What do you think of the game's length?

[mansarde]

I really like that there's a message on first start of the game, reminding you that it's not about winning, but experiencing.
Unfortunately some people just don't understand something like that.
Last week I went by a friend and showed him the demo.
He played very "twitchy". The first thing he said was: controls are bad.
What he meant was the realistic opening of doors and boxes.
The reason for his comment was that he tried to open all the doors and boxes with a quick "flick" instead of "feeling" the weight of these things. He was just not used to it.
Another thing was that he didn't fully explore everything. He barely had ANY tinderboxes at all and he didn't even know that he already had a LAMP!!!
And then in the area with the water monster he even went past BOTH rooms, ignoring them completely at first! If it wouldn't have been for the puzzle he would've gone straight through.

I remember when he played Bioshock he went by a whole extra area where you could explore buildings (plural!).

I don't know why you'd want to play games in such a way... I really can NOT understand.
It defeats the whole purpose of immersing yourself in a story and get the most out of it.
If I'd be in that situation in real life I'd be VERY careful and try to find out everything there is and explore everything, not running like it's a marathon.

Well, I can only be thankful that I know how to appreciate a game like Amnesia.

[benk]

If a ticket for a movie costs $10 and the movie lasts two hours, why would 10 hours be too short for a game that costs $20? Granted, there are games out there that provide more hours for the dollar(I have hundreds in tf2, for example), but i'm not sitting on the edge of my seat with my heart about to explode out of my chest when I play that game. Amnesia may be short compared to other games in the industry, but the level of indulgence is above all else. The only other gaming experience to ever make me feel anything close to what Amnesia does was lab x18 in Stalker:SOC. I voted perfect length for the price, because if it had lasted any longer, my doctor would have to prescribe me something for my blood pressure.

[Arnault]

I think duration and price don't have to interfere with testing a game.

These are two examples of games whice prices and durations are different :

Dark Messiah :
Duration : 8 hours
Price : 50$ on release
Gameplay : original for a FPS. good melee combat.
Metacritics : 72%

Portal :
Duration : 3 hours
Price : 15 or 20$ on release (or with Orange Box)
Gameplay : original. No combat. Only run and solve puzzles.
Metacritics : 90%

[Klarden]

Dark Messiah

..of Might and Magic. There was another game called Dark Messiah which is a bit similar to Penumbra series (more of a labyrinth game, though), by Atlus

[No Sadists]

The length was adequate. It is a quality game, more imaginative than anything else to recently appear on the medium.

It is not the length of the game itself that I think would improve future projects; they would benefit if the protagonist experienced more environments and uniquely designed areas throughout the course of the story. There is tedium in monotony.

[mercenar]

Finished the game last night, I really enjoyed the game.

Very lovecraftian, creepy, really scary at moments, I liked the monsters too, very original designs.

I really love this style of game : set in the 1800's, with no mordern weapons or flashlights, just a lantern, it's like the first alone in the dark, same genre.

It would be great if you could make another game in the 1800's and even more lovecraftian mythos : deep ones, Cthulhu, necronomicon, an ancient manor, and that would be great if you could also do some exterior levels ! A dark creepy forest for example (think about the forest in evil dead), a cemetery... would be cool !

Keep making horror games for adults, keep up the good work !

[mansarde]

I'm totally with mercenar, I love creepy games with a transcending atmosphere.
And especially if the story is mysterious and you have to connect the dots, instead of mindlessly go from A to B. Keep it Lovecraftian, that's the way to go!^^

[That One Guy]

The pacing of the game hinged on one solitary thing: the story. The pacing was absolutely brilliant and the game experience didn't overstay its welcome or become repetitive. Were you to make it any longer you would need to only lengthen it using levels with more variation. Only through the inclusion of more outdoor areas and varied settings could stretching out the story be permissible. Otherwise, leave it alone. Amnesia, for what it is, is a perfect, shining example of a horror game.

[rareh]

Perfect! This game should cost full retail price.

[msecure]

What are your thoughts on this? Please answer the poll and tell us what you think (here or in blog).
Please also state how long you estimate that you played the game. And if you did not like the length, tell us what would have been optimal.

Dear Thomas,

I would like to tell you something important - and of course I try it in English, although I can't speak this language well. But I'm pretty sure you will understand me.

First, I have to say it's just amazing what you and your team made. This game is damn good and everyone's opinion is this game is scary! That's what the game should us feel - and this works great. So Frictional Games did their job just great!

The problem is that a lot of people do not know Fear-Adventure Games. They know Fear-Shooter like Project Origin, but like me, they never heard before about games like Amnesia.

I heard about it and read a lot of critism. To be honest, I just bought it because it was cheap. 20 Dollars for a game? That's nothing. Today's games often costs about 50-60 Dollars.

As I said the critism is quite good. The game got a lot of points - although it's produced by such a little company! Don't care to much about what they say - they often tells things nobody is interested in. There were a lot of well-sold games with bad critism. And the journalists can also have a wrong impression.

In my poor opinion, I do think the length of the game was good. It shouldn't be longer - and it CAN'T be longer. Because in every Fear-Game you don't fear anymore after a while. Sounds stupid, but it's right! I played a lot of Fear-Games (most of them Fear-Shooters) and I know what I am talking about: DOOM 3 for example is a Fear-Shooter, not similar to Amnesia, but it has got one bad quality: it's too long. And after days of playing you start cheating and get bored, even laugh about the enemies you shoot. There is no Fear-effect anymore!

Instead of making this game longer, you should try different things, like:

- using more different skins for objects (or sth)!
everyone loves a bit of variety.. and in every room there are the same objects - and too many cupboards, boxes & chests

- making more difficult riddles (puzzles)!
most of them were too easy and the to the solution too quick... if these were more difficult everyone would spend more time on it (the game)

- think about translating audio of the game into different languages.. or the important languages like (english), french & german
you don't fear by reading the subtitles and hearing a scary voice which doesn't speak your language..

What do you think about these ideas? I'm looking forward to hear an answer from you!

All in all I have to say this game is just wonderful. Good job!