This review contains spoilers
I'm going to be harsh on the game. I have played Amnesia: The Dark Descent years ago before starting AMFP. I did start this game back in 2014, but it bored me and I stopped. I tried again and made it to the ending. I wasn't super impressed.
The audio was generally good. The voice acting was decent and didn't feel aged. The protag's monologues were well delivered. The sound cues in the beginning were terrific in the mansion. Floorboards creaking, house settling, and other subtle noises. It made you feel unsafe in the house. You eventually leave the house and are surrounded by machinery. The audio from the machines were good, realistic and believable. Just...incredibly loud at times. It sadly lost the subtle, eerie feeling and replaced it with loud banging right in your poor ears which was annoying.
The house was spooky, more than areas further in the game. It was the paralyzing feeling of darkness and knowing you weren't alone. But at this point you don't see the monster yet. You eventually go outside, which I thought was really cool. The story takes place in London and it was neat actually being outside and seeing the factories and trucks from the century. Then you go underground...and everything looks the same. For like three to four hours of the game. Pipes, metal railings, steam...it was repetitive and felt less frightening. Being surrounded by the machinery, again the sometimes overwhelming audio drowned you in beeps and moans.
Similar to DD, there's not a ton of different types of enemies. They build upon the first monster you see with different variations. The monster isn't that scary. It just isn't as far as design. The sounds, the footsteps, and it's appearances. It didn't do it for me. The base design did make sense for the story plot but the last couple variations towards the end of the game did not work. One enemy is literally a copy of an enemy in DD. That's not creative at all; just a letdown. The..boss? towards the end (if you could even call it that) was not frightening. It was goofy.
This is really what killed the game for me. The story line. I read other players' opinions about the story on the Steam discussion page and I just cannot see the praise. Maybe I don't understand it and there's more subtly I give it credit for? Like turn of the century fear? A man fearing the world he's raising his children in? Perhaps.
AMFP adds the lovely trope of a family man gone crazy. It's a trope that I hate.
Let's just say I saw exactly where the story was heading in chapter one. There's five chapters and I knew what was going to happen in the end. It was disappointing. It made me feel like I was racing the game just to get to the end, to hope it wasn't going in that direction. Sadly, it wasn't anything new. I'm not saying it need twists or turns. But stop relying on cliches or tropes in stories. It was bland and unoriginal.
Everything is pigs. So many pig analogies and pig idioms. This dude hated pigs, okay? Your neighbor sucks? Call them swine. The government? PIGS. Your Lord and Savior? The biggest pig lie of them all. LOL. It was almost humorous how the writing was NOT SUBTLE at all with that. The game is called Machine for Pigs. Get it? Do you get it? It really wanted you to remember P I G S. (I had fun writing this.)
The audio was generally good. The voice acting was decent and didn't feel aged. The protag's monologues were well delivered. The sound cues in the beginning were terrific in the mansion. Floorboards creaking, house settling, and other subtle noises. It made you feel unsafe in the house. You eventually leave the house and are surrounded by machinery. The audio from the machines were good, realistic and believable. Just...incredibly loud at times. It sadly lost the subtle, eerie feeling and replaced it with loud banging right in your poor ears which was annoying.
The house was spooky, more than areas further in the game. It was the paralyzing feeling of darkness and knowing you weren't alone. But at this point you don't see the monster yet. You eventually go outside, which I thought was really cool. The story takes place in London and it was neat actually being outside and seeing the factories and trucks from the century. Then you go underground...and everything looks the same. For like three to four hours of the game. Pipes, metal railings, steam...it was repetitive and felt less frightening. Being surrounded by the machinery, again the sometimes overwhelming audio drowned you in beeps and moans.
Similar to DD, there's not a ton of different types of enemies. They build upon the first monster you see with different variations. The monster isn't that scary. It just isn't as far as design. The sounds, the footsteps, and it's appearances. It didn't do it for me. The base design did make sense for the story plot but the last couple variations towards the end of the game did not work. One enemy is literally a copy of an enemy in DD. That's not creative at all; just a letdown. The..boss? towards the end (if you could even call it that) was not frightening. It was goofy.
This is really what killed the game for me. The story line. I read other players' opinions about the story on the Steam discussion page and I just cannot see the praise. Maybe I don't understand it and there's more subtly I give it credit for? Like turn of the century fear? A man fearing the world he's raising his children in? Perhaps.
AMFP adds the lovely trope of a family man gone crazy. It's a trope that I hate.
Let's just say I saw exactly where the story was heading in chapter one. There's five chapters and I knew what was going to happen in the end. It was disappointing. It made me feel like I was racing the game just to get to the end, to hope it wasn't going in that direction. Sadly, it wasn't anything new. I'm not saying it need twists or turns. But stop relying on cliches or tropes in stories. It was bland and unoriginal.
Everything is pigs. So many pig analogies and pig idioms. This dude hated pigs, okay? Your neighbor sucks? Call them swine. The government? PIGS. Your Lord and Savior? The biggest pig lie of them all. LOL. It was almost humorous how the writing was NOT SUBTLE at all with that. The game is called Machine for Pigs. Get it? Do you get it? It really wanted you to remember P I G S. (I had fun writing this.)