QCF: Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs

hen Amnesia: The Dark Descent was released in 2010, it was a breath of fresh air into an industry that had seemed to have lost its way with horror titles for a while. Its unique tension and combat free gameplay gave the player a sense of helplessness that hadn't been experienced before. Paired up with undeniably scary set pieces this created a cult indie game that took YouTube by storm. The reaction videos to this terrifying game really hit a nerve and cemented The Dark Descent as a game every horror fan should experience.

Now it's three years later and the anticipation for this sequel has grown. Teamed up with Dear Esther creators The Chinese Room, Frictional Games is presenting us a follow up with a lot of pressure on it's back. A Machine for Pigs is this title and depending on your stance on what makes gameplay engaging, you'll either be loving it or hating it. However, one thing you unfortunately won't be is scared.

While it may seem uncouth to compare this sequel to one of the scariest games this generation, it only seems fair given its title. However, the title may be one of the only things that even makes A Machine for Pigs, an Amnesia game to begin with because it strips a lot of gameplay away from it. While the Dark Descent had a lot of running and hiding sections, it also had bouts of stealth and puzzle elements to it. This game however ditches all of that and is instead more reminiscent of The Chinese Room's previous hit, Dear Esther. The main bulk of the game consists of walking straight forward and finding machine parts to put into somewhere and progress. There is no inventory or combining so these can't really even be called puzzles. It's more of a fetch quest system, a gameplay mechanic that asks you to stop moving forward and find some random items to further your adventure. While there's nothing fundamentally bad with this style it doesn't really feel like anything substantial gameplay wise and although I appreciate that this is to focus you on the narrative it just ends up feeling like a haunted house maze at times.

This is especially noticeable when it comes to the monsters. In The Dark Descent you would have to often hide from the Lovecraftian horror's as running into them would mean almost immediate death. This created tension since you also couldn't look at them without losing your sanity giving the monsters an air of mystery to them. You certainly couldn't just run past them which seems to be the way to avoid A Machine for Pigs creatures, and taking away the sanity gives the player no reason not to look at the monsters meaning that they're infinitely less mysterious and thus not very scary. The key to horror is to keep the monsters in shadow as much as you can but A Machine for Pigs actually makes a point of giving you a full view of their creatures in a non-threatening environment. I do however understand what they were going for, making these creatures twistedly sympathetic adds to the story and character of the game, but as much as a cool idea this is, it comes with a sacrifice of any terror that the monsters could have had.

In fact a lot of potential scariness is lost as a sacrifice to plot. Bringing about another change is the feature of regenerating health which also takes away the fear of death that could possibly torment you when confronted with the aforementioned creatures. Long gone is the tinderbox system as well meaning that you have unlimited light in this quest, an ill move since managing your light source was also what made The Dark Descent so compelling. This seems to yet again be a way to focus the player onto the plot, but the way the previous game made things so scary with it's gameplay was what made it so great to begin with. Suffice to say A Machine for Pigs doesn't want to follow it's prequel in that way but the unfortunate thing is it doesn't add anything to replace what it takes away.

Although I've been ruthlessly and negatively comparing this game to its predecessor, it is however unmatched in its twisted story. Oswald Mandus wakes up on New Year's Eve, 1899. With a loss of memory, he decides to follow the voices of his children, which eventually leads him to the titular machine. A mysterious voice then known as 'the Engineer' begs you to repair the machine and with the promise of his children upon completion, Oswald decides to start up the mysterious contraption. That's the general plot and I fear revealing any more would be a great disservice to the title since A Machine for Pigs focuses so closely on its story and the turns it takes that it really does feel unfair to spoil anything past the initial premise.

This is perhaps A Machine for Pigs greatest strength. While a lot of the gameplay has been removed the story is incredibly bizarre and compelling. Although I was annoyed that I managed (and i'm guessing most people) to guess one of its big twists from the beginning, for the most part the game managed to completely engross me. It's extremely grotesque story is conveyed in a number of ways including excellently written text pages and superb voice acting adding a lot of depth to the world created specifically for this sequel.

Overall the game's presentation is absolutely fantastic. One stand out element is the music, which swells bombastically through the story and adds intense amounts of energy to the environments you find yourself in. These environments are also astounding and this titles art design really is amazingly outstanding to boot. This steam-punk world is thoroughly consistent and the latter parts of the game look horrifically disturbing and almost otherworldly whilst remaining in the 1890's aesthetic. For all the gameplay touches taken out, you can tell a ton of effort has been spent into presenting this weird and distinctive plot confidently.

Throughout this review I've compared A Machine for Pigs rather unfairly to its notorious prequel but the truth is this doesn't play like an Amnesia game at all. While there are a few references to the broader universe, this game feels like its own thing and is therefore not failing if it doesn't play like The Dark Descent 100%. However, I would say it fails if you judge it as a horror game. Despite it's disturbing set up and creepy imagery, it Unfortunately just doesn't pump fear into you like I feel a horror game should do. There's nothing you really 'do' in the game apart from turning valves and putting items into their prospective slots. But while there is a neat physicality to starting up this machine given the games heavy focus on mouse controls, it also just feels like you're walking through an interactive story rather than taking part in a horror narrative. This loses the benefit of player integration that all horror games have and ultimately results in a game that just isn't very scary.

However if you are looking for a creative story that is truly unlike anything else out there, then I can't recommend Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs enough. It's a short bizarre ride, and while not terrifying by any means it is mostly worth taking part in, even if it doesn't often feel like you're taking part in it most of the time.