Amy developer responds to critical mauling

By Fred Dutton Published 17 January, 2012

"Amy is a HARD game. Some people totally disliked that."

The developer behind critically-mauled survival horror Amy has issued a ripost to those who haven't taken to the title.

A note on the game's official Facebook page from developer VectorCell today (thanks Destructoid) suggested that if you didn't like the game you might want go back and try it on the easiest difficulty setting.

"Today is the official release day of the PSN version in the US and we wanted to take this opportunity to come back to you," begun the post.

"As many of you have already heard, Amy is a HARD game. Some people totally disliked that while others really enjoyed it.

"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-hardcore 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."

Despite universally dismal reviews, the developer went on to insist that the game is actually performing rather well.

"In addition, we wanted to thank those of you who bought the game and rated it on the Xbox market and the PSN Store. Indeed, Amy has been #1 in the daily XBLA charts since its launch in all major territories and players have rated it between 3 and 4 out of 5 on XBLA and more than 4 on the PSN despite the controversy.

"For us, the players' ratings (almost 9500 so far) are the most important ones."

Eurogamer's Dan Whitehead gave the game a thorough shoeing when it launched earlier this month.

"Amy fails on all counts. It's plagued by jerky movement, poor scripting, weak puzzles and shoddy checkpointing, but it's also a characterless mess of themes and ideas swiped from a dozen better horror titles," read his scathing 2/10 Amy review.

"Neither quirky enough to be forgiven its unfinished feel nor polished enough to satisfy the base gaming itch, Amy is a crushing disappointment with little to recommend it."

Picture of Fred.

About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

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Comments (79) Latest comment 4 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • MattEdWithCheese #1 4 months ago

    Yeah, blame the players, that always helps...

  • Kaonazhie #2 4 months ago

    Bad controls do make a game hard, I suppose.

  • Lunatic4ever #3 4 months ago

    He has to come up with something,right?

    That's ridiculous...
    A bad design choice does not make a game more challenging.
    It simply fucks it up.

    Dark Souls demonstrated what challening really means.
    In view of that, this guy should either stfu or just admit that the game sucks.

  • gimo80 #4 4 months ago

    Absolutely ridiculous. The gameplay mechanics are just horrendous (especially the combat system), the acting is laughable and the puzzles take you away from the 'action' so much - the pacing, atmosphere, EVERYTHING about the game is appalling.

    Expectations are high for easy mode then!

  • natec87 #5 4 months ago

    Amy is a bad game, some people disliked that...

  • blarty #6 4 months ago

    Is there a particular reason why EG likes to post these 'developer responds' articles, especially when EG's review of said developers' latest fare isn't a particularly glowing review? There seem to be a spate of these 'articles for articles sake' recently

  • -cerberus- #7 4 months ago

    Fix the bloody choppy framerate, the terrible AI, the broken hit-detection, the lost items when dying after getting a checkpoint first. When the game is playable, then we'll have another chat about the difficulty, yes? If not, give everyone's 800MSP back.

  • Farzlepot #8 4 months ago

    Shit is shit, regardless of whether it's been baked hard by the sun, or it's soft and fresh.

  • DrStrangelove #9 4 months ago

    if you didn't like the game you might want go back and try it on the easiest difficulty setting.
    Well you might want to go back and try harakiri.

  • Stuz359 #10 4 months ago

    Dark Souls is a hard game. Amy is a shit game. Note the difference.

  • persus-9 #11 4 months ago

    @blarty I think developer responds articles are healthy for games journalism. It seems right that developers should have a right of reply even if in many cases they don't actually have a good reply. Besides you don't have to click on them you know.

  • mr_pink #12 4 months ago

    It must be hard to have something you put your heart and soul into to be torn apart by critics. I think their response was fairly restrained in comparison to that of some other devs. I haven't played the game so I can't really offer an opinion on its quality, though I think it has been said that many games start out as a promising concept which are let down by execution, budget and publisher constraints (I don't know if this was the case for Amy). It's particularly sad when this happens to a new IP rather than some long-in-the-tooth franchise. Is the game available as a demo/trial on XBL? If so then perhaps their riposte isn't totally devoid of merit if gamers aren't turned off by the demo or reviews?

  • governmentyard #13 4 months ago

    Amy is probably shifting units because it hasn't been off my (and probably your) dashboard since it came out, unlike Choplifter which my 360 is yet to tell me exists.

  • patchbox360 #14 4 months ago

    meh to review scores, im playing what i feel like playing

  • RedSparrows #15 4 months ago

    I've had the opposite! No sign of Amy and signs of CL. Odd.

  • TazerFan #16 4 months ago

    I know it sounds awfully bad, but if you put yourself in the shoes of the developers for a minute:

    - I have to believe that many of them believed in what they were working on.

    - I have to believe that many of them worked very hard.

    - I have to believe that many of them were proud of the finished product and wanted very badly for the game to perform.

    - I have to believe that the critical lashing it received was very painful to endure for many of the individuals involved with the project.

    So you can see how these poor chaps might grasp at straws once the reviews started pouring in. Maybe they genuinely believed the difficulty balance is a significant issue and just want a maximum number of people to be able to enjoy it?

    I don't know. I'm sure it's a terrible game, but I think the snark and the venom being thrown their way is just a bit misguided. It sucks being told that you did a shitty job on something that you cared deeply about.

  • 32768Colours #17 4 months ago

    This is going to be Hydrophobia all over again isn't it?

    "Its not a shit game, you're just not playing it properly!"

    :rolleyes:

  • uninspiredcup #18 4 months ago

    Stalker is a hard game. People love it.
    Amy is a shit game, everyone hates it.

  • neilka #19 4 months ago

    Also try putting it on the "NOT SHIT" mode.

  • Swole_Robot #20 4 months ago

    @TazerFan I agree. Exactly what do people want them to say exactly? It's not like they're gonna be too thrilled about the reviews. Even if you're working on a yearly tie in franchise game a bad review is gonna sting.

    As someone else said, i don't see why EG and other sites feel the need to circulate this type of story. Had they got in touch about the review then good but this is a note from their facebook page and hardly counts as an all out attack against reviewers.

  • drhickman1983 #21 4 months ago

    I can appreciate it must be especially hard for smaller studios to see their (presumably) hard work being criticised. I imagine making games isn't easy.

    However, VectorCell's response isn't really helpful. I've yet to try the trial, but the game does sound like it has issues, with no real redeeming qualities. Are we supposed to gloss over that because it's a new IP from a smaller studio? Of course not.

    VectorCell ought to take in the criticism and work out where it went wrong, instead of saying it's working as intended. And at least the Hydrophobia developer listened to feedback, eventually, and tried to rectify the problems.

  • Yeoung #22 4 months ago

    "You guys just don't get our game" - The DNF approach

    "You guys aren't playing it correctly" - Hydrophobia PR

    "Our game is just hard, okay?" - Amy Apologist

  • gm914 #23 4 months ago

    LMFAO using PSN Store Ratings as his only defense. The games can be rated as soon as they have been purchased, before downloading has even been completed.
    I cant tell you hw many times I've logged into the Store just minutes after a weekly update, to see newly released 6GB games with ratings of 5 stars.

    It's a flawed system as people feel they need to justify their new purchase by giving a good rating.
    However, it's too late to change the rating a few hours later when they realise their new game was horseshit.
    Edited by gm914 at 18/01/12 @ 12:45

  • Hellion83 #24 4 months ago

    Post deleted at 20:12:17 01-02-2012

  • ATNR1 #25 4 months ago

    @TazerFan

    "It sucks being told that you did a shitty job on something that you cared deeply about."

    Yep in some cases it takes years of hard work, only for some person to play your game for a few hours, take about an hour (I don't know how long it takes) to write a review, and say your work is complete and utter shit. If I was a developer I would fly across the world and punch every reviewer in the face, not just defend myself on the internet.

  • blarty #26 4 months ago

    @persus-9 I have no issues with the point of the article as such, (engaging discussion across the industry is great) just the frequency of these types of article; it seems very like: review article gets published, Dev gets annoyed, oh look, we can get another article out of this, - a bit bait and hook isn't it?

  • bikmate #27 4 months ago

    But is there an achievement for beating it on hard? All the achievement gatherers will still be put off. I hate difficulty achievements(and multiplayer ones) they take out all the fun and turn playing into a chore :(

  • Murton #28 4 months ago

    Let the scores of the likes of Amy be a lesson to all developers, unless you're a massive well known studio with a few games under it's belt anything you make has to be good.

    As Destructoid said, the easy setting doesn't fix poor animation, dodgy controls, pathetic voice acting, graphical stutter, characters getting stuck on the environment, shit AI or the ability to break the game by completing actions in the wrong order and the game attracted a 2/10 from EG because of it. Skyrim on the other hand suffers all of the above and more and got 10/10 and not the merest mention of any issue during the review.

    The bias towards the big devs who can withhold things like interviews and previews has removed almost all meaning from games reviews. It means that the big boys can push whatever broken game they like to critical acclaim while the newcomers get panned unless they release an instant classic.

  • Inmediasress #29 4 months ago

    @Murton
    Couldn't have said it better myself.
    Big publishers can pull of almost anything by lying trough their teeth and building pure hype from nothing.
    Then again its the peoples fault for being so easy to manipulate in the first place.
    Also the devs of Amy remind me of Bioware.
    They also love to whine and moan about bad reviews, only difference is they have quite a few indoctrinated fanboys.(and not releasing utterly broken games only half broken ones)
    Edited by Inmediasress at 18/01/12 @ 08:24

  • dennett316 #30 4 months ago

    People are rightly scoffing at this guys post because he completely fails to address the fact that the game has serious flaws, instead hinting that reviewer competence is to blame. If you don't have the budget to realise your vision properly, then don't leave it half-finished and then whine and cry when people don't like it and try to cloud the issue by sucking up to the poor sods who bought the thing and are desperately trying to justify doing so.

    Player ratings are the only ones that matter? Bollocks, I'm sure Hydrophobia has a decent rating too and that game is a chore to endure...and I say that as someone who got it half price. Being a small studio is no excuse for releasing shit...make games within your budget. Even then, Penumbra and Amnesia came from a smaller dev and they ooze quality, so there really is little excuse for shoddy programming.

    And the Skyrim comparison....sorry, that's a BS argument. It has nothing to do with big studio vs little studio, and all to do with people realising that a game with the scope and scale of Skyrim is going to have some issues. Now that the game supports 4gig of memory, I've had zero crash issues and only a few minor graphical glitches. The game still plays excellently, has plenty to do and looks great. This is a small, linear survival horror game that has been shoddily programmed at all levels and only really looks good in static screenshots. You can't just release a half-assed game and say we didn't have the budget to do it properly...either plan it out right, or make a more basic game.

  • Lunastra78 #31 4 months ago

    Survival of the shittiest.

  • BlackAdam #32 4 months ago

    Amy is a bad game, some people disliked that...

  • the_dudefather #33 4 months ago



    This character isn't a zombie

  • Frybird #34 4 months ago

    @Yeoung: Don't forget "We see that no one really understands how this is supposed to be played, so here's a little manual for that. Probably should've put that in the game" by Tim Schaefer and the Brütal Legend Devs.

  • addugg #35 4 months ago

    Oh right, it's our fault you shipped a crap game. Sorry Amy, my bad...

  • Abdu@EG #36 4 months ago

    For some weird reason, the ratings of this game aren't shown on PSN

  • johnson81 #37 4 months ago

    After all this crap, why do I still want to play this game?

  • darkmorgado #38 4 months ago

    @blarty

    "Is there a particular reason why EG likes to post these 'developer responds' articles"

    Oh, I don't know, maybe a little thing called journalistic balance?

  • Lexx87 #39 4 months ago

    Amy may be a HARD game. It's also a SHIT game.

  • Baihu1983 #40 4 months ago

    Hard? Not really the controls sucked, the camera is too close and the animation wank

  • jetsetwillie #41 4 months ago

    i don't usually like to have an opinion on a game i have not played. and i have not played AMY and have just seen the Quicklook on giantbomb.

    i feel in this case its easy to see that this is not a good game. in fact i would say it looks down right shite.

    i wont be wasting my time playing it

  • kangarootoo #42 4 months ago

    Oh dear, another "you're doing it wrong" response to critical review. Never pleasant to see.


    @32768Colours

    To be fair to the Hydrophobia devs, their initial response was poor but then they totally U turned on that and started investing quite heavily in responding to player feedback (to the extent that they built a tool into the game for gathering said feedback). I think they were just a bit stung by the reviews, and were feeling defensive. Once they had a chance to consider the situation more, they were much more proactive in their response. Maybe we'll see the same thing here in due course? I hope so.

  • Sodding_Gamer #43 4 months ago

    I genuinely want to play this game now for shits and giggles.

  • Nazo #44 4 months ago

    Good coders know when they've done a bad job. The dev's I know will happily admit, at least in private, when the product they've worked on isn't up to scratch.
    I suspect this is probably more about PR but If these guys really can't objectively look at their product and see its flaws they are in the wrong job.

  • Kami #45 4 months ago

    I say again, midst a sea of people who seem to hate it, that I liked Amy.

    Was it fantastic? No. Flawed, glitchy, over-reliance on some cheap, old-school instadeath mechanics and a general rough feeling like it was rushed out the door too quickly.

    But I had few control issues. I got most of the puzzles, and the mechanics, quite quickly. I liked the atmosphere, the story was good, yes there were some pretty archaic colour-key puzzles but you know what? That's not the end of the world, Resident Evil did this for so long under a thinly-veiled disguise and people shout about having the old Resi style back. Guess what? That would come back too.

    Amy is a game that promises so very much but delivers nothing but a pretty standard experience. The fact that it slightly rips off Ico probably doesn't help its case any, because if you're going to borrow such a famous game mechanic, average may not really cut it. You have to go all out.

    But I've played uglier. I've played games with worse puzzles. Worse mechanics. Worse sound. Worse controls.

    Amy is a game that has oodles of potential with none of the delivery. Seeing as my New Years Resolution is to stop judging games on their potential - seeing as any game has potential if we're going to be honest here - I walked into Amy thinking; "Alright. It's not going to change my world, and it's likely going to be dog-eared and rushed."

    I was right. On both counts. And I still enjoyed it. As, it seems, do others. I guess we weren't looking for the wheel to be reinvented.

    That said, what is disappointing about Amy is that it so often wants to be more than it is - you can almost feel so often the frustration of the designers and developers, angered at their limitations and the confines of which they work in.

    I suspect Amy - as we see it - is not the game they envisioned. I can only assume corners were cut, budgets were slashed and there was a strict "Get it on on X date or you can kiss your studio goodbye!"

    This outburst does nothing to help their case - sometimes silence is a viable answer (although as has been said, I'm sure the team who worked on it feel passionately about their work. I'm sure no-one sets out to make an average game or worse!). I'm more interested why a game with so much... no, I stopped using that word... let me rephrase; Are you sure this is the game you intended for us to have in the end?

    I want an honest answer, and I suspect - from the clues in the game itself - the answer to that is, "No."

  • SteveHolt #46 4 months ago

    Pfff. Amy is not hard, it's just very silly. Just play the demo, it's a dreadful experience.

    FYI mr game developper, you lost my money when you introduced marcello and his DNA hacking device, that demo was the stuppidest thing I played since vampire rain, and that's saying something.

  • Retro_ #47 4 months ago

    Demons Souls / Dark Souls are hard games and they are universally adored games.

  • blarty #48 4 months ago

    @darkmorgado but surely in the interests of journalistic balance , you should present the fact that the person said this in response to opinion, not present the fact the person has said it, and then lace it with opinion yet again.

    It just seems reporting a fact and then using it as a vehicle to push an opinion again, saying that he's responding to people saying his game is crap and then saying 'and if you want to read our review on Amy, go here' is one thing, using that to en push your own opinion yet again is another. And its not necessarily this article but certainly some of the SW:TOR articles of late appear to be any excuse to have a go.

    Ah well, agree to disagree I suppose.

  • Quixz #49 4 months ago

    I got the second level and stopped playing and NO I did not find the game hard.

    YOUR GAME IS JUST SHIT! :mad:

  • rudedudejude #50 4 months ago

    Flashback on XBLA please!

  • IvorB #51 4 months ago

    Gotta read the review now. Love a good critical mauling.

  • President_Weasel #52 4 months ago

    @uninspiredcup

    "Get out of here, Amy!"

  • SFG_Clan #53 4 months ago

    Wait wait I can fix it for him

    "AMY is a terrible game and some people don't like that"

  • miiiguel #54 4 months ago

    I didn't buy the game, though I played at a friend's place and what was realy, realy bad was the checkpoints system, it's totally retarded, like a desperate atempt to make the game "longer".

  • Paulie_P #55 4 months ago

    @gm914 The 3DS shop has a good system, you can only rate the game after playing it for a hour. Still might be early to review a game but at least it's a step.

  • FogHeart #56 4 months ago

    To be fair to the Hydrophobia devs, their initial response was poor but then they totally U turned on that and started investing quite heavily in responding to player feedback (to the extent that they built a tool into the game for gathering said feedback).
    ...and changed the game to the extent that what you see on PSN is something they can be proud of, and represents shockingly good value for money. However they've put in Move support, and they haven't implemented it according to accepted gameplay design - as a result with Move unless you hold the pointer dead centre you're always turning, turning, turning.

    So where is this significant? You don't want a game that relies on user feedback to fix problems that occur because developers seem to be ignorant of accepted wisdoms. Barrels you can shoot and pipes you can grab onto should have a suspiciously prominent colour, for example. Move games should have an adjustable central box inside which there's no turning at all.

    Hydrophobia was poorly reviewed due to unwise design decisions that were fixable. Amy appears to be buggy and badly designed. There may be no way back from that.

  • thatdudeinthecotton #57 4 months ago

    I wiped demon souls,dark souls,The DMC series,The ninja gaiden series, resident evil 4 & 5, Dead space 1&2 , gran turismo 3,4&5 , Catherine , 4 Final Fantasy games and Almost EVERY Mission in the elder scrolls: oblivion
    AND I REALLY, REALLY HATE AMY!

  • goldbug #58 4 months ago

    @thatdudeinthecotton You have too much time on your hands q:

  • Madder-Max #59 4 months ago

    I Love the "You're playing it wrong line". Deus Ex devs tried using that one.

    Cracks me up every time; especially with the pathetic attempt to bait players with a 'challenge'

  • Toothball #60 4 months ago

    I can see why this guy is a little upset at the reviews. It's an amusing contrast to the Uncharted 3 incident, where the whole debate was whether the trusty 8/10 was a good score or not. A 2/10 is a lot less ambiguous on any scale.

  • levitate #61 4 months ago

    "Where's Amy?"
    "Amy's dead, Butch. Amy's dead."

  • Freek #62 4 months ago

    They should talk to the Hydrophopia guys. Same situation; broken game and a developer in denial about it.
    Eventually they came to realize that it's better to fix the game then get angry at your customers for "playing it wrong" and "not getting it".

  • DwarfyP #63 4 months ago

    @MattEdWithCheese It often IS the players at fault.
    Players just don't like difficult games and instead of accepting they can't get through it, they slam it instead.
    Edited by DwarfyP at 18/01/12 @ 14:07

  • dirtysteve #64 4 months ago

    "It's not shite, it's hard"

    Dark Soul's it is not mate.
    Edited by dirtysteve at 18/01/12 @ 17:23

  • killuminati2911 #65 4 months ago

    I don't think that those who made Demon Soul would agree with that statement.. it's just that AMY is CRAP.. get over it.. and while you are it.. change occupation. Thank you!

  • Derblington #66 4 months ago

    "For us, the players' ratings (almost 9500 so far) are the most important ones."
    They always are when they positively disagree with a critical panning.

  • UltraPoci #67 4 months ago

    Why don't they think to do a better videogame, instead to blame the players?

  • stryker1121 #68 4 months ago

    @mr_pink It still makes the guy look bad though. Take your lumps and try to make a better game next time, and please stay off of social media b/c it just makes you look worse.

  • Bander #69 4 months ago

    @MattEdWithCheese They're blaming the reviewers, not the players. They actually seem very happy with the player reviews.

    I've not played Amy but I do know better than to trust reviews by Dan Whitehead, given all the fun games he's given crap ratings to. Even in comments he usually complains. I think he reviews games entirely by looking for things that are missing or caused him some degree of challenge, and they automatically become massive negatives.

  • kangarootoo #70 4 months ago

    @DwarfyP

    "It often IS the players at fault."

    I think when you say 'often', you actually mean 'incredibly rarely'.

    If a significant number of players in the target market (a crucial aspect, I admit) say they don't find a game fun to play, it is almost ALWAYS the game's fault.

    You are also assuming that difficulty is actually a factor. The dev has chosen that tact as their defense, but nobody else seems to think that difficulty is the pressing issue.
    Edited by kangarootoo at 18/01/12 @ 16:08

  • Madder-Max #71 4 months ago

    @DwarfyP REALLY????

    "um hello I dont like this car because the the brakes dont work properly, its got a flat tyre and the seat adjuster is stuck so I cant get it into the right position and I thing there is something wrong with the clutch as the gears keep grinding through changes."

    "Well sir. You are driving the car wrongly and its probably too difficult for you"

    "wtf?"
    Edited by Madder-Max at 18/01/12 @ 16:12

  • AdamAsunder #72 4 months ago

    @TazerFan. If you can't tell that your game is going to be utterly terrible then you're in serious need of perspective.

  • kangarootoo #73 4 months ago

    @TazerFan

    Whilst I agree with all the points you make regards people feeling bad when the fruits of their labour is getting panned, dignified silence is often the better option.

    I also think that if you work in a creative industry, where subjective taste means someone will ALWAYS think your work is a pile of crap, you just have to get thicker skin. I work in games dev, and I just see it as part of the business. If you get paid to make games, the result of your efforts being held up for public scrutiny, followed by public applause or condemnation, was always part of the deal and you have to be ready for either of those results.

    Sometimes, despite best efforts and no shortage of talent, things don't pan out as well as you might like. In those situations you have to expect (and perhaps deserve, as people ARE giving you their money) negative feedback, and so long as that negative feedback is fair, you just have to take it on the chin with dignity (and perhaps more importantly, learn from it and make improvements next time around).

  • Skirlasvoud #74 4 months ago

    "the developer went on to insist that the game is actually performing rather well."

    One shudders to think what they were going for then.

  • digitalash #75 4 months ago

    They've been taking lessons from the Hydrophobia school of customer relations...
    Edited by digitalash at 18/01/12 @ 18:48

  • Lord_Gremlin #76 4 months ago

    Hm, it's not that it's hard. It is broken. Aka, well, hitboxes are screwed. Checkpoints don't work properly, resetting your progress...

    It's not about hard, it's about filthy broken and bugged. Also random glitches are not considered hard. Random is random.

  • Marshall2008 #77 4 months ago

    You can roll a shit in glitter but its still a shit.

  • Spong #78 4 months ago

    "To be fair to the Hydrophobia devs, their initial response was poor but then they totally U turned on that and started investing quite heavily in responding to player feedback (to the extent that they built a tool into the game for gathering said feedback). I think they were just a bit stung by the reviews, and were feeling defensive. Once they had a chance to consider the situation more, they were much more proactive in their response. Maybe we'll see the same thing here in due course? I hope so."

    No, what DED did with Hydrophobia was listen to feedback from the 360 owners (like myself) who bought the original game. Then they released the Hydrophobia Pure update and continued listening to feedback on the promise of further updates. Then they took that feedback and released Hydrophobia Prophecy on PS3 and PC, sticking a finger up at all us 360 owners. So yeah, DED can go suck the sweat off a dead man's balls for all I care about their game and their so-called PR, and they're certainly no role-model.

    [/off-topic]

  • kangarootoo #79 4 months ago

    @Spong

    So they improved the game that you bought, but then released another version of the game that contained new levels on other platforms, and you are unhappy that you didn't get the new version for free? Even though you got the updated and improved version?

    The bulk of the changes between Pure and Prophecy are level changes and additions. The bulk of the issues that the reviews initially pointed out were sorted in Pure, which you have on 360.

    They could have simply done nothing.

    [/off-topic]