Yahtzee reviews Amnesia

[superluser]

Yahtzee seemed to like it, but there was some good constructive criticism, as well.


Some I didn't agree with:
- the one dimensional Sanity meter doesn't seem that bad to me
- interface screw with the mouse did not seem like a screw to me

But most I did:
- blurry sanity effects tend to be unrealistic
- boring scares (doors blowing open) water down the real scares
- light makes you insane is not a bad trope, since people do respond to light that way, but it's probably to a much lesser extent
- the small, self-contained environments felt artificially small.
- obvious herding made it difficult to feel like I was truly choosing which path to go down
- puzzle simplicity is not what I expected from the same people who made Penumbra
- predictable scare points made it easy to get prepared for monsters.

And one was an integral part of the plot:
- amnesia cliche

[OO Agent]

Spoiler below!

But the Amnesia wasnt really cliche in the way they did it. it wasnt like the main character knocked his head on something, or was wounded and woke up weeks later not knowing who or where he was. Daniel made himself forget his memories for a reason, and because he needed to in order kill Alexander and forget how he tortured and killed people. The amnesia had an actual place in the plot.

[superluser]

Spoiler below!

But the Amnesia wasnt really cliche in the way they did it. it wasnt like the main character knocked his head on something, or was wounded and woke up weeks later not knowing who or where he was. Daniel made himself forget his memories for a reason, and because he needed to in order kill Alexander and forget how he tortured and killed people. The amnesia had an actual place in the plot.

I suppose I should have phrased that a little differently. What I meant was that amnesia was an integral part of the plot and that you have to take a plot on its own terms. In a story about two zombies finding love, you can't complain that zombies don't really exist. Likewise, it's not really a fair criticism of this game that amnesia is too common.

I take that back. It is a valid criticism, but not a very strong one.

[civanT]

I'm really curious about what are developers thinking about this review.

Cool or bitter?

[nofsky]

They twittered it, so they must like it.

[Licaon_Kter]

@FGdevs: we await the "One week after the Yahtzee Review" blog post concerning game sales

[VampLena]

You boys are weak as water. I'll say the Environments were creepy and oozing with atmosphere, and the monsters appearing out of nowhere at first was startling, but I never found this game scary. Contrary to popular opinion, being unable to fight back does not make a game more scary either, it just adds tension and perhaps some annoyance when you die because it could have been easily prevented if you grab a chair or some other improvised weapon and smashed it over the creatures head.

All in all I liked Yahtzee's review but it always makes me laugh how you guys are all so scared of this game, and I, a girl haven't been scared at all, and yes I played "Alone in the dark".

Maybe I grew up watching too much Buffy and X Files.

[Yodake]

All in all I liked Yahtzee's review but it always makes me laugh how you guys are all so scared of this game, and I, a girl haven't been scared at all, and yes I played "Alone in the dark".

Maybe I grew up watching too much Buffy and X Files.

You have to let you go when you play, to become a part of the game. a friend of me didn't and no surprise that he wasn't frightening then. not only "alone in the dark", also "me in the dark". hope you understand me

[ChrisSmith]

You have to allow yourself to be scared, because being scared is fun.

[superluser]

All in all I liked Yahtzee's review but it always makes me laugh how you guys are all so scared of this game, and I, a girl haven't been scared at all, and yes I played "Alone in the dark".

Maybe I grew up watching too much Buffy and X Files.

You have to let you go when you play, to become a part of the game. a friend of me didn't and no surprise that he wasn't frightening then. not only "alone in the dark", also "me in the dark". hope you understand me

Well, in defense of VampLena, I have to say that I generally wasn't scared in the way that the freakout collection people were. I think I screamed once during the game, and usually, I just had a fast heartbeat and trembling hands. I'm all for immersion but I won't pretend to have emotions I do not have.

Of course, I am a very studly man who weeps tears of granite and only at funerals for a culturally appropriate ten seconds.

I would call this game scary, and I would call myself scared, but not as in being afraid of the game. Just as in getting physical reactions that indicated that I was in a state of terror.