Zero Punctuation: Amnesia: The Dark Descent
- Thread starter Yahtzee Croshaw
- Start date
Cool, will pick up the game. If you haven't already go try Penumbra and the expansion. Those are the only games that ever creeped me out enough to where I actually had to take breaks from playing just to wind down 
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.Oh good, I'm not alone. I would love it if I could play more of the game but I have a feeling that my underwear budget would skyrocket.Phenom828 said:
It's times like this that I'm really glad I keep up with ZP. Yes, the episodes where he rips a mainstream title a new one are funny and satirical at keeping up with gaming's steady decline. But when he reviews a scary indie game such as "Amnesia: The Dark Descent" and makes reference to "Penumbra: Black Plague" I'm actually pretty excited. I've never heard of EITHER of these games and now I want to play them both. (Scary, stealth, first person, not a shooter. I like the concepts.)
Now that that's over, I can't wait to watch him poo all over 'Reach' next week.
Now that that's over, I can't wait to watch him poo all over 'Reach' next week.
I NEED to get this. Finally downloading Steam again just for this semi-positive review from ZP. I wonder how the sales have changed since this review...
So what fanboys is he baiting, exactly? Because any retarded Halo fanboy would know that the last thing they want is Yahtzee reviewing a Halo game. I'm assuming he's baiting his own fanboys, then. You know, the ones that drone "Yes, Yahtzee, I shall not buy or rent this game and form my own opinions simply because you said it sucks..."
Anyways, I'm glad he reviewed Amnesia, I had my eye on it for a while, and I guessed it would be something he would like. Plus I'm filing "Yahtzee freaking out" as one of the best ZP moments ever.
Anyways, I'm glad he reviewed Amnesia, I had my eye on it for a while, and I guessed it would be something he would like. Plus I'm filing "Yahtzee freaking out" as one of the best ZP moments ever.
Hmmm, well to be entirely honest I am not too fond of survival horror games without a decent combat mechanic. I think the best games are the ones that can have combat while still maintaining the atmosphere and so on.
For me part of the fun has always been being able to eventually turn the table on the monsters. What's more being armed is a very common sense reaction to a lot of the horror stuff, since weapons are relatively easy to improvise, and if I feel I'm in danger from some monster the first thing I'm going for is a weapon before I go plodding around in the dark looking to figure out what it is. A lack of combat mechanics and such rapidly turns the whole idea into a joke akin to the least believable horror movies out there. If something as simple and common sense as personal armament is missing it says a lot about the game and the writing.
Forget shotguns, swords, and all of that stuff. I can see how a lot of people might not be used to having that kind of stuff around, but what about tools? I mean my garage has dones of them. I have a maul near my bed that I keep handy, it sort of wound up there after I (believe it or not) thought our cat crawled through a hole and got stuck in the wall and we were trying to get it out (and the little fluffy bundle of joy was somewhere else the entire time). For that matter there is also a tool bench outside my room (seeing as I am the quintessential basement dweller). I'm going to find SOMETHING. Heck, even if it's one of those "your car breaks down in the middle of the spooky woods" or "you wake up with amnesia after a car crash" moments, I've still got a bloody tire iron.
Of course, perhaps it's the sadistic PnP GM in me, but when I run horror RPGs as my players find out just because you have weapons does not mean they are going to be effective. I've sort of been waiting to see if some game designer was going to ever develop a game with a combat engine, but where none of the weapons were effective, just for lulz to address this issue ("OMG! What do you mean LAW Rockets just bounce off" - quote from Knights Of The Dinner Table).
At any rate, all rambling aside, a lot of it probably comes down to the fact that chase mechanics in games have always annoyed me, and that is what this sounds like. Maybe it's flashbacks to the weapon free beginnings of "Call Of Cthulhu: Dark Corners Of The Earth", or some of the flight/stealth related parts of "Siren: Blood Curse", or maybe dozens of other things (oh noes! It's Scissorman!) but in general being forced to avoid monsters endlessly as opposed to doing so as a tactical desician tends to be annoying. After the 47th time you get munched it stops being scary, and becomes annoying.
For me part of the fun has always been being able to eventually turn the table on the monsters. What's more being armed is a very common sense reaction to a lot of the horror stuff, since weapons are relatively easy to improvise, and if I feel I'm in danger from some monster the first thing I'm going for is a weapon before I go plodding around in the dark looking to figure out what it is. A lack of combat mechanics and such rapidly turns the whole idea into a joke akin to the least believable horror movies out there. If something as simple and common sense as personal armament is missing it says a lot about the game and the writing.
Forget shotguns, swords, and all of that stuff. I can see how a lot of people might not be used to having that kind of stuff around, but what about tools? I mean my garage has dones of them. I have a maul near my bed that I keep handy, it sort of wound up there after I (believe it or not) thought our cat crawled through a hole and got stuck in the wall and we were trying to get it out (and the little fluffy bundle of joy was somewhere else the entire time). For that matter there is also a tool bench outside my room (seeing as I am the quintessential basement dweller). I'm going to find SOMETHING. Heck, even if it's one of those "your car breaks down in the middle of the spooky woods" or "you wake up with amnesia after a car crash" moments, I've still got a bloody tire iron.
Of course, perhaps it's the sadistic PnP GM in me, but when I run horror RPGs as my players find out just because you have weapons does not mean they are going to be effective. I've sort of been waiting to see if some game designer was going to ever develop a game with a combat engine, but where none of the weapons were effective, just for lulz to address this issue ("OMG! What do you mean LAW Rockets just bounce off" - quote from Knights Of The Dinner Table).
At any rate, all rambling aside, a lot of it probably comes down to the fact that chase mechanics in games have always annoyed me, and that is what this sounds like. Maybe it's flashbacks to the weapon free beginnings of "Call Of Cthulhu: Dark Corners Of The Earth", or some of the flight/stealth related parts of "Siren: Blood Curse", or maybe dozens of other things (oh noes! It's Scissorman!) but in general being forced to avoid monsters endlessly as opposed to doing so as a tactical desician tends to be annoying. After the 47th time you get munched it stops being scary, and becomes annoying.
"The quickest way to spoil your pleasure is to make it routine" -- Benjamin Franklin [sub]I think[/sub]J1NXY0 said:Who else thinks Yahtzee should start doing walk-throughs of the games he plays? Would be so f-ing funny listening to his witty banter while he plays
If Yahtzee started color-commentating walk-throughs in addition to his weekly rants it would get really annoying really fast. It's a good idea for like a one-time thing maybe slotted in-step with a holiday or celebration, but can you imagine how quickly you would get fed up with all of his shtick all at once?
This is the scariest game I ever played in my life.
There is a part in which you have to go into this foggy red room with a monster roaming inside it, which leads into three different rooms where you have to pick up important items. I went into one of these rooms, and then I had to go back, but I was too scared to do it. I was too scared to go into a fucking room with a monster inside, and that sort of scare had NEVER happened to me before in a game.
I felt like I did when I was a little kid and had to go to a dark place inside my own house: I'd run as fast as I could and look around as little as possible.
Great review, too. Loved the three kinds of horror games!
There is a part in which you have to go into this foggy red room with a monster roaming inside it, which leads into three different rooms where you have to pick up important items. I went into one of these rooms, and then I had to go back, but I was too scared to do it. I was too scared to go into a fucking room with a monster inside, and that sort of scare had NEVER happened to me before in a game.
I felt like I did when I was a little kid and had to go to a dark place inside my own house: I'd run as fast as I could and look around as little as possible.
Great review, too. Loved the three kinds of horror games!
Thanks for doing a review on it. Had a feeling that it would catch your attention this game since you are a big SH2 fan (as I am). I'm glad this game was out of the norm a bit because you are weaponless and utterly hopeless against those.... things. And also Yahtzee, help produce a game dammit! It would be great to see a great horror game through your vision of how it should be. All in favor?
Penumbra already scared me out of my socks, and now with the flawed "combat" removed this should be even better.
Frictional have grasped, that you can't have a "horror game" when the "horror" part goes out of the window by supplying you with an arsenal of guns to shoot your way out of trouble.
And that's why it's unlikely we'll ever see a game like Amnesia from a big studio.
No shooting = unprofitably small target audience.
Goodness me, a game that even made Yahtzee get a bit excited ?
How scary is THAT ?
Frictional have grasped, that you can't have a "horror game" when the "horror" part goes out of the window by supplying you with an arsenal of guns to shoot your way out of trouble.
And that's why it's unlikely we'll ever see a game like Amnesia from a big studio.
No shooting = unprofitably small target audience.
Goodness me, a game that even made Yahtzee get a bit excited ?
How scary is THAT ?
Amnesia is the second scariest game I've ever played, scariest being Out of Hell. The only problme is that when you don't have a weapon, you get the "well if I can't attack I don't have to worry too much about monsters" feeling, which sort of lets it down.
Cool, well then you should be happy that you have every other survival horror game ever made. For those of us that want to try something different however, there's this game.Therumancer said:
I long ago ceased even caring what game you were reviewing and I just started enjoying watching you rip it into so many pieces that game developers are probably gonna start releasing more ridiculously violent games in the hope that Australia will ban them and the developers can avoid 4 weeks in a drunken state sobbing about how their mom never loved them. This state would of course be a direct effect of your chain saw directly to the balls reviews. In other words: Keep up the good work you marvelously jaded and satirical genius you. Cheers.
