'Amy' is Survival Horror Evolved - Coming January 17th!

SynGamer

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If you’re into new survival-horror experiences, this post is for you! After recently releasing red johnson’s chronicles on psn, we’re excited to be publishing amy on psn later in 2011. Amy is the upcoming game from paul cuisset, who may be a familiar name for some of you; in the early 90s paul created flashback, a classic game that is credited today as a great source of inspiration by respected game designers.

With amy, we’re now bringing paul’s innovative concepts to ps3 owners with a new development philosophy that bridges the gap between innovative indie psn games and very ambitious blu-ray titles.

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Dark Days
The story begins on a rainy december day in 2034. Global warming is in full swing, spreading diseases and natural disasters all around the world. You play as lana, a character who regains consciousness following a comet impact in the small town of silver city. Upon awakening, you discover that silver city has descended into chaos. Violence, fury, rage, wreckage and death: The world you knew has been torn to hell.

Struck by a mysterious virus, most of the townspeople have transformed into gruesome creatures and now prowl the streets as a wild horde. You’re wounded and you know you must escape, but you’re infected and the viral process has already begun: Hell is now pumping through your veins. There are only two ways to survive the infection. One is by locating special medical equipment found on the corpses of soldiers who have invaded silver city. The other lies with amy.

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Unlikely Alliance
By your side is a strange little girl named amy, who can’t speak but whose face expresses both fear and sadness. While you’re fleeing and trying to protect her, you realize that being close to her stops the contamination and even temporarily heals you. That might be the reason why infected humans, grisly creatures, special forces combatants and even other survivors are after the two of you. To stay alive, you will have to help each other.

But contrary to many games with a secondary character, amy is neither a super warrior nor a docile character that follows you. You can use her small size and weight to reach inaccessible areas and ask her to do specific actions. Being a child, amy is also naturally curious and will explore the environment with you – sometimes she might even draw your attention to something you would have missed.

More importantly, amy possesses several special abilities. By pressing R1, you can hold her hand. This enables you to heal, but also lets you feel amy’s heartbeat through the rumble of the Dualshock 3, which lets you feel her stress level while you explore dangerous locations. This might be very useful, even if holding her hand slows you down. Amy also has several other special abilities that i’m not going to detail now…but trust me, you will like them.

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Survival Stealth
Your overall goal is to escape with amy, and find a safe shelter to save her (we call this mechanic “exfiltration”). You’ll hide, run, fight, solve puzzles and use cunning, and you will often be free to choose your tactics. In addition, while you progress, you will meet different characters and explore the special bond between amy and lana.

One of our goals is to make you feel the fragility of lana and amy. Lana is not trained to fight; amy is just a kid. But you can try to avoid your enemies, for example, by hiding in a closet or under a table. While hiding, you can spy on your pursuers…but be careful!

Another option is to use your infection to your advantage. When you show signs of infection, most of the enemies won’t attack you if you move slowly. But you will have to avoid the soldiers, who will shoot you on sight, and you’ll need to stop the infection before it‘s too late. Most of the enemies are able to communicate with each other so if one spots you, the others will rush in to attack. If you’re clever, you can exploit their intelligence to deceive them and trigger a fight between soldiers and infected humans.

But being smart won’t be enough. When cornered, you’ll need to gather your courage and fight back tooth and nail because your enemies are fierce. Although you have an inventory, you won’t be choosing between tons of items: You will have to make do with small weapons: Clubs, crowbars and the like. Lana only carries light items with her and uses only one weapon at a time. In a pinch, you can sometimes use the environment to your advantage, for instance by attracting an enemy into a water puddle and electrifying it.
Amy’s atmosphere

we’ve also worked hard on the script to provide you with a fully coherent experience. From a train station, to a hospital, going through a subway or the dark streets of silver city, you will discover a unique atmosphere with amy.

Finally, i’d like to share a worldwide exclusive video with you, a video we’ve just made to show off the game’s visuals and atmosphere. We will soon be releasing a new video demonstrating certain gameplay moments, so stay tuned! You can watch the video at the top of this blog post.

If you want to follow us, check out our facebook page. See you soon!


via PlayStation Blog
 
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[quote name='Dead of Knight']This sounds pretty awesome.[/QUOTE]

Agreed. This especially sounds quite interesting: 'By pressing R1, you can hold her hand. This enables you to heal, but also lets you feel amy’s heartbeat through the rumble of the dualshock 3, which lets you feel her stress level while you explore dangerous locations. This might be very useful, even if holding her hand slows you down."
 
Sounds cool, but nothing about it sounds like it's doing anything to "evolve" survival horror. Sounds like it's all been done before to me.
 
Sounds like every single other survival horror game ever, in fact it sounds like a very generic cookie cutter version of other survival horror games from what I've read thus far. Lame.
 
I don't recall any games that all you to slowly transform and then heal back. To me, that is an interesting gameplay idea. Balancing your infection to prevent attack from the opposing factions. I think the dynamic between the two characters is fairly unique, even if the rest of the trappings are traditional survival horror.

Besides, when was the last time there was a true console survival horror game? I heard nothing but complaints about Resident Evil 5 and the last Silent Hill game because there was too much action. Dead Spaces 1 and 2 were also action horror games.


Personally, I can get behind a new IP that is trying something new. Color me interested.
 
[quote name='DoubleEcksZero']Sounds like every single other survival horror game ever, in fact it sounds like a very generic cookie cutter version of other survival horror games from what I've read thus far. Lame.[/QUOTE]

What the fuck?
 
[quote name='DoubleEcksZero']Sounds like every single other survival horror game ever, in fact it sounds like a very generic cookie cutter version of other survival horror games from what I've read thus far. Lame.[/QUOTE]

There's always at least one hater
 
Game looks great, but my biggest concern is this turns into some game where you have to be constantly have to be babysitting your partner and watching her every move because she easily gets lost or has bad AI.

If they don't have that problem then the game looks great and has a nice silent hill vibe which is awesome.
 
[quote name='Stryffe2004']I don't recall any games that all you to slowly transform and then heal back. To me, that is an interesting gameplay idea. Balancing your infection to prevent attack from the opposing factions. I think the dynamic between the two characters is fairly unique, even if the rest of the trappings are traditional survival horror.

Besides, when was the last time there was a true console survival horror game? I heard nothing but complaints about Resident Evil 5 and the last Silent Hill game because there was too much action. Dead Spaces 1 and 2 were also action horror games.

Personally, I can get behind a new IP that is trying something new. Color me interested.[/QUOTE]

I know many games have made you watch your stress level or psyche. But we've never really seen this type of transformation with an NPC that can instantly affect our main characters' appearance. And there are other abilities that haven't been revealed yet. So yes, definitely color me interested.

I also don't mind the idea of a $15-20 PSN game instead of them milking it for a $60 retail game.

[quote name='Sir_Fragalot']Game looks great, but my biggest concern is this turns into some game where you have to be constantly have to be babysitting your partner and watching her every move because she easily gets lost or has bad AI.

If they don't have that problem then the game looks great and has a nice silent hill vibe which is awesome.[/QUOTE]

My concern is that the game will become far too linear with Amy leading the way whenever we go to explore or take too long to move forward. Only time will tell, but it sounds like we can explore and follow our own path, and Amy will point things of interest (help lead the way?) out.
 
[quote name='Stryffe2004']I don't recall any games that all you to slowly transform and then heal back. To me, that is an interesting gameplay idea. Balancing your infection to prevent attack from the opposing factions. I think the dynamic between the two characters is fairly unique, even if the rest of the trappings are traditional survival horror.

Besides, when was the last time there was a true console survival horror game? I heard nothing but complaints about Resident Evil 5 and the last Silent Hill game because there was too much action. Dead Spaces 1 and 2 were also action horror games.


Personally, I can get behind a new IP that is trying something new. Color me interested.[/QUOTE]

The slowly transforming aspect, think of any game that has a point that requires you stay near something, or recharge something to not die, something like stay in the light, or move quickly your flashlight's batteries are limited, and I guarantee you it will be just like that. Generally it doesn't go on all game, but still it's just an extension of an old concept. Also, Eternal Darkness with sanity management.

As for the dynamic between the two characters, think any escort mission, that's all it sounds like. Another RE4 Ashley and Leon. The fact that shes a kid, Siren: Blood Curse, the teen boy and the small lost child. Now I can go ahead and say it worked out decently in Siren, so kudos, but that doesn't make the game all original and edgy. It's more of the same, that's all. I'm not saying the game will be bad, the game could be awesome, but it's not unique is all I'm saying.
 
As the father of an autistic daughter, I find this quote from the dev very unsettling:

Why did you choose to make Amy autistic?
It’s difficult to go very far into this because it’s tied to the story, and we want to keep some information confidential for now. As a player, you will learn and understand why Amy has this condition.

The portrayal of disabilities and disorders in games is uncommon, it seems a brave move.
That’s true. It’s difficult to speak about this because it's very sad, so I guess that’s why people tend to avoid the subject. In our game, Amy is verbally impaired but she’s not completely autistic. You discover in the story why she doesn’t want to speak.


First of all, nonverbal people with autism are not silent because they "don't want" to speak, that's ridiculous. Second, no one yet understands the causes of autism but it's thought to be a complex combination of genetic and/or environmental factors. It's not caused by a single event or trauma, so I'm very curious as to how the plot of a videogame is going to reveal why a character has autism.

I'd like to think that some of the meaning in that conversation was lost in translation (the dev is French), because if not, it reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of what autism is that is frankly a little offensive.

/Soapbox
 
I don't know, this reminds me a lot of having to 'carry' Sherry in Resident Evil (3, Code Veronica?). All I remember was it annoyed the fuck out of me having to switch characters at times and she only slowed me down. Besides, half the enjoyment of survival horror for me is the sense of isolation. Having a brat at your side just turns me off.
 
[quote name='Ryuukishi']As the father of an autistic daughter, I find this quote from the dev very unsettling:

First of all, nonverbal people with autism are not silent because they "don't want" to speak, that's ridiculous. Second, no one yet understands the causes of autism but it's thought to be a complex combination of genetic and/or environmental factors. It's not caused by a single event or trauma, so I'm very curious as to how the plot of a videogame is going to reveal why a character has autism.

I'd like to think that some of the meaning in that conversation was lost in translation (the dev is French), because if not, it reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of what autism is that is frankly a little offensive.

/Soapbox[/QUOTE]
You have all right to rant on this. I can really relate to you, and understand how you feel. My GF suffers from Asberger's Syndrome and she has a child with Autism (who is near and dear to my heart) so I am familiar with the whole disease. Making a game that shows the misunderstanding of a disease is not just offensive to the people who have to deal with a person with autism, but at the same time, it gives the wrong impression to people who don't know about it which in my honest opinion, sends a bad message about you as a developer not caring.
 
Just a couple cents here to pitch in.

EDIT: Nobody can read anybody else's mind, at least not without a body to betray secrets and a conversation to construct the void of truth between the lies. But nonetheless I believe that Amy's condition is closer to PTSD (in terms of cause and resolution) than Autism.

Based on the context I believe that while the developer may have said "Autism" the concept they have in mind is likely closer to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder / PTSD. While Autism (as mentioned above) is seen as a combination of genetic, rearing and social elements combined, PTSD is more squarely centered in being a negative reaction to a trauma or series of trauma that have not or cannot be resolved. Often resulting in stunted communication and social skills.

So while the developers said this

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What they really meant was this

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I've also seen "autism" used in a context that was purely communication based. The graphic novel "Ghost in the Shell" by Shirow Masamune makes reference to an "Autistic Mode" for people with Cybernetic Brains where communication is severed from the network to avoid being hacked or otherwise vulnerable via connection.

That's a bit of a leap but I mention it only to show that sometimes people use a word for it's partial definition and the rest of it's definition comes along for the ride when someone with knowledge encounters said product.
 
I think you're exactly right. It sounds like the implication is that the character suffered some psychological trauma and became mute as a reaction to that. It's a shame that the developer is using the word autism to describe that situation, not only because it's factually inaccurate but because a lot of harm has been done to kids whose autism has been treated as if it was a psychological condition.
 
[quote name='Jodou']I don't know, this reminds me a lot of having to 'carry' Sherry in Resident Evil (3, Code Veronica?). All I remember was it annoyed the fuck out of me having to switch characters at times and she only slowed me down. Besides, half the enjoyment of survival horror for me is the sense of isolation. Having a brat at your side just turns me off.[/QUOTE]

Uh, that would be number 2. Pretty off there. :lol:

And yeah, obviously the developer has no idea what autism is or something got fucked in the translation. Hopefully it's the latter. If it's the former, fuck this game.
 
[quote name='Ryuukishi']As the father of an autistic daughter, I find this quote from the dev very unsettling:




First of all, nonverbal people with autism are not silent because they "don't want" to speak, that's ridiculous. Second, no one yet understands the causes of autism but it's thought to be a complex combination of genetic and/or environmental factors. It's not caused by a single event or trauma, so I'm very curious as to how the plot of a videogame is going to reveal why a character has autism.

I'd like to think that some of the meaning in that conversation was lost in translation (the dev is French), because if not, it reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of what autism is that is frankly a little offensive.

/Soapbox[/QUOTE]

I also think it's a shame because videogames have never done this before now.

For example, I've never been to war but I imagine if I get shot up with bullets I can just hide behind cover and let the red tint fade away until I'm fully healed.

How can game developers get that so right, and autism so wrong. It boggles the mind.
 
Yeah., sorry I am in a wait and see mode because it does sound a bit like most survival horror games.

Like it has been said, it really depends on the controls for Amy in relation to the game world. Remember we at escort missions.
 
Reading over some previews, I really hope this game has a sense of urgency. Not in an artificial difficulty way, but just that on the edge, what's going to happen next kind of way.
 
[quote name='SynGamer']EDIT: anyone else see Elana from Uncharted in the Lana character?

[/QUOTE]
Funny you say that as the first thing I thought of after seeing the pic of the woman in this game was Uncharted and Lana.
 
funny, i was actually looking for news about this game last night. and found nothing new. I could have sworn that it was supposed to come out this fall.
 
Thanks for bumping this thread, just found out about this. Hopefully it's still coming, the lack of a new Siren game has been killing me. We need more survivor horror/ stealth games...
 
[quote name='handsome_rakshas']Thanks for bumping this thread, just found out about this. Hopefully it's still coming, the lack of a new Siren game has been killing me. We need more survivor horror/ stealth games...[/QUOTE]

Amen to that. The Devs have released some footage in the last couple of months and i remember reading a quote on the PS Blog about a month ago that another clip would follow shortly. I just completed Siren: Blood Curse and can't wait for another game that survival horror/stealth hybrid. Amy looks very promising and fits that mold perfectly!
 
Hi all, we now can announce you some good news.
We now have a release date and a price.
After MANY months of hard work, we're really glad to tell you that
AMY WILL BE AVAILABLE NEXT WEEK.

Jan 11 will be the release date for everyone, apart from the PSN version in the US that will be available on Jan 10.

Some other good news:
AMY will be available at:

PSN
US: $12.99
Europe: €9.9
UK: £7.99

XBLA: 800 points.

One last request. We really need the word to be spread, so PLEASE SHARE THIS INFO WITH YOUR FRIENDS.

We really want to thank you for your tremendous support and patience!

The AMY team


Posted on Facebook.
 
[quote name='iamsmart']$10 on Xbox Live and $13 on PSN? I don't think I've ever seen that happen before.[/QUOTE]

I was about to say the same thing... maybe what that Sony guy said was true (about MS blocking small developers unless they put some kind of bonus or extra to the XBL version of games).:whistle2:k
 
Sucks that PSN price is higher, but I didnt realize that the creator of Flashback is involved in this game until today. Makes me more interested as I think Flashback is one of my favorite games from the 16bit generation. But, I have to wait for reviews and a price drop anyway.
 
I will buy it if I hear good impressions. It would nice to play a good survival horror game finally. Is kind of stupid that it's more on PSN, but if it's good, I'll pay full price.
 
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