I remembered how greatly impressed I was when I discovered Siren: Blood Curse, hidden in a small corner in the Playstation Store, so I took the same feelings upon downloading AMY. Almost faster than the time it took to download, I quit the game and yelled at the Xbox to give me a refund.
"I'll teach you to try and steal my purse!"
Right from the get-go, Lana, the game’s protagonist, awakens from a train crash, and at first I thought it explained the wonky movements in the game, but sadly, the controls didn’t fare any better off the train. Lana uses a tank-control-like system, so her movements are fuddled together to simulate the disparity of the situation or some other nonsense. It doesn’t matter because moving around in AMY is pretty bad. Half the time I walked into walls or barriers that were basically things on the floor with invisible walls. It was also hard to position Lana to use consoles or pick up items, and in a game where survival is key, fighting the analog sticks shouldn’t be part of the battle.
While I respect AMY's style, it's broken gameplay just can't pick up the slack.
It only takes a few minutes for Lana to pick up a wooden board and start handing out a thrashing. As I walked with my new weapon an infected stood up and began to limp towards my direction. Combat in AMY is interesting to say the least. First, Lana slouches over in some sort of demented “battle-stance,” and with one button press she will flail the plank like it was the hammer of Thor. Sadly, the wooden plank definitely packs less of a punch than any kind of hammer.
Combat feels very airy, similar to Oblivion, but to a completely new level. Your best bet is to mash the attack button and hope that the enemy can’t get a hit in because dodging is just embarrassing, really. I feel as though Lana’s lack of energy in her dodge reflected my growing disinterest for the game.
I think this portrays how I felt after playing AMY.
I think the most aggravating part of AMY was my overall expectations. Now, I always try to jump into a game with a neutral perspective, but the trailers really got me excited. I loved everything the game had to offer; new survival mechanics, gloomy art style, and a possibly involved storyline. After playing through the first chunk of AMY, I just couldn’t bring myself to move on.
Later on, the game becomes slightly unplayable due to continued problems in its exposition and attempts at strategy-based bosses and Amy’s combat abilities. Not to mention that frame-rate drops faster than rain, and screen tearing is rampant. I even usually say that games have some redeeming qualities or little quirks to spark the interest in people, but if I were to recommend AMY to someone, I’d feel pretty bad.
If you wish to give AMY a chance, then download the demo. Trust me, it’s as far as you’d want to get in the game. Or you can check out our review for another take on Amy's shortcomings.
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