New
#1911
Got into Amnesia AMP for a bit.
Sadly, it's nowhere near as good as the first game. I admit I'm only in the opening segment so it may get better, but thus far it's been a rather slow paced trek through a mildly creepy mansion with nothing happening. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad game. It's just not living up to Amnesia DD or Outlast, not even close.
It's trying too hard to scare me. Thus far all I've been doing is chasing around ghostly children through the halls. Ghostly laughter and distant voices of children isn't scary, it's not even very creepy. It's falling extremely flat.
The place doesn't seem real, but rather like a place that was designed to 'frighten' players. Lots of creepy paintings on the walls of a sort that no one would have hanging in a home with children, depicting scenes of horror, rape, and a lot of nudity. Paintings are reused a bit too often because there are just too many on the walls. The place is overdecorated and it doesn't seem like someone's home, rather more like a carnival funhouse. It's tried to make me 'jump' several times and failed, Outlast is far better at the jump scare and Amnesia AMP is just trying too hard.
The notes also seem more random. The first game's notes gave a sort of narrative that slowly became more and more insane. This game's narrative seems more disjointed and just goes into insane ramblings right from the start. Where Amnesia DD gave us a compelling narrative through note pick ups and journal entries, AMP gives us...drinking songs with grizzly lyrics at sheet music with lyrics to what seems like a German Opera. It doesn't do as good of a job of building up the character's slow decent into madness and seems to be rushing plot elements that didn't get introduced into the first game until much later. Amnesia AMP is more 'Ha! I'm nutty' than 'Holy shit, this guy was ****ing insane! What the hell did he do?' and seems less coherent. There is a distinct lack of voice over as well, which helped the first game's narrative in relation to journal entries a great deal. Once again, AMP tries too hard and doesn't take it's time. It just ends up seeming less fleshed out and manufactured.
There are too many sealed and locked doors. I get that some can't be opened because of gameplay progression, but it is obvious that most of the doors will never open due to huge permanent looking locks. Doors that can open are obvious and it's apparent that these 'extra' locked doors are just another wall texture. There are a lot of sealed containers that will never open as well. It was understandable in the first game as the building it took place in was falling apart and destroyed. Things look much more intact here and these locked drawers and cabinets serve no real purpose. Again, things that can be interacted with are obvious, but there is far too many of these decorative drawers, chests, and closets and it makes the place seem less 'real'.
There are guns hanging everywhere. I get that part of the 'scary' of this game is that you can't fight the monsters. However, in the first game it made sense as there were no weapons available at all. There are firearms all over the walls here and the game seems to rub your nose in it. There's no good reason why your character shouldn't be able to pick one up and carry it around for security, even if it turns out to be useless. They just seem out of place in the game and are just there to annoy you.
You don't lose sanity in the dark. Hang out there all day as much as you want. There's also no need to fuel your lamp that I'm aware of. I don't even really need it to be honest. These were important mechanics in the first game and limiting the amount of time you had to scurry into the shadows while the things hunting you ambled about added a lot to the game. Managing resources greatly improved the tension as well, oil was in limited supply and tinderboxes had to be managed as well.
It's also fairly obvious that you were not a very good person and likely killed your own children as well as numerous other people. Once again, magic rocks likely drove your character insane and paranoid. Again, Amnesia DD did a great job of making you like the guy at first, but the slowly reveal that he was in fact a horrible person who did some terrible things and became quite the monster. The notes in the beginning of the game were almost sane and gave a sense of a sad sort of hope and slowly degraded into revealing the insanely evil acts you'd performed in the past. It's obvious right from the start in this game that you've been a huge crazy prick and probably killed a bunch of people and threw what was left into a meat processing plant. It also seems to hint at the possibility that you've been building/creating Frankenstein style pig monsters, maybe reanimating humans as well, and possibly even created a...Man-Bear-Pig. O_o; Well, at least a Man-Pig anyway.
It just falls flat so far. Maybe it just has a slow start, but thus far Outlast is a much better game. It doesn't hold a candle to the original game either.
Also there are strange phone calls you get from various phone boxes hanging about. These things look out of place to start with, and I've found nothing of value in the messages. Just some slightly creepy cryptic messages from some insane guy who seems to want to 'help' you. I've only heard a few of them, but honestly I'm thinking of ignoring them in the future if possible because the game is actually better without them. They're kind of jarring, seem pretty pointless and a little out of place, and don't add anything that I've noticed. They might be useful for a hint or two on occasion, but I've yet to actually need any assistance in my exploration.
I've noticed several assets being reused from the first game. Not necessarily a bad thing, but there have been a few points where I've recognized a painting or a workbench.
There is also too much light. I've been playing for at least an hour and a half and I've not actually needed the lantern. I've pulled it out to have a better look at a few things, but I could have easily ignored it thus far and wouldn't be any worse off than I am. It's not very bright at all, but also has a sort of grayish haze rather than darkness. Hopefully that will improve as I progress, but the light and darkness dynamic is far less important in this game.
It plays a lot like the first game, but unfortunately seems to take out a lot of the elements that made the first game such a great horror game. It's not as creepy, environments seem more 'manufactured', the opening is slow and uninspired [laughing ghost children again? Really, Amnesia?], and there is just too many doors, dressers, closets, and cabinets that are merely there to decorate the walls rather than having any sort of function, and the lack of resource management or penalty for spending too much time in the dark makes it lose a lot of the tension the first game had.
It may get better, as I said I'm only just now making my way outside of the mansion you start in. It's not horrible, I'll still be playing through it, but it's nothing special thus far. It's a good game and it does have excellent sound design. It's also very pretty, texture detail is much better and the lighting has improved from the first game. The atmosphere is creepy enough, but so far the scares have amounted to someone jumping out of a closet on the other side of a room dressed in a bedsheet with two holes cut in it and moaning at you. Scarrrryy! I'm Scarrry!
Meh, not really. Entertaining, but not really scary. It's not a bad survival horror game, but compared to the first it's a bit disappointing so far. I've played both Outlast and Amnesia AMP for about the same amount of time. Based on my initial impressions I'd say that out of the two Outlast is the better horror game by quite a wide margin, so if you're planning on picking up one or the other, at this point I recommend Outlast a lot more.
Again, Amnesia isn't a bad game. It's been entertaining enough to keep me going. The whole laughing ghost kids thing just didn't impress me and there hasn't been much else so far. Things may improve. The first game was a bit slow as well and was better off for it, but AMP seems to have removed the best tension building elements from the game and as a result ends up more 'fun house' than 'horror game'. Between this game, Amnesia DD, and Outlast, Amnesia AMP is easily the weakest entry based on the first couple of hours of gameplay.
I do want to keep playing though, and it seems like it will be worth a playthrough for fans of this genre once they finish with Outlast and Amnesia DD. The sound design is excellent, it's very pretty graphically, and it's interesting enough to keep me going despite it's flaws.
Last edited by Contrabardus; 10 Sep 2013 at 11:36.
