Posted on: December 23, 2014
kdgog
Verified ownerGames: Reviews: 67
Interactive horror stories FTW
I'd heard that AMFP was "less of a game" than The Dark Descent; it's true in part. AMFP focusses much more on telling a story, to the extent that it removes many gamey elements such as the need to light candles; oil supplies for your lantern; injuries and healing; and physics-based puzzles. The disturbing story more than makes up for the reduced interactivity. I'm wary of spoilers, but the premise is discovered fairly early on: it's the very end of the C19; you wake in a caged bed worried about your children; you're in a creepy mansion with strange red stains in some areas; and the house is near a sausage factory. Enough there to make you uneasy, but the game's reality is worse. There are strong themes of suffering, treating other beings as resources, cultures of inhumanity, loss, and industrialisation. I recommend playing this in the dark, with headphones, if you enjoy compelling horror. One bonus over TDD is that there are some outdoor scenes here, though they remain almost as claustrophobic as the depths you will descend to. It's certainly a good lesson in how to give as story away slice by slice, and managing the fine balance between pulling the player on whilst making them dread what will happen if they do. The game is surprisingly restrained and never felt gratuitous, yet still at various points I felt my heart racing, or felt sick, disturbed, and worried. I sympathised and I drew parallels to the reality now. I thought about the story afterwards, its elements of parable and commentary. As the horror grows, and visceral queasiness switches to terror which paralyses you in the shadows hoping that you will be left alone, even though that probably means death far from the sunlight, far from hope, in a depth of darkness to which humans have proven themselves capable of sinking; as hell becomes an amoral reality of endless process, once again your stomach turns and the rancid flesh of our existence is hung up to show us what we are. 10/10, would play again.
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