An intriguing if messy story and some cool atmospherics unfortunately don't make up for the fact that the developers basically stripped away all of the mechanics that made the original Amnesia such a rich gameplay experience. The removal of the darkness / sanity meter and of the entire inventory system might seem forgivable during the creepy and unsettling intro, but these mechanical reductions actually have major ripple effects. The lack of an inventory, for instance, basically eliminates the possibility of having any remotely interesting puzzles, instead replacing them with minor tasks that are at best inconsequential (at worst, they downright waste your time and insult your intelligence). There's no point, for example, in a machine having missing gears if the piece you need to find is on the floor literally right next the machine - these are just dull, half-hearted attempts at adding some gameplay to what is effectively a walking sim. Infuriatingly, the game is also filled with drawers and locked doors - but there is almost never anything interesting or useful to find in them. The first game made exploration worth it by sprinkling tinderboxes and key items throughout the levels - you received a mechanical benefit for exploring. In A Machine for Pigs, you will occasionally find a lore note, but otherwise, there is nothing to discover. So instead of exploring, you mostly just stay on the rails - unlike with the original, every playthrough of this game will be more or less exactly the same. It all contributes to a sense that little thought was put into giving this game even a simple degree of mechanical complexity, and that this would have been better off as a movie rather than a game.

STORY SPOILERS BELOW!!!!!!



What joy I did derive from A Machine for Pigs definitely came from the story and atmosphere. The sound design is outstanding once again, and a number of the set pieces are quite disturbing (the manpig nest is a standout). The writing is consistently above average, as well. Unfortunately, even this area of relative strength isn't without its flaws. Your character's stated motivation, for example, is to find and save his children - but if you haven't guessed that his kids are dead within the first five minutes of the game, then I can only assume that you have never seen a horror movie in your life. There is definitely some unintentional hilarity that results from your character running around shouting about how he will save his boys 90% of the way through the game - even though he has been having visions of them ripping their own hearts out and has read at least two lore notes that explicitly refer to the fact that he already murdered them himself...

Another weird plot beat that is left mostly unexplained - what exactly is the machine's plan? To release a bunch of manpigs to take over the world? Not a great plan (and from a gameplay perspective, this is made worse by the fact that the manpigs simply are not very scary). I actually was really into the idea that main character was traumatized into building a literal deus ex machina after experiencing a future vision of the horrors of the 20th century, but man, some of the plot developments that spring from this idea really miss the mark.

As you can probably guess from the three star rating, I did manage to derive some enjoyment from some of the unsettling environmental details and set pieces. Still, this game can only be called a disappointment when compared with its predecessor (although playing this did make me appreciate The Dark Descent more, at the very least).