After the first 10 minutes of an interesting and potential build-up, Amy's development falls way of course. It's very hard to point out any positive aspect about the game. Poor story narrative, gameplay mechanics, character development and scope equals an uninspiring mess.
*****INFO*****
- Genre: Arcade – Survival Horror
- Age Rating: 15+
- Contents: Strong Bloody Violence
- Formate: PS3 – Xbox 360
- Release: 11th January 2012
- Developer: Lexis Numerique
- Publisher: Lexis Numerique
- Difficulty: Hard
*****INTRODUCTION*****
THE POSITIVES
- Interesting idea
- Music
THE NEGATIVES
- Broken gameplay
- Stealth mechanics
- Dull plot holes
- Tedious gameplay mechanics
- Dull scrip
*****REVIEW*****
Amy is a survival horror downloadable game where you have to guide a little girl called Amy through a disturbed world filled with abnormal creatures. The gameplay consists of you moving through each chapter solving environmental puzzles, as well as making sure Amy is out of harms way by either making her hide in lockers, under tables etc, or by taking her hand to keep her close to you. Looking after sub character during gameplay that resolves around taking their hand is quite a rare aspect in games, but unfortunately Amy doesn't refine the concept rather well. Instead of making it satisfyingly challenging during gameplay, it proves to be more frustrating due to the games awkward controls. More often than none, Amy tends to let go of your hand and wander off.
The little girl, Amy, is a vital tool during gameplay. At certain points in the game, you have to send her into areas you cannot enter (crawling through small holes etc) and guild her through the area so she can press a button for you to proceed throughout the game.
The plot is very thickening, with a bit of mystery behind it. It starts of with very little information about what is going on, which isn't a bad thing. You awake up after a train crash to find Amy has disappeared, and the place you wake up in is swarming with creatures. Aside from the rather interesting start up, Amy builds itself up to be something good, but ends up being something rather dull. It has a lot of plot-holes, giving the player some information about what's happening, but then leaving the player with plausible thoughts. As the game comes to the end, the plot fails to really go into depth, and leaves you with a cliffhanger and the possibility of a sequel. The script writing also adds to the dullness of the plot, with constant repeated dialog and a rather mediocre voice cast.
Survival horror games are about tension. Making the player think twice before wasting ammo, or taking on enemies they're not sure they can. It's about building up fear and making you sweat not knowing what's going to happen around the corner. Amy does none of these. Instead of building up tension, Amy just proves to be boring and frustrating. It certainly has the potential of being a good game, but sadly the lack of love from the developers makes the game rather dull to play. It just feels like an unfinished game. It feels like the developers just didn't have enough time to fully finish the game, or just didn't care enough during the production. Putting a lot of love into an idea on paper isn't going to make a game good. It just felt to me like the developers either knew they weren't doing a good job with the game but just finished it anyway, or they just lost they're motivation during the last half of the game's development. The game is just full of tedious aspects that can make the game un-rewarding, and the content backtracking through each chapter can make the game feel more linear than it is. Rather than just searching for keys, Amy's concept revolves around finding DNA fragments so you can access areas and proceed through the game. To find these DNA fragments, you need to search multiple areas, which can feel a bit boring. Another tedious aspect is Amy herself. Sometimes she will let go of your hand when you are near a wall or pillar etc, which can be annoying when you're trying to stay hidden or fighting enemies.
The checkpoint system in the game is unforgiving. The game basically revolves around trail and errors. One misunderstood move could result in instant game over and restarting the whole chapter or area again. This happens a lot during stealth moments. Unlike other games that feature stealth elements where if you get caught there are means to escape etc. In Amy, there are some certain moments in the game where you'll have to sneak past enemies without being seen. And due to the awkward controls, this could prove to be frustrating and unfair.
Overall, it's hard for me to recommend this game to anyone. It's a game that could have had something going for it, but just ended up being a poor mess from the developers.
*****FINAL OVERALL SCORE*****
- Story – 2/10
- Life Value – 2/10
- My Thought Score – 1/10
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- Presentation – 2/10
- Graphics – 5/10
- Gameplay – 2/10
- Sound Design – 3/10
- Originality – 1/10
*****EDITOR'S OVERALL THOUGHT SCORE – 3/10 *****
AMY Review by Simon