Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs

I came into this honestly expecting something pretty terrible, but this game greatly surprised me. Yes it does remove a lot of the staples of amnesia, only really fitting into the series with small bits of The Dark Descents identity thrown in and some slight inclusion of story from the broader universe. The game is also highly linear, with few sections where you have some freedom to run and hide from the monsters. Without any inventory, resource management, or sanity system the gameplay consists mostly of walking, solving pretty basic puzzles, and hiding / running from monsters. Missing the deeper aspects of TDDs gameplay does hurt the game a bit, but it still is enjoyable to play, and personally hiding from the monsters felt more scary as they don't disappear right after you hide every time, which makes them a bit more of a present threat. Though the real joy for me came from the absolutely amazing atmosphere, and the surprisingly rich story told. The voice acting is actually quite great, and is definitely superior to TDD in that regard. The atmosphere creates some incredible environments, and delving deeper and deeper into this sprawling machine as more dark details unfold is a very interesting experience. As a whole the game is less frightening than TDD, and the monsters less threatening overall. But I feel there are still some great scares here, and some sections where tension is really well built. A Machine for Pigs may not surpass TDD, but it does a lot on its own that makes it a worthy experience nonetheless, especially if you want an interesting story that has some good commentary and some Lovecraftian elements

while these games do have amazing atmosphere, this one falters in every single way compared to the original. The "capitalism bad" plot device is so lame and they don't do anything with it. I wish it was more than 3 hours because it could be super cool but they did not put anything into it.

God is this a major disappointment. Amnesia was a groundbreaking game for its time, being one of the first major first person horror games where you have no weapons to defend yourself and your only way to survive is hiding and running away. Then 3 years later we got this pointless sequel, which funny enough released around the same time as Outlast which was an infinitely better game. Pigs is just so bland and boring, there are hardly any monsters, and when there are monsters, they just aren't scary, they are midget pig people, the monsters in Dark Descent were actually terrifying and often had you cowering in the dark for minutes hoping there wouldn't be another lurking around the area. The puzzles in this are way more simple and mostly consist of pushing buttons or opening doors, Descent the puzzles actually took time and actually made you nervous because often you would have to remember where you are and what you need for the puzzle while enemies were lurking around the area. In this the puzzles just feel like they are there to fill space.

Like a good 90% of this game felt like walking and wandering around and opening doors/pushing buttons, I can only think of maybe 5 or 6 parts in the whole game where there are even monsters. On top of that its incredibly short and can be beaten in under 5 hours. The story is also pretty forgettable and really isn't as interesting as the first Amnesia. The only good thing I can really say is the game does have a decent setting and its short enough where you don't feel you've wasted a lot of your time to beat it. Its just a shame this had to be released, because its nothing like the first game and just has no suspense or horror and is almost a walking simulator. Actually I think these developers did go on a few years to make a literal walking simulator about the rapture, but you can tell these guys didn't really understand the essence of what made Amnesia great in the first place, and instead tried to focus too much on the story and atmosphere while neglecting the gameplay and horror.

tryhard eyerolling pretentious writing, complete lack of gameplay, no inventory, random developer, no enemies, every single level is spawn > run in a circle open a few doors > press a button or 2 > run to the end of level. theres maybe 3 enemies in the entire game. most boring 4 hours ive ever experienced. got it for free and i still feel ripped off.

developer 'The Chinese Room' go fuck urself
3/10

It's difficult to discern just what The Chinese Room were hoping to achieve by using the Amnesia name, for aside from a few recurring plot points, basically nothing from the essence of the original experience makes it over here. Though there is an admirable attempt to mimic the slow crawl of the reveal regarding our main character, the narrative is at once entirely predictable and too bonkers to meaningfully navigate, with so much dialogue so eloquent it doesn't leave much room for active nuance in the storytelling. A Machine For Pigs uses obvious symbolism regarding the porcine and how they fit into our society, but besides that has an extremely hard time fitting the pig men into the A-plot.

To say nothing of the gameplay. Gone is the sanity mechanic, the oil rationing, or any sort of inventory to speak of. Instead, you simply walk forward and solve whatever rudimentary puzzle the game presents. Though I generally have no issue with an easy game, this Amnesia simply requires no engagement or ingenuity from the player, providing nothing of substance in return and wasting your time. It does look better, but otherwise is a poor attempt to embolden the name of one of the unsung heroes of horror.

i havent played the original, since i feel its still on a level of horror im not prepared to properly enjoy. I did like this one a lot though, particular on the latter half were it drops the pretense of being survival horror and goes straight into Dear Esther monologues and linear paths.

I understand the negative reactions to it, particular from people expecting more like the first game. The game is very easy, and quit short. Its a game by the Chinese Room really, and people shouldnt expect anything else out of it.

The moments i was stuck with was mostly the puzzle side of it, since at times its not all that clear what you can and cant interact with.

But yea i liked it for what it is, particular the flowery narrations and theme. It still manages to offer a nice haunting atmosphere as well.