Here's a funny story: six years ago I interviewed for a receptionist job at Insomniac Games. As part of the interview I met with Ted Price and he tested my creative aptitude by asking me what kind of game I'd want to make if I had unlimited resources. I told him a hand-holding game. I didn't get the job. At this year's E3 I discovered Amy at a lone demo station in a remote corner of the South Hall and it seems very much like the game I would have wanted to make if I could have. Naturally, I think it's brilliant.

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Tactics+for+one.

Amy is a downloadable game for PSN, XBLA, and Steam, the work of Paul Cuisset, who designed the early cinematic platformer Flashback and its 3D sequel Fade to Black. It's set in a city during a zombie outbreak. You'll play as Lana, a scientist who finds herself trapped in the city with Amy, an 8 year-old girl who seems immune to the airborne virus that's infected everyone. Your character has been infected with the same virus that wiped out the city and as you play you'll see her slowly transform into a zombie, growing nasty green veins on her face and arms while her eyes get a demonic sheen.There are areas in each level where the virus hangs more heavily in the air and accelerates the rate of your infection. If you let things go too far you'll transform completely into a zombie and the game will end, but if you're brave enough to let yourself go a little you'll be able to slip past enemy zombies without them realizing you're still a human. You can heal yourself with med packs that can be salvaged from corpses. Alternately you can rely on Amy, whose mysterious immunity can lower your viral load if you hug her for a few seconds.This mechanic is framed with a perfect sense of melancholy.Amy is terrified of the zombies in the city. If there are lurking zombies nearby she'll stop moving and cover her face with her hands and, if you leave her exposed for too long, she'll run away. There's a short but touching scene in the demo that underscores Lana's sadness in discovering what's inside her when she looks at her reflection in a mirror after traveling through a room with a high intensity of zombie virus. The camera zooms in subtly as she realizes her face is being overtaken by the horrific zombie veins, catching a heartbreaking sense of regret.It's in this context you'll hold Amy's hand, leading her through the ruined city trying to reach a hospital where survivors have gathered. When you hold her hand you'll reassure her if she'd been in a fear-state. Like Ico, you'll hold down R1 to take Amy's hand. As long as you're holding on you'll feel Amy's heartbeat through rhythmic rumbles in the controller. Aside from underscoring Amy and Lana's emotional connection, the frequency of Amy's heartbeat works as a kind of radar.The faster it beats the more afraid she is because of nearby zombies. The slower it beats the safer you are. When not holding Amy's hand Lana will be flying blind. This is because most of the zombies in the game are in a hibernating state, strewn along the ground along with non-infected corpses. It can be hard to tell one from the other with the naked eye but Amy has a supernatural intuition about the zombies that you can benefit from when holding on at her side. Careless movement or loud noises can wake them up.The game promises to be tactically open-ended as well. There is a melee combat system if you want to stand your ground and fight against the zombies. Lana can pick up items like bats and two-by-fours to try and kill the zombies the old fashioned way. This won't be easy though since zombies can absorb a lot of damage and fighting them risks scaring Amy and leaving her open to abduction. There are several classes of zombies, including a beastly tank-like behemoth that will be too powerful to fight head-on during most of the game. If you don't want to risk fighting you can instead go for stealth and hide in closets and lockers waiting for zombies to pass or else stealth your way past them in darkened rooms.There's also a heavy puzzle-solving element in the tradition of Ico where Amy and Lana will have to split up. One example I saw in the demo involved directing Amy to crawl through a small nook into an office to collect a key card that could be used to unlock a door later in the level. You can also give Amy commands to go ahead of you, open doors, or scout new areas while you stay behind, an option that comes with both tactical and emotional consequences.The character models in Amy are wonderfully detailed. Both Lana's and Amy's faces are filled with nuance and have a slightly blood-drained pallor. Not everything works perfectly in the game, the melee fighting I saw looked overly-mechanical and plodding, almost as if Lana and the zombies were taking turns smacking each other. This might have felt like a bigger issue if the game were centered on action, but there are so many other mechanics as important--or more important--than melee it felt easy to suspend disbelief for a few moments during the combat.What excited me most about Amy was the degree to which its mechanics were directly connected to emotions its characters were going through. And the idea of making a game about holding hands with another character--surviving all of the environmental challenges that try and force the two apart--is one I've been hoping to have in a game for years. It can take a long time and come from unexpected corners, but great things often grow out of idle thoughts. Paul Cuisset seems to have brought one idle thought to life, and so far it looks brilliant.Amy will be out worldwide on PSN, XBLA, and Steam this September. It should cost $13 in North America.