My main problem with AMFP: Observer vs. Participator

[CirceBaka]

Ok, so you can't pick up things and open drawers. Even that aside, I was still bothered by not having to worry about your sanity. Mandus is different from Daniel in that aspect because he's not mentally unstable as Daniel was, nor does he possess a crippling fear of the dark. So why not have some system to monitor your health? Nope, no such thing in this game. If you're hurt, best to let the monster kill you because you'll respawn close to where you died. So now there's no reason to treat your character 's life like it matters. Isn't that the whole point of a 1 player game? You assume the identity and life of that character. Your character dies and you eventually pay some price...you lose points, you'll have to beat the boss again and probably defeat other creatures before reaching the boss again. Something along those lines anyway.

There was no sense of immersion in this game. Once I realized the mechanics I was no longer afraid of any monsters because the scares were mapped so predictably. I miss the feel I have for DD where you didn't know from one time to another if something was behind you. You had to outwit the monsters or hide away and wait as if you were living the game. It gave way to great game experiences and I believed those would only be enhanced in AMFP.

There are some parts of your post I disagree with. Mandus, in my opinion, was arguably just as unstable, if not more then Daniel. There were parts throughout the entire game that made you wonder for his sanity. Disappearing doors and areas, an entire level that may have not even existed, hallucinations, and the like. I don't understand what you mean when you say the lack of a health display made you value the characters life less. I valued the characters life just as much as if I had the health meter, maybe more even since it wasn't as predictable. I think MFP was plenty immersion, especially the first hours. There were parts in the cellar where my blood froze because I heard a faint growling. I agree very much about the monsters though, they were poorly used imo (how come the Wretch didn't break down the centrifuge door? How come it didn't break into the fuel pump room?)

The problem with immersion is I didn't feel like I was the character Mandus wading through the game. The found documents weren't read by a voice actor as in Dark Descent, so I lost that connection to the characters I made in DD. There was just something that made me not connect with the character like I did with Daniel. Maybe it was the plot, maybe it was the fact you couldn't fully interact with your surrounding, maybe because the only voice that was heard was the man on the phone.

As for valuing the life of the character, that is also a bit about immersion to me. I didn't feel like I was actually living the game, having to worry about my wounds and my sanity. No worries about Laudanum. No worries about your mental health. Just avoid the monsters easily. No need to hide really either. The monsters weren't as persistent either. By simplifying the game in this way, to me, it lost something.

In short, AMFP, to me, wasn't even equally as good as DD. The Chinese Room could have done better.