AMBER: JOURNEYS BEYOND is a point-and-click adventure game developed for the PC.
The player assumes the role of an unidentified main character who receives an e-mail about a friend, Roxy, a paranormal investigator who is conducting tests at a haunted house in North Carolina. The main character decides to go down to the house to assist Roxy with her investigations. After seeing an apparition in the middle of the road, their car crashes into a pond. Roxy is later found lying unconscious. The player is faced with the challenge of finding out what happened to her as well as investigating the past lives of three spirits who haunt the house. This constitutes the framework for the linking story of the game.
The three tales in the game are lived out by the player in a dream-like state. Through this process the main character discovers the events that led to the deaths of those who haunt the house.
I will provide no spoilers about the tales themselves. All I will say is that the creators of the game carefully put together a set of abstract ideas designed to convey a variety of emotions including sadness, guilt and loss.
Unfortunately the keyword in the previous paragraph is "abstract" since the manner in which the tales are played out does little to trigger emotion thus leaving a sense of boredom. The inability to interact directly with other characters in the game is a major stumbling block - one that leaves the player with only a set of conclusions derived from interacting with objects and navigating through locations. Due to this, the game fails to immerse the player into the minds and hearts of the spirits as the creators clearly intended.
Also the absence of identity of the main character fails to involve the player in the mystery. This same problem also existed in DARK FALL: THE JOURNAL, a similar game but set in a railway station.
The linking story in particular boasts a series of elaborate set pieces that form a nice base for a supernatural or psychological horror story. Unfortunately however, nothing interesting is done with this base. There is no atmosphere, no sense of fear or danger and most certainly no suspense or tension. The three tales each seem to become an afterthought once they have ended, with no bearing on the linking story whatsoever.
The ending is an anti-climax and even weaker than the one found in the aforementioned game, DARK FALL: THE JOURNAL.
To summarise, the creators of this game had good intentions but failed to immerse the player in the stories they were trying to tell. All three stories had promise but the game fails to capitalise on this.
Overall, AMBER: JOURNEYS BEYOND is a mediocre game devoid of emotion. For anyone who wants a good psychological horror gaming experience, I recommend the SILENT HILL series of games. The parallels are clear to see but the SILENT HILL franchise demonstrates how the aims of AMBER: JOURNEYS BEYOND should have been conveyed.
