The reviews Elysium syndrome

[Cuyir]

A first person horror game where the only gameplay, since the days of Black Plague, has been walking, reading, puzzles, hiding and running away...has less gameplay elements and less interactivity because they removed two immersion breaking mechanics (inventory and sanity meter) and because physics affect less items in the game?
Really?

Yes. The "physics affectting less objects" is huge for me. It harkens back to the concept of immersive simulators. In TDD the physics was consistent, it helped me believe I was in a consistently logical world despite all the supernatural things going on. Helps gives a sense of immersion, of "reality". In AMFP it just shows the Game Designer Hand, just show how artificial the world is: If the all powerfull Game Designer wants, I can move this object, if he does not want, I cannot. Thus, it less believable game world for me.

You missed the whole point of my argument there mate.

I was pointing out how some people boisterously say that the game is a walking simulator because of no inventory, sanity system and a lack of physics affected items.

By them removing or neutering those three elements they didn't make it less of a game, they didn't turn it into Dear Esther and they didn't somehow change the whole gameplay flow. The gameplay flow is still the same it has always been with the exception of puzzles, which are non existent in AMFP, since the Black Plague days.

Get it?

I miss stumbling over vases, barrels and other detritus. Little touches like those made me scare myself and made me cringe when i'd be hiding and all of the sudden I run into something and stuff falls on the floor, instantly making me go ''please don't hear that, please don't hear that''. But by TCR severely limiting the objects that are affected by the physics engine they didn't make it less of a game.

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And Paddy (Pah deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee) in TCR's defense, the instant I found out that they were developing the game I knew what to expect. I didn't read articles, i didn't listen to interviews, didn't dissect trailers and etc etc etc. Just "TCR is developing while FG is publishing'' was enough to let me know how the game was going to be.

Did they overestimate the fear level? Sure, probably. They probably expected people to find more psychological focused horror as scary as the more adrenaline fueled horror from TDD. Their mistake, considering subjectivity and the fanbase.

Example: If Bethesda develops a game like....oh I don't know, some war shooter, I expect it to have their touches. You know, open world, streamlined rpg systems, and so on. I'm not expecting an Activision production from them. I'm not expecting multiplayer at all from Bethesda.

So by me hearing that they were doing AMFP I quickly had a mental image of what to expect. And guess what, I was right. I nailed the experience down almost perfectly. I had given them less credit in my prediction (I thought it was going to be creepy but not scary...wooooo boy was I wrong).

I would say some people, both critics and fans, expected something that they shouldn't have expected considering who was developing it. Some people reacted poorly to the removed elements without taking into consideration of the why they removed them. I've seen negative opinions I've agreed with and respected and have lately seen many positive opinions that make me ashamed of me loving the game and vice versa. I bring that point up to reiterate that, indeed, some people expected things they shouldn't have expected. One of the reasons I don't pay attention to pre release talk from the devs is that they usually overestimate or see their own creations in a different way. I could bring up all the pre release bluster most devs (GOOD ones too) talk and then it doesn't quite come out as you expected from their talk.

Maybe my sheer ignorance of the articles and such worked to my favor. Maybe some people expected things they shouldn't. At the end of the day, it's a fact that AMFP was polarizing and that there are ill founded opinions (on both sides and both professional and user opinions).

And sadly, ALL camps (people who liked it and hated it) have people with ill founded opinions that then insult those who have the differing opinions.

"You liked it more than TDD? You fucking hipster trash''

"You didn't like it? You're obvious mentally challenged."

Double whammy.