[Spoilers] How I felt after completing AMFP.

[Kitsuki]

Hi all,
I apologise if I shouldn’t have made a new thread for this, but there were so many out there I wasn’t sure where to post! Also i’m sorry if I sound somewhat like a broken record, I know many threads have covered certain points i’m about to make, but I had to do this.

Second let me just say, i’m not here to whine and complain and tell Frictional games they’re failures, I am a HUGE Frictional Games fan, I think they’re a fantastic company that really know what makes a horror game and they absolutely nailed it with The Dark Descent (I bought it four times for four different people – they never asked for it, but I just needed an excuse to support FG financially).

I’ve never done this before, i’m not the type of person to openly express my opinion on a game, if I play a bad game I usually just shrug and move on, but I sincerely hope Frictional Games take what criticism they receive and learn from it. I wholeheartedly hope they continue to make more Amnesia games in the future. Also I completely understand many of you have different opinions on AMFP, and that’s fine I am not speaking for the entire Amnesia populace.

Anyway! The TLDR version: Having waited for so long for it, I was literally on the edge of my seat when it came out, and I have to admit, after completing it, the only emotion I felt was that of sheer disappointment.

We completed it in four hours, now I don’t tend to bomb through games I like to fully explore every room, every crook and cranny, but we were shocked to see how short a game it was (given how much the release date had been pushed back). We also felt a lot of the freedom you had in the Dark Descent was taken away in AMFP, given that there was no inventory system, the game clearly did not want you picking up just anything. You were only allowed to pick up what could be used in a puzzle, otherwise, everything was there for show. Whereas in the Dark Descent, I have to admit I had a lot of fun throwing random books and vials around the room! There were also a lot of invisible walls, which I can completely understand are needed to stop the player from venturing somewhere they shouldn’t be going, but on a couple of occasions we became trapped due to a bug and ended up having to reload from half an hour ago.

We did encounter quite a few bugs (we even fell through the skybox at one point) but I am not too bothered about the bugs, more about the game itself.

We went through the entire game without too much hassle. The trailer showed a pigman breaking a door down – we saw nothing like that. The encounters were rare and easy to avoid.

Where was the music! Music plays a big part in creating an atmosphere, and when you heard the trademark music in Dark Descent which meant something was near, I **** my pants! I know some of you find the eerie silence more frightening, but I was disappointed at the lack of mob music, and the flickering of the lantern merely became somewhat of an annoyance for me.

The puzzles were so easy, anything you needed was in that very room or a couple of rooms away, it never had us stumped for long.

It was far too humorous in some places, (the part where you walk into the prison section and the pig runs at you, being yanked back by its own chain, made me laugh. Also the part where you look down at the patrolling piggies, and one of them smacks the other.) It made us laugh, which is nice, but not what we were looking for in a real horror.

The infinite oil and no need for tinderboxes (I know many of you have touched on this) gave us nothing to worry about, no sense of ‘survival’ in keeping an eye on diminishing resources, same with the lack of health and insanity, we were free to do what we want, it made it very relaxed.

I liked the story, I loved the environment, but overall, we felt the game was rushed, VERY rushed. It was more of a story teller, like Dear Esther, then a horror game.

Thank you if you read all of that, as I said before, this is how I feel. I was gutted to pieces after waiting over a year for a game we finished in four hours, and i’m not making this post to complain, just to do what I don’t normally do – provide feedback, in the hope someone in Frictional Games is listening.

[Diango12]

You offer good arguments and a sound intellectual treatment of the game content. But you will be ridiculed with hashtags of #2smartforyou and the like. FG might even eventually put in the order to crack down on these criticisms. At least according to the rules they don't listen to critical discussion of their content unless it s restrained and politically correct.

Good critique though. Its harder to take for some more than others.

[Kurton]

Where was the music! Music plays a big part in creating an atmosphere, and when you heard the trademark music in Dark Descent which meant something was near, I **** my pants! I know some of you find the eerie silence more frightening, but I was disappointed at the lack of mob music

This is the first time I've heard this brought up and I kind of agree. The music and sound effects were great but the line between them felt blurred to the point where the soundtrack only stuck out if it came blaring on as an event stinger or emotional background to some narration.

The decision to exclude "monster near" music was probably part of their plan to make the game less predictable to TDD players, some of which who thought monster encounters were too easy because the music always cued them clearly enough that there was no surprise.

[cantremember]

I agree with most points you mention, but some I disagree:

I think the flickering lantern was an interesting addition.

The pig being chained and the other one being slapped, I don't really see what would make someone laugh about it. It's not meant to be humoristic, it's meant to show the dread and inhumane conditions that the pigmen live in inside the factory.

For the music, could do with more music. I'm glad they removed the "monster present" music. Although this didn't help them become less predictable.
From the architecture of the map, it was VERY obvious when/if a monster would be present.
They never appear in long hallways, only in enlarged areas with boxes etc.
Through the whole bilge/sewers I knew there wouldn't be any since there was already the water monster (which you only have to deal with for 5 seconds when you fall in).
For the rare times they did appear they were very easy. I sneaked past one in the cages place. In the turbine room I ran past one and jumped down a ladder (I knew he couldn't follow me there). In the centrifugre area I just snuck past another one who was very easy. Then I got killed but he was gone when I respawned. That and running away from the electric monster, those are the only encounters in the whole game if I recall correctly.

The puzzles I agree were all a no-brainer and the game was VERY linear, much more so than TDD.

[Patrik]

FG might even eventually put in the order to crack down on these criticisms.

We wouldn't want to do that. Everyone can voice their opinion as long as it doesn't break the forum rules, which this post clearly doesn't.

[Ghieri]

I agree that the audio was very lacking. Most of the reason I got paranoid and scared in TDD the entire way through was the constant barrage of horrifying sounds. There was actually an experiment done regarding audio in video games and it showed that the primary reason for heart rate increase was the audio. So I have no idea why they decided to to go with more peaceful melodies(Such as when mandus is talking about his children.) than gutwrenching screams and horrifying machine sounds. (IE, the snapping of bone, the tearing/scooping of flesh, etc.) They could have seriously changed nothing else and made the machine so much more terrifying and horrible just with audio. Wasted opportunity.

EDIT: Me, being the goof I am, forgot to link to the experiment:

http://gamasutra.com/view/feature/168731...ffect_.php

[Diango12]

FG might even eventually put in the order to crack down on these criticisms.

We wouldn't want to do that. Everyone can voice their opinion as long as it doesn't break the forum rules, which this post clearly doesn't.

Ah that's good to hear. I try to remain positive towards FG after having been a fan since Penumbra.

[TM2738]

I enjoyed the game, but this picture actually makes some sense:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/fi...=177742820

[Kitsuki]

Thank you all for your polite feedback, it's interesting to see other people's views on it. I do agree the mob music in TDD did make the encounters a bit predictable.

The pig being chained and the other one being slapped, I don't really see what would make someone laugh about it.

Haha maybe it's just me I do see where you're coming from, I did get a sense of dread and helplessness when he went and sat back down, but when I saw him being yanked backwards just reminded me of something out of a cartoon.

Also a couple of things I forgot to add, the path was very much 'laid out in front of you' in AMFP. The storytelling aspect of it was very visible, as to me it felt like you were just following a path through the game, watching the plot line unfold, whereas in TDD you had the freedom of the castle to some extent.

I did become very immersed in the plot though, curious to know what happened etc.