Yahtzee reviews Amnesia

[dvow]

In response to VampLena, it's very hard to scare me also. I'm the type to go and sleep in a haunted house just because I want to see a ghost. I purposely had to play Amnesia in complete darkness, with surround sound, and a huge screen, to get immersed. If I had played it any differently, I'd probably just get startled and find the game a bit boring.

And while I wasn't brought to tears, shaking, having nightmares type of fear some people have, playing this game with the sole purpose of being immersed into the fear did its job, and I can say with full clarity that I was, for once, pretty scared throughout most of the game.

[Tsarkon]

As Yahtzee's reviews go, that one was at least a 4.5-star. He's not exactly an easy guy to please, so if you guys at Frictional Games aren't familiar with his reviews, feel free to jump up and down for joy because that's about as good as his reviews EVER get and everyone who follows his work knows that. Heheh.

[Mjarr]

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".

Congratulations, you can officially label yourself with balls of steel now. It's not like everyone is pissing their pants and crying in terror, but once the hype comes out how it does something right it often tends to be overblown. It's same with almost any typical horror game, even when it's mostly shooting ugly things that growls like no-one ever loved them as a child. People get scared (either legitly or just brief startles) -> word goes out -> ZOMG SCARIEST GAEM EVAR -> repeat until the hype dies out or people realises it's just another one of those peekaboo ghost scares you did when you were 5-8 and playing in the dark.

The very definition for being "scared" is bit loose end, as you can be scared for the time of few seconds if something really unexpected comes out that simply triggers some interesting reaction from your end, or you could just freak out and lose it to the point you'll lose control of your bowels. Ultimately it doesn't matter what your gender is, if you simply didn't get freaked out or scared that much, then you didn't. To be honest most of the time in Amnesia you could avoid potential scares by basically using what could be referred as common sense, what is mostly retained in any form of (real) amensia. Of course since the game's Amnesia is caused by artificial means I still have a reason to believe that even when Daniel's life is on the line he probably would know how to do pre-emptive stuff to avoid being ambushed, atleast most of the time. That is up to the player though

However as for your "not having weapons is an annoyance", the problem with the concept of weapons in more horror based game is often that either you can blast everything to death and lose the potent of having enemy enemies around to begin with, while making them piss poor renders them useless and even greater annoyance. Not having weapons plays more on player vulnerability on the basic level, that someone is out there to make kebab out of your lovely chest and you bet your arse it will do it faster than you can blink your eye if you give it a chance. What makes it only bit 'disapointing' in Amnesia is that generallys peaking hiding in places is somewhat too obvious to the point few looks at teh enviroment can give you a hint if something's going to happen. Once in a while there are areas in which nothing happens but merely plays on the thought, so due to its passive-aggressive nature it's not that bad of a thing to add extra kick in its own ways. Reaction for the system on the other hand is mostly individual in terms of how much it actually adds atmosphere.

[superluser]

To be honest most of the time in Amnesia you could avoid potential scares by basically using what could be referred as common sense, what is mostly retained in any form of (real) amensia. Of course since the game's Amnesia is caused by artificial means I still have a reason to believe that even when Daniel's life is on the line he probably would know how to do pre-emptive stuff to avoid being ambushed, atleast most of the time. That is up to the player though

Yeah, the way I tended to play would put anyone in the mind of Detritus the troll. Basically, I would pull off a Harvey Wallbanger whenever I got into a situation where there might have been danger (which was everywhere). I laughed at the dev commentary for the choir. Apparently you were supposed to

Spoiler below!

follow the pipes above to get your bearings.

The concept of looking in that direction when I'm crouched and one finger to the wall is entertaining.

[Petike]

I'm not really surprised he liked it.

If you've seen his reviews of the Thief series and Silent Hill 2, you know he likes a well executed stealth/horror game that doesn't rely on cheapo scares and other similar clichés, etc.

[VampLena]

Hehe not the first time I've been told I have balls of steel

I think the atmosphere in the game is great, it was really creepy and those monsters were nicely detailed, though I have to say, I guess i can understand Daniel loosing sanity from looking at them, but it is a bit of a shame, you have these nicely designed monsters and the game punishes you from looking at them. I think they should have majorly toned down the sanity loss from it, at least in respect of the Art Department.

But all in all, once you realize Monsters only appear mostly when you do something major, you should be ready for them, and that makes it less daunting.

However, I do still miss the lack of weapons, whenever i see those monsters I keep thinking a good whack with a chair or a swing of a sword will put them down, so why must Daniel run?

On a side note, there has only been 1 game to ever almost really scare me, and thats this Japanese game called Siren. Look it up on you tube, that game is really hardcore.

[superluser]

But all in all, once you realize Monsters only appear mostly when you do something major, you should be ready for them, and that makes it less daunting.

I think this is one of the real takeaways from this. The game should encourage you not to make yourself a target. I deliberately crouched a lot of the time, walked on the carpets instead of the hardwood floors to reduce my footsteps, and rarely ran. I expected the game to punish you for trying to do those things, and was rather disappointed to find out that it didn't. A few random encounters from running and the player would be shocked into sneaking, I'd think.

[dbfuru]

I played Amnesia without reading any reviews, I figured if Penumbra was good, then this will be even better. I'm glad I played without reading/watching reviews first, as I just got immersed without thinking about the flaws.

Saying that I do agree with some of the things said. The sanity meter is a bit iffy, I'm not sure how I feel about the whole blurring thing, I understand the challenge made, that light keeps you sane but makes you easier to spot, but I don't know, I can't really articulate how I feel about it.

Personally I don't mind the monsters suddenly appearing, it caught me off guard, and regarding when they appear after completing an objective, I did start to guess when one would appear, but it didn't take away the scare factor too much for me. Hell, from the beginning I was looking around each room for possible hiding spots!

Little flaws that Yahtzee mentioned aside, it is the most atmospherically scary game I have played, I loved letting myself get immersed and be scared.

I think it's a good review, and is balanced.

[Jinix]

I'll assume that it was a good review based on others knowledge of Yahtzee' reviews. However I could barely understand what he was blubbering about. If that was a review - it told me nothing about the game but alot about the reviewer.
Fortunately I bought the game on a whim and had no prior knowledge of the game or it's origins.
Once I played it I really enjoyed it and had an enjoyable time, making the expenditure worthwhile.... more than I can say for some other games that I bought and didn't like - such as Witcher and Left4Dead.

[dvow]

I'll assume that it was a good review based on others knowledge of Yahtzee' reviews. However I could barely understand what he was blubbering about. If that was a review - it told me nothing about the game but alot about the reviewer.
Fortunately I bought the game on a whim and had no prior knowledge of the game or it's origins.
Once I played it I really enjoyed it and had an enjoyable time, making the expenditure worthwhile.... more than I can say for some other games that I bought and didn't like - such as Witcher and Left4Dead.

Yahtzee is more of an entertainer than a reviewer. His reviews tend to be pretty personal, and done purposely to make the watcher laugh and be entertaining. His best reviews are for games he absolutely loves or hates as a result. Some people actually really respect him for this, since his reviews are far more interesting than most, and his opinions tend to be, well personal by nature, pretty tasteful. He isn't afraid to totally destroy a popular and highly rated game in his videos if he thinks they're poo.