Hugh Perkins

Wow, I think this game is awesome! I feel it is very well executed, and obeys pretty much every rule of game design that I’ve ever heard of.

- it’s easy to play, but makes you feel that you have a realistic challenge
– it’s not frustratingly hard
– it’s not a dreary paper tiger
- it looks superb
- sounds superb…
- the achievements are well done I feel
- there is a guy who pops up who says funny things
- and the zombies themselves are pretty entertaining I feel. the help page made me laugh!

Then, usage, ease of use. It’s very easy to use. No need to dig through the manual ever. And yet there are plenty of fun things to do. There are multiple ways to solve every problem. For example, there is a zombie with a pogo stick, who jumps over everything. You can use a magnet to steal the stick, or a tall brick to block him, or just destroy him with firepower, or use a bomb or jalapeno to destroy him. Multiple choices for each situation, many of which are equally efficient and effective.

Awesome game I think!

Amnesia Dark Descent: looks awesome, disappointing gameplay.

My first impressions were, wow, this looks awesome. The sound, the storyline, the water trickling down from the roof and splashing.

My next impression was less favorable. A big maze of rooms, that I couldn’t memorize. All looked the same. Why can I only pick up tinderboxes? And why are there so many of them lying around randomly in the house? Wouldn’t they be in a big cupboard or something? I know if I had lots of tinderboxes, I’d just buy them in bulk, and pile them up in one place in my castle…

My last impression was that the demo was ridiculously short – compare Plants and Zombies demo which is at least a quarter of the entire game – the monster was frustrating to deal with, and what’s with the narrator telling us after we die to keep out fo the water? Who is the narrator? If they knew we should stay out of the water, why didn’t they tell us earlier? Why don’t they just tell us what is going on rather than giving us hints just after we die?

Overall, my suspension of disbelief really couldn’t put up with all these issues, and then the demo was so short that when it finished, I was still at the stage of ‘well, this weird, but it looks good, and people say nice things about it, so I should try it and see what happens’, and then it just finished!