AMY draws plenty of inspiration from Sony's ICO.

None come stronger than PlayStation 2 classic, ICO, which Lexis Numerique heralds as a milestone release in video game history.

"The first time you finished ICO, what remained was great emotional depth and a rare feeling of empathy for Yorda, the young woman you try to protect," spokesman Djamil Kemal explained. "Before playing ICO, the simple idea of protecting a non-playable character seemed tedious and dull. And yet, in ICO, you never had the feeling of doing a long escort mission. You really wanted to protect her."

Kemal furthered that while ICO and AMY are essentially distinctive experiences, they do share similarities.

"In Amy, we didn’t try to ape ICO and the two games are quite different; each developer has its own references, world, and vision," he continued. "But one thing is the same: the constant effort to create empathy for the secondary character. As Lana, a young woman in a city infested by zombies and monstrous creatures, you try to protect Amy, an 8-year old girl that doesn’t seem to talk. Lana is infected and fights against a virus that threatens to transform her into a mindless beast. Only Amy, unexpectedly, can temporary heal her so that they have to stand by each other."

As in ICO, you'll be able to take the hand of the innocent Amy, and read the surrounding dangers through her heartbeat which is transferred through the DualShock controller's rumble. "When she feels a close danger, you can be sure that fear is conveyed directly into your hand, especially when you know you’re about to fight a fierce enemy," Kemal explained.

There's a new gameplay trailer for AMY after the jump.

[Thanks PlayStation Blog]