Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs

[Overview] Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs was released around the peak popularity of YouTubers who were playing Amnesia: The Dark Descent and getting millions of views. The Dark Descent was already considered a horror masterpiece but this influx of popularity gave it a huge boost. So when A Machine for Pigs was released it had the timing of being a potential slam dunk. So how did it hold up? [The Positives] - Great art style. - Solid music and audio. - Story is okay. Lore and characters aren't as interesting as The Dark Descent, but it's alright. [The Negatives] - Very limited interaction with objects. You can't pick up much, unlike The Dark Descent. - This game is overall more simple and linear than the first game. - Lighting is far too dark. The Dark Descent was a dark game too, but you could always see a little bit because of the smart lighting design. The Chinese Room clearly didn't pick up on this and thought that pure darkness was the appeal of Amnesia. - Unlimited lantern, regenerating health, and no inventory. No resource management makes the game feel more boring and less dynamic. - Enemy AI is bad and the game is too easy. Dying is almost a non-issue in this game. - This game could be described as a 'walking simulator'. - The game is about 6-7 hours in length. $20 feels too expensive for this. [Conclusion] A Machine for Pigs is incredibly mediocre. It copies The Dark Descent but strips it of anything that made the game unique. It's clear that this game was developed by a different developer than the original. The gameplay is so simple and easy that it's boring. Any 'horror' this game has wears off the moment you realize how useless the enemy AI is. Dying is something you basically have to try to do. This game isn't all bad, the artstyle (mostly) holds up and the audio design is fine. Honestly, just skip this game and play The Dark Descent. Watch it on YouTube if you really want to know the story. 5/10

Ok story, fantasticly written, worst Amnesia Game.

Ultimately, AMFP just lacks much that I could recommend it for. Linux version ran well after turning Adaptive Vsync off. There's very little gameplay to speak of - puzzles are mostly "find the 1 thing I can interact with to continue", the levels are linear with little exploration, there's no real interaction with the monsters other than turning off your lamp and/or running away, and that's the entire game. It's successfully spooky earlier on, but there's so little danger the tension doesn't last. AMFP sometimes nails the feeling of being trapped in a massive, incomprehensible, terrible machine, but most of the time it just feels like crawling around a bunch of dark, repetitive rooms full of the same pipes, boxes, and clutter; there are a few standouts like the cathedral, but most places feel much like any other place. The slideshow-like conveyor belt sequence near the end felt particularly "video-gamey" and definitely did not have the desired effect so close to the finale. Audio, voice acting and dialogue are good, and the story is serviceable if a bit predictable, and it drags on after the midpoint reveal. I don't regret playing AMFP, but SOMA's better in every way - story, atmosphere and environmental design, actual decisions to make, at least *some* gameplay, and especially the philosophical questions and existential horror that stayed with me long after playing. AMFP, by contrast, is darkness, loud noises, gore, a story of monologues and notes, and not much more. Unlike SOMA, you can get the full experience of AMFP by watching a video, and that's really what kills it for me. Maybe worthwhile on sale for fans of Frictional's other games. Otherwise, probably just skip it.

Amnesia: A machine for Pigs is lacking in almost all fields compared to Dark Descent. For some reason the great sanity system has been ripped away, the all encompassing colour fog makes everything very flat and dull, level design is even more linear and boring than in DD, and the interesting clutter is missing, now almost everything that you can move is important to you in someway. And AAMFP relies much more on very, very used horror tropes than DD (children crying, singing and playing, self moving cradles etc). Yes, you could say same about DD, but it used them with much better way than a much more boring AAMFP. I think only the musical score was better in AAMFP than in DD and the game got a little better towards the end, but all in all AAMFP was a disappointment.

It's like a joke. Give the development of a game sequel to a studio that everyone made fun of for making a "walking simulator" with no gameplay, and they go ahead an remove all game design. There is no tension, no sense of accomplishment or exploration. You just walk forward and get assaulted by pretentious writing. The few interactive things in the environment are badly indicated, and basically you're just supposed to find the one thing in the level that you can touch.