Kids in psychological horror cinema, ladies and gentlemen. Bloody terrifying, aren't they? Not so much for who and what they are, as how they're treated. Films like The Orphanage and Signs bring all Hollywood's weirder predilections about childhood bubbling to the top - the delusion of innocence must be preserved at all costs, pandered to and caressed by actresses scarcely out of puberty themselves. Don't look at the intestines, children! Think of puppies and candyfloss instead! And as usual, where film goes, game developers follow.
Lexis Numerique's Amy has you shepherding one such freckled lambkin through a zombie-plagued city. Rent limbs, pools of gore and burning corpses are common sights, but lead character Lana does her damndest to dress it all up as a pleasing dream. "Let's play a game, Amy," she coos, not in precisely these words. "You stay here in this busted train carriage, and I'll work my way round and/or through fizzing electricity baths, creatures from hell, minefields, broken glass, flaming gulfs and toxic gas to open the doors on the other side. It'll be fun, Amy! Such fun. Mind the intestines, there's a dear."
Where to begin with Amy? Well, certainly not at the beginning, because if you do that you won't have a clue what's going on. Burying the backstory is, of course, a tried and true horror narrative technique, but this game digs so deep it loses all coherence. You're on a train with Amy, then a comet hits, then you black out, then there's a zombie - quick, beat it three times with a stick, oh and did you know this is the near-future? Because there are DNA-coded door locks. And Amy has Dragon Ball Z powers. And she can hack military-grade computers. And staying close to her keeps you from catching your death of zombie-itis. Wait, what?
The game's five chapters see you alternately escorting Amy and using her to solve puzzles a la ICO - hitting Y to fire her at interactive objects or waypoints, then clamping a bumper to reel her in. Amy can fit through gaps you can't, has abilities you don't - psychic powers that enable her to shatter objects from afar and cocoon areas in silence - and as noted, your health is tied to her presence. On paper, there are the makings of a solid puzzler. On paper.
Amy's most elementary failure is its signposting: the environments are miniscule with hindsight, but can drag on forever simply because you don't know where to go. Roll-over tips, environmental cues and even mission-critical objects are deployed with zero science, easily missed in the murk. I cleared the fourth level of enemies five times over, perishing of contaminants each time, before discovering the keycard I needed to progress. Collect-the-DNA puzzles involve the use of a small, smudgy radar that frequently has you stumbling through puddles of toxic gloop. It's woeful stuff.
14 comments so far...
Guilty Sparks on 13 Jan '12 said:
Wow.... is that the lowest score the oxm team have ever given ??
As you say the ideas for Amy are great on paper but are poorly implemented, its a shame i'd of loved to of seen a new survival horror IP that brings new ideas to the table and make it work, i guess that Amy won't be getting a sequel considering the across the board bad reviews.......
Ahwell...... my wait for a good survival game goes on
Captain_Chao5 on 13 Jan '12 said:
You didn't like it then
Grummy on 13 Jan '12 said:
I used to go out with a girl called Amy, Unendurable Horror sounds just about right to me.
OXM ETboy on 13 Jan '12 said:
Yeah, I had a few issues with it. Here and there.
OXM Jonty on 13 Jan '12 said:
To my knowledge, it's the second time we've given a 1/10 - the first was Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust.
Bonus, terrible joke: Ed gave Amy one. Fnarr. *dies*
Carpet Monkey on 13 Jan '12 said:
Grummy - ditto
sonicmark on 13 Jan '12 said:
Bet a part of you subconciously enjoys it
.
Bezza89 on 13 Jan '12 said:
Surely this is just a true horror game, something you can't bear(bare?) to look at, something so terrible it digs beneath the skin. 11/10, it was just a typo wasn't it?
bamozzy on 13 Jan '12 said:
I played the demo til the end (more than can be said for the Choplifter HD demo) and I personally think that 1 is a little unfair. OK - so it has a few issues and is a little awkward to control at times. I understand that the puzzles get a little repetitive and that you need to almost be pixel perfect to achieve certain things too. The checkpoint system leads a lot to be desired and certainly I noticed that the graphics look ok but are not brilliant particularly during speech.
Having said all that though, the game is only 800 ms points and is certainly no more repetitive than Choplifter HD and personally I actually think looks better too
I would argue that Choplifter probably has more game play to it than Amy but it is all the same. Both are sub-average games and neither would I recommend spending 400 ms points let alone 800 or in the case of Choplifter 1200. I would say that taking everything into account that both games would be about a 3 score but this is only based on the available demos. I couldn't get to the end of the Choplifter demo though as it was too boring to waste my time with.....
Furie on 15 Jan '12 said:
I bought the game before any reviews came in and the score depends on your viewpoint. If you're an older gamer and remember when console survival horror started up, add two to the score (three if you've no problem with any of the myriad design problems that the genre and games of that era had).
Amy isn't so much bad as the wrong use of the mechanics they created. Had the developers created more open world levels that allowed players through however they wanted to play, rewarding stealth and ingenuity and allowing the player to take advantage of mechanics such as getting infected purposefully, they'd have had a really good game despite the glitches and technical deficiencies. Instead they created pretty linear levels that punish the player if they go off mission and don't play the level exactly how it is meant to be played. Combine that with the almost non-existant story and the game has problems.
bamozzy on 15 Jan '12 said:
That's me then...... and no wonder I thought it was a 3. (I couldn't give it the extra point as these flaws should be fixed in todays era)
Waffles2541 on 17 Jan '12 said:
So what you are saying is that cyanide is a better alternative to this game. Best spend my money wisely then...
M1K386 on 19 Jan '12 said:
I want to play this game to see if it is truly that bad.
ridinglikesatan on 2 Feb '12 said:
I too played this game, and died on the inside, but I do believe that the game deserves at least 1 more point, as to be fair, the textures and character details are impressive for an arcade game.