Why Amnesia is actually broken

[Brimstone]

This is very annoying. Nothing of that is mentioned in the changelog!
I started re-playing Amnesia with the current 1.4.1a version and in the Refinery or Destillery (call it what you want) I noticed a level change:

The hole in the wall is originally hidden behind boxes which you first have to throw away to get through the hole.
In the later game versions this hole is free and visible by default.

I've checked all versions and only Amnesia 1.0-1.2 have the correct level. Since 1.3 patch they changed it which is extremely annoying. This has been some kind of immersive puzzle with physics based interaction. You first have to throw these boxes away to get through. I assume they removed the boxes to make it easier for noobs to find the way into the next room with the hatch. This ruins the game completely for me! Amnesia was a masterpiece as it came out in 2010. To change the levels by making them more accessible for noobs is a no-go!!! Games are art. I also won't change parts of the original Mona Lisa to make it more colorful for some people! And the bad thing is this level change can't be restored by copying old level files. It's somewhere connected to the Amnesia.exe. And who knows which levels they have also changed to the bad in later versions???  

So I have to stay with my 1.2 version.

The good remastered mod restore this level. I assume it's an own program, so it works without changing the Amnesia.exe. But this mod has some other things I dislike. For example the baby face of the fountain in Back Hall is brown (not a texture issue), some windows have white lines around them, fog and light effects have ugly color layerings in the dark, music stuttering etc.

And in 1.4.1a version they broke the Hard Mode. It's completely removed. I know, 1.2 doesn't even have the Hard Mode too, but 1.4.1a is intended to have it and this shows how they broke things. The official mod tools are also broken. The LevelEditor just crashes. There's no way to get it working anymore.

Personally I don't need the Hard Mode, because a lot scare effects only occur on low sanity. But the Hard Mode let you die on low sanity, so you will never experience some disturbing scenes!

So I would say:

Amnesia TDD really needs some time of attention by Frictional Games after the release of Rebirth.
They have to focus some resources on this game to make a new polishing for a patch 1.5 or 1.4.2 where all these issues were fixed and the original levels restored. To make it perfect, they also need to restore the phonograph in the Study that came with 1.0.1 version in 2010, because this contains such an interesting dialog with Daniel and the girl he killed. And also restore Herbert's lost diary that contains interesting connections to Justine DLC. And take care about this bug and this SDL update.

Please don't cut out things from games anymore. If they are good things. If you LOVE Amnesia, make a new patch please and bring us the devinitive release!

So in short:
- restore refinery level how it was in the original Amnesia 1.0-1.2
- restore phonograph in the study and Herbert's lost diary
- fix Hard Mode
- fix the mod tools
- fix the ugly texture bug in the starting area
- update SDL library to avoid possible mouse troubles on modern Windows 10 builds and future builds

And: last but not least. There is still the bug that when you re-load a savegame from the Old Archives, the lever in the last room is in the middle instead on top and when you operate it the shelf is exploding.

Thank you.


  1.0-1.2.jpg (Size: 325.34 KB / Downloads: 288)

  1.3+.jpg (Size: 352.49 KB / Downloads: 278)

[Brimstone]

Okay, I managed to get the mod tools working. I had to download and install the mod tools, because the files that comes with the Amnesia setup will crash.

Now I can fix a lot. I restored the Refinery/Distillery, fixed the Rainy Hall texture bug and will improve other maps aswell. This will be a patch, not a mod.

I can make everything. Except the broken Hard Mode. Replacing Amnesia.exe with an older version is only a workaround. Got message yesterday from Thomas that this should be fixed now. Nevertheless I want to know how a broken exe could even happen when only adding Chinese language. And why these changes were added without testing it first.

[Brimstone]

sorry, double post.