Constructive Feedback on Amensia

[Smith14]

I recently finished Amnesia, and wow, truly an amazing experience that no other horror game can match. Much respect is due to great the story, audio, and atmosphere. However, as I progressed through the game I found myself to be much less scared than I had hoped for. And for two fundamental reasons that I'll explain:

I.Event Triggers Once I realized that monsters had to abide by spawn/despawn triggers, it took a lot of potential tension out of me. Knowing that the monster were spawning/despawning based on event triggers rather than actually patrolling, gave me a lot of peace of mind. I don't so much mind the use of event triggers, but I would of loved if various areas had randomly generated triggers, and maybe even a difficulty system that could raise-lessen these triggers.

Death/DifficultyI remember the "water monster" sequence, and I soiled my pants getting through it. During the second escape, I pretty much spazzed out and I couldn't wheel open the gate in time! Then I experienced my first death. And it started me, literally moments where I left off. From that point forward, I wasn't so scared to die anymore...

I love the fact that I don't have to do a whole lot of backtracking after death, but I felt like I really didn't feel punished enough for dying. I know frictional made this game with the intent of every player able to play through completion, but I would of like to have more incentive to stay alive as long as possible. Maybe some sort of alternative ending, easter eggs. I think achievements could be implemented to great effect.

[Firia]

(Do the devs even read the forums, I wonder? Small studio, I know, but If I had my own indy game company, I'd make it a point to never read the forums of my own business. The internet is a depressing place, and it's always centered around forums, in my experience.)

I can agree with all of that. I also died for the very first time with the water creature. I flipped the fuck out when that beast came for me. I was backing into the wall, banging on the door that I came in on, and going senseless out of my mind! Then the thing beat and clawed me to death, and that was it. I saw "stay out of the water," and figured that I needed to be purched on top of something.

Criticism; after the death at the hands of the water creature, I experienced a terror that very few parts of the game from then on could match. I was cornered, didn't know what to do, and what I had strived to avoid until then seemed unavoidable. After that, I was significantly less scared of all monsters and encounters. I had experienced death, and it sucked. But I would have continued on at the same pace of pre-death scares had the foreshadowing event been more noticeable.

Note to any that don't know; in the level prior, you kind of become aware of a monster in the water from a grate in the lab where you cook up the disintegrating agent. You know something is down there, but you aren't immediately aware of what that monster is hunting for, and what triggers it. So a better foreshadowing event right there would have delayed most first-time-deaths, thereby keeping the scare from death constant for a good while longer.

Event Triggers; I also became aware of the monsters being summoned by my fiddling with the world items. Once I realized that the Shadow would likely come for me after opening a locked door, or picking up an item, I realized I could freely roam previously traversed areas with no real fear. Or I could wait for sanity/health to recover, since there was no timed triggers for the Shadow.

Constructive Criticism;
The Shadow as is is a very scary dude. But just the inclusion of a timer that triggers him every 5 or 7 minutes of no-progress would have mixed things up a touch.

Smarter Monsters; I don't know how many times I expected a Shadow monster to check some areas, and was wrong. I built elaborate crate and barrel huts whenever the resources were available, but later in the game I realized that wasn't necessary, because half the time, the Shadow won't look in back corners. I don't mean, investigative monsters, but, rather, a creature that actually put some effort into its hunt. It saw Daniel run into that room, afterall. A little more than a coursery check.

Also, one more thing (saw that avatar floating around... )

The trailer of the game had a screaming woman, followed by the Shadow lurching out of a door for Daniel. This was no where to be found in the game, and seemed like a missed opportunity. Whether a real person to rescue, or the shadow trying to lure the player, it could have been something more than just a trailer piece.

GREAT game, regardless of my crits.

[DIGI Byte]

I've been spotted it seams, I totally agree with the criticism.
The biggest down side is the enemies vanishing after... its well.. it makes it a hallucination that kills you before vanishing...

The idea behind it is most likely making it easier for the player if they are stuck in a part to help them move on in the game, and maybe removing the monster if it gets stuck on something, but honestly?
they should of just made it spawn somewhere else and resume its patrolling, maybe change the path once and a while, patrolling enemies are scarier if they are unpredictable in their patrol route

so, it makes amnesia's stealth system pointless, and really... in any stealth game... when you have to get past a patrolling enemy... its kinda stupid to remove them if they kill/spot the player...
what would happen to splinter cell if that happened?

on a side note, I do like the ones where the monster pops in to check on something and scares you before vanishing

[Sexbad]

(Do the devs even read the forums, I wonder? Small studio, I know, but If I had my own indy game company, I'd make it a point to never read the forums of my own business. The internet is a depressing place, and it's always centered around forums, in my experience.)

They do read the forums. I'm sure they read most of what people put on here too. The only things they reply to are tech help and some inquiries about their next game, though, it seems.

[DIGI Byte]

(Do the devs even read the forums, I wonder? Small studio, I know, but If I had my own indy game company, I'd make it a point to never read the forums of my own business. The internet is a depressing place, and it's always centered around forums, in my experience.)

They do read the forums. I'm sure they read most of what people put on here too. The only things they reply to are tech help and some inquiries about their next game, though, it seems.

they have to remain political, but I doubt they use their "frictional games" account to lurk around, most likely they would have an alt account for personal use, making maps or just generally hanging out with us

[Sexbad]

(Do the devs even read the forums, I wonder? Small studio, I know, but If I had my own indy game company, I'd make it a point to never read the forums of my own business. The internet is a depressing place, and it's always centered around forums, in my experience.)

They do read the forums. I'm sure they read most of what people put on here too. The only things they reply to are tech help and some inquiries about their next game, though, it seems.

they have to remain political, but I doubt they use their "frictional games" account to lurk around, most likely they would have an alt account for personal use, making maps or just generally hanging out with us

I bet it's Scraper.

[Shev]

(Do the devs even read the forums, I wonder? Small studio, I know, but If I had my own indy game company, I'd make it a point to never read the forums of my own business. The internet is a depressing place, and it's always centered around forums, in my experience.)

They do read the forums. I'm sure they read most of what people put on here too. The only things they reply to are tech help and some inquiries about their next game, though, it seems.

they have to remain political, but I doubt they use their "frictional games" account to lurk around, most likely they would have an alt account for personal use, making maps or just generally hanging out with us

I bet it's Scraper.

Dem dev's r lurkin on der forum.

spyin on ur posts

[Smith14]

(Do the devs even read the forums, I wonder? Small studio, I know, but If I had my own indy game company, I'd make it a point to never read the forums of my own business. The internet is a depressing place, and it's always centered around forums, in my experience.)


They do read the forums. I'm sure they read most of what people put on here too. The only things they reply to are tech help and some inquiries about their next game, though, it seems.

I hope they do, I believe any great company should be open to criticism.
That being said, I am confident frictional are planning to add many great features to their future titles. Amnesia seemed to be testing the waters with a FANTASTICALLY ORIGINAL gaming concept. Dark descent certainly felt like an amazing thrill ride (almost like being part of movie, or live-action novel), but I hope (and imagine) they will implement more gaming elements into the mix of their follow up survival horror games.

Things I'd love to see in the follow up title!!!

1) Higher (or at least adjustable) difficulty, Higher enemy A.I./capabilities Once you figured out enemy behavior and triggers, a lot of the previous thrill diminishes

2) Greater penalty for dying/incentive for not dying A nice way to put "survival" back in survival horror!

3)More adventure game elements, elaborated puzzle sequences Not necessarily more difficult or convoluted puzzles, but more emphasis on creative puzzle solving would of be a great direction for this sort of game to take. Especially some non-linear, optional puzzles.
Btw, I loved the multiple-solution aspect of amnesia, more of that please

3.5) More emphasis on open-world exploration/backtracking It would of been great to have the ability to backtrack to the entrance hall, backhall, prison, ect., and have the opportunity to find new puzzles and tasks as events in the game progressed. A non-linear or less linear experience would of been great. And it would add plenty of optional hours back into the title.

4) Achievements/higher replay value If limbo has achievements....Why not amnesia?
it would be great to be rewarded for things such as not dying on high difficulty, or completing the game with without using collected oil (being dependent on oil stations),ect.
But please, leave the commentary! I'm actually going to play the game over again just for that in the near future!

Things I'd love NOT to see in a follow-up title
high-end cinematic scenes!!!
I love, love, love how amnesia presented the story. It left a lot to the imagination, and the incredible writers did a fantastic job making the scenes come to life,

Spoiler below!

torture scenes especially.

No need to dump money into such expenses.

[thedaemon]

3.5) More emphasis on open-world exploration/backtracking It would of been great to have the ability to backtrack to the entrance hall, backhall, prison, ect., and have the opportunity to find new puzzles and tasks as events in the game progressed. A non-linear or less linear experience would of been great. And it would add plenty of optional hours back into the title.

I think this would have killed the game personally. I didn't come to play Amnesia so I could run around the entire building anytime I wanted and was free to roam around the country side kicking turtles, I came to play a controlled scary game that doesn't allow too much freedom. Freedom is less scary, being stuck in a room with a monster is.

[kailip]

People, amnesia is made basically to immersion.
This is why so many things that could be better is like what it is.

The only thing that really could be better is the difficulty (could be adjustable, like he said, cause the game is so easy) and that enemies just disappear after dying (I mean, they could double instead, so you would be very afraid of dying ;D or something like this).