PS3 Xbox 360

Amy

Adventure

Space needed: About 1.6 GB
Plays offline: Yes

Overview

Amy is a 2012 survival horror stealth video game developed by VectorCell and published by Lexis Numérique. It depicts the journey of Amy, an autistic child with supernatural powers, and her protector Lana. In a city suffering from a zombie-type infection which Amy is immune to (and can heal Lana from), Lana must stay near her young charge, for frequent healing, while protecting her from the infected, and the Phoenix Foundation who hopes to exploit her. Amy received negative critical reviews, due to its technical issues, controls, voice acting, and game design.

The player controls Lana, the woman escorting Amy and protecting her as the two attempt to escape their disease-ridden town. They encounter monsters and the military, among other foes, in their attempt to escape. The player is forced to protect Amy from the zombies, often making her hide, to avoid detection. However, Lana starts succumbing to the plague without medicine, and thus must remain close to Amy, to return for healing. There are syringes infrequently, which allow Lana to heal without returning to Amy.

The player must escort Amy, an autistic eight-year-old as they try to get her out of a city overrun with wild creatures and enemies. Lana (Sabine Crossen) and Amy are traveling to a doctor in Silver City via train, when an explosion derails the train, and their plans. They discover that the people have been turned to monsters via a strange infection, and must escape the monsters, as they continue their journey to the city. They must also fend off the Phoenix Foundation, an organisation who intends to control Amy and exploit her strange powers.

On 3 April 2012, VectorCell announced a patch for Amy on the game's official Facebook page. The patch was released on 6 April. Major changes include the saving of the player's progress during chapters, the addition of more checkpoints, skipping of sequences in-game and several corrections to the subtitles.

Amy received "generally unfavorable reviews" on both platforms as reported by the review aggregation website Metacritic. IGNs Colin Moriarty stated at the end of his review that he "spent at least a dozen hours with [Amy], got as far as the end portion of the fifth chapter, and gave up out of sheer anger and frustration." Game Informer's Jeff Cork stated that "as a downloadable title, I wasn't expecting [Amy] to measure up against the triple-A juggernauts of the survival horror genre. However, I was expecting a game that was at least playable and contained some kind of entertainment. Make no mistake: Whether [Amy] is delivered to you via download, retail SKU, direct brain wave, or retinal implant, it is terrible and should be avoided."