i feel like this game is almost universally misunderstood due to its comparisons to its predecessor. it's a game that strips a lot of the most frustrating parts of The Dark Descent and boils them down to a more narratively interesting game, but most people left disappointed because it had less jumpscares and felt more like a "walking simulator" to them.
let me tell you something, the best horror games are, in fact, mostly walking simulators! fear of the unknown that is allowed to fester and build dread over time as the rich plot themes bubble over is much more interesting than having to wait for an enemy's patrol route to go in the specific way you need to sneak by over and over and over. having an unreliable narrator who is much more of a character than a near-blank slate everyman is wholly more powerful. also, the music of this game owns. back off haters!!!!
let me tell you something, the best horror games are, in fact, mostly walking simulators! fear of the unknown that is allowed to fester and build dread over time as the rich plot themes bubble over is much more interesting than having to wait for an enemy's patrol route to go in the specific way you need to sneak by over and over and over. having an unreliable narrator who is much more of a character than a near-blank slate everyman is wholly more powerful. also, the music of this game owns. back off haters!!!!
An interesting experiment but very weak compared to the first game.
Not bad by any means and I was never bored while playing it, but the gameplay is relatively uninspired and none of the scares genuinely terrify me. Disturbing backstory though.
Chinese Room are a joke.
Jogo de terror genérico com titulo de Amnesia, se você espera algo perto da qualidade da Frictional games vai sair desapontado.
Definitely not a bad game, I just wasn't really enjoying it a lot because I don't normally play this kind of game. I would've kept playing if I hadn't gotten stuck in one section and never bothered to look it up. I was probably a third of the way through when I dropped it
The only good thing this game has is the story and it's not even a really good one
God knows the chinese room can make some incredibly stunning looking games but I really wish they would also work on actual gameplay occasionally. This is so close to being good to the point where its painful as had they actually had some proper threat in here, this game would have sung.
Instead its half an hour of nerves, half an hour of confusion and then you realise that this game is only really capable of atmosphere and very little else so you end up sleepwalking through to the obvious end-game plot twist thats telegraphed so hard it hurts.
Instead its half an hour of nerves, half an hour of confusion and then you realise that this game is only really capable of atmosphere and very little else so you end up sleepwalking through to the obvious end-game plot twist thats telegraphed so hard it hurts.
Historia boa, mas o primeiro é bem mais tenso.
I found Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs to be much more entertaining than The Dark Descent.
First off, this game does get some negative points because they removed a lot of the fun physics from the Dark Descent.
The sound design in Pigs was honestly really fucking good. Early in the game where you hear stomping behind a door, when you open it, something starts banging on the door, then it stops and walks away, feels like a real 3D space. The Music is also pretty fucking good. The music in Dark Descent isnt bad, the few pieces it has are cool, but the fucking strings in Pigs is just :0.
I found the story to be more entertaining than Dark Descent's. I don't really feel like trying to determine which is a "better" story, I just know Dark Descent's is kind of dull to me, while Pig's had me hooked more. Like the set piece when you go back to the city and the Pigs are fucking destroying everything. My god, the sound design, the music, and horror of it all, all done so amazing.
I found myself actually worried about the monsters in this game. The monsters in Dark Descent have nothing to them, Except the water monster (easily the best moment of Dark Descent), and this is just because when you die, nothing is reset except your position. So you can literally just run by monsters and not care at all, they arent a threat. Now Machine for Pigs also runs like this, it doesn't reset puzzles and only resets you, but there aren't a lot of puzzles, so it makes you have to move through a section matters more. They also used "monster chases you for a set piece" a lot more effectively.
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Also kind of want to go on a tangent about the stigma against walking sims here. I can understand why people would want gameplay in a video game, but I don't get the point in negatively reviewing a walking sim type game and saying that there is little gameplay; thats like negatively reviewing a fps for having guns. I understand that maybe coming from the Dark Descent people were put off that this was more linear and "easier" puzzles, but this game wanted to focus more on telling a story.
And I hate the argument of "well I could just watch a movie instead" that is brought up with these arguments because a movie is not going to have the same interactivity as a game, even if the game has no risks for the player. A movie might be more entertaining maybe, but movies are NOT going to let you walk around in a virtual world to explore, and see the sights.
First off, this game does get some negative points because they removed a lot of the fun physics from the Dark Descent.
The sound design in Pigs was honestly really fucking good. Early in the game where you hear stomping behind a door, when you open it, something starts banging on the door, then it stops and walks away, feels like a real 3D space. The Music is also pretty fucking good. The music in Dark Descent isnt bad, the few pieces it has are cool, but the fucking strings in Pigs is just :0.
I found the story to be more entertaining than Dark Descent's. I don't really feel like trying to determine which is a "better" story, I just know Dark Descent's is kind of dull to me, while Pig's had me hooked more. Like the set piece when you go back to the city and the Pigs are fucking destroying everything. My god, the sound design, the music, and horror of it all, all done so amazing.
I found myself actually worried about the monsters in this game. The monsters in Dark Descent have nothing to them, Except the water monster (easily the best moment of Dark Descent), and this is just because when you die, nothing is reset except your position. So you can literally just run by monsters and not care at all, they arent a threat. Now Machine for Pigs also runs like this, it doesn't reset puzzles and only resets you, but there aren't a lot of puzzles, so it makes you have to move through a section matters more. They also used "monster chases you for a set piece" a lot more effectively.
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Also kind of want to go on a tangent about the stigma against walking sims here. I can understand why people would want gameplay in a video game, but I don't get the point in negatively reviewing a walking sim type game and saying that there is little gameplay; thats like negatively reviewing a fps for having guns. I understand that maybe coming from the Dark Descent people were put off that this was more linear and "easier" puzzles, but this game wanted to focus more on telling a story.
And I hate the argument of "well I could just watch a movie instead" that is brought up with these arguments because a movie is not going to have the same interactivity as a game, even if the game has no risks for the player. A movie might be more entertaining maybe, but movies are NOT going to let you walk around in a virtual world to explore, and see the sights.
its called amnesia because they forgot what made the first game good
I think on its own, it's a fine walking sim with a cool story and some really neat ideas that it doesn't fully deliver on. But in the context of it being a sequel to The Dark Descent, this game becomes more a baffling entry into the series, from a gameplay front. Removed are the memorable enemy encounters from the original, reduced to brief sequences that added nothing to the experience. Frictional didn't even develop this, only published, this game put it in the hands of the people behind Dear Esther, which explains a lot. Presentation is still top notch, but it fails to bring an interesting or continuously entertaining gameplay experience. Okay walking sim, terrible entry into the Amnesia franchise.
Primeiro jogo de terror que zerei e foi uma jornada longa na época, hoje eu aprecio muito o seu terror psicológico bem feito, onde não é necessário por um bicho pulando na tela e gritando a cada 1 segundo pra me fazer sentir medo de prosseguir
El peor sucesor de uno de los mejores juegos de mi infancia
Amnesia is probably one of the scariest games ever made. I’m talking about The Dark Descent. It made you fear every sound and corner due to the fact that you couldn’t fight enemies. The atmosphere was so scary and haunting, not to mention the extremely scary monsters. A Machine for Pigs gets picked up by a new developer, The Chinese Room, of Dear Esther fame. While it’s still scary and haunting it doesn’t make you fear every second like the first game did.
Honestly, the story is confusing and makes no sense. It’s a garbled jumbled mess and all I got out of it was that there is a machine that processes pigs for mass consumption in 1899. You play as a man named Mandus who is trying to find his two boys that went down into the depths of this machine. That’s pretty much all I got out of it. What this machine is doing is creating man pigs that are trying to “cleanse” the town of people for the coming 20th century. The ending sucked and the game is overall just really short and anticlimactic.
A lot of features were stripped from The Dark Descent. You no longer use tinderboxes to light areas and you don’t need oil for your lamp. You just run around with a lantern flipping switches and solving extremely basic puzzles. The Dark Descent had you really scratching your head, but A Machine for Pigs doesn’t even try to challenge you. In fact, there aren’t even that many monster encounters. Sure when you reach them they are scary and intense, but the first 2/3 of the game is uneventful. As you get to the last few chapters it’s mostly story and nothing else. The whole feeling of progress from The Dark Descent is absent here which makes no sense. A Machine for Pigs felt more like a barely interactive story than a game.
Towards the end of the game, it just feels disjointed and unbalanced. You bounce around from level to level and nothing feels connected. Many times, in the beginning, I wandered around not knowing where to go or what to do. The game just lacks and guidance or real direction and can’t be felt from the very first level.
That doesn’t mean the game is bad. It’s not nearly as good or memorable as The Dark Descent and should be. The graphics are really dated despite the nice art style that is carried over from The Dark Descent. A Machine for Pigs feels like an average indie horror game with a story that can’t be followed. Fans of the original will be highly disappointed, but newcomers should just skip this and play the first game.
Honestly, the story is confusing and makes no sense. It’s a garbled jumbled mess and all I got out of it was that there is a machine that processes pigs for mass consumption in 1899. You play as a man named Mandus who is trying to find his two boys that went down into the depths of this machine. That’s pretty much all I got out of it. What this machine is doing is creating man pigs that are trying to “cleanse” the town of people for the coming 20th century. The ending sucked and the game is overall just really short and anticlimactic.
A lot of features were stripped from The Dark Descent. You no longer use tinderboxes to light areas and you don’t need oil for your lamp. You just run around with a lantern flipping switches and solving extremely basic puzzles. The Dark Descent had you really scratching your head, but A Machine for Pigs doesn’t even try to challenge you. In fact, there aren’t even that many monster encounters. Sure when you reach them they are scary and intense, but the first 2/3 of the game is uneventful. As you get to the last few chapters it’s mostly story and nothing else. The whole feeling of progress from The Dark Descent is absent here which makes no sense. A Machine for Pigs felt more like a barely interactive story than a game.
Towards the end of the game, it just feels disjointed and unbalanced. You bounce around from level to level and nothing feels connected. Many times, in the beginning, I wandered around not knowing where to go or what to do. The game just lacks and guidance or real direction and can’t be felt from the very first level.
That doesn’t mean the game is bad. It’s not nearly as good or memorable as The Dark Descent and should be. The graphics are really dated despite the nice art style that is carried over from The Dark Descent. A Machine for Pigs feels like an average indie horror game with a story that can’t be followed. Fans of the original will be highly disappointed, but newcomers should just skip this and play the first game.
Not as good as The Dark Descent, but still worthy.
Trading in the gothic Lovecraftian terror of The Dark Descent for... politically allegorical steampunk(?) A Machine For Pigs nevertheless plays very similar.
The machine based 'puzzles' are entertaining enough, the level design is slicker and more varied, the atmosphere just as thick.
However, the game just feels much easier and far less threatening, particularly as your character can run safely past most of the game with or without his bottomless lantern, unphased psychologically by the shadows and monsters. This makes it a case of simply getting from A to B.
It's a fine adventure, but far less compelling, as the plunge into human atrocities is rather mild compared to the torture chambers of the predecessor; the allegory of pigs and poverty also becomes tiresome.
Still, it's an Amnesia game at heart, and will no doubt give you a fright or two.
The machine based 'puzzles' are entertaining enough, the level design is slicker and more varied, the atmosphere just as thick.
However, the game just feels much easier and far less threatening, particularly as your character can run safely past most of the game with or without his bottomless lantern, unphased psychologically by the shadows and monsters. This makes it a case of simply getting from A to B.
It's a fine adventure, but far less compelling, as the plunge into human atrocities is rather mild compared to the torture chambers of the predecessor; the allegory of pigs and poverty also becomes tiresome.
Still, it's an Amnesia game at heart, and will no doubt give you a fright or two.
Made me cry but only from boredom
Pretty garbage unfortunately. Didn't even capture the feel of the original and ran into a game-breaking bug right after an auto-save. Never finished.
I am a big wuss when it comes to spooky shit, but aside from the very beginning (?), the game fails to be scary. It contains a lot of the basic formular one would see in a a-typical horror game, but cannot build any tension for whatever reason. The execution of the story feels a bit... comical? Like it tries so hard to tell a engaging narrative, but it just feels silly.
Overall, it's baby's first steps to the horror genre.
Overall, it's baby's first steps to the horror genre.
Eu sinto que sou a única pessoa que gostou disso.
A principal critica feita para o jogo é que ele abandona o gameplay do primeiro para se tornar um walking simulator, eu entendo a decepção das pessoas com essa decisão.
Porém, A Machine for Pigs tem várias coisas que eu gosto, o jogo ainda mantém uma vibe de horror gótico, desta vez em um cenário industrial. A metáfora dos porcos pode ser um pouco ridícula, mas acho que funciona com a história do jogo e com o que ele se propõe.
Por último, a trilha sonora e a dublagem são ótimas, sinto que se esse jogo não fosse uma sequência de Amnesia ele teria sido melhor recebido.
A principal critica feita para o jogo é que ele abandona o gameplay do primeiro para se tornar um walking simulator, eu entendo a decepção das pessoas com essa decisão.
Porém, A Machine for Pigs tem várias coisas que eu gosto, o jogo ainda mantém uma vibe de horror gótico, desta vez em um cenário industrial. A metáfora dos porcos pode ser um pouco ridícula, mas acho que funciona com a história do jogo e com o que ele se propõe.
Por último, a trilha sonora e a dublagem são ótimas, sinto que se esse jogo não fosse uma sequência de Amnesia ele teria sido melhor recebido.
Thank god i played this before playing The Dark Descent, or else it would be a 1/10
decent sequel but not enough spooks
"You see, the pigs are a metaphor for how disenfranchised and dehumanised an industrialised and capitalist society sees its workers."
Yeah, yeah... I get it.
... very clever.
Game is just boring though.
Also this Pig-Motif gets worked to death so hard that it just looses all of its effectiveness and then some more to even make it unintentionally funny.
Yeah, yeah... I get it.
... very clever.
Game is just boring though.
Also this Pig-Motif gets worked to death so hard that it just looses all of its effectiveness and then some more to even make it unintentionally funny.
I guess I'm just not cut out for walking simulators.
I was not entertained by this at all. The plot is pretty basic, gameplay is nonexistent, puzzles are solved with items just in the arms-reach. Placing pig masks literally everywhere is just silly, it doesn't work for the atmosphere but takes from it. Also later part of the game just stops trying to make an environment and starts to teleport you around.
The episode with walking through burning pig-infested city is kind of good though. And I loved all the pipes intersecting each other and hanging everywhere when you go down to the heart of the machine. Everything else though is just plain grey mass of boredom.
I feel like it's still better than original amnesia but can't say for sure, as I played it a long time ago.
I was not entertained by this at all. The plot is pretty basic, gameplay is nonexistent, puzzles are solved with items just in the arms-reach. Placing pig masks literally everywhere is just silly, it doesn't work for the atmosphere but takes from it. Also later part of the game just stops trying to make an environment and starts to teleport you around.
The episode with walking through burning pig-infested city is kind of good though. And I loved all the pipes intersecting each other and hanging everywhere when you go down to the heart of the machine. Everything else though is just plain grey mass of boredom.
I feel like it's still better than original amnesia but can't say for sure, as I played it a long time ago.
This review contains spoilers
"A Bunch Of Slop"
Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs is an indirect sequel to the acclaimed Amnesia: The Dark Descent , a revolutionary title for the horror genre and one of my favorite games of all time. I was looking forward to the sequel despite the massive amount of backlash it received, and tried to temper my expectations as not to critique the title in any unfair way. After two separate attempts at slogging through this incoherant mess, I've decided that I'm going to critique this disappointment as the crud it turned out to be.
The biggest praise I have seen towards this title is with the story. I've seen phrases like "brilliant worldbuilding", "smart narrative" and "dark storytelling" floated around plenty, and I have to say one thing in response - are these people crazy? Okay I can understand the dark narrative aspects because... well its Amnesia, but the other statements are completely ludicrous. I have rarely ever played a game with a story as confounded, exposition heavy, and boring as the one told in this title. The language of various texts throughout the game is incredibly pretentious and provides barely any substance, and most conversations are abstract, unclear, and repetitive in nature. The worldbuilding is absent outside of dialogue and notes, with an environment that looks sort of good but lacks any real character to it. This is an incredibly overstated characteristic of this title that many fans of the game insist on.
As for gameplay, there are numerous subtractions to the overall experience. Gone are all aspects of survival-horror gameplay involving sanity and resource management, and instead the game becomes a pseudo walking-simulator. This does not bode well in the light of the original game, and makes the experience feel dull and tasteless throughout its course. There are no longer any sort of physics in the environment which, in the first game, would alert enemies of your presence when interacted with. Unlimited light means staring at enemies has no consequence, so much of the tension of many situations is removed. Puzzles are an absolute joke in this title as most devolve into placing two or three items into their correct positions and moving onwards with barely a few minutes of involvement. Gameplay is simply a disaster compared to what the first game contained, and in that light it really changed the experience.
The enemy AI here is also incredibly poor. Enemies will simply walk back and forth in hallways at times, and at best will lazily trudge around an empty room until they spot you. It is very simple to escape, and your character can survive multiple strikes. Sound design in still pretty good though, so some tension remains during enemy encounters initially, but after encountering them firsthand the horror takes a nosedive in overall effect.
The visuals here are solid, with some improvements to the textures in the environments. However, this doesn't translate to the overall art/level design. Whereas the original game's Brennenburg Castle was dark, moody, and intricately designed with multiple choices in paths, A Machine For Pigs' levels feel mechanical, washed out, and linear. Areas blend into one another, and the lighting is not as well done as the first title. Sound is done well in these environments, but it can only provide so much substance.
Voice acting here is actually still great, though the writing of many characters is very poor. Mandus comes off as very whiny despite having a strong VA, as does the voice of "The Machine" himself (or whatever he is called). There are some definite highs for the experience when it comes to VA, though this isn't much for the game to stand on.
Overall, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs is a shockingly empty sequel in many aspects that I would Not Recommend. The great writing and smart gameplay design of the original title are completely scrapped, and in its place lies a linear, mechanical, and pretentious experience. There is some good sound design, texturing, and voice acting, but everything else is dull, weak, or terrible. This was a huge disappointment for me, but thankfully Frictional's next game SOMA has already proven the company's penchant for quality in their games as of late. The recent Amnesia: Rebirth has caught my eye as well, though I will have to somehow temper my expectations even more for that one after A Machine for Pigs' massive failure in my eyes.
Final Verdict: 3/10 (Poor)
Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs is an indirect sequel to the acclaimed Amnesia: The Dark Descent , a revolutionary title for the horror genre and one of my favorite games of all time. I was looking forward to the sequel despite the massive amount of backlash it received, and tried to temper my expectations as not to critique the title in any unfair way. After two separate attempts at slogging through this incoherant mess, I've decided that I'm going to critique this disappointment as the crud it turned out to be.
The biggest praise I have seen towards this title is with the story. I've seen phrases like "brilliant worldbuilding", "smart narrative" and "dark storytelling" floated around plenty, and I have to say one thing in response - are these people crazy? Okay I can understand the dark narrative aspects because... well its Amnesia, but the other statements are completely ludicrous. I have rarely ever played a game with a story as confounded, exposition heavy, and boring as the one told in this title. The language of various texts throughout the game is incredibly pretentious and provides barely any substance, and most conversations are abstract, unclear, and repetitive in nature. The worldbuilding is absent outside of dialogue and notes, with an environment that looks sort of good but lacks any real character to it. This is an incredibly overstated characteristic of this title that many fans of the game insist on.
As for gameplay, there are numerous subtractions to the overall experience. Gone are all aspects of survival-horror gameplay involving sanity and resource management, and instead the game becomes a pseudo walking-simulator. This does not bode well in the light of the original game, and makes the experience feel dull and tasteless throughout its course. There are no longer any sort of physics in the environment which, in the first game, would alert enemies of your presence when interacted with. Unlimited light means staring at enemies has no consequence, so much of the tension of many situations is removed. Puzzles are an absolute joke in this title as most devolve into placing two or three items into their correct positions and moving onwards with barely a few minutes of involvement. Gameplay is simply a disaster compared to what the first game contained, and in that light it really changed the experience.
The enemy AI here is also incredibly poor. Enemies will simply walk back and forth in hallways at times, and at best will lazily trudge around an empty room until they spot you. It is very simple to escape, and your character can survive multiple strikes. Sound design in still pretty good though, so some tension remains during enemy encounters initially, but after encountering them firsthand the horror takes a nosedive in overall effect.
The visuals here are solid, with some improvements to the textures in the environments. However, this doesn't translate to the overall art/level design. Whereas the original game's Brennenburg Castle was dark, moody, and intricately designed with multiple choices in paths, A Machine For Pigs' levels feel mechanical, washed out, and linear. Areas blend into one another, and the lighting is not as well done as the first title. Sound is done well in these environments, but it can only provide so much substance.
Voice acting here is actually still great, though the writing of many characters is very poor. Mandus comes off as very whiny despite having a strong VA, as does the voice of "The Machine" himself (or whatever he is called). There are some definite highs for the experience when it comes to VA, though this isn't much for the game to stand on.
Overall, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs is a shockingly empty sequel in many aspects that I would Not Recommend. The great writing and smart gameplay design of the original title are completely scrapped, and in its place lies a linear, mechanical, and pretentious experience. There is some good sound design, texturing, and voice acting, but everything else is dull, weak, or terrible. This was a huge disappointment for me, but thankfully Frictional's next game SOMA has already proven the company's penchant for quality in their games as of late. The recent Amnesia: Rebirth has caught my eye as well, though I will have to somehow temper my expectations even more for that one after A Machine for Pigs' massive failure in my eyes.
Final Verdict: 3/10 (Poor)
They weren't joking about the pig part, huh. Like, there's a scene where the villain sends his evil pigmen to kill you while screaming "Kill him my piggies! More pig! MORE PIG!" and that's when you realise how silly this game is. The pig motif gets so worn-out it just feels like a joke and the story gets progressively more over-the-top to insane levels like an army of pigmen that want to destroy humanity and I just can't anymore. I didn't even fully understand what was the initial intention of creating the Machine. Everything regarding Mandus' children and his relationship with them is what ended up impacting me the most, and even then I feel like it's mostly because of the cool soundtrack and atmosphere rather than whatever the writing wanted to accomplish with how unnecessarily obtuse and DEEP the notes and found documents tried to be. Game tries way too hard.
The atmosphere is cool af tho. Rooms full of giant pipes, valves, steam, sealed doors, regulators and lights. That moment when you finally get to the core of the machine and see this giant room full of catwalks, pipes and faint lights is so fucking cool. Even when you go out to the streets the ost make it a really impactful moment, despite how ridiculous the whole situation is.
Anyway, kinda disappointed about the game itself but I was expecting machines and pigs and it met my expectations so I'm good.
The atmosphere is cool af tho. Rooms full of giant pipes, valves, steam, sealed doors, regulators and lights. That moment when you finally get to the core of the machine and see this giant room full of catwalks, pipes and faint lights is so fucking cool. Even when you go out to the streets the ost make it a really impactful moment, despite how ridiculous the whole situation is.
Anyway, kinda disappointed about the game itself but I was expecting machines and pigs and it met my expectations so I'm good.
Lacked the horror atmosphere, but it's a nice game in the end
The most disappointing game of all swine.
The game is literally unplayable due to constant crashes.