Anamorphine

 PlayStation 4
Metascore
55

Mixed or average reviews - based on 7 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 7
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 7
  3. Negative: 2 out of 7
  1. DarkStation
    Aug 14, 2018
    70
    A sincere and genuine attempt to tell a story about the impact of depression, Anamorphine as a delivery vehicle for addressing mental illness is constantly undermined by its engine troubles.
  2. COGconnected
    Aug 5, 2018
    67
    Anamorphine is a beautiful narrative similar to a movie. Despite it being a game, it is not necessarily entertaining or fun, and I don’t think it chooses to be.
  3. PlayStation Universe
    Jul 31, 2018
    65
    Anamorphine has a lot of technical and performance problems, but the outlying narrative finds its way through, delivering a poignant, deep exploration into loss and depression. The game's performance issues can't be ignored, but Elena's story will stick with you for a long, long time.
  5. Game Revolution
    Jul 31, 2018
    60
    Although the game sadly doesn’t use mechanics to tell its story, it represents both the good and bad extremes of what only gaming can do: imbue an emotional tale through interactivity and be technically busted. While Anamorphine’s story is still worth seeing through, it’s a shame that its shoddy optimization tries to actively thwart its touching message at every turn.
  6. PlayStation LifeStyle
    Aug 14, 2018
    55
    Anamorphine makes an important distinction by not only exploring the mental illness, but exploring the impacts that it has on those around you.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
3.8

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 5 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 5
  3. Negative: 2 out of 5
  1. GBG_Jason
    Aug 18, 2018
    5
    Starting up the game you're warned that there are some scenes that can be hard to watch and may trigger some players. You're given threeStarting up the game you're warned that there are some scenes that can be hard to watch and may trigger some players. You're given three options: play the game the whole way through, play it with the option of skipping these scenes, or skipping them outright. Should you wish to view it, Anamorphine even offers a detailed explanation of what you'll see before starting, although this is obviously filled with spoilers for the game. I jumped in without the choice of skipping, as one of the reasons I wanted to play this was it sounded like something I'd be able to relate to, having gone through quite a bit emotionally, physically, and psychologically in years past. I went into this hoping to connect with what it had to offer.

    Having played it front to back, I can say that from a technical aspect, this is not a good game. There is an option to play this in VR, but I played in standard view with a TV and ran into framerate drops so low I was wondering if the game was going to break my PS4 – if the VR alternative runs in this manner, I can only assume there will be a lot of motion sickness. This would be somewhat understandable if the environments were huge and lavish with detail, but they aren't. Some areas are rather big, but the detail in those sections borders PS2 games at times, and early ones at that. So the fact that the load screens can take minutes (I think about 30% of my time with the game was load screens - some last longer than the scenes you play through) leaves me wondering about the optimization of the game for console.

    For those unaware, this is very much a walking simulator, as the extent of what you can do is look around and move. There is no interaction required in this outside of looking at objects within the environment that are shiny. So if you are not a fan of the genre, I would not recommend this, even with its change of scenery mechanic that I love so much in games such as Layers of Fear. However, if you enjoy this form of storytelling, there's something dark here that most games will not touch on, although it could definitely stand to go a bit deeper into it.

    For fear of going into spoiler territory, I won't be speaking about the game in too much depth, but I can say that for anyone that has never understood what depression is or feels like, this can be a little window of perspective. By no means will this lead you to an epiphany, nor will you be able to relate to those that suffer it, but you can catch a glimpse of it. The way the world crashes around you; the everyday things that become abstract; the worlds created by the serenity of music; everything is built up and then destroyed in a fantastic manner, with the use of the same environments over and over. Anamorphine showcases the relationship between Elena and Tyler (you), a musician and a photographer that sees the world through her eyes and must cope with what she's dealing with.

    The symbolic imagery provided in this ranges from subtle to something a five year old could understand. And despite all its problems, those I've noted and others such as the invert-y changing whenever you get on a bike which lasts for the rest of the segment, or getting stuck in the environment to the point of needing to quit out, I can't help but think about the game after my time with it. It's not that it has some profound message, and I honestly am not sure which scenes would even be cut from it had I chosen the filtered version of the game. Everything felt necessary, and having experienced all of it first hand in reality, none of it came off as offensive, shallow, or upsetting. Like I said, I had a feeling I knew where this was going based on a very early portion of the game, and it continued to give clues as you progress. Anyone that finds this to be unexpected probably hasn’t lived this, and for that reason I think people should give it a go.

    Anamorphine is more of an experience than a game. And regrettably, at the moment it's not a very good one if you factor in the technical aspects of it. The good news is that you can play from start to finish now within about an hour, and you'll likely leave the game thinking about different parts of it for several days after - it may even change your outlook on people that struggle with depression. Experiences like this are only possible with media such as games, and developers should really take advantage of it to connect with others. Should future patches get this running smoothly (the gifs used in this all run much faster and smoother than my experience), I'd absolutely recommend this more, but in its current state it's hard to do so. I've heard the PC version is better though, so if you're curious, grab it on Steam.    … Full Review »
  2. SuperkenGaming
    Jul 31, 2018
    7
    Anamorphine
    Beautiful and sad
    Anamorphine is a 2 hour long first person exploration game, aka a walking simulator with a main focus of    Anamorphine
    Beautiful and sad
    Anamorphine is a 2 hour long first person exploration game, aka a walking simulator with a main focus of depression.
    The game starts with you, Tyler... at rock bottom in an apartment with scattered pieces of a chello, you find these pieces and youre off on a journey to discover the cause of his depression...
    The game starts out at a near masterpiece level of amazing...
    the sights, the sound, the experience... its so beautiful…
    you live your life with your wife Elena, and youre going through your memories with her, and everything that lead to the next thing, exploring tylers subconscious mind, constant shaping and changing of rooms its so magical..
    But as the game goes on it goes from amazing, to great... to good.
    This is a solid good game and experience, but it struggles to live up to its beginning moments…
    And I feel this mostly has to do with the game revisiting areas instead of coming up with fresh metaphors or similes as the story progresses to keep the delivery of the point intriguing,…
    to keep the world feeling mysterious like it does so wonderfully in its beginning moments
    being suddenly placed into colorful world of flowers or riding on a bike through a desert is so impactful the first time, but the multiple times after the excitement and wonder no longer exists.. you’re just going through the motions at that point
    its still enjoyable to get through, but the impact is just gone
    That not to say there aren’t moments during the second half of the game that will punch you in the gut, because they exist..
    Experiencing this world and its story is so worth it...
    There are some performance issues though, load times between chapters are painfully long and there is constant freezing between sections of a level, transitions could definitely be more smooth...
    I ultimately loved anamorphin though...
    The world is beautiful, the story telling is great.
    You get hit in the moments you’re supposed to.
    Despite its issues, this is a magical game worth experiencing
    I give anamorphine a 7/10    … Full Review »
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