Opinions on how TCR & FG are dealing with AAMFP criticism

[Lazoriss]

I can understand the dislike of the game being "on rails". One of the great things about TDD was that your thoughts and opinions have a lot of impact regarding your character and the story. You have no journal entries in-game other than vague hints (always regarding towards puzzles), but nothing is forced on you as a character. Your feelings and opinions are Daniel's, too. You get to decide what kind of person he has become, and can reflect that by the actions you take in the game. In AMFP, that is taken away from you. Mandus writes a journal entry of how he feels every couple minutes, effectively reducing your control over the game. You control Mandus, yes, but you don't quite PLAY as him. This is also why multiple endings would have made no sense in this game. You have zero control over the story or the character's overall perception, so why throw in a massive decision at the very end?

I still really liked AMFP. Even though it is, at heart, an interactive novel, it's a damn good story and had a few tense moments I greatly enjoyed. I was actually pretty disappointing with it for about the first hour since it wasn't what I had expected. But once I accepted it for what it was I ended up having a good time. c: