AMY was released on Xbox Live Arcade last week to an utter hailstorm of negative reviews. The game currently sits at 22% on Metacritic, and is well on its way to being a "worst game of the year" contender. Thankfully, Lexis Numerique has learned a thing or two about PR from the Hydrophobia guys.
That's right. AMY isn't bad ... we're just not ready for its jelly.
"As many of you have already heard, AMY is a HARD game. Some people totally disliked that while other really enjoyed it," claims the game's Facebook. "We believe this is part of the survival experience we tried to build as we wanted the game to be challenging. However, we actively listen to the community and comments and hence recommend the non-hard core gamers to launch the game in EASY mode (in the settings) for now.
"This will give them a much more pleasant and smoother experience, especially as the checkpoints are scarce."
Destructoid can confirm that the Easy setting does not fix repetitive animations, glitches, lack of player feedback, disrespectful save system, disgusting controls, awful voice acting, graphical stuttering, characters sticking to walls, agonizing A.I., dark visuals, or the ability for players to break the game by performing actions out of sequence.
It can also be confirmed that snotty, snide little public statements won't stop your game being fucking shite.
Contest:
3:00 PM on 01.17.2012 | 
lol
oh well, fuck it
also whats the lowest rated game on xbla anyway?
The difference there is that the controls still sort-of "work" once you get used to it, these are just plain broken. Personally, I actually control a tank-character better than the regular third person character.
Something called "Totem Ball," followed up closely by a Tour de France game.
577 people have given it three and a tiny bit out of five, Jim!
PSN members have rated it four out of five, Jim!
It has "9500 player ratings" even though I just said it has 577 on XBLA, Jim!
Reviews don't matter when they're bad, Jim!
The poor fps and dark visuals just add to the atmosphere, Jim!
Death restarts the chapter because it's called a SURVIVAL horror, Jim!
(I sure hope nobody reads this and thinks I'm being serious, Jim...)
LOL That's exactly what I was thinking Jim! I played the demo and it was enough to make me sick...
I'd not felt so awful controlling a game since Time Crisis: Razing Storm's Move-controlled FPS mode.
Also doesn't help that the beginning of the game is pretty bad. Chapter 1 is boring and Chapter 2 is tedious but Chapter 3 has some cool moments and Chapter 4 was pretty good overall. Haven't played the last two chapters yet, but I look forward to trying them out when I get the time.
Wait...
All they said was that the game was difficult (which technically it is) while tiptoeing around the idea that maybe their implemented bad game mechanics are what makes it difficult. Their Facebook statement did not come off as smug to me. They had an ambitious game with potential, but stumbled on its execution. These developers are not snotty & snide, they pushed their game back on PSN to release it cheaper after they took a fan pool, that's pretty awesome of them. It's a shame their game isn't good, but I don't think they deserve all the venom that's being spewed at them for defending their game. They never accused anyone of playing their game wrong, and they simply dodged the question of their game being bad. Their statement seems pretty sincere to me. They're just a nice development team that made a bad game.
I played through both of these games twice.
I'm just giving you some general idea of my bad game tolerance.
I would recommend you buy these instead, as they are far better.
I don't see you bashing that one Jimbo.
Anyway, played the demo. Nothing special, but nothing close to the "abomination" you make it out to be.
Totemball is a shitty Motion control game made for the Xbox Vision Camera, it was MS's answer (before Kinect) to the PS Eye.
Another winner is Yaris, I'm not sure if that award winner is still available, but it's got to be the worst game I've played from xbla (I got it for free).
Go play Rule of Rose or Siren.
Yeah, SOME of the issues.
SOME of them.
As in, not ALL of them.
Not ALL of them.
Like what AMY has.
ALL of them.
ALL.
Separating a post into single lines makes my point more interesting and cool.
ALL.
Sorry, saw the headline, couldn't help myself and surprised no one else had either.
And @ RockWallofMight359 ... Where in ANY Silent hill game were there that many problems? Man when I played there were so many glitches it wasn't even funny. There is this part where you cross a hole by leaning up against the wall and sliding across. At that part, Lana started leaning against some invisible wall and crawling off screen over the hole... Where in Silent hill is something that broken?! I could keep going but I would be here all day.
Because like I can speedrun every title and I have the location of everything memorized, I know my way around.
Silent Hill is a masterpiece and Amy is just shit.
The thing is, as utterly terrible as Amy is, I STILL legitimately see how they had good ideas that, if enough polish were applied, might remedy a lot of the frustrations. Not all of it. Not even half, maybe, but enough to make the game somewhat decent.
... Then again, I'm more lenient after Skyrim on my PS3 became utterly unplayable and people still kept throwing perfect scores at it and Jim was calling it the greatest thing since... well, his birth.
Except Jim actually likes old-school survival horror. He's said as much many times before. Also, Robert Boyd, I took a look at your user page. This is your only goddamn comment. Now, I don't know who you actually are, but if I had to guess, that suggests you're probably invested in AMY in some fashion.
@Scissors
I see this as more them disregarding legitimate criticisms that would apply to any genre. ANY game that only lets me save every hour or breaks me apart from another character whose hand I have to hold when I brush against a wall gets no sympathy from me.
I love old school survival horror too. So much so that I spent over $200 trying in vain to get Siren 2 to run on my NTSC PS2 (released in Japan and Europe, already translated into English, seriously Sony, what the hell). Hell, I just picked up Blue Stinger at MAGFest and am having a blast with that. But that game has goddamn save points and an unintrusive partner system. Clunky yes but also oodles of fun. Nothing I have seen or heard about this game has made it seem even the slightest bit worth $15.
I disagree, I personally dislike SH3 and hate SH4. The "meh" games released afterwards have, to me, been a constant step in the right direction, Origins was "meh" like you said, Homecoming was a good game with very little originality to it and Shattered Memories was brilliant and is, to me, up there with the original two titles. Will Downpour continue that trend and be awesome? Who knows.
But even if they were meh, they are not meh for the reasons Amy sucked. :P
DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Hmmm I have never played Shatter Memories, I will have to take a peek at that sometime. Yeah 4 was definitely a departure from the series, but it was different. I sincerely hope Downpour really hits the mark.
Silent Hill will always hold a deep spot in my heart as it was my Granny's favorite video game series. I still remember purchasing the first Silent Hill with her at a Toys R' Us. Good times, good times.
If you look at Robert Boyd1's avatar pic, it may give you a clue as who that may very well be. Which would be the designer and programmer behind two of the best games available in XBOX Live Indie Games, Zeboyd! So, I would have to side with him on any comments that he may make on the subject of possibly cutting a developer some slack.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/werezompire
Our website: http://zeboyd.com
Gamasutra Bio/Article Page: http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/author/RobertBoyd/4021/
I'm a big fan of horror games (Siren 2 is my favorite and yes, I've played through the entire game in Chinese). Amy is broken in many ways but there's still some fun to be had for diehard fans of the genre who are up for a Siren-level of frustration and challenge.
When I first heard about Amy I thought it could be interesting. So far nope not at all.