Amy developer responds to critical mauling
"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."