AMBER is short for Astral Mobility by Electromagnetic Resonance device invented by a promising scientist in the field of paranormal activities, Dr. Roxanna. In order to conduct the experimental testings of the device she secludes herself into an abandoned mansion, rumored to be haunted by ghosts and spirits. In her research Roxanna confirms those rumors, however, fails to respond on numerous phone calls. Her friend, Joe, presumes that something might has happened to her and asks you, the player, to investigate.
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Reviewed for Backloggd’s Game of the Week (October 17-23, 2023)
AMBER: Journeys Beyond is an interesting game to dive into with a historical perspective in how it was an indie PC adventure game released over a decade before that scene really took off. AMBER was the brainchild of dev team couple, Frank and Susan Wimmer, who were inspired by the ghost stories they told each other during their stay at a supposedly haunted hotel down in Louisiana. They gathered a very small team, Hue Forest Entertainment, to make AMBER, which unfortunately proved to be their only game. In an age before digital distribution became widespread, making a profit for such a small team was a truly uphill battle, especially because they had to manufacture and mail out physical boxed copies and market themselves without the reach of the modern Internet; they couldn’t just put it on Steam or Itch and market on social media. The sheer humbleness of the whole endeavor is readily expressed in the game’s manual which opens with the Wimmers thanking you for buying the game and explaining how the game came to be.
AMBER opens up with an email from the nameless protag’s buddy, Joe. Your mutual friend, paranormal researcher Roxy, has ventured out on her own to a house in rural North Carolina rumored to be extremely haunted in order to field test AMBER, a device of her own design that allows the living to contact the spirits of the dead. Joe’s worried that her over-eagerness might get her in trouble so he asks you to check in on her. As the protagonist reaches the house an apparition causes the protag to crash their car into the nearby lake and now the protag is stuck at the estate to find out what happened to Roxy.
The game is separated into four distinct segments, the main one is you exploring the estate to find out what happened to Roxy and working to restore the AMBER device. The other three are segments tied into the three ghosts haunting the estate. Once you get the AMBER device back in working order you can contact either of these three ghosts in any order to be sent into their own spectral flashback versions of the estate where you have to help them move on. One of the ghosts is found in the main house, the second is found in the estate gardens, and the last is near the lake. I think the time spent in the main house is the best part of the game for multiple reasons. One of the main reasons is that it’s primarily exploration focused. The puzzles are mainly exploring the house with some inventory puzzles and getting the AMBER device set up and its real enthralling. The atmosphere of the house is also fantastic as you can stumble upon random hauntings while you’re exploring. They tend not to be in your face jump-scares, but more about establishing creeping unease. The game visually looks like most early 3D first person PC adventure game ala Myst which really lends to the atmosphere of the game as it engenders feelings of stark isolation and disquiet. The narrative is a simple one but it’s mainly well told as you uncover the history of the house and its residents in your quest to have them move on and save Roxy. The game actually feels like a proto-narrative exploration game. As Biffman over on The Collection Chamber put it in his review of the game, the central house feels akin to Gone Home and I heartily agree with him on this.
I actually think the game would have been stronger if it was more like Gone Home, or for a more contemporary comparison, John Saul’s Blackstone Chronicles, and cut back on some of the puzzles because while the game does have some cool puzzles, there’s about an equal share of bad, uninspired, and tedious ones. As stated I love all the puzzles in the main house, figuring out what happened and piecing the AMBER back together again is real fun. The house ghost’s section has a really neat puzzle dealing with changing stations on a radio, but the section culminates in a crappy sliding block puzzle that was just miserable to get through; thankfully there were YouTubers whose playthroughs I could use as a guide. The garden ghost’s puzzles are all fine. The real stinker is the lake ghost where the majority of it is a shitty maze puzzle under the frozen lake; it’s confusing, boring, rather drawn out, and its atmosphere is tonally at odds with the rest of the game, as it’s not creepy at all.
Regardless of my quibbles with the game, AMBER is still a wonderfully atmospheric horror adventure game and definitely deserves more love. As Halloween is close at hand it’s a cool game to play in an afternoon in preparation for it. Check it out.
AMBER: Journeys Beyond is an interesting game to dive into with a historical perspective in how it was an indie PC adventure game released over a decade before that scene really took off. AMBER was the brainchild of dev team couple, Frank and Susan Wimmer, who were inspired by the ghost stories they told each other during their stay at a supposedly haunted hotel down in Louisiana. They gathered a very small team, Hue Forest Entertainment, to make AMBER, which unfortunately proved to be their only game. In an age before digital distribution became widespread, making a profit for such a small team was a truly uphill battle, especially because they had to manufacture and mail out physical boxed copies and market themselves without the reach of the modern Internet; they couldn’t just put it on Steam or Itch and market on social media. The sheer humbleness of the whole endeavor is readily expressed in the game’s manual which opens with the Wimmers thanking you for buying the game and explaining how the game came to be.
AMBER opens up with an email from the nameless protag’s buddy, Joe. Your mutual friend, paranormal researcher Roxy, has ventured out on her own to a house in rural North Carolina rumored to be extremely haunted in order to field test AMBER, a device of her own design that allows the living to contact the spirits of the dead. Joe’s worried that her over-eagerness might get her in trouble so he asks you to check in on her. As the protagonist reaches the house an apparition causes the protag to crash their car into the nearby lake and now the protag is stuck at the estate to find out what happened to Roxy.
The game is separated into four distinct segments, the main one is you exploring the estate to find out what happened to Roxy and working to restore the AMBER device. The other three are segments tied into the three ghosts haunting the estate. Once you get the AMBER device back in working order you can contact either of these three ghosts in any order to be sent into their own spectral flashback versions of the estate where you have to help them move on. One of the ghosts is found in the main house, the second is found in the estate gardens, and the last is near the lake. I think the time spent in the main house is the best part of the game for multiple reasons. One of the main reasons is that it’s primarily exploration focused. The puzzles are mainly exploring the house with some inventory puzzles and getting the AMBER device set up and its real enthralling. The atmosphere of the house is also fantastic as you can stumble upon random hauntings while you’re exploring. They tend not to be in your face jump-scares, but more about establishing creeping unease. The game visually looks like most early 3D first person PC adventure game ala Myst which really lends to the atmosphere of the game as it engenders feelings of stark isolation and disquiet. The narrative is a simple one but it’s mainly well told as you uncover the history of the house and its residents in your quest to have them move on and save Roxy. The game actually feels like a proto-narrative exploration game. As Biffman over on The Collection Chamber put it in his review of the game, the central house feels akin to Gone Home and I heartily agree with him on this.
I actually think the game would have been stronger if it was more like Gone Home, or for a more contemporary comparison, John Saul’s Blackstone Chronicles, and cut back on some of the puzzles because while the game does have some cool puzzles, there’s about an equal share of bad, uninspired, and tedious ones. As stated I love all the puzzles in the main house, figuring out what happened and piecing the AMBER back together again is real fun. The house ghost’s section has a really neat puzzle dealing with changing stations on a radio, but the section culminates in a crappy sliding block puzzle that was just miserable to get through; thankfully there were YouTubers whose playthroughs I could use as a guide. The garden ghost’s puzzles are all fine. The real stinker is the lake ghost where the majority of it is a shitty maze puzzle under the frozen lake; it’s confusing, boring, rather drawn out, and its atmosphere is tonally at odds with the rest of the game, as it’s not creepy at all.
Regardless of my quibbles with the game, AMBER is still a wonderfully atmospheric horror adventure game and definitely deserves more love. As Halloween is close at hand it’s a cool game to play in an afternoon in preparation for it. Check it out.
These spirits were doing a little trolling at their earliest convenience. I had to go back to the Cold War and beat they ass. Meanwhile my boss fell in the garage and can't get up. And if this day couldn't be worse, I flushed the toilet 20 times without ever peeing. If you're a behaved kid dont play this.