Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs (2013)

This second Amnesia entry is a first-person psychological horror game, it game shifts away from the mechanics-heavy survival horror of its predecessor and ventures into a more narrative-driven, atmospheric experience. Set in Victorian-era London at the dawn of the 20th century, the MC is called Oswald Mandus, who awakens in his mansion with fragmented memories, haunted by feverish visions and the cries of his missing children. Drawn into the bowels of his estate and beyond, Mandus discovers a massive, nightmarish machine beneath the city, one that reflects the monstrous consequences of human ambition and industrial greed.

From the moment it begins, it envelops you in a suffocating sense of dread, with moody writing, audio logs, and gradual revelations. The game abandons traditional survival mechanics, there’s no inventory, no sanity meter, and no oil or tinderboxes to worry about. Instead, it emphasizes immersion through environmental storytelling and sound design. And this is what separate the community the most, since this sequel felt more like a walking-simulator than a survival horror game, since it removed the beloved elements of the more traditional first entry to the series. The lighting and level design reinforce this atmosphere, blending gothic architecture with the grim aesthetics of factories, slaughterhouses, and catacombs to create a world that feels both human and inhuman at once.

While this change in design philosophy alienated some fans of the original Amnesia, it also gave the game a unique identity. The horror here is more psychological than mechanical, it’s rooted in Mandus’s guilt and the philosophical implications of his actions rather than constant jump scares or direct threats. The story builds slowly, and while enemy encounters are sparse, their rarity amplifies the tension when they finally occur. Despite its strengths, the game’s simplification of gameplay systems was divisive. The puzzles are simple, the exploration limited, and the sense of danger less constant than in The Dark Descent.

In the end, this game stands as a bold, if controversial, reinterpretation of what horror can be. It replaces the frantic terror of its predecessor with slow-burning dread and philosophical unease. Though it may not deliver the same level of mechanical depth or intensity, it offers something more cerebral, a tragic, gothic meditation on invention, morality, and the human cost of progress. As much as I'm a big fan of Amnesia, and survival horror in general, I simply cannot recommend this title, it is no a very good experience and not worth the time, even though it is quite a short game.

Yeah! The story did pick up. At some point I realized some of my peeves were in fact part of the story the game was telling. There are some clear themes carried from Dark Descent but approached differently, which I'm finding interesting.

Gameplay-wise it's still a big step back, but halfway through the narrative took over and it's not bothering me as much. Stopped playing right before the final act, will try to finish it before New Year's.

As an aside, I realized today that when the lights and lantern in-game start flickering, the Dualshock controller light rapidly switches between light blue and white, creating a 'flickering' effect which I thought was neat when playing in the dark. Thought I was crazy at first when my living room was flickering as well.

I was actually shocked at how much the quality dropped from The Dark Descent to this. Then I realised it hadn’t been made by Friction but by The Chinese Room instead, which made it slightly more digestible. Still, what a drop.

This is dumbed down Amnesia, stripped from most of the core mechanics that gave the first game its edge and personality. There’s no inventory, no lantern oil or tinderboxes, no sanity system. The puzzles are non-existent in difficulty, almost devoid of any requirement for player cognitive input. Everything is oversimplified for no real apparent reason other than an easier development period, and that rubbed me the wrong way. Atmospherically, A Machine for Pigs takes a step back as well. It still manages to engage in tone and visuals every now and then (and part of its soundtrack is surprisingly good), but a lot of the action takes place in what is a much more modern-looking setting when compared to Brennenburg Castle, with wider corridors and halls, making it lose its claustrophobic feel as a consequence. There are a few interesting set pieces and segments, but overall, this is a far cry from its predecessor in how much it fails to convey a similar intensity. To make matters worse, there are lots of distracting visual artefacts (at least on console), which would get even worse every time the character had flashbacks. Definitely not a visually clean experience, and thus not a very pleasant one.

Gameplay, which I already criticised above due to the lack of recognisable Amnesia mechanics, also becomes very repetitive very quickly, especially considering the game’s short runtime. One thing that is particularly noticeable in AMFP is how easily you can deal with enemies due to the lack of effective AI: all you have to do, literally, is wait long enough. If you do so, enemies pure and simply vanish in a much more obvious way than then did in the first game, which of course, makes this a much less tense and scary affair. To top it all off, the story, which could have ended up actually being quite interesting with how it tries to tie itself to Amnesia’s lore, becomes too silly, convoluted and tone conflicting as it unfolds, resulting in further disappointment.

Ultimately, and I hate to say this, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs felt like a lazy cash grab. It had the obligation to carry itself better and at least try to live up to its predecessor, yet instead it offered a quasi-boring story wrapped in a shell with no real substance. There are a couple of solid moments here, and I am certain I would’ve been more tolerant of its mishaps had this not been a direct sequel to such a great game. But having played them back-to-back, the contrast was simply too jarring to overlook. A shame. 4.5/10

A Machine for Pigs was well executed. Possibly the most horrifying thing that The Human Race has spawned is factory farming. Millions upon millions of mammals with similar sensory homunculi as us humans have been enslaved, tortured, and slaughtered since The Industrial Revolution.

With this in mind I found that the algorithmic pig scream coming from the core of the Machine to be a pure acknowledgement of what exists in spacetime.

The gameplay is awkward. I found that the psychedelic effects had a good pace and rhythm, but still, anything the character experienced felt awkward. I find that the game's value is equal to a solid audiobook.

Amnesia Machine for Pigs

This game sucks. I read it was originally intended to be a mod but they made it into the 2nd game and that is exactly what it felt like just an expansion really and not a good one at all. This game kind of killed what Amnesia dark descent was. This game doesnt have the same feel at all and tries its best to be scary and atmospheric but than once you see what they took out you know immediately the game is screwed. Now what they took out you ask? The entire fear and sanity mechanic and you lighting stuff to reduce it. This completely kills the entire game because there is zero consequence for anything. Your lantern never goes out either so you always have light so this whole game is freaking ruined 2 hours in

That's exactly when i lost any type of fear or gave a damn about its atmosphere. The monster is a goddamn joke its a mutated pig like is that supposed to scare me? I literally just started running through everything and i beat this shit in 5 hours and im talking on a blind playthrough where you don't know anything. There is also no inventory system and the game handholds you and the puzzles are a damn joke there just layed out for you so the items you have to find are just right in front of you. The main thing they use to try and scare you is the place shaking and voices and the main characters memories that's it. Also half way through the game i swear you climb so many goddamn ladders and go up so many elevators i got so damn tired of it i wanted if the game to end and felt it just dragged on and on more ladders and more elevators it was terrible.

The story not even gonna lie and say i understand it at all but i didn't really care because the story ain't saving this game. The location isn't great either.

Final thoughts for Amnesia Machine for Pigs

it sucks. this ain't amnesia. My score for it is a 2.

This game is clashing amalgamation.

I have played several games kinda like this in the past year (like five?) that are similar sneaky lightly-puzzler walking sims that were inspired by the original amnesia dark descent (including SOMA) so I feel I have enough context to judge it.

this game though, it really goes in it's own direction (in some ways)

It doesn't look the best, and it hasn't aged well. Many games have been inspired and expanded on the formula and premise (My personal favorite is Moons of Madness IT has some really good ambience, music cuts, and decent jump scares. It's a creepy game for sure to play, because you never know what to expect next. However, the actual monsters in the game aren't nearly as scary as the first (or in SOMA even) there's just something about not actually being able to see them, that makes it more frightening (a very old old horror movie concept) A horror game must fulfill it's genre. And this game does not manage to frighten (or unnerve) it's predecessor (which is really hard to top!)

In this game, you have a lantern and wall lights that will 'flicker' when a monster is near. I think the idea is that the monsters are some combination of supernatural vitae and 'orgonne energy', and so it fuzzes electrical currents. However, your light sources never fully go off and you get to see them at different points in the game. they are pigs this is a game that i played on it's natural gamma settings and i usually dont do that but i figured it was fine for something like this (it was) as i didn't have to look for treasure (like in Thief: The Dark Project) but i think it's probably the darkest game I've ever played.a real run for it's money. However, the maps are simplistically straightforward and somewhat linear so it doesn't' get it in the way too badly as you stumble and progress and it's fairly short at around 6 hours or so... UNFORTUNATELY IT also took me over an hour to get up and get running, patch and even then it didn't have good performance (I had a lot of various issues getting the game going everything from no controller compatibility to settings not sticking to audio crackles). But it was at least playable. For this reason it feels like a set back from the original from a technical standpoint and I did not notice any overtly new features from the HPL engine. BUT it stands strong by offering new ideas and experiences.

Geez, it was worth it! This game is pretty cool and atmospheric. It's without a doubt the coolest 'steampunk' game i've played. And the lore is quite satisfying. It has an unusual setting of 1900 London and I found myself immersed.

It's unfortunate that the game doesn't win in any terms of mechanics though, that's the real reason it doesn't outshine it's predecessor. Puzzles in the game are very brainless gates and half of them could have not even been put in the game and it would have made little difference in terms of experience.

This game has without a doubt had one of the most hard to understand and follow protagonists (PC) I've ever played. I have mixed feelings on the story. One one hand it is highly creative and incredible but it gets a bit heavy and in the way. And some of the ways the story is relayed feels contrived and a bit hokey-jokey (like the phone call thing) which at times make it seem pretentious. The main hang up with the story is the play character itself which you are forced to be and it's very complicated (more on that in a bit) The ending is pretty cool and crazy though and i really liked it. The gist of it is that you are 1900's captain of industry type fellow and also something of an explorer and treasure hunter who came back from such a trip and saw something in a foreign land that changed you. (It helps to know a little about the place he went, culture, etc because it is a metaphor and expressed in the game in different ways quite often as you play it) you simultaneously deal with tragedy of losing wife, etc. and as you pave the way towards the future, apparently you realize you aren't over it and it comes with the package a whole lot of weird mental stuff, which I found a bit tough to get into and follow at times.

I dunno if i'd recommend it on the basis of the genre and style of these kinds of games (there's so many out there since that are newer and arguably better) But you ought to play this game if you really like steampunk, it's like a perfect and most beautiful aesthetic between the unusual setting and the aesthetic (fixing the orgonne energy nuclear reactor with all the brass fittings and all those pipes and stuff going everywhere was my favorite bit in the game) it feels like a mix of thief with bioshock that is just dumbed down to a walking sim with jumpscares. (I thought it was more pure than bioshock 2), but otherwise, most folks should just move on to newer ideas that have expanded since.

Oh also it's really nice on a VR headset that maximizes your peripheral vision Main reason I decided to play it when I did. 3 star Average game but extra star for being different.