Great game; small pacing criticism

**marshmallow** · 04-23-2011, 10:52 AM

Amnesia is an awesome game. The fact that such a good 3D game was made with such a small team is quite impressive. I recommended it to all my friends and I'll definitely be checking out the Penumbra games + any future games you guys make.

My only criticism is that I felt the excitement peaked early in the game and then went down to a lower plateau. There's the first water lurker encounter, then in the storage cellar there's a situation where you have to run past two of the servants/grunts/Mr. Face things, which is pretty crazy. That's the game's first big pace spike. Then you solve the elevator puzzle to calm down and bring down the pace. Then you go down to the old prison and it's a dark maze with multiple servants wandering all over the place and it's very claustrophobic and you feel like you're gonna get trapped in a dead end. That's the second spike.

Then you go to the cistern and it's nice and calm, which is needed after the intense prison level of course. But after that there's never another situation that requires evading or running at/past more than one monster. So the game's peak excitement happens in the first 1/3 or 1/2, then goes down and remains steady until the end. IMO there should be another situation like that towards the end somewhere. When I replay the game and I finish the prison I kinda don't want to finish the rest, since I know I've already done the most intense parts.

Your mileage may vary etc.

**DominusVita** · 04-23-2011, 11:58 AM

Well, thanks for the input then.

**mattwestwick** · 04-23-2011, 04:09 PM

Try some custom stories.

**gandalf91** · 04-23-2011, 05:01 PM

It all depends on how you play the game. If you want to live on the edge, I'm sure you could go charging through the Choir and spawn multiple brutes and create a very chaotic situation. lol

**Serena** · 04-23-2011, 06:49 PM

Personally my favorite areas were the choir and torture rooms, so I guess it's really dependent on individual tastes. While it wasn't as action-packed as the cellar or the prison, the torture areas held the most interest for me. Hah maybe that says something about me >_<

That being said, I do agree that the ending was less of a climax than the build-up.

**Hunter of Shadows** · 04-23-2011, 09:14 PM

(04-23-2011, 05:01 PM)gandalf91 Wrote: It all depends on how you play the game. If you want to live on the edge, I'm sure you could go charging through the Choir and spawn multiple brutes and create a very chaotic situation. lol

Talk about "I WANT TO DIE, PLEASE KILL ME, I HAZ DEATH WISH"

**marshmallow** · 04-24-2011, 05:48 AM

(04-23-2011, 05:01 PM)gandalf91 Wrote: I'm sure you could go charging through the Choir and spawn multiple brutes and create a very chaotic situation. lol

There's only one dude in that huge room afaik. I've run through it plenty of times no problem.

mattwestwick Wrote:Try some custom stories.

That sounds good. Any recommendations?

**mattwestwick** · 04-24-2011, 02:16 PM

Dis one,

http://www.frictionalgames.com/forum/thread-7435.html

**gandalf91** · 04-24-2011, 11:54 PM

(04-24-2011, 05:48 AM)marshmallow Wrote:
(04-23-2011, 05:01 PM)gandalf91 Wrote: I'm sure you could go charging through the Choir and spawn multiple brutes and create a very chaotic situation. lol

There's only one dude in that huge room afaik. I've run through it plenty of times no problem.

mattwestwick Wrote:Try some custom stories.

That sounds good. Any recommendations?

Not unless the scripts are set up such that no more than one can spawn at a time in that room...there are multiple spawn points in there though. At least five.

(04-23-2011, 09:14 PM)Hunter of Shadows Wrote:
(04-23-2011, 05:01 PM)gandalf91 Wrote: It all depends on how you play the game. If you want to live on the edge, I'm sure you could go charging through the Choir and spawn multiple brutes and create a very chaotic situation. lol

Talk about "I WANT TO DIE, PLEASE KILL ME, I HAZ DEATH WISH"

Hahaha, yeah really.

**dph314** · 04-25-2011, 06:47 AM

Well if you already play through the game and know where all the parts are where there's no monsters, then yeah those parts won't be scary. Also if you know what everything looks like then it might not be scary. Half the scare for me was the environment. Places with no monsters don't mean it ain't scary. Sights, sounds, and the unknown made the whole game, beginning to end, creepy for me. I agree I guess though, cuz I don't play games like this through a second time until it's been a while, and I've forgotten a lot. That way you get back some of the surprise of everything. But yeah that is the reason I only play through once in a while. But that first time is great even though there's not constant action, because it's not an action game. Suspense/horror has a lot to do with the enviroment, sights, and sounds. So you're never gonna get that rush that you experienced that first time you played through the game since everything won't be new to you. Unless of course you got...yes, amnesia. Then...Amnesia...would be new and suspenseful again.
I'd love a good cocktail to bring me back to my pre-Amnesia life so I could experience it for the first time all over again.