By Adam Smith on March 13th, 2012 at 8:57 am.
Craig espied Anna just a few weeks ago, cheekily comparing it to Amnesia even before he’d seen it in motion. Now that the first in-game footage has been released, the whole world can accept that he was right to do so, although only partly. Anna seems to have a similar approach to interaction with the world but it also has sunlight. In a horror game! Outrageous. Be outraged below.
It’s a work in progress, which I know primarily because it says ‘work in progress’ at the corner of the screen there. Also because while it’s very pretty it’s not hugely informative. There’s a very good rock though and things do become a bit spookier once inside.
With three ways to work through the plot, each one of which offers about three hours of gameplay, Italian developers Dreampainters may be cleverly maximising locations and assets while still offering a good chunk of content. Seems sensible and even if the interaction doesn’t look quite right at times, there’s fantastic detail in the setting.
13/03/2012 at 08:59 iaguz says:
That rock is fucking terrifying.
13/03/2012 at 09:05 marlin says:
Looks stoned to me.
13/03/2012 at 09:11 bear912 says:
It looks ready to basalt you. It certainly doesn’t look gneiss, that’s for sure.
13/03/2012 at 10:08 maninahat says:
My sediments exactly.
13/03/2012 at 23:41 runBAMrunfaster says:
It kinda looks like a scammer, like it’s about to gypsum one out of their money.
13/03/2012 at 09:50 Squirrelfanatic says:
That’s no rock…
13/03/2012 at 09:56 The Tupper says:
Petrifying.
13/03/2012 at 09:59 marlin says:
If you were a bit boulder, you wouldn’t be so scared….
13/03/2012 at 10:05 Jerakal says:
Rock in Progress.
13/03/2012 at 10:07 maktacular says:
gonna need somes serous stones to tackle that
13/03/2012 at 10:22 Shadram says:
This is the porous pun thread I’ve seen in a while. I granite believe I’m contributing to it.
13/03/2012 at 10:24 Shinan says:
It’s stone-cold crazy.
13/03/2012 at 10:26 marlin says:
Shale we stop it now, then?
13/03/2012 at 10:34 Shadram says:
I don’t norite now. (Yes, I’m googling rock types… 10 points to anyone who can use Foidolite in a sentence.)
13/03/2012 at 14:54 voidburn says:
Me make fire! There foidolite!
13/03/2012 at 14:59 Lionmaruu says:
lol, good one
13/03/2012 at 11:30 bear912 says:
At least you can see this rock. In Amnesia, oil for your lamp was so scarce that you couldn’t even a-foidolite it most of the time.
13/03/2012 at 10:56 skyturnedred says:
That’s a solid looking rock.
13/03/2012 at 11:00 puppybeard says:
Terrifying? I never even flintched.
13/03/2012 at 11:14 greg_ritter says:
I disagree. This rock is marbleous.
13/03/2012 at 11:49 McDan says:
You’re talking this for granite, it is a work in progress after all.
13/03/2012 at 12:21 brulleks says:
Exshalent. I lava good horror adventure.
13/03/2012 at 16:21 Tams80 says:
I’m chalking up!
13/03/2012 at 20:30 His Dudeness says:
Cor Lime, you’re easy to terraform.
13/03/2012 at 22:28 SystemiK says:
I was loathe to believe a mere rock could be terrifying….until I sat on it and suddenly I had an assteroid staring back at me.
14/03/2012 at 19:26 Mantra6 says:
Franklinite don’t like the look of it… that rock scares the schist out of me.
13/03/2012 at 09:05 Stevostin says:
There is something really wrong with the music. Especially when title pops up.
13/03/2012 at 09:12 Fanbuoy says:
It’s a bit too “Sailor Moony” for a horror game, I think. But maybe it’s just me being narrow-minded again.
13/03/2012 at 09:11 Inigo says:
You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door.There is a small mailbox here.
13/03/2012 at 09:14 bear912 says:
examine mailbox13/03/2012 at 09:32 somini says:
You died of dysentery.13/03/2012 at 09:54 Eclipse says:
The small mailbox is closed.
13/03/2012 at 10:04 syndrome says:
You are on a website. You can see a c-c-c-combo-breaker directly above you. He didn't use the code tag, apparently. "Fool."13/03/2012 at 12:06 StarkeRealm says:
use dysentery on combo-breaker13/03/2012 at 12:35 Jeroen D Stout says:
The combo-breaker is taken aback but ultimately still convinced he can think of a witty comeback.A thief stands nearby.
13/03/2012 at 15:42 bear912 says:
take thief13/03/2012 at 09:57 The Tupper says:
You have payment protection insurance sold to you by a grue.
13/03/2012 at 13:42 lijenstina says:
Great. The My Little Pony sketchbook has arrived. Pity that the all crayons are infected.
14/03/2012 at 22:05 hypercrisis says:
where will you take thief?13/03/2012 at 09:15 dethtoll says:
As long as it doesn’t talk about an island explorer with syphilis or turn out to be a wholesale Lovecraft knockoff I think I might be interested. Love daylight horror.
13/03/2012 at 16:19 Dys Does Dakka says:
Having just read At The Mountains of Madness in my Necronomicon antology, I would actually rather like a wholesale knockoff of it. Make it a free-roaming exploration thing; just the player(s) and the dead city. And eventually what lurks below.
13/03/2012 at 18:15 dethtoll says:
You already have one, sort of. It’s called Penumbra.
Wholesale Lovecraft knockoffs are tired, they’re boring, and Frictional has built a career off riding ol’ Howard’s coattails.
14/03/2012 at 08:48 thebigJ_A says:
One company making games inspired by (and openly, at that) Lovecraft is hardly ‘tired’.
They made one game, Penumbra (BP and Overture were two parts to one game, Requiem was an expansion), which was very much experimental for them and flew under the radar, and another in which they’d gotten it down pat, Amnesia, which was a surprisingly great success. That’s hardly overdoing it.
Besides, A Machine for Pigs sounds very little like Lovecraft.
Take your unwarranted jadedness elsewhere. I know you think it makes you sound hip to be down on popular things, but it doesn’t. Merely contrary.
13/03/2012 at 09:20 Caiman says:
You look to be playing a tiny midget, or the grass has grown to horrific proportions and developed a mind of its own. Scary either way.
13/03/2012 at 10:21 Maldomel says:
Grass tends to grow tall when you don’t cut it. That tells us a few things about the game. Either it’s a new pokemon one, or a lawnmower sim.
13/03/2012 at 14:14 Phantoon says:
Or both- oh god.
The game is about being a psychotic child that has the need to exploit the dangerous creatures that live in the tall grass, all while trying to satisfy his other need of killing the dangerous creatures to sate his bloodlust with the only available machine for the task- his family lawnmower!
The rock just judges you. Silently. It knows all your crimes. But it can’t tell anyone. Because it’s a rock.
13/03/2012 at 15:02 Lionmaruu says:
I would buy this game, like, right now!
13/03/2012 at 15:17 Sea-Bear says:
The rock is actually a Geodude that the kid already killed. He took its arms off and keeps them in his room as a trophy. The body is left behind to strike fear in the hearts of the Pokemon who continue to live.
13/03/2012 at 09:27 ChainsawCharlie says:
Don’t remember Amnesia being so slow tempo.
13/03/2012 at 11:16 swubb says:
I don’t remember Amnesia either,
13/03/2012 at 10:09 Tatourmi says:
I have a strong feeling that this horror story is going to have a very nice ending. And thus that the whole “horror” is going to come solely from the amnesia. Much like the Orphanage.
13/03/2012 at 10:10 Khemm says:
That looks really nice, definitely has potential. Looking forward to it, please don’t screw this up.
13/03/2012 at 10:18 Shadram says:
OUTRAGE!
13/03/2012 at 10:23 The Sombrero Kid says:
Looks great, can’t wait.
13/03/2012 at 11:11 MajorManiac says:
Who moved the table? WHO MOVED THE TABLE?!
13/03/2012 at 11:38 golem09 says:
looks to me like the AbaNdoNed, Austrian version.
13/03/2012 at 13:40 Vagrant says:
“about three hours of gameplay”
Hey a game I might actually finish, sold! I feel like it took 3 hours just to get out of the first area of Amnesia.
13/03/2012 at 14:16 Jim9137 says:
Enkä anna!
13/03/2012 at 16:24 jjujubird says:
lol @ some of the wordplay in this post.
Shouldn’t it be “Anna ‘ther Horror Adventure” instead of “Anna ‘nother”?
Jus’ sayin’ :-P
13/03/2012 at 17:58 Narzhul says:
“Anna nother” is “And another” :P