Also available on PlayStation 4, Switch, Linux, OSX, and Windows Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs is the direct sequel to Amnesia: The Dark Descent and takes place a few decades after. The tone and focus of this game are a bit different than the first one, and while I personally think that's to the game's detriment, by no means does that mean that this is a bad game or a bad sequel. Rather than focusing on the supernatural as the first game did, Machine for Pigs focuses more on man-made horrors, and while it makes a very salient point, I'm personally more partial to supernatural horror (same reason that slasher flicks aren't as enjoyable for me as a good demonic possession film). The game takes place in London, and as the title hints, is focused around a massive and complex machine in a meat packing facility. I won't say more than that so as not to spoil the story - a story which is actually really interesting as you progress through the game and unravel its mysteries - but that machine is the root of the horror here. Machine for Pigs is much more focused on making a point than Dark Descent was, and as a result, the emphasis is put on revealing its horrors to you more than making you hide from them. There is no sanity meter to degrade from looking at enemies, so feel free to gaze at the game's monstrosities to your heart's content. There are also significantly fewer enemies than in Dark Descent. You'll still have to run and hide from some, but it's much common in Machine for Pigs. There's also no static health status here, either, so if you're injured, just hide for a few à la Call of Duty. That all makes it sound like the game isn't particularly scary, but that's definitely not true. The setting and atmosphere of the game is still extremely disconcerting, and while the enemy encounters are much less frequent than in Dark Descent, there's no indication when an enemy might appear, so you're pretty much always on guard. It seems like as soon as I got into the swing of things with puzzle solving, it would turn out to be a false sense of security soon the be shattered by the discovery of an enemy. Still, though, exploration and puzzle-solving are the name of the game here more than enemy and darkness avoidance. You have a lantern that doesn't run out of fuel, and there are no finite tinderboxes to light candles; if you see a lamp, simply turn it on. That, admittedly, does detract a bit from the horror, but again, the focus this time seems much more on unraveling the mystery of the story than on sprinting from light source to light source. To be clear at the start of this conclusion, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs is a good horror game and absolutely worth playing. That said, it falls short of the original. Its story-telling and enemy AI are rock solid, but there just isn't enough danger to the player or fear-inducing environments to provide the degree of horror that the first game did. Fans of the original game will likely be disappointed with this one but not to the extent that they should skip it. As I said, it's a good game, and I thoroughly enjoyed unraveling the story and the message the game is trying to convey. It's definitely worth a play; just don't expect it to be more of the same. It's definitely its own beast that doesn't allow itself to be confined by the structure or design of the original game. It may not be "as good" as the original, but by no means does that make it "not good." My Rating - B |
I'm a teacher.And I like to play video games. I like to collect video games. I like to talk about video games, and I like to write about video games. During the day, I teach high school history; during the night, I spend my spare time gaming. Then I write about it. Archives
April 2024
|