The reviews Elysium syndrome

[Cuyir]

Like i've stated numerous times:

I spent 80 percent of the game in the dark and crouched. The distorted vision, the bugs and the clicking didn't affect me personally nor did they seem to bother Daniel much. The only times when the sanity system actually worked like it was supposed to was during scripted scenes.

I started this topic to defend AAMFP from unfair reviews and opinions but I must disagree with you. The character was barely controlable at low sanity, not to mention that dreadful rustling sound. As I said before - half of it gave TDD more game-ish feel, particularly the syren sound when looking at monsters.

Errr.... those ''low sanity'' moments were all scripted or if you stared at the monsters for too long (just like in Penumbra).

That doesn't disprove what I said...at all.

Like I said before, the post you quoted, I spent most of the game in the dark and I was doing just fine. And so was Daniel.

[Bucic]

Errr.... those ''low sanity'' moments were all scripted or if you stared at the monsters for too long (just like in Penumbra).

That doesn't disprove what I said...at all.

Like I said before, the post you quoted, I spent most of the game in the dark and I was doing just fine. And so was Daniel.

Did you play the current version of ATDD (as of today)?

AAMFP:
Wow! So rivetting so far. It took me 1.5 hours to get to the first fuse box so I have no idea how anyone could finish the whole game in 4 hours. Always running? Playing it like it was CoD?

[Cuyir]

Did they fix the sanity system? I played it quite a while ago.

[Bucic]

Did they fix the sanity system? I played it quite a while ago.

I don't know It could be they tweaked it. I spoke with people playing outdated versions of Amnesia TDD complaining about level bugs I've never seens, so...

[Babomancer]

AAMFP:
Wow! So rivetting so far. It took me 1.5 hours to get to the first fuse box so I have no idea how anyone could finish the whole game in 4 hours. Always running? Playing it like it was CoD?

I finished in 4-5 hours, and I was by no means rushing. The game is just not very long (and I don't think 1.5 hours to the first fuse box is particularly long, IIRC).

Incidentally, I don't think the "Elysium syndrome" has very much at all to do with the scores this game is getting. It's a completely different issue: AMFP was developed by a different developer with a different agenda than the original team, and it's very very VERY obvious in the design choices. If you realize this and you like both developers' prior works, then you're probably going to like AMFP. Most people don't realize this or don't care or simply don't like Dear Esther / AMFP type games.

The game really shouldn't be compared with TDD because it's completely different, the only major relationships being the presentation, basic game design choices, and a loose connection to the original story. But that's just the nature of sequels, people are going to compare them, and when you combine these "failed expectations" with the scores you would expect from a Dear Esther-esque game, you get precisely the kind of scores this game is getting.

Compare:
Dear Esther | Critic: 7.5, User: 6.5
AAMFP | Critic: 7.2, User: 5.7

(Also compare the distributions of positive, neutral, and negative reviews)

...QED

[Bucic]

I've read some more of the >legitimized trolling<. I thought it would be all different if TCR named the game without using the word 'Amnesia', but no. Now I know it would not help at all. They would still claim TCR has some obligation to make games like A TDD. Would they like a game that is simillar to A TDD? No. They consider A TDD a damn template to be followed.

One more aspect of this whole thing. Obviously clown-playthroughs (as by PewDiePie) brought popularity to Penumbra series and Amnesia but it backfired now as it turned out this clown-playthroughs phenomenon doesn't bring a crowd that appreciates deeper gameplay aspects, as often described on Frictional Games own blog.

The parade of simpletons continues...

[jd1802]

I was just reading the forum rules and... ''… knows that having a different opinion doesn’t imply stupidity.'' I think a lot of you should know that cause all I see here is a lot of arguing and insulting just because not everyone can see the game the way you did. For me inventory and sanity effects didnt break immersion but well that was for ME if those aspects of TDD broke immersion for you then lucky you AMFP doesnt have any of that. But just because some people were expecting a lot of scares and puzzles doesnt give you the right to call them dumb or stupid and well it obviously doesnt give them the right to say that the game sucks. Just... Be happy with whatever game you liked and if you didnt enjoy AMFP completely like me then just wait for the next Frictional Games game that Im sure its gonna be more enjoyable to me than AMFP.

[Paddy™]

I've read some bits of AAMFP reviews on the internet and it seems to me that the Elysium syndrome is on the loose (from the reviews of the recent Sci-Fi film). What is the Elysium syndrome? Well, basically it's the reviewer coming up with some out of thin air expectations, some of which are unrealistic, and scoring a negative point in the review for each of his expectation that the game has not met. Then, to top this, he scores down for some completely subjective evaluation of an in-game implementation, e.g. the particular reviewer fell in love with the sanity effect from the Amnesia TDD, BAM!, 2 out of 10 points down for AAMFP for not having the said effect.

How long have you had the ability to see into the souls of people you've never met?

From my rep:

me - "but boiling down all of the criticisms to "it's not like Amnesia therefore I hate it" is ridiculous" - you - but it covers 95% of the criticism that is going on.

Debates are generally better conducted on the forum or through PMs rather than the rep system, but do you have any data to support your claim that 95% of the criticism is as baseless as you, Dan and Jess are claiming? A 72 on MetaCritic kinda puts a dent in that theory, does it not? That score isn't even representative of the general feeling towards the game; it's much higher when you take into account all of the reviews which don't appear on MetaCritic. Check the last post of the Info Portal for a full list of reviews and look at the scores listed there.

While you're there you might want to read all of the AAMFP-related articles too (as I have, seeing as how I compiled them all) from 2012 up until around September 2013. When you read those articles, which include interviews with the developers, do you come away from them with a clear understanding that AAMFP is obviously going to be significantly different from TDD? Despite loving the game and disagreeing with the critics I have to be honest and say that the coverage has been vague at best and entirely off the mark at worst, at least with regards to the "how can anyone have possibly expected AAMFP to be like TDD?" point. The expectations of the reviewers are not the result of any syndrome, nor are they evidence of their stone-aged ideas about what games can be or how immersion is best achieved; their opinions are completely valid. I disagree with them, but they're valid.

[Bucic]

@jd1802
Some of the reasoning I've seen indicates almost that... Also the proportions i.e. how for many the fact that they don't like some subjective element of the game makes them throw tons of shit at the game so easily. It's like TCR have had released AAMFP with placegolder textures, themselves doing the voice acting and the story being a rip-off of Pocahontas. The difference between critics and users rating at Metacritic tells a lot and not necessarily what the negative scoring users would like it to be...

And my recent favorite from other forums, used against the game of cours - "EVEN PewDiePie couldn't finish it, it was that bad". Cracked me up!

Two other things.
1. I've noticed that people can't even get through their praise for the game >unless< they open the paragraph with "Maybe AAMFP is not as good as A TDD was but..."
2. People saying they liked the different approach of AAMFP are labeled "hipsters" i.e. to say that they like something for the sake of it being different.

I'd really like the FG forums to introduce per-user posts marking so that I could mark the Amnesia-template fans or exploiters and not be exposed to their posts. I've seen such scripts for internet browsers in the past.

[exmachinax]

A first person horror game where the only gameplay, since the days of Black Plague, has been walking, reading, puzzles, hiding and running away...has less gameplay elements and less interactivity because they removed two immersion breaking mechanics (inventory and sanity meter) and because physics affect less items in the game?
Really?

Yes. The "physics affectting less objects" is huge for me. It harkens back to the concept of immersive simulators. In TDD the physics was consistent, it helped me believe I was in a consistently logical world despite all the supernatural things going on. Helps gives a sense of immersion, of "reality". In AMFP it just shows the Game Designer Hand, just show how artificial the world is: If the all powerfull Game Designer wants, I can move this object, if he does not want, I cannot. Thus, it less believable game world for me.