(09-09-2010, 12:12 AM)PerfectBlue Wrote: Congrats Thomas! Why did you think they would pass reviewing your game initially?
Never managed to contact them by email and the CD we sent was not that professionally looking And since it is a multi format mag they have a lot more games to cover (Usually simpler for PC only since there is vastly less releases per month).
So I had just ruled them out completly. And then when I saw I was like: "Oh great 93 in score.... or wait here... GameInformer .... GAME INFORMER!?!?"
or something like that While any positive review makes me feel happy, pr-wise this one was really nice!
(09-09-2010, 12:12 AM)PerfectBlue Wrote: Congrats Thomas! Why did you think they would pass reviewing your game initially?
Never managed to contact them by email and the CD we sent was not that professionally looking And since it is a multi format mag they have a lot more games to cover (Usually simpler for PC only since there is vastly less releases per month).
So I had just ruled them out completly. And then when I saw I was like: "Oh great 93 in score.... or wait here... GameInformer .... GAME INFORMER!?!?"
or something like that While any positive review makes me feel happy, pr-wise this one was really nice!
Dude, this game deserves it. I've been waiting for this game to come out for about 3 - 4 months, and it was WORTH the wait. I haven't even finished the game yet, and I must say that this is both one of thee best games I've played, and is thee best and TRUE survival horror game.
I literally think that this game would single handedly resurrect the survival horror genre, and release it from the shackles of 'One man army with jumpy parts in'.
It's a whole different plane to your Penumbra series.
Every person I know who has a PC and is a gamer, is deffinitely going to buy it, because I'm gonna MAKE THEM, even if I have to buy it for them. >
Lets make sure this game goes from Gold to Platinum!
One of the very few games that have come out so far this year that truly deserves to be bought! Among all game garbage that's being released monthly there's always a precious stone that stands out and that stone is Amnesia. And I'm not exaggerating. In my opinion, the game's far better than classic horror games like Resident Evil or Silent Hill. Modern horrors like Dead Space and Alan Wake don't stand a chance against Amnesia. They're like an innocent strolls in the park.
Anyway, I'm really happy I bought the game and supported you, Frictional! Hope you continue releasing genuinely masterful horror games!
Here's the review I submitted to GameFaqs. Hopefully it'll be up soon lol! I love this game
Spoiler below!
A True Horror Game
Game: Amnesia The Dark Descent
Platform: PC
Date: September 9, 2010
Reviewed By: Adeno
There have been so many survival horror games in recent years that you'll
need more than both your hands and feet to count them, yet only a small
number of these have achieved to at least give players a sense of being
scared, a sense of horror, a sense of fear. Still, it would be very
easy to say that they don't even come close to what Amnesia: The Dark
Descent can offer.
In most survival horror games, no matter how helpless you are at the
beginning, by the end of the game, you'd become someone who can take all
of the evil monsters out with just a few blasts from your gun. Sometimes,
you're just a natural born superman who can use almost anything to
annihilate an entire army of shambling zombies. In these survival horror
games, the emphasis was placed on "survival" and not "horror".
Before we begin to judge Amnesia's rating in terms of how much horror and
fear it can deliver, we must first understand what causes humans to
experience fear.
Fear is an emotion that humans experience whenever they are faced with the
unknown. Our first priority when faced with something new is to understand
how it works. What is the purpose of this thing? What motivates it? What
does it think of me? Is this supposed to be happening? Sometimes, we get
no clear answer to these questions. This brings anxiety. There are also
times when only a few of these questions are answered, but the answers
are not always good. What happens when you are faced with something that
you cannot truly understand, yet you know that whatever it is, it just
wants to get you? This is the beginning of fear.
The next part of fear comes from the deprivation of your senses. Darkness,
this takes away your ability to identify what is ahead of you. Sight is
one of our strongest senses, taking it away is like cutting off our feet.
Sometimes, over stimulation of one sense, like hearing, can cause you
distress. With darkness, you are blind, but your ears tell you that
something sinister is out there, just waiting for you. You know it is
there, but you do not know what it is. The sound it is making is that
of an angry creature. You have to find a way to stay safe, but it's so
hard to see. Panic sets in, and your fear grows.
In Amnesia: The Dark Descent, you are Daniel. You wake up in a castle
with almost no knowledge of who you are, what you were doing there, or
how you ended up in your current situation. You have no other way out
so your only option is to explore the intimidating castle. As you try
to recover pieces of your memory, you will hear strange noises and
witness bizarre events. Are you going mad or is everything that's
happening around you real? Are you alone in the castle? A moan from
the distance quickly tells you that you are not alone, and whatever it
was that made that sound, you instinctively know it should be avoided.
Fear in the game is distributed to two targets: Daniel, the character
whom you play as, and yourself, Daniel's controller. For Daniel, seeing or
hearing weird things, as well as staying in the dark for too long will
cause him to go more and more insane. Daniel's insanity affects the
vision and the controls. For example, after seeing a threatening monster
in the dark, Daniel's vision will start to go hazy. If Daniel is exposed
to the monster for longer periods of time, especially if the monster gets
too close to him, Daniel's movements will be a lot harder to control.
Thankfully, this can be prevented by staying in well lit areas. Throughout
the game, you will be able to find tinderboxes which you can use to light
up candles, torches, and lanterns along the way. Just be careful not to
light every lightsource that you can because tinderboxes are very
limited. Carefully choosing which lightsource to light up is one of the
keys to staying sane and surviving in this game.
Another light source that you'll get early in the game is an oil lamp.
This is very handy when you are in areas where there are no immediate
light sources. The downside is, oil for the lamp is hard to find, so you
have to use it sparingly. There is also a great risk involved when using
a lamp. Monsters will easily spot you because of this, so it is never
a good idea to use it when you hear something is nearby.
The other target of fear in this game is you, the player. The effects of
fear on Daniel are limited to the blurry vision and heavy controls, but
the effects of fear on you, the player, has more weight. Fear in this
game makes you want to keep hiding in a closet forever, to hide from that
monster who's hunting you. Fear in this game makes you extremely cautious
of sound, because if you make too much noise, the monster will find you.
Fear in this game makes you react as if you are really Daniel.
The environment is both your friend and your foe. In the castle, you will
find many rooms, cabinets, trap doors, and others. As you are being
stalked by something, you will have to find places to hide in. Even though
you barricade yourself behind doors, monsters are strong enough to destroy
doors in a short amount of time, so knowing where the rooms with cabinets
or hiding places are is very important. Sometimes, when there's no other
hiding place left, you can just run into a dark corner and pray that
the monster wouldn't notice you there.
There are also times that the environment could work against you. Sometimes
it's just the way the location is, or sometimes, you're the one who made
it difficult to deal with. For example, you can pick up almost any object
that you can find in the game, including chairs, barrels, books, rocks,
and even move heavy stones! What if you were careless and threw those
chairs and barrels and obstructed the doorway, when all of a sudden a
monster finds you? You just created your own trap. This is where the
game's physics shine.
In Amnesia, every object that can be interacted with has its own weight.
You can use heavy objects to break display cases or weak windows. You
can use hard objects to break through walls with cracks. You can stack
up objects such as boxes to help you reach high places. You will need to
interact with a lot of objects, as most of the puzzles in the game rely
on the intelligent use of the resources that you have around. For example,
there is a bridge that somehow got jammed and wouldn't get in the proper
position for you to use it. In your immediate area, you see some skulls,
rocks, and other stuff. There's no other hint available, so using your
logic, to try to unjam something, you might need to hit it with enough
force. One solution is to throw something hard at the jammed area.
Aside from the typical environmental puzzles that you will encounter,
most of the puzzles require you to assemble parts and use them at the
right situation. One example is you need to get something from a hole,
but it's too deep for you to reach. If you search the area, you'll find
a rope. By going to your inventory, you can drag the rope and combine it
with a bottle. This produces a bottle that you can lower into the hole
using the rope.
The places that you will find in the castle will change as you continue
in the game. What once looked like a normal old castle will suddenly
develop an organic look the further you are into solving the mystery.
Sewers will be dangerous due to the lack of light and the splashing
sounds that you make in the water. Machine rooms will be blowing steam
while creating an unsettling mechanical grinding sound, while secret
chambers and morgues will be full of horror as horrific echoes and
seemingly lifeless corpses lay in wait.
You will also hear many strange sounds while you are exploring the castle.
These sounds range from the creepy footsteps to the disturbing moans and
cries of anguish. Most of them are just meant to make you feel
uncomfortable, such as the sound of the blowing wind, water dripping,
and doors slowly opening. There are also times when you'll hear shouts
and pleas for help from other human beings, only to never find them
when you think you're near. Maybe the sounds were just coming from your
own mind?
Listening carefully to the sound is important to your survival. When you
hear a roar or heavy footsteps, it means that a monster is nearby. Even
if you do manage to find a hiding place, such as a cabinet or a dark
corner, you will have to listen to what the monster is doing, and figure
out how far it is in relation to your hiding spot. Leaving a hiding spot
prematurely will most likely get you killed or spotted by whatever is
hunting you.
The game's pace is up to how brave you are, but it is also affected by
random events. Although there are scripted encounters with monsters,
there are times when they appear when you least expect them to. Placement
of tinderboxes and oil also seem to be random at times.
In terms of the story unfolding, the only way for you to understand what's
going on is to look for notes that people, and your "past self" before
your amnesia problem, have written. Notes that Daniel wrote himself will
be read aloud, while other notes such as the ones that give clues must
be read by your own eyes.
Amnesia is truly a shining example of how a horror game should be done.
It stays true to the roots of horror. It lets you experience fear first
hand, and anything Daniel does happens because you made him do it. How
long Daniel hides in a closet, how fast he runs, how he reacts to panic,
it is all you. Everything is presented all around you. The haunting sounds
of suffering humans, the strangely changing castle, the darkness which
hides the source of your fear, they all work together seamlessly and
causes your heart to race.
When a game is too scary to play that it even scared a few players from
buying it after playing just the demo, and suddenly you get all sorts of
"Amnesia Reaction" youtube videos, you know it's a very effective medium
of horror, and a great success as well.
Score:
1. Controls - easily configurable to your comfort. 9/10
2. Story - the story itself is not that scary if you manage to read
all about it. The story is effective in terms of setting up the reasons
as to why Daniel is trapped in the castle, and why he is being faced
with bizarre visions and hunted by monsters. 8/10
3. Gameplay - gameplay mainly relies on your quick decision making skills
as well as the ability to observe and analyze your surroundings. Most
puzzles have obvious solutions, while some have to be solved while you
are being hunted down by a very fast monster. Choosing which light
sources to light up while having limited resources in order to keep your
sanity also adds to the fear. You have no means of fighting back, but
that doesn't mean you are completely hopeless. The gameplay properly
represents how a scared man suffering from amnesia would be exploring
a castle alone. 8/10
4. Sound - sound plays a major role in this game, and fortunately, each
sound used in the game comes in crystal clear. The sound of doors
creaking, the footsteps from somewhere, the wind, the howls of a monster,
the crazy whispers, the eerie background music, they have all been recorded
in such a way that listening to even just one sound file would still give
you a very creepy feeling. When they work together during gameplay, it
is when you really appreciate how effective these sounds are in inducing
fear and worry. 10/10
5. Presentation - the castle is not the best castle in all of the gaming
world. Although it is far from perfect in terms of design, what elevates
this to a higher status is the presentation. There aren't much light
sources in the game, but the few light sources that you get contribute
very well to the eerie feel of this game. When you light up a candle or
a lamp, the glow radiates in an area, helping you see just a little
further up ahead. It somehow gives you a short moment of relief, but
the darkness and the sounds coming from all around reminds you that as
long as you are in the castle, you can never be truly safe and alone.
Good level design plus superb sound effects and an acceptable storyline,
created with the spirit of horror of the unknown makes this game a
role model to every other past and future horror games. 10/10
6. Replayability - although there are some scripted events at the start
of the game, there are also random events that happen throughout the game
that might surprise you on your next playthrough. A level editor is also
going to be available for the game which would let players design their
own horror themed stories. 8/10
Final Score: 9/10
Conclusion:
Amnesia: The Dark Descent is probably the best true horror game to have
been made in recent years. It really gives a strong emphasis to the
horror part of "survival horror". The game is presented in such away that
you will feel very disturbed and cautious while exploring the castle. The
vast darkness with only a few light sources is beautiful in a very macabre
way. The feeling of being hunted is always present, while a tiny candle
becomes your form of relief.
This game is a true horror game. It would probably take years until another
game can at least match the sense of fear that this game has caused to so
many gamers. If you are a fan of horror movies, books, and games, then
Amnesia: The Dark Descent is just what you need for a truly unforgettable
experience.
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Amnesia : The Dark Descent - Reviews
And since it is a multi format mag they have a lot more games to cover (Usually simpler for PC only since there is vastly less releases per month).
While any positive review makes me feel happy, pr-wise this one was really nice!
