AMY

AMY – Demo Impressions

Usually i can make myself play through a bad videogame demo without a hitch. But today i met my match with AMY. Not only did i not finish the demo i’m surprised i made it as far as i did in this devastatingly unplayable horror action game. Vector Cell developed AMY and  Lexis Numerique published this horrendously bad horror title. AMY is now available on Xbox Live as a Arcade game but releases on PSN next week (Jan 17, 2012). It will also release for the PC with a TBA release date. Don’t worry about AMY’s release dates gamers you should stay clear and far away from this game trust me on this.

When you start up AMY you see the menus Adventure, Help & Options, Achievements, Leaderboard and Unlock Full Game. AMY’s archaic tank controls button layout via the Xbox 360 gamepad: D-pad-turn off/on lamp/open inventory/check weapon, A-use serum, LB-jog/run, LT-hit/dodge, RS-crouch/camera, A-action/use, Y-interact, RT-aim/select/power/release power, RB-call Amy/hold Amy’s hand, ask Amy to stay, Select-display tutorial/commands/manual.  Throw the controls and AMY out of the window. First off the controls are horrible and takes two buttons to do everything.

Combat is horrid with the controls you’re praying and swinging for a homerun each time you melee an enemy. The controls are so clunky and wonky its just a chore to turn around and walk. I then checked out the Achievements section after looking at the controls layout. There are 12 achievements in AMY. You get 10g for completing each of the 5 chapters and 50g if you beat AMY on hard. I want to meet the gamer that gets that 50g for beating AMY on hard since the game on normal is hard due to its horrid design, gameplay and combat. You should get a achievement for buying AMY!

AMY opens up with a cutscene of Lana and Amy on a train after escaping a place called the Phoenix Center. Immediately i saw horrible framrate dips, stuttering and slowdown in the cutscene. The writing was horrible for the most part. It seems Lana (protagonist) got the best lines in the demo. Amy really doesn’t talk due to her condition of spotting horrendous tragedies before they happen. The cutscene ends after the train crashes mysteriously at a deserted train station. At which time Lana goes on a duck-hunt for Amy. In the process she meets Marcello who is just a horrible sidekick. His face looks like it was smeared with vasilene and frying grease. His writing and voice actor were as bad as his face looked. After meeting Marcello the cabdriver “with connections” he hands you a Genetic Lock Cracker.

It looks like a weird remote laser gun you use to track down and analyze red dots (DNA) scattered on your HUD. You are trying to unlock a security office by tracking down the person’s DNA. Most of the time i was asking myself “why am i doing this?” sense it made no sense. The gameplay in the demo made no sense so i could imagine the full game. Why do enemies turn to mist after you hit them with a stick? I don’t know. Why am i tracking down red dots on my HUD when i should be tracking down Amy after the train crash? I don’t know. Why is hacking so tedious and ridiculous? I don’t know. I know its early in the year but i have a feeling AMY just might be the worst game i play all year (and its just a demo to boot).

The best part of AMY’s presentation is easily its visuals. I’m not saying the game looks like Crysis 2, it looks barely average. The setting was mostly dark in a big train station. The character designs were decent in-game but weird looking during cutscenes. I did like the contemporary sci-fi setting of AMY. The music was decent at times and borderline over the top in combat situations. The voice acting was a real mixed bag as it seemed Lana got the best lines and everybody else got crappy ones.

What made me ultimately stop playing the demo was the first hacking sequence you encounter. It was so ridiculous and tedious. You had to guess way too much and memorize 5 different symbols. If you don’t guess/memorize them all in 5 tries you start over with a different set. I was thinking this is for Ceaser of Rise of  The Planet of the Apes and not normal gamers. The game was horrid enough now you want us gamers to play a tedious hacking game? No thanks QUIT!