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Amy Review

Horrifyingly bad.

January 11, 2012

 

The game Amy has been kicking around for a while now. Every so often, you'd hear rumblings on The PlayStation Blog about the downloadable survival horror title Vector Cell had in the works. It seemed cool enough in premise, and indeed, Amy no doubt looks good on paper. But the end result -- a supremely muddled mess of controller-throwing frustration and piss-poor game design choices -- makes Amy not only one of the worst downloadable games I've ever played, but easily the worst game I've played in recent memory, period.

 

Amy puts you in the role of Lana, a woman responsible for the well-being of a little girl named Amy. As the game starts out, Lana and Amy are travelling aboard a train when an explosion sends the train rolling, turning Lana's and Amy's lives upside down. From there on out, Amy's special gifts unfold before your very eyes.

 

The game's plot could have very well been Amy's only saving grace, but the highly nebulous nature of the story doesn't really tell you much of anything at all. Several chapters in, you'll still be puzzled as to what exactly is going on around you, and because the gameplay itself is the single worst part of Amy, you won't exactly find yourself enamored enough to keep on keeping on to find more clarity with the plot.

 

The give-and-take between Lana and Amy should be at the center of the experience, but since the game literally does nothing even remotely well whatsoever, you'll be exceptionally hard-pressed to appreciate the novelty of the idea at the game's core. Lana can't survive for very long on her own without being poisoned and killed; Amy appears to be immune from the effects of the explosion and can even heal Lana if she's nearby or holding her hand. Unfortunately, this great idea rapidly becomes monotonous and cumbersome, and even the lone bright spot in Amy quickly becomes yet another thing to resent.

 

To call Amy's gameplay unintuitive and unresponsive puts things too lightly. To call Amy's gameplay complete and utter garbage is far more accurate. The game tells you to do a bunch of different things, but the controls only work sometimes. Want to pick up that item on the ground? You better be positioned in a pixel-perfect fashion. Want to hit that enemy? You better cross your fingers and hope the game's collision detection works. Want to dodge an enemy attack? Might as well roll the dice. The most important thing about any game ever made is how it plays, and in this regard, Amy is an outright abomination.

 

http://ps3media.ign.com/ps3/image/article/121/1216343/amy-20120111044339077.jpg

Amy looks astonished because she can't believe how bad her game is.

 

The puzzle-centric nature of the game also calls into question inherent design decisions at the heart of Amy. How many times can a gamer possibly be expected to do the same few things over and over again? Why am I sending Amy through a crawl space into an office to collect a key card when Lana could have easily fit through the hole herself? Why is the mute little girl I'm with hacking computers at my behest while I sit idly by? These are just some of the questions you'll ask yourself during each and every chapter in Amy's excruciating journey.

 

Apart from the abysmal gameplay littering every inch of Amy exists an equally infuriating checkpoint system that is so terrible that you may actually take it as one big joke from the developers. But it's no joke. Amy's checkpoint system wouldn't necessarily be so unforgiving if the game was even remotely playable, but since so much of the game requires insane amounts of trial and error -- and a myriad of unfair deaths due to terrible controls both in and out of combat -- this might be the most frustrating aspect of the entire experience.

 

I will be absolutely amazed if more than a small fraction of gamers who actually spent their hard-earned money on this travesty gets through more than a couple of chapters, because after replaying the same 20-minute segment of a chapter a dozen times as you try to figure out what you're actually doing wrong, you're more likely to chuck your console through the nearest window than have the patience to see it through for attempt number 13.

 

http://ps3media.ign.com/ps3/image/article/121/1216343/amy-20120111044339327.jpg

Lana is scared because she knows there's a good chance her crowbar will go through the enemy without damaging it.

 

At the end of the day, the good idea at the center of Amy never sees the light of day because everything surrounding that idea is terrible. The game's mediocre look is about the best thing the game has going for it. But then again, once you sit through the lengthy load times following getting stuck in the environment and dying, even that bright spot will quickly diminish.

 

I spent at least a dozen hours with Amy, got as far as the end portion of the fifth chapter, and gave up out of sheer anger and frustration. I refuse to spend another second with this game. I suggest you don't get started at all, and run in the opposite direction instead.

 

Closing Comments

 

I don’t take bashing any game lightly. Obviously, people put hard work into making the game. But Amy is about as big of a miss as I’ve seen in I don’t know how long. Amy purports itself to be survival horror, but the only surviving you’ll be doing is trying to make sense of the muddled gameplay mess laid before you as you’re “scared” by the same gimmicky frights, like bursting gas pipes and falling portraits, over and over again.

 

If you want a downloadable game for $10, scroll randomly through the titles offered by your downloadable service of choice, randomly stop on a game and buy it. Your money will have almost certainly been better spent in lieu of buying Amy, which absolutely no one should play.

 

Amy Review - PlayStation 3 Review at IGN

 

Video Review - IGN Game Reviews Video - IGN

 

 

A 2 out of 10 Painful... Ouch for $10 you better off with something else. :p

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:/

 

I wanted to play this game so bad.

Well im in a bit of a financial crisis so i guess its a good thing its not as amazing as it was suppose to be.

 

Still i personal like to play a game and judge it for myself. There are numerous games that have gotten bad reviews that ive enjoyed.

 

Still gonna have to wait for a discounted price before i pick this up.

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I am a little bit disappointed, but I must confess that the only reason I know about this game is because of the slight pricing issue surrounding it.

 

The more I think about it, the more I think that the pricing issue could have been a ploy to get some publicity. Let's face it - based on this, it wasn't going to get publicity based on the rave reviews.

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I wish I'd have read this and watched the video review before I purchased this last night.

 

Everything said in the review is spot on, the game is abysmal. Along with Alone in the Dark, this is hand's down the worst game I've ever played. I'm playing on the hard difficulty setting, and have been stuck on the same portion of chapter 2 for 3 hours.

 

Getting 100% on this is going to be an immensely tedious and frustrating experience, I don't know if I can be bothered to be honest.

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I was watching the review and all through it instead of saying what annoys him about the game, he just keeped ranting about how horrible the game is without saying why or how. That gives me the impression that some site payed him to give the game a low score. Come on from what I see in the video the game isn't too bad it definitely has better graphics than SAW and that got a 6! and I didn't see any framerate inconsistencies.

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I was watching the review and all through it instead of saying what annoys him about the game, he just keeped ranting about how horrible the game is without saying why or how. That gives me the impression that some site payed him to give the game a low score. Come on from what I see in the video the game isn't too bad it definitely has better graphics than SAW and that got a 6! and I didn't see any framerate inconsistencies.

 

Someone paid him to give a bad review? Do you realize how asinine you sound? Paid to give a GOOD review is more believable.

 

I was interested in this a few months ago when I saw a teaser, but after reading multiple reviews from many sources I'm gonna steer clear from a game that is obviously garbage.

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I was watching the review and all through it instead of saying what annoys him about the game, he just keeped ranting about how horrible the game is without saying why or how. That gives me the impression that some site payed him to give the game a low score. Come on from what I see in the video the game isn't too bad it definitely has better graphics than SAW and that got a 6! and I didn't see any framerate inconsistencies.

Skyrim's gameplay trailers didn't have framerate issues either. Developers tend to hide the bad aspects of their games.

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Someone paid him to give a bad review? Do you realize how asinine you sound? Paid to give a GOOD review is more believable.

 

I was interested in this a few months ago when I saw a teaser, but after reading multiple reviews from many sources I'm gonna steer clear from a game that is obviously garbage.

It's possible that some game company paid him to steer customers away from a competitiors game just to make their game sell better. That's why I can never trust IGN's reviews they are never the opinions of the individual speaking and a review like this one sounds unnatural, like he's trying to come up with bad aspects of the game but can't to describe his distaste for it.

 

Skyrim's gameplay trailers didn't have framerate issues either. Developers tend to hide the bad aspects of their games.

I wasn't talking about the trailer I was talking about the game review.

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It's possible that some game company paid him to steer customers away from a competitiors game just to make their game sell better. That's why I can never trust IGN's reviews they are never the opinions of the individual speaking and a review like this one sounds unnatural, like he's trying to come up with bad aspects of the game but can't to describe his distaste for it.

 

Well I looked at Metacritic and out of 8 reviews 7 are 5/10 or below, did they all get paid? Maybe the game is just shit.

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Aww man I wanted this game to be good it really looked good when they made the videos.

 

It looked like they would released a game that was a different type of survival horror. Maybe they ran out of money, because they are a small group. They don't have 100's of millions to spend. All those tech demos they put out for the game, face damage, viral face transformations and the physics. All that takes money which they probably ran out. And gave us what they could.

 

In par with

 

Superman 64 (N64) and Spawn the Eternal (PSX)

Edited by NoctisFFVs13
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It's possible that some game company paid him to steer customers away from a competitiors game just to make their game sell better. That's why I can never trust IGN's reviews they are never the opinions of the individual speaking and a review like this one sounds unnatural, like he's trying to come up with bad aspects of the game but can't to describe his distaste for it.

 

 

I wasn't talking about the trailer I was talking about the game review.

 

Buy the game then.

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After playing this game every now and then in the last 2 days, i must correct myself.

*currently playing Level 4*

 

Once you are familiar with the settings to command Amy, run, push buttons bla bla bla....it's not that complicated. The checkpoint systems remains crap..i had to leave my PS3 on the whole night, because of beeing sleepy and stuck in Level 3 3rd checkpoint (autosave at the beg. of a new Level, otherwise you will have to start from scratch of the Level).

 

Fighting is not that often, and usually if you dodge you are not really in danger. That's why i'm not that rude with the game when I miss a punch at the enemy...just dodge..and fine.

 

The puzzles, specially the lift ones can be tricky...but if you are not completely stupid, you are able to discover/resolve every puzzle. If not, i'm pretty sure there is already some stuff flying around at youtube...

 

Translation is okay(playing the german version/german subs)

 

For a 10 Euro game, it's ok. If you had the chance to save at checkpoints, it would be real fun. For me, it's a game i will complete. Trophies are very easy (12 in total, no plat!)

 

Maybe i'm not that hard with the game because of my age :D (35) I know Games waaaay more crappy than this one... It's nice to play it every now and then.

 

Would give it 4.5 out of 10

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