Oh, Amy. Where did it all go wrong? VectorCell’s stab at creating a survival horror with an inspirational twist – the player is already turning into a zombie at the beginning of the game – may sound like a great idea on paper, but in reality it’s a gamer’s worst nightmare.
You play as Lana, a woman tasked with protecting autistic eight-year old Amy as they escape from the zombie-infected world of Silver City, using the girl’s small size to clear puzzles and reach inaccessible areas. It’s a third-person survival horror dressed in ICO’s clothing, in other words – and in all probability, that’ll be the highest praise the game’s ever going to get.
Disappointingly, the game behind the concept is bereft of any technical competence or stimulating gameplay whatsoever. It’s filled with design flaws, mistakes and embarrassments that simply shouldn’t exist in a 2012 release – let alone one from Paul Cuisset, the man behind some of the early 90s’ best-loved adventure games. It is, simply put, one of the most abhorrent titles we’ve ever seen turn up on the Marketplace.
The problems become fairly apparent early on, with poor weapon placement and awful checkpointing threatening to throw players off as early as the opening chapter. Persevere and the instakills, appalling AI, dull puzzles, gimmicky scares and overcomplicated controls are met with a core mechanic that fails to work neither as well as it should, nor is communicated to the player effectively enough. Infected by the virus, Lana slowly transforms into a zombie when Amy isn’t by her side and is – in theory – able to blend in with the locals during the transformation. But it’s as cumbersome as it sounds, with no clear indication as to when it’s safe to move or where exactly the player has to get to. Take too long and you’ll die; move too quickly and you’ll be rumbled. We’ve no idea how any of it got through testing – assuming the game even went through such a thing.
As a result of VectorCell’s throng of design mishaps you’ll fail time and time again – and take it from us, trial and error isn’t fun when it’s spaced 30 minutes apart. And even when you do manage to avoid death, it’s just as likely you’ll get snagged on an object and have to do it all over again anyway. Whether you actually want to reload, of course, is a different story. Amy fails to offer anything vaguely compelling. Its puzzles are boring and its set-pieces cliched, while the woeful script, awkward acting, technical inaptitude and terrible controls mean it’s a game that only manages to spark fear through the omnipresent horror of replaying the same section again, rather than via any sense of suspense.
The first game in years that’s made us want to turn off our console in a fit of rage, Amy is nauseatingly difficult, unnecessarily infuriating and falls wide of the entertainment mark by quite a margin. If you want a good survival horror game, go and download Resi 4 again? heck, go outside and play hide and seek in the dark, but whatever you do, don’t buy this game. A game suited only to those as brain dead as its cast, Amy’s a creative darling crucified by technical howlers and cack-handed design.
VERDICT: 24%
Xbox 360 version tested. This article was originally published in Issue 63 of 360Zine.
Tags: AMY
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