This game probably has the worst, most generic opening of any game I've ever played. Here's a quick run down:

• Little girl who may or may not be possessed
• Said little girl draws pictures of people dying
• People die at the place where she drew in the picture
• Main character gets knocked out by enemy but then doesn't get killed by them
• Enemies dissolve once you've killed them
• Backtracking
• Fetch quest
• 'Mysterious' male character who will probably turn evil due to holding of chest and access to fancy gadgets
• Enemy that looks dead that actually isn't.

Plus all the technical issues of weapons materialising into your hand whenever you draw it, terrible combat and enemies that can kill you incredibly quickly. And more probably.

I've got a hot tip for you though, to sprint you hold down LB / L1 and tap the X / Square button and to avoid enemies simply sprint at them until you push them out the way. You've got infinite sprint, so there's nothing stopping you from sprinting past everything.

Meh

This sounds like quality QL material, baby.

@biggiedubs: Started playing a little while ago and then stopped when I found my first puzzle, due to the fact that it is a random answer.

I hate random computer puzzles.

Judging from what people have said about the final product - I won't be buying this.

@GTCknight: Was it that 'hacking' thing? The one with the bunch of random shapes? I would love to tell you how to do that, but I have no frigging clue. It seems to say at the bottom when stuff is wrong, right or in the wrong place, but it seems to be lying at some points. It's probably also the dumbest hacking mini-game I've ever seen.

The best thing about that those is, once you find Amy, she can do that for you because its 'just like that game we used to play at the center'. Yeah right.

Oh, and don't forget the choppy frame rate and awful voice acting. Not to mention that the entire game is an escort mission :P

Is it actual backtracking or is it returning to an area with new scripted stuff? I don't have a problem with the latter.

Ex: in Dead Space you go through a medical wing to get some thermite, with scripted enemy encounters on the way. You get it and to back the way you came, with new encounters and events.

@biggiedubs: Yeah it was the hacking thing. Thing is my first try I got it right, but then died when the zombie showed up and my weapon broke. So I tired it again and then realized it was a random puzzle (Which means it might as well be impossible) unless your lucky.

So my chances of going back to AMY or nil-to-none right now.

Just wondering does it ever get better later on?

@BeachThunder said:

Oh, and don't forget the choppy frame rate and awful voice acting. Not to mention that the entire game is an escort mission :P

Ico had a pretty dicey framerate in spots, had incomprehensible VO, and was an escort mission all the way through.

That said, Ico is probably a better game.

@Brodehouse said:

Is it actual backtracking or is it returning to an area with new scripted stuff? I don't have a problem with the latter. Ex: in Dead Space you go through a medical wing to get some thermite, with scripted enemy encounters on the way. You get it and to back the way you came, with new encounters and events.

Watch this:

You start in a train, you leave the train, you walk around and see locked door. A few minutes later, you need to go back into the train to get a DNA sample in order to open said door. Then you have to go back to the door and open it.

Also, the hacking minigame is supposed to be like Mastermind.

@Brodehouse: To be honest, it's nothing too bad, it just really stuck out to me because it was so lazy. Essentially, you wake up in a train, and down one way is what looks like a dead body and a weapon, the other way being the way out. Because I've played my fair share of horror games, I immediately knew I would come back here later and the dead body would either jump at me / not be there. Five - ten minutes later, you've given a fetch quest to find a blood sample to get back a DNA scanner, and there being four possible options. Sure enough, the correct blood is back on the train from the 'dead body' who is no longer there, and jumps you as you try to get off the train. It terms of time spent, it can't off been more than 2-3 minutes, I'm just more offended / disappointed that you have to do that at all. EDIT - Damn you BeachThunder for stealing my thunder with that video

@BeachThunder: Yeah it does have terrible voice acting, but it may be the case that the guys who made it had the money / time to make it decent, so I'm not too bothered about it.

@GTCknight: Honestly, I'm about 15 minutes further from where you left off at the moment, but those fifteen minutes have ALSO been pretty bad.

I think you can sum up this game as a bad version of Hydrophobia (which wasn't great to begin with) or Haunting Ground. I hope they do something interesting with Amy, but all she's done is 'hack' a computer, and crawled through some grates (two in the space of 5 minutes) so, I kind of doubt.

Also, the Old Man Murray 'Time-To-Crate' scale is in FULL EFFECT here.

Goddamn I hated the demo for this game, I was willing to give it a pass until the goddamn backtracking through a very very bland level and hearing the dude going "that's not the right DNA sample!" everytime I scanned one of the random points they tell you to scan... just awful.

Wow... This sounds really awful, thanks for the heads up, I was kinda interested in the game.

Now if only there was a Quick Look of the game so it at least could give me some quality entertainment.

@biggiedubs: A few thing I did pick-up on is that the camera is horrible. Also there is going to be magic involved at some point.

The reason I said magic is due to all the zombies that I fought had a rune on their forehead.

@GTCknight: God yeah, that camera is terrible. As for magic, I've not read any of the reviews or anything, but you if press the back / select button and navigate around a bit, there's a tutorial about Amy giving Lana the ability to cast magic on stuff. Haven't a clue what it does though. When you beat the demo it does says something about Amy being vital to humanity's safety, I have no idea what this means, but who knows. Maybe its going to be something like Indigo Prophecy, and what a game that was....

I also don't know how to use a med-kit, which could be a problem. Something about down and the A button, but I've never got it to work.

Other then the frame rate being terrible and the acting being (understandably considering this is an XBLA/PSN release) terribad- the game is basically ICO with zombies. 
Not necessarily good ICO, but I don't mind it and I like it's intent to make the responsibility you have of protecting Amy a big deal. 
Its interesting. Not a mass appeal game, and will probably go unnoticed by most, but its ok. Frustrating as shit (the checkpoint system is AWFUL) but its playable. 
All I can say is the game is mediocre. The graphics seems old and washed out, but there is some neat stuff they do that keeps me playing. Like I said before I like the dynamic of protecting the kid, and working together, also really like how your characters appearance changes as you get more infected (have to use a hypo needle thing to heal it back to normal) and it makes you see red and hear things. That's pretty cool. 
The scares are really bad, and either bugged or somehow dynamic. Sometimes when you go to a location to pick something up something in the world will break or something to do a really bad jump scare (like say, walk up to pick up a stick and suddenly the pipe on the wall breaks and releases steam and the character you play jumps back all scared like). It's a weird atmosphere choice, maybe with better design it would work better. 
 
I don't know. The game is ok. Its kind of last gen in a lot of ways, and maybe that's why I like it. It feels gamey which somehow became bad over the last few years. 
Don't play it if you play games to find what's wrong with them. You'll find a lot wrong with this without even trying. I only like it somewhat because I don't mind bad games. Take that for what it's worth. Best way to describe the game is ok-not great- but not completely broken either. 
 
@Brodehouse: Its literal back tracking. You go to one side of the trainstation/subway or whatever this is. Then you go back to the beginning for some DNA to unlock a door about 10 minutes later or so (depending on how many times you die cus the checkpoint system is TERRIBLE). To be fair, though, its only happened at the beginning so far. I'm only in chapter 2 though and thats not that far into playing so take that for what it's worth.

@biggiedubs: I think you have to hold down and hit the A button, I think that's right. And yeah I did read the manual (or at least some of it) and saw that part. However, after having played the Asura's Wrath demo earlier today, I walked away feeling like the demo was better than a full game.

Note: Asura's Wrath was QTE: the demo the game.

Oh man, I was really hoping this would be good.

Then again I thought Hydrophobia looked promising too.

Well crap. This looked cool, but at least a QL should be in order. 
 
Backtracking really kills it for me in a game. I absolutely adore Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door, but I got pretty burned out on it because of all the back and forth.

It looked pretty shitty before it even came out but that 18 minute gameplay video made it look even worse then I had expected. Also, GOD DAMN that voice acting is awful.
 
Also, also, when that dude yells 'they're everywhere' or whatever in his terrible accent and there is only one not-zombie-zombie. Classy.

This is kind of a bummer. It looked interesting, but from the sounds of it, I'd only be frustrated by some of the design choices. Thanks for the impressions, guys.

LOL

http://www.destructoid.com/psa-do-not-buy-amy-today-219488.phtml

Damn it. I wanted this game to be good.

*Plugs ears* La la la la la la la! I can't hear you. This game is going to be great! *start crying* Haha. I was really looking forward to this...I'm still going to play it so I can my own video of it...

Damn :(

...So, is it at least $13 good?

I expected better from the publisher behind Learning with the PooYoos...

Guys I dont think you should be buying this game. http://www.destructoid.com/psa-do-not-buy-amy-today-219488.phtml Jim sterling just put out a PSA lol.

Yeah, Amy is a HUGE disappointment.

@solidlife said:

Guys I dont think you should be buying this game. http://www.destructoid.com/psa-do-not-buy-amy-today-219488.phtml Jim sterling just put out a PSA lol.

Although I can't attest to the quality or lack of it of the game, I agree with

plaguechild

Jim Sterling is the last opinion you should trust. His taste is defined by hubris derived from the undeserved attention you all give him. I can't speak as to if Amy is bad or not but his post is pointless (PSA? hardly.) because you're better off downloading the trial and deciding for yourself rather than listen to him. He gets off on the attention he gets from spreading negativity. He's not some bad-boy outlaw game journo' jus' tellin it like it is, he's a professional troll with a cheering section. Just wanted to share that thought.

And as a fan of horror, I'll be possibly playing this game. Deadly Premonition was also a trainwreck on paper, but turned out to be great on screen.

I bought the game. It sure has its rough edges, like so-so voice acting, unpolished graphics and gameplay inconsistencies, but it also has pretty good qualities. If you enjoyed old horror games like RE and Silent Hill, you may enjoy this.

Also, why do you guys try out a game that you have no interest in? It's super obvious by reading between the lines that most of you are just here for a total moaning session. I mean, seriously?

Odd, it has a 4.68 rating with 98 reviews on the PSN store. I smell shenanigans!

@Klei: Yeah, I kinda feeling that too. I started the thread simply to call out some of the stuff that I was disappointed in the game, but it seems to have evolved into everyone making pot-shots at it. I think Amy is a pretty easy target, new studio, new IP, a new genre even for some people so I think everyone's kind of jumping in look cool (not necessarily on this forum). It's accessible enough for everyone to play it, but obscure enough for people not to care about the effects of the insults. I like to call it the 'Dragon Age 2 Effect'.

That said, it's not a good game. I think a lot of people see this game as kind of the summation of everything that's wrong / disappointed with games, bad story, bad graphics, bad characters, bad design etc and their using it as a scapegoat. In some ways it should but as most people on the internet, they would rather destroy something then move onto the next thing, rather than this one better.

Ugh, the demo was terrible. Right off the bat, the framerate was piss poor in the opening cutscene. The combat is not fun or engaging and the camera has an awkward motion when moving it. I couldn't find a single reason to keep playing it. Graphics withstanding, this game might have seemed decent maybe 4 or 5 years ago.

The more I hear of how bad this game is the more I am curious to play.

Okay here's the deal guys. Ratio of price to value. It's a ten bucks game with neither the team nor the production value of the aforementioned classics (Resident Evil, Silent Hill, etc.) I played throught the first chapter ... and for f**** sake its alright for ten bucks. It's not that awesome but the Silent Hill HD thing has been pushed back to march and I wanted some horror. Also awesome design decisions on the interactions with amy (f.e. the feedback you get when holding her hand) as well as the infection transformation of the main protagonist.

So just where the hell is the Trail version of the game?? I want to try it out for myself before I make any final judgements since I do have a love for admittedly archaic survival-horror stuff :P. But on the UK store, it's not there, and when I sign into my US profile, Amy the full game isn't there, either. I tried using the search engine, but that only brings me up links to Amy Winehouse >_>

Jim Sterlings PSA thing is incredibly mean. The game is mediocre but it's not the end of ages. Jesus. He didn't need to make that; that seems below the belt. 
 
I stand by the game being mediocre though- the worst thing to me is its extremely poor use of check pointing which will have you clawing your eyes out. Most the other things (the bad graphics, bad acting and what not) don't bother me but I know it would bother others which is why I mentioned it earlier today. I hope that it did not come off as complaining as that was not my purpose.

@the_red_mage said:

Okay here's the deal guys. Ratio of price to value. It's a ten bucks game with neither the team nor the production value of the aforementioned classics (Resident Evil, Silent Hill, etc.) I played throught the first chapter ... and for f**** sake its alright for ten bucks.

Bullshit. Nothing is suddenly ok if it's cheap.

There are plenty of amazing games that are free (and many more that are cheaper than Amy). If a game is crap, then it's crap, no matter the price. After you put your wallet away the money you paid becomes irrelevant; at that point all you're left with a shitty game and some post-purchase rationalisation.

@BeachThunder: Okay fine, that is a valid point but nonetheless I think that a lot of people bought this game with completely wrong expectations.

Shame. The premise for this sounded pretty neat actually. But if a game gets universally panned this hard its probably best to stay away.

I got passed that first puzzle and to the chase sequence. Amy died during the sequence and I decided to stop playing. This game is terrible. I had three random jump scares from circuit breakers, the camara wouldn't move from that casam sequence, the taxi driver character is creepy and is annoying as hell. Who thought this game should have been released? lol

@GTCknight said:

@biggiedubs: Started playing a little while ago and then stopped when I found my first puzzle, due to the fact that it is a random answer.

I hate random computer puzzles.

Insert a few shameless references to Twin Peaks... 5 Stars.

I'm disappointed to learn that this game is terrible.

The premise seemed fairly intriguing to me, even if it was essentially one long escort mission. Thanks for saving me some cash in the long run though!

*Loads Penumbra*