My thoughts on Amnesia TDD

[Wehmis]

Greetings from Finland. It's getting pretty late out here, and I thought that before I go to sleep, I'd share my thoughts on Amnesia with everyone and see if people agree with me. It would also be a pleasure to get someone from Frictional Games to read my amateurish criticism.
To make my viewing point clear, I'm a Frictional Games fan, a hardcore gamer, and a preorderer since the preorders opened, so my expectations for Amnesia were set very high from the start.

The atmosphere of Amnesia was a mixed bag. While the environments were creepier and more atmospheric, and certainly had more thought process and knowledge of architecture to them than Penumbra, I found the office and hallway environments of Penumbra something that I can immerse myself more into, as those are the places we go into everyday. Sure the gothic arcitechture looks cool and all, but it's just not as immersive as the more down-to-earth locations of Penumbra.
Also the immersion was constantly hindered by the lack of any infinite light source, like the glowstick from Penumbra. Sure you can make one with the tinderboxes and a candle or a torch, but I'd just rather run through a dark corridor with the lights off, than to waste tinderboxes and time to light the candles.
I think the sanity system was a rather nice addition, but it could have benefitted from a more quicker phasing of key moments and scares. The sanity meter kind of just was there, and I felt it didn't really affect the gameplay or the scariness of the game that much. For FGs next game, they should develop the idea, and make the sanity affect gameplay more.
Hands down my favourite thing about Penumbra were the conversations you had with Red through the receiver and the Hivemind inside your head. Amnesia had a lot of voice acting, and it was all very good. Amnesia also had some characters you talked to during the game. Conversations with Alexander were kind of one-sided, and not that interesting, but Amnesia came very close to mimicing the great conversations of Penumbra with Agrippa. He was just introduced too late. I think FG should realize, that we as gamers, and fans of their games want someone equally insane to the protagonist to talk to, and share our loneliness with, not just pages of the diary of our past self.

And talking about the diaries... Amnesia had an interesting, although rather uninterestingly presented story. I felt the ending was a big letdown. I'm aware that there are multiple endings, and I saw only the "good ending", but Alexander didn't look very interesting, and the "battle to the death" I was promised at the first moments of the game didn't feel very epic. I was expecting to see some gore at least.

For me Amnesia wasn't as smooth a ride as Penumbra. The main reason was the "combat system" of Amnesia, and the random nature of the enemies. I don't know who scripted the enemies, but it was stupid to have them attack you, you die at an instant, and then the enemy is gone after you die and resume the game. The enemies were frightening the first time around, but they lost their creepiness due to their annoyance factor. I died on purpose many times just so I wouldn't have to try to sneak past an enemy, because most of the time the sneaking option was either impossible or consumed way too much time. On the other hand I enjoyed all the chase scenes. It was intense trying to escape from the darkness in the narrow corridors.

So here are some of my thoughts on Amnesia after completing the game. The game certainly wasn't perfect, but it had that Frictional Games feel to it, and it was fun, challenging and sometimes even frigthening to play through. I hope Frictional Games keeps on developing these excellent independent horror games, and I can't wait to see their next game.

[xiao]

The atmosphere of Amnesia was a mixed bag.

Stopped reading after that.

[Bek]

^ Be kind.

I too really liked the chase scenes, really made you feel like you are running for your life. Especially with the water monster, hearing it get closer and closer and you know what will happen if you stop to look behind you...

I really didn't see how sanity affected gameplay either, but I still tried to use my lamp oil in moderation. This worked well as there was just enough to make the lamp useful, almost enough so you depend upon it, but not enough to let you run wild without taking care of its use.

I'm not sure how I compare this to Overture and Black Plague. Overall I think Amnesia was scarier, and had quite a lot more detail. Especially the subtle changes in the paintings when sanity was low. I suspected something like that might happen and was so glad it did. However overall I think penumbra/overture was a better experience - it might be unfair to judge the experiences of one game against two, but that's how I feel at the moment. Perhaps because like you said the setting of penumbra was easier for us to relate with, but I think the clarity of the end game also helped. Even though it wasn't a player choice like in Amnesia, it seemed to have more impact.

Amnesia IS a great game, easily worth $50 let alone the $20 being asked. It is possible the lack of funds diminished their original plans for the endings which is a shame - The fact that a small indie studio can produce such a amazing experience is testimony to the people that work at Frictional Games.

[Jinix]

I have yet to play previous Penumbra games, but the one thing that caught my eye in this post is;
"Quote"... the sneaking option was either impossible or consumed way too much time."UnQuote"

I sneaked (snuck?) throughtout the game and it IS possible to avert the baddie almost all the time. Hiding terrified in the dark as the baddie passes nearby or creeping past him without him noticing is a huge thrill for me.
...consumed too much time.... sounds odd as most of us here are griping about the game being too short.
And, personally, I loved the settings. I'm afraid I cannot get overly scared - or even that interested in roaming around offices regardless of monsters. The last thing I want in a game is to be reminded of work.
For me horror games need the full Gothic/Hammer treatment to get immersed.

in a real setting such as this a monster that powerful would kill you with only one or two swipes of it's claws so I find that good enough reason to keep out of it's way and avoid any form of combat.

See what an impossible job it is to please everyone when you make a game? we all want it different.
I give the game 10 stars (with one of them dimmed a bit because the game ended before I was ready for the end.

[Zanderat]

I think the OP thought he was playing a shooter, like L4D.