The Swine are Rising! In 2010 Frictional Games terrified the world with the cult horror Amnesia: A Dark Descent. Now they bring you a new nightmare. Created by The Chinese Room, the studio behind Dear Esther, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs is an intense and terrifying journey into the heart of darkness that lurks within us all. The year is 1899. Wealthy industrialist Oswald Mandus awakes in his bed, wracked with fever and haunted by dreams of a dark and hellish engine. Tortured by visions of a disastrous expedition to Mexico, broken on the failing dreams of an industrial utopia, wracked with guilt and tropical disease, he wakes into a nightmare. The house is silent, the ground beneath him shaking at the will of some infernal machine: all he knows is that his children are in grave peril, and it is up to him to save them. Step back into the horror.
i'm too tired to write a full review. all in all i liked it, the story was well written, there were good moments and ideas, but the lack of challenge, collectables, and complex puzzles made me very sad during the playthrough.. i've waited so much more from this release, it took 3 years to complete and still it's just a half-game, 4 hours of gameplay and no custom stories.. i hope there will be DLCs or something because this is not enough for a great sequel.. 8/10 still, i'm a huge fan of the previous game, and i enjoyed this one also even if it has this many negative features :)
It was a good game, it had its scary moments. But it did not have the same sense of fear that was in The Dark Decent.
It was very emotional, I cried two times, but that is probably just me.
I'll tackle this review as a game that has nothing to do with Amnesia the Dark Desent, because not only is that a hard title to live up to (and it was just under the bar) I very much give credit to a game that holds its own. Before I do though, it did irk me that they took the name Amnesia without adding the classic amnesia traits such as insanity, tinderboxes, oil, picking up random objects and OPENABLE CLOESTS (my favourite hidding place!!) which gave the original game its extra "survival" feel.
The story definetly kept me enterained, unpredictable in its plot twists enough to keep me curious but not enough to get me annoyed and lost. The monsters were admittedly very scary (I will never hear a pig's squeal in the same way ever again. 0_0 ) the puzzles were easy enough for the detailer misser like me to get but didn't make it stupidly obvious and although I did find the machenery sound effects to be very garbled in layers and sometimes too much for me to listen for monsters properly, the soundtrack could be very pretty (and creepy as hell)
Overall, I do believe that Frictional games should have taken charge of its own sequal completely and although mfp had a tricky time living up to it's precessor, I can give a hats off for the Chinese Room for making an horror game which still embeds fear into those who play it.
A Machine for Pigs was supposed to be a much shorter game. On playing it, I can see how this has moved from quite a good short experience to a 3 hour directors cut with all the padding put back in. It shouldn't have been this way. This game should have been 9 or 10/10.
We have two of the most interesting indie developers out there working together – The Chinese Room and Frictional. Both are well known for their style of game play. Frictional scare the hell out of you while giving you very interesting puzzles to content with. The Chinese Room tell very emotional stories within stunning landscapes. If all these elements came together we would have had one of the greatest horror survival games ever. Sadly these elements seemed to jar and sometimes work against each other.
** Spoilers **
In the original Amnesia, the monsters weren't your only threat. It was light and sanity. When you were confronted with a threat you really had to work on your wits. Do I have enough light to get past. Should I retreat and sort my head out. In AAMFP it quickly became apparent that the monsters are little threat to you. If you see one whilst taking the clockwise path, just take the anticlockwise path. This really is horror survival casual gaming or survival lite.
What the Chinese Room brought to the table was a great feeling of emotion. The ending is really satisfying, but to anyone who has played “Dear Esther” you can see it coming a mile off. The assent. The swelling music. The emotional voice over. I almost expected to hear words like Donnelly & Damascus.
I have much respect for both studios. I will be first in line for The Chinese Room's “Everybody's gone to the rapture.” But I really feel that with a little bit more polish AAMFP could have been the game everybody wanted.
On reflection I think the burden of this being an Amnesia game almost does it a disservice. Remove all those demands and expectations and you are left with a really good game.
Could be better, but something is something...
Just like with "Penumbra: Requiem", totally different approach to the game. Cannot say liked it or not but definitely it was an experience!
I have this game in steam :P
fantastic
Really good game, with lots of nice scary parts. Great creatures. It should have more objects to interact like Amnesia: The Dark Descent, in this game you only interact with the elements needed for the story, doors and chairs.
It was a good game, no doubt. But not exacly what I had expectet. In the Dark Descent you are scared from the beginning and to the end, in A Machine For Pigs you are scared in the beginning, but after a while it isn't that scary anymore.
The monster wasn't scary, it was more like an animal than a monster in my opinion.
The Monster in the Dark Descent is really a MONSTER which you run and hide from as soon as you notice it, in A Machine for pigs you can sneak your way around the monster and proceed.
You have more control in this game than in the dark descent, I guess in the end that's why it isnt that scary.
I give it an 8/10, but it's a thin 8.