Westenra: I'm also having a hard time distinguishing between reactions by people who were genuinely disappointed with the game, and people who simply have it out for Chinese Room for the wonderful Dear Esther. I'm probably going to automatically censor any reviews I come across that mentioned DE, since nine out of ten they were one of those folks who made a big stink about its unique style when it came out.
VoodooEconomist: Don't you think it's a bit unfair? I mean it's only natural to compare the works of an artist to their previous achievements, and expecially in reviews that gives the reader a point of reference. So one would expect A Machine For Pigs to be compared in reviews to Penumbra, and especially to The Dark Descent, so why shouldn't it be compared to Dear Esther since both Frictional and The Chinese Room took part in creating the game.
I understand that building the whole argument on "This is Dear Esther so it's bad because I didn't like Dear Esther" is not worthy of attention, but there have been some genuinely interesting discussions about what does constitute a game surrounding Dear Esther for example. So just to outright dismiss some views just because they have the audacity to mention DE? Sounds as unreasonable as dismissing AMFP outright just because there is resemblance to DE.
I see what you are saying but I respectfully disagree. It is irrelevant to compare an artist's current piece to their previous work, even though people love to do it, just as it is irrelevant to compare A Machine For Pigs to Dear Esther and to a lesser extent, The Dark Descent. This may come as a surprise, but they are separate games! Yet the biggest complaint I'm reading is, "they took out most of the mechanics from Dark Descent". Okay, but how do you feel about the
game? It's not trying to be Dark Descent, it's A Machine For Pigs. It's not Dear Esther, it's A Machine For Pigs.
There is a pattern of mentality in reviewing games I've observed by users on this site: Cynicism. If they get a whiff of a negative impression in their experience while playing, they let it grow in their mind and turn their perception into a cascade of negativity, blotting out most of the positive aspects. Similarly, even if they enjoy the game immensely, rather than giving a few negatives the benefit of the doubt they will go out of their way to considerably lower the score over fairly petty nonsense.
Some of the highest voted reviews for the best games are full of "It's good, but..." If a game's strengths outweigh its weaknesses then it crosses a threshold that makes those negatives irrelevant, and it should be recommended fully with little criticism beyond, "it has a few quirks".