway'.

I find you guilty of believing the developers were writing in English and saying what they meant.

[Wvlfy]

Just started up the "great machine" in my playthrough for Youtube and... it's not so horrifying and for all the reasons Fortigurn mentioned. I barely spent time running for my life, solved "puzzles" that had almost absolutely no threats, and read notes that gave away so much of the story before I was even halfway through the game.

There was a formula in TDD that I enjoyed: Discover puzzle, discover part of solution, hide from monster, repeat until the puzzle was solved, then make a frantic rush to the exit before the monster finds me. I still remember breaking a lock on the gate, then hearing that telltale growl and screech that made me panic and fumble with the door. I expected the same thing from MFP when I placed the acid on the lock and it exploded. I sat there, scratching my arse while waiting for an army of pigmen to rush up the stairs to eat me. NOTHING HAPPENED. Even when I was sabotaging the machine, the pigmen couldn't even keep pace with me.

The atmosphere is macabre, I'll give MFP that, but it isn't as fear-inducing as TDD.

[Quizerno]

Perhaps I should have been clearer. A lot (i.e. the majority) of the criticism I have seen/read can be traced to a frustration with new, unfamiliar experiences and an expectation of the same formula with a different map and character. Not all, of course, but many.

An "unfamiliar experience" isn't the problem. The problem is that it bears little connection to original in terms of mechanics despite being marketed as the sequel.

People wanted more Amnesia, but they would have accepted some leeway. Say you remove the inventory, but make the puzzles more intricate and complex? Or you replace the sanity mechanic with needing to catch your breath after you've run from a monster?

Anyway, many of the loud noises (many made by the machine) were events occurring within the game, though not immediately consequentional to the player. The Machine moves and people are slaughtered (indirectly by YOUR hand). How is this not scary? Something doesn't need to be immediately threatening to be horrifying.

No, it doesn't need to be threatening, but it needs to mean something in order to garner any sense of connection with the player. Otherwise it's just noise.

At first, the rumbling in TDD seemed just atmospheric, but then when it became harsher and the flesh started to grow on the walls, you understood that it meant the Shadow was moving. It may not have been scary, but you knew what the purpose was.

In AMFP the noise doesn't mean anything to player other than "the machine is rumbling." So does my dryer, does that mean my dryer makes pig-people?

But I guess, here we come to a simple matter of personal preferance.

Sure. No denying that.

Haha, that was funny , but I don't think you need to use your brain a lot in TDD, either.

Perhaps not, but TDD at least gives you goals and expects that you can follow through with them.

[peablo]

Right, because it was such a huge loss to be able to pick up a book and throw it pointlessly. =/

I did miss it

xD

[Quizerno]

Right, because it was such a huge loss to be able to pick up a book and throw it pointlessly. =/

I did miss it

xD

So did I.

I agree it was a mistake to remove interactivity.

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

Do you have a source on that?

[Simba]

so far i like AAMFP the fact of no sanity and inventory kinda bugged me as that takes away the looking for items and having to keep your lantern fueled

[Cuyir]

Right, because it was such a huge loss to be able to pick up a book and throw it pointlessly. =/

I did miss it

xD

So did I.

I agree it was a mistake to remove interactivity.

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

Do you have a source on that?

It's buried on the forums but TCR has said that engine limitations were the cause.

[Fortigurn]

It's buried on the forums but TCR has said that engine limitations were the cause.

That sounds really odd to me. It clearly wasn't a limit on the original Amnesia, so why did it suddenly become impossible?

[VaeVictis]

An "unfamiliar experience" isn't the problem. The problem is that it bears little connection to original in terms of mechanics despite being marketed as the sequel.

People wanted more Amnesia, but they would have accepted some leeway. Say you remove the inventory, but make the puzzles more intricate and complex? Or you replace the sanity mechanic with needing to catch your breath after you've run from a monster?

Except that it was stated from the beginning that AMFP was going to be a distant sequel, meaning a few loose connections and within the same universe. The 'catching your breath thing' is an interesting idea, but I honestly don't think it would have stopped people from complaining without good reason.

At first, the rumbling in TDD seemed just atmospheric, but then when it became harsher and the flesh started to grow on the walls, you understood that it meant the Shadow was moving. It may not have been scary, but you knew what the purpose was.

In AMFP the noise doesn't mean anything to player other than "the machine is rumbling." So does my dryer, does that mean my dryer makes pig-people?

Sorry if I'm misreading your post, but are you not seeing the parallel between the Shadow and Machine, given your description? As you descend into the Machine, it becomes more menacing, especially in view of what Mandus discovers about the connection between himself and it.