izigame.me

To a lot of people, especially fans of original The Dark Descent, A Machine for Pigs has cemented itself as one big disappointment to the point that I'm pretty sure it's never mentioned later in Rebirth. Mainly because it seems like The Chinese Room has cut out a lot of horror elements since their first trailer for the game in favour of story and atmosphere. In the original every time a Grunt showed up on the level you risked getting caught if you weren't careful because it was an actual physical presence and therefore a threat, and it could show up anywhere. Here, however, unless you are in a specific arena-like section or a scripted chase sequence Wretches act as nothing more than a cheap scare simply to SHOW you that they are everywhere around you except they don't react to you at all. In some places around the levels there are oddly convenient hiding spots as if the Wretches were meant to be there for you to hide from but sadly they never come into play. Not to mention somewhat wasted potential of Wretch variants.
The Dark Descent's story was relatively straight-forward, coherent and somewhat grounded in possible reality. Every piece of the narrative fit together with just enough ambiguity to keep you guessing the whole way through. And in the end the whole journey can have a satisfying payoff. A Machine for Pigs cranks up that ambiguity to ridiculous levels. The general idea of events is there for you to piece together but the narrative is very on and off about the clarity of details it's trying to sell you with a bitter-sweet ending to top it all off. It's a chilling psychological horror story and it makes just enough sense to work but once you start thinking about its details it's actually pretty bizarre and over-the-top and it starts getting hard to believe.
BUT! All that aside, if you simply try to immerse yourself in this world, if you just take everything at face value this game is quite an experience. The atmosphere of the world you're thrown into is haunting, suffocating and still manages to keep you on edge. Sound design really makes you feel like a lonely insect trapped in a gigantic yet tight, cold yet living, merciless machine ready to crush you the moment you take the wrong step. Level design and overall style work at helping you believe the Victorian Industrial Revolution era you're in. The soundtrack is incredible and wraps the atmosphere of the game together wonderfully. And though the story is ridiculous, at the end of the day it works though probably not to the extend it was hoping for.
All in all, in my opinion A Machine for Pigs is very underrated and deserves a playthrough or two. Compared to the original it's one big missed opportunity and an undercooked dish but on its own it gets the job done at immersing you and keeping you on edge even after you finish it once. It's my personal favourite Amnesia and one of my favourite horror games. Thanks to its industrial setting I fell in love with steampunk and everything related to it. It's such a shame that it's also the only Amnesia game that doesn't have a Workshop support on Steam, I would absolutely love to see what certain enthusiasts would create using its assets since, like I said, the game is brimming with unused potential that in skillful hands could be turned into a worthy successor of The Dark Descent.