Shadowcat on 27/3/2011 at 13:38
I finally finished Amnesia, after putting a few hours into it this weekend. My play through consisted of occasional bursts, with long gaps between them when I either wasn't in the right mood, or didn't feel awake enough to play it by the time it was late enough to be worth playing.
All things considered, I'm damned impressed, as the good bits dramatically outweighed the bad.
I loved the fact that your character's fear manifested in such a physical way. [spoiler]
One of the first occasions when I died was because I wanted to get a look at a creature. I knew of course that I needed to run, but I chose to back away so that I could what I was running from. As it approached, my vision blurred, the noise in my ears increased, and even as I frantically willed myself to move faster, my movements got slower and slower. Then I collapsed, falling sideways, helpless. Too late, I realised that to even gaze upon these creatures was to invite death by way of paralysing fear. The only hope I had was to turn and run and not look back, no matter what I heard behind me. I turned and stumbled away, and was cut down.
Absolutely superb. No other game has made me run in terror the way this game did on several occasions, my heart in my mouth, not daring to look back. Genuine fear -- amazing.
[/spoiler]
Sure it had its fair share of flaws, but I'm more than willing to pay that price to get an experience like this. I suspect that a lot of other developers could learn a lot from this game.
henke on 27/3/2011 at 14:16
Quote Posted by Pemptus
Holy duckjesus, that's some horrible box art. And a good example of the "artist" not being aware of the nature of the game. (what's unseen is the most terrifying and all that)
Seconding all of this. One of the greatest things about the monsters in Amnesia is that you never get to really see them. Just imagine them. And then these fuckups not only go and put it right on the boxcover but also make it look like a goddamn duck. What the fuck? They could not have made worse boxart if they
tried.
sNeaksieGarrett on 27/3/2011 at 16:40
@henke: lol
@Shadowcat:
I had a similar play style... Some nights I would feel it was too late and/or I'd just put it off.. When I did play it I played it in short bursts most of the time, maybe an hour or two hours.
Did you open the supersecret archive?
Shadowcat on 28/3/2011 at 07:46
Sure did. I'd actually seen that file when I installed the game, and had forgotten all about it in the interim, or it probably would have occurred to me what those codes were! As it was, I tried typing them within the game, then decided to just ask the internet :)
Also: That box art is a travesty, and so unnecessary -- a menacing shadow would have provided the desired effect, and tied in nicely with the gameplay. I kinda hope Frictional Games didn't approve that; they'd just finished making such a good impression on me...
gunsmoke on 28/3/2011 at 15:42
Quote Posted by Shadowcat
I kinda hope Frictional Games didn't approve that; they'd just finished making such a good impression on me...
To be fair, it is usually the publisher who is responsible for that stuff.
sNeaksieGarrett on 29/3/2011 at 02:58
Ah, I ended up asking the internet as well.
SPOILER:
I tried typing in the two codes I had, because I replayed the ending a second time and neither code worked alone. Then I found out from the internet what you're supposed to do. Don't you just love the internet?
catbarf on 29/3/2011 at 04:11
I played through Amnesia too terrified to commit suicide to get a look at the monsters. I just knew they were humanoid and zombie-like. I think it's clever- people always say that the monster you don't see is more terrifying than the one in plain sight with all its flaws and goofiness exposed. So I went to Google to see what the monsters really are.
What the fuck. I imagined zombies. It's worse. I'll be seeing Mr. Face in my nightmares...
henke on 20/7/2011 at 11:35
That was indeed a terrifying tale. It seems like for most of the development-time they were just ambling about trying to figure out what the game they were making was, and only pulled the whole thing together near the end. Luckily it worked out great but it seems it might've easily been a disaster.
Shadowcat on 20/7/2011 at 13:18
It also explained why the bulk of the sanity effects had so little actual impact -- Frictional removed the negative effects to make the game more forgiving. I also suspect this is why the game had regenerating health (rendering the potions almost completely pointless). My knee-jerk reaction is to be sad about all that; but I didn't get to play that version, and there isn't much else to compare it against, so who knows...
