To be honest, over the last couple of weeks since its release, AMY hasn’t recieved all that stellar a reception from the gaming media, with scores ranging from as low as 1/10 to barely scraping the 50% mark. As I waited for the Playstation Network release as my XBox360 is connected to a bigger, more frequently used TV due to the room being more suited for Kinect gameplay… and I find it better to play a horror game such as this on my designated review TV… this proved to be a negative as I had to wait an extra week for a PSN copy and thus went into this review with the mind it was going to be bad. Let me get straight to the point – this game was underwhelming in most departments even though it went in with great ideas for plot and gameplay. While this review is based on the game as-is, I feel many of the gripes people are having would be quite fixable provided the developer put the time and effort into patching it. Irrespective, you came for my review so you shall have a review. But first, a few little things to note:
This review is based off the Playstation 3 version of the game which was downloaded from the US PSN Store. A copy of the game was kindly provided to me by its publisher Lexis Numérique on the day of its PSN release. I have since then played through the game once on EASY mode.
The game lets you take control of Lana, who escapes the Phoenix Center with a mysterious autistic and mute girl named Amy after she was subjected to many an experiment and acts sort of as a carer and mother figure to the young girl. The game begins on a train where everything is normal and while travelling on the train to see a doctor regarding Amy’s condition, a mysterious burst of light appears in the distance with most of the people at their destination including the train conductor having turned to zombies or some form of mutant being. Somehow, you must get both of the girls to safety while uncovering just what is behind the many oddities of the small girl you have by your side. Given the fact that your environment is full of radiation that can turn you into one of these mutant beings, Amy somehow has the ability to treat you when you stand nearby her. The thing about the games plot is that it had so much potential and spends so much of the time teasing you of a really great one… but doesn’t extend past average leaving questions unanswered and doesn’t really sort of salvage the game by any means. But considering the price of the game – I have seen much better but I have also seen much MUCH worse. Either way, it leaves the games purpose as just trying to rescue one girl from the ruins of a metropolis with the occasional storyline interjected…. but you know what…. I actually quite liked it!
Considering the price I would not be expecting perfect design and while others have been very critical of it as well, I thought the design itself was decent on a smaller screen. True the designs could have used a bit of variation as the environments were uninspiring and “drab” even for an area in ruins, but I thought the character designs were well detailed and even those of the limited variations of enemies I faced were creative. This brings me to my first Patch Point in this review. These Patch Points are where I highlight problems I personally feel could potentially could be fixed and if fixed… COULD merit a score increase if I ever were to review the game again (Of course, this review is based on what I am currently presented). The issue is that the frame rate in a number of scenes was really jittery which made certain areas of the game tedious to get through. Also, screen tearing was also present at a rate I would not consider appropriate. So yes, they might have captured the feel of the world but implementation killed it.
In terms of the games sound effect and music usage, I can honestly say I didn’t pay much attention to the implementation of the music in the game, however the use of sound effects was overall pretty decent, having the bag of effects you would need in a horror game of this kind. The English voice acting included in this game has been subjected to some debate, and I think it was appropriate, however they perhaps tried a bit too hard to keep the scary tone of their dubbing that it detracted from much potential emotion that could have been delivered in the game. Heck, the best voice actor I think was the guy who voiced a particular male character in the first chapter had that creepy but out there attitude that really encouraged you to keep going.
The main issue I had with the game was the Gameplay…. it is not so much the core mechanics that were included which were pretty decent, but the bugs and poor implementation decisions really detracted from everything which if patched, would make the game much more enjoyable I feel (Hey, I stopped playing Skyrim on the PS3 because the game just stopped in the opening sequence several times in a row…. but you unfortunately cannot write a review on the character creation can you?). The gameplay itself is your typical mix of horror and puzzle elements that come up with some good ideas and are implemented okay but are tedious. For example, there are only so many times you can enjoy separating the two girls and flicking switches. The game has some really good ideas however, for example as some doors are DNA locked, you can use a tool to find DNA samples using a tool which has you backtracking through sometimes perilous areas in order to find the correct sample to open a door, or for an example early in Chapter 2 – having Amy run off leaving you to follow her into a radiated room with a mysterious monster within it collecting colour-keycards and trying to find her. However a complex system to push a button through the use of an elevator… too cliche. But I suppose that is the hit or miss system of the classic horror game…. except having a little girl hacking into computers which was perhaps a bit too out there.
To give it credit, I did also like the whole turning into a zombie system where you were timed not by a timer, but if too far away from Amy you would slowly turn, resulting in potential game over but also hallucinations, visual changes and the like. I also liked how they used that to your advantage at points as you were immune to being found by most others like you. In terms of combat, I found myself faced with it quite often but giving the weakness of the two characters, you would usually be better hiding in a closet or under a table which I suppose would give you that horror feel – similar to the system in Rule of Rose on the PS2. I don’t really have an extensive playlist of horror games… perhaps the only other similar game in the last year I have played being Corpse Party on the PSP which is a polar opposite to this game in style. While the system is not perfect… what really drags it down… it is implementation which can easily be deemed a Patch Point(s).
First off, the controls really needed to be improved. Those who are perhaps familiar with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on consoles may be familiar with the system where you can only walk by using the control stick, press another button to run but it is very hard to move the direction you want to go… especially turning around which is more trouble than it is worth. The camera controls were also a bit wonky and could be improved for both movement and combat. Perhaps even more troubling is the severe lack of checkpoints meaning that while it is not bad for the first chapter or two, by chapter five you could easily lose half an hour plus of gameplay due to one simple mistake and having to go through all the puzzles again. Even more so that the only save points are at the end of the chapters. Finally, among everything I ended up running into several bugs where characters would just stop moving and therefore stopping my progress altogether – something I can understand happening once or twice as no game is perfect – but occurred a bit too frequently for my liking.
This is supposed to be a game from the Playstation Network, so you arent going to be expecting the graphics of Final Fantasy XIII or the gameplay of a well implemented RPG system… but the thing is that this game had so much potential and showed it throughout the game, yet small implementation issues here and there let it down rendering it a kind of meh experience. I won’t deny I enjoyed playing through the game as while it was tedious at points the core gameplay was what I was expecting… but really… VectorCell needed a little bit more time to finish and polish the game and it might have been a pretty decent game. I would be more than willing to go through the game again provided they released a patch but until then consider it a really average game at best – especially if you have more experience in the genre than I have. I do hope however that VectorCell takes what they learn’t with this release and apply it to the future titles because as I have said before, they really entered with a good idea but didn’t apply it well enough for at least my tastes.
Final Score
Storyline/Character Development: C
Design: D+
Music/Voice Acting: C+
Gameplay: D
Personal Opinion: C
Overall Score: D+
