πŸπŸŽπŸπŸ‘ π’π©π¨π¨π€πžπ² π’πžπšπ¬π¨π§ 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐑𝐒𝐨𝐧
#𝟏𝟎 π€π¦π§πžπ¬π’πš: 𝐀 𝐌𝐚𝐜𝐑𝐒𝐧𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐏𝐒𝐠𝐬

Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs is a bad sequel. Compared to Dark Descent it has no item management, no inventory, less stuff you can interact with in the environment, a significantly shorter run time, and much MUCH simpler puzzles. It took most of the aspects I liked from Dark Descent and threw them all away to make a horror game trapped inside of a walking simulator. Now here’s the real interesting question, why do I like this more then Dark Descent?

Realistically I should be annoyed or even angry that my favorite aspects of DD are missing and have been replaced with the β€œhorror” and narrative of the game primarily. But here’s the thing, DD had an amazingly beautiful and spooky mood and architecture; but besides a few areas near the beginning and last hour of the game I can’t remember the details of each area, and I’m gonna be real here chief I don’t think any of the monster look scary in DD. Now put that into context for AMFP, not only do I love the setting more than DD (turn of the century Victorian London is one of my favorite places in historic storytelling) but I love the architecture and scope of the titular machine.

In DD Brennenburg castle was a joy to get lost in but a huge complacent I still have with it is that after a while the dark cobblestone halls or the bloody dungeons all start looking kinda samey. I’m not saying they look bad on an artistic level but just after more then 7 or so hours of exploring this castle all the areas start bleeding together in my head, and I just finished the game a few weeks ago. In comparison I find the incomprehensive large machine I explore left me with a much more long lasting sense of dread and horror. The sound of the hissing and groning of this machine as I plunged ever deeper into the darkness never failed to unnerve me and make me feel small and insignificant. This machine is so large and wide reaching I left almost like a small insect crawling deeper and deeper into a lovecraftian nightmare. I’m not normally scared of things like gore or monsters or even psychological horror to an extent; no what I’m more afraid of is something I don’t know if you’d call relatable or pathetic but it’s darkness, I know that sounds stupid like yeah no shit everyone is afraid of darkness it's a basic human fear; but I don’t know how to explain it but the darkness is just something that creeps me out. It’s that pitch black nothingness that really gets to me, that sense of anything could be out there, that feeling of hopelessness closing in around you suffocating the last bastion of life before nothing is left, the quiet emptiness; that’s what scares me, DD didn’t really give me that vibe shockley but AMFP absolutely did.
The machine itself is loud, large, and claustrophobic, as you enter the church where your descent begins the quiet night of the london night and the moonline that beamed down upon you disappears, replace with the sounds of firing pistons, grinding gears,, squealing sounds from inhuman monsters, and the hissing of steam from the pips. The longer you descend into a monstrosity of copper and steel the darker it gets, with the only light coming from your lantern reflecting on the hot metal of the machine as everything else is drowned out by the machine, it a literal descent into the man made hell of our protagonist much more so than daniel’s decent in DD.

Maybe I’m on some strong ass copium but idk I just really liked this game man. Sure it’s not a great sequel to DD but honestly I’d love it if this series went the way of what John Carpenter tried to do with the Halloween series after Halloween 2. Instead of each game being a sequel to one another following the same world, lore and monsters, I’d love to see something more like what AMFPs tried to do. Reincorporating some of the same ideas and cour themes from DD but spinning off and making your own thing completely with a new setting, monsters, and story, something like Creepshow or Twilight Zone but for video games. I’m pretty sure an idea like that would never work for video games since gamers are entitled little shits but I think if executed the right way an idea like that has potentially boundless potential, yeah I know there are 2 other sequels in this series that I’m pretty sure fellow in the same world and lore of DD; what with all the lovecraftian orbs and interdimensional ghost bullshit. But I’m serious, an idea like that could potentially be a gold mine of creative ideas to flourish not just for Amnesia.

Reviewed on Sep 21, 2023


Comments