Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs

I have played through all three Amnesia titles (TDD, AMFP, Rebirth) and yes, the first one is the best game so far. The dissappointment that many gamers felt when playing the second game in the series mainly originated from the great predecessor. However, AMFP is not a bad game at all. Yes, it may be very short and feels very linear overall. Another thing is that these unique mechanics that the first game came up with were left out in AMFP (light and dark mechanic, matches). Also the puzzles are too simple. However, on the story sided it´s still a great game to experience. I liked the story far more than in Rebirth. When it comes to the atmosphere, it´s one of the best games I´ve ever played. So give it a try and don´t judge it before you have played it yourself!

Well, I've played both Penumbras (didn't like the first one, the second one was relatively ok), Soma (loved it) and The Dark Descent (liked it). Maybe this game has a great story as others write, but I didn't care to check it out. Why? Firstly - you're put in some house without a shadow of an explanation. And the surroundings and overall atmosphere doesn't drag me in- I didn't want to explore. In The Dark Descent there was indeed an amnesia and there was some point of not knowing your story. Here - you're presented with no background whatsoever. And if indeed the main character suffers from amnesia, that feels like an overplayed cliche. Secondly - the beginning of the exploration feels... wrong. Most of the doors and furniture is locked, so no real exploration at all - just following the creators' path - naaaah. Soma felt linear but this takes the cake. Thirdly - the visuals - I got to the dining hall or whatever that was and the colours were soooo bland. I don't know maybe that's something wrong with my card/drivers but again - it didn't add to the experience. And Finally - the engine didn't age well. In The Dark Descent I could play at 1920x1080 and get relatively stable FPS and good visuals. This one has much more "going on" in the scenery department but apparently the engine hadn't been optimized any more than for TDD so it the FPS is low, the image is tearing and I have no idea what card I should have to make it run smoothly. To make things even more interesting - Soma which is a more modern game (released two years after this one) runs much better. Overall - after all those other games - a very disappointing experience.

Alas, A Machine for Pigs can’t hold a candle to The Dark Descent. The plot is good, the atmosphere is still sinister but all the fear is gone. Instead of a bone-chilling survival horror, we receive a casual adventure game. How causal you ask? The inventory and the sanity meter are gone. The lamp you’re carrying would never cease to work. The realistic physics are still present albeit they’re limited – you can throw every chair around but you can’t break bottles, lift random items etc. As for the puzzles, I’ve seen more challenging ones in action games. Enemies are not even half as frightening as those in the first part. The pig guys are almost cute and when I encountered one for the first time the game didn’t even allowed it to kill me. Still I liked this game. The interesting story and the dark mood were enough for me to enjoy Amnesia: A Machine for pigs in spite of its many flaws.

I loved the first one, I really did. And I also like this one, just not as much sadly. The story is great, the graphics are amazing and the atmosphere is just as good as the previous one in my opinion. Sadly, they took a lot of things from the first game out, things that made the game... a game instead of more of a walking simulator. - No more inventory, so the few "puzzles" there are where you need to get an item it won't be far away because you'll be carrying it all the way. - No more sanity. In the first game if you saw something weird or stood in the dark your mind would slowly go and it was a great effect and added to the game, well that's gone. They probably couldn't use the whole dark/light effect on your mind in this game because there's barely any light anyway. Which bering me to my next point. - No more tinderboxes or oil. In the first you had to be carefull with your lantern and matches. You needed light to stay sane sometime or to navigate easier but not this time. No more conserving oil which is probably best because the game is so bloody dark you'll be using your lantern about 95% of the time. In the previous game you could still kinda see in the dark once the characters eyes adjusted a bit. In this game it's just dark, constantly. Which is a real shame since the environments are actually beautifully made and designed. - Also no more health. You can get damage but this is one of those 'stand still for a second untill the screen goes back to normal and your health regenerates' kind of deals. So they took a lot out but kept some good parts, in the end you get a walking simulator with a horror element. It's still a good game, I liked it a lot, especially the ending. Like I said the story is great and the atmosphere is top notch. I'd recommend this to fans of the first but with a reminder not to expect too much.

In a number of ways this is a departure from the first. I think it was a wise decision instead of just giving us more of what they already knew for sure people wanted from them. It was basically the culmination of their gradual growth over the first two parts of Penumbra and I hear that the most recent entries in this series are more of that but this and Soma try something different and I really admire that. Also I do think that what they delivered here was legitimately quite compelling. This has by far the least awkward and borderline broken interaction with enemies up to this point. I appreciate that some feel that they're just not quite dangerous enough which is true a lot of the time. It's somewhat like in thief one with some of the smaller enemies. They're incredibly creepy and just based on that you do not want to get too close to them. You can outrun them if they do get close; it's going to take them a little while to hurt you all that much. Honestly dealing with enemies is by far my least favorite aspect of The Dark Descent. They’re impossible to flee if they do spot you, it can be really difficult to tell where they are before they discover you, and I have never been able to get the hiding mechanic to work properly. Overall the narrative is at least slightly over complicated and some will hate that by the end there's still unanswered questions, mystery and ambiguity; I thought it was perfect for this. Let's keep in mind that these are inspired by HP Lovecraft unreliable narrators and uncertainty as to whether something seemingly impossible did happen or if it was someone losing their grasp on reality is a major theme, and this is the best exploration of it of Frictional Games output by that point. I will definitely grant that the puzzles are a step down; there's way too little proper use of the amazing physics engine and I maintain that using the term puzzle about pretty much anything in this game is giving it too much credit - they’re “tasks”.