Thoughts on A:AMFP

[nemesis567]

Maybe the problem is that you can't understand how passive an observer you are in the reality the game tries to put you into. As said before:Creativity in it's many forms is the key to enjoy a game like this.;


This game is missing half of it. That's why I liked it. The other half was mine to conceive.
Scary can mean many things. I did not jump of the chair, I was not afraid of what was to come, yet I felt the desolation and desperation of Mandus.

[pagan]

Maybe the problem is that you can't understand how passive an observer you are in the reality the game tries to put you into. As said before:Creativity in it's many forms is the key to enjoy a game like this.

I understand it can appeal to some people. But you must understand being a passive observer doesn't appeal to many others. I don't play a video game to watch a movie. I didn't even really miss the scares and the 'horror' aspect, but the immersive experience i really like in Frictional Games' stuff. That was missing entirely imo.

[nemesis567]

I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything, I'm just explaining why I liked this game. You can't have the same experience in a movie by the way.

But then, this is a Chinese Room game, not frictional, thus it's focus.

[bluel0bster]

"So how is that breaking immersion for you"
It really doesn't for me at least, but according to the OP's reasnoing the invetory broke immersion because of how it pauses the game. Considering that there are notes you kinda either have to pause a lot or for a long time.

Right, that's the point. Think about how "inventory" corresponds to real life. You just pick something out of your pocket, at the most. Inventory screens are incredibly artificial. Not saying they are a bad thing, but they are artificial.

Reading a note? How do you read a note in real life? You pick it up, and you read it. I'm hoping you "pause" in real life to read, that's how most people do it. Just like in the game. That's why notes aren't nearly as immersion breaking (or shouldn't be) as an inventory screen.

[sailornaruto39]

"Inventory screens are incredibly artificial."


I know, but it is an artificial reality, I think one would be looking into it too much for it it effect immersion.


What I and probably the OP'er are talking about is pausing as in pausing time, if you go to read a note it freezes in time, if you check the inventory it does the same.


The inventory may not look the most realistic, but I don't think the notes are much more better.

[Fortigurn]

An inventory screen breaks immersion because the real-world counterpart is, well, digging into your pockets. Inventory screens are a relatively broken but effective way to translate a real world action onto the screen. The developers themselves talked about inventory and immersion (iirc).

So... what's the real world counterpart to reading notes? Well... reading notes... It's the same thing. So how is that breaking immersion for you, since it pretty much replicates the real world counterpart exactly?

In TDD and MFP, reading notes breaks the immersion in exactly the same way as checking your inventory; you switch out of the gameplay to a new screen while the game pauses. If you want to see an excellent example of non-immersion breaking reading, look at Far Cry 2; everything is in game, and there is no pause.

[cantremember]

I imagine the character carries a satchel and looks into it when you open the inventory screen. Solves the problem for me.

I think people would have been less disappointed if it was a DLC because they would have expected a mini-Amnesia instead of a game of even bigger scale and splendor than TDD.

[Fortigurn]

I think people would have been less disappointed if it was a DLC because they would have expected a mini-Amnesia instead of a game of even bigger scale and splendor than TDD.

This was no DLC scale material; Justine was DLC, and this was well beyond the scale and depth of Justine. It was a proper standalone game, with almost the same playing time as TDD. I've spent six hours on it so far and I've only just left the bilge pump level.

[Tesseract]

An inventory screen breaks immersion because the real-world counterpart is, well, digging into your pockets. Inventory screens are a relatively broken but effective way to translate a real world action onto the screen. The developers themselves talked about inventory and immersion (iirc).

So... what's the real world counterpart to reading notes? Well... reading notes... It's the same thing. So how is that breaking immersion for you, since it pretty much replicates the real world counterpart exactly?

In TDD and MFP, reading notes breaks the immersion in exactly the same way as checking your inventory; you switch out of the gameplay to a new screen while the game pauses. If you want to see an excellent example of non-immersion breaking reading, look at Far Cry 2; everything is in game, and there is no pause.

Bluel0bster makes a very good point and I don't think you're quite getting it. In real life you can pick up a note and read it, you can look through your journal (if you have one.)

You can't bring up your inventory which displays information about how your current health and sanity status is in meticulous little boxes.

[Fortigurn]

Bluel0bster makes a very good point and I don't think you're quite getting it. In real life you can pick up a note and read it, you can look through your journal (if you have one.)

You can, but that's not what Amnesia TDD or MFP shows. They show something completely different; Far Cry 2 does it realistically, in a manner which preserves immersion, but the Amnesia games do not. That's the point. The note reading mechanic in the Amnesia games is no more realistic or less immersion breaking than the inventory mechanic.

You can't bring up your inventory which displays information about how your current health and sanity status is in meticulous little boxes.

I agree, but the game does provide seamless information on your health (movement rate, blurred vision), and sanity (insanity effects), without breaking immersion, and I agree with the other poster who said the inventory screen is at least akin to looking in a rucksack.