Last week Asmodee Digital and FFG (both part of the Asmodee Borg Collective) released Arkham Asylum Mother’s Embrace (AAME) on the Switch and other consoles.
Naturally this post will be looking at the Switch version of the game. So when I discuss things like graphic quality or other platform specific things they will not apply to the other platforms AAME is available on. Oh and I’m playing it on a Switch Lite.
AAME is set within the Lovecraftian Arkham Asylum universe that FFG created with their board games and living card game (lcg). I’ve enjoyed one or two of the board games, like Elder Sign, Eldritch Horror and Mansions of Madness 2. But the co-operative lcg Arkham Horror didn’t appeal to me, so I never bought it or played it. As for the whole Lovecraft Cthulhu theme with the elder gods, cultists and 1920/30’s setting it’s something I can take or leave.
Upon first loading up AAME I’m hit by the loading times. I’ve not timed it, maybe I should, but it does seem slow and take an age.
But as I navigate the menu, select my investigator, and start a new game, the cut scenes and starting in front of a house take me back to the early 1990’s and the “classic” MS-DOS game Alone in the Dark. That vibe just gets stronger as I start to walk around and explore.
If you ask Nathan the graphics aren’t much better than those of Alone in the Dark either. But in reality the 3D models may not be as good as those on other platforms, and feel more PS3 level at best. However they were more than serviceable and didn’t detract me from the game and getting sucked into the story.
You start AAME with the initial investigator that you chose at the start, but you are soon recruiting others into your team as you work through the chapters that make up the story.
During the game as you explore the location that the current chapter is set in, you can investigate certain parts of the room signified by a bright dot when far away, and a magnifying glass when up close.
Sometimes when you investigate an object you have a choice of options you can take. Chose the wrong one and the mythos clock goes up by one. If the mythos clock hits the top it resets, and forces all your current investigators to do a sanity check that if they fail will give them some sort of negative condition. But it’s not always guess work, if you gave a relevant investigator in your current team you get a clue as to the right choice to make.
I like that at the start of each chapter you select the investigators you want to take on that mission. Those left behind get rested and heal back up from any conditions they have from failed sanity checks.
One aspect I dislike about the game, and it’s done in many others too, is having captions on screen at the same time as the voice acting. I’ve read the text before the voice acting has finished. I must look at the options to see if I can switch this off. At list you can advance through it without having to wait.
Combat itself is fine. It’s turn based where you get to spend a number of action points to take one or more of the actions available to the character. The action point cost of actions varies on the action and character. Plus at the start of combat initiative is generated to decide the order of characters and enemies to take their turn. Very TTRPG like.
I like the quick access to the building map, equipment screen, story summary, and the objective summary. I also like the graphic design of these to be like and feel like a notebook.
Another nice touch is the auto saving, with the option to also create your own save point. This save point within the chapter will be where you start from if you need to quit and come back later, die etc.
I’m on the fourth chapter now and I’m enjoying AAME. I love the fact it takes me back to those days of playing Alone in the Dark. And I like that Asmodee Digital and FFG have chosen that style of game play. The story, the investigating a mystery also help in taking me back to those days. It may not have the flashiest of graphics. But they do the job.
