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"The industrial revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race" - Ted Kaczynski
Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs is very interesting entry to the Amnesia series, developed by The Chinese Room, AMFP has garnered a reputation within the series as a disappointing entry to the series. Truth be told, in comparison to The Dark Descent, sure it is a let down, but the hate this game has received is perhaps overblown. If you're familiar with its development AMFP originally started out as a mod before gaining approval from frictional games, with a staff consisting mostly of 2 people and were given little guidance on the series lore, along with content being cut due to time and budget constraints, so some of the faults of the game I can't blame too harshly. But in saying that their is some good that gets overlooked that needs to be highlighted. considering that it goes into a different direction (one that doesn't have a supernatural element to the story) is a commendable effort.
The Good
The story of AMFP centres around the turn of the century (1899), with rapid advancements in technology bringing out the worst in humanity and creating uncertainty for our future. You play as Oswald Mandus, after regaining consciousness, Oswald heeds to the beckoning of his children and a mysterious voice to unlock a dark a truth of his past. The narrative and themes of AMFP is explored decently. It's quite apparent that the focus of AMFP is to focus on its story which is interesting in concept (but its execution is whole other can of worms). The ending of the game is so well presented that it almost makes you forget how convoluted and pretentious the rest of the story is. The soundtrack is pretty decent and feels well incorporated into its time period.
The Bad
AMFP relies too heavily on jump scares throughout the game, rather than just incorporating it into its atmosphere (see The Ugly). Jump scares are fine if its done occasionally and/or appropriately to help create an element of surprise or tension into the story to help make the audience more engaged with the narrative & environment. However, if overused which unfortunately AMFP does, then this looses its value and ends up becoming more shallow. After a while you keep expecting, and even predict, jump scares to happen and thus begin to loose their impact and disengage the audience (jump scares become cheap when overused). The enemies in this game don't pose a huge threat as the previous Amnesia game did, as they can easily be out manoeuvred as long as you don't shine your lamp light on them for too long, the A.I. isn't all that intelligent either. Hiding is completely useless in the game, as their is no sanity metre along with enemies having a short focal range, you're better off just running everywhere which lessens the impact of the horror and fear of the game. There is little to no sense of urgency in the game, the lamp has no fuel to replenish, health replenishes automatically and as mentioned previously their is no sanity metre, which takes out a lot of the challenge and dread that TDD was able to accomplish.
The story of AMFP is not executed very well (aside from its ending), their is a plethora of plot holes and unexplained elements to its narrative that leads you to scratching your head in confusion (you made a machine, then break the machine, get yourself amnesia to cure a fever, fix the machine, only to break the machine again shortly after, pretty underwhelming :/ ). The diary entries in this game are told in riddles which only further confuses and clutters the narrative, while the audio logs are little more straight forward the way they're presented contrasts greatly with how the diary logs are written, which feels jarring.
The Ugly
The atmosphere of AMFP is good, for the most part. But can't help but figure that the reason why the atmosphere is serviceable is only because the game is way too dark. Because throughout the majority of the game is shrouded in darkness, this inhibits your visibility. So naturally your bound to be on edge, because you can't see whats in front of you most of the time. This comes off as a little superficial, for comparison TDD manages to invoke fear and an apprehensive atmosphere despite using different colours and lighting throughout some of its stages, creating a more unique yet horrifying experience. While the over reliance of darkness in this game doesn't make the environments all that memorable, especially when the vast majority of the game is spent in a large factory it all just sort of blends in with one another. The puzzles in the game are perhaps too simple and wouldn't be leaving a lasting impression after playing them, some of them are so obvious you wonder if they made this part a puzzle as an after thought.
Ratings
+ Well fitting soundtrack
+ Monsters are decently designed
+ Very interesting ending
+/- Short game length (3 - 4 hours)
+/- Good atmosphere (though perhaps too dark)
+/- Puzzles can be too simple
+/- Looses the supernatural element in the series for pseudoscience
- Relies more on jump scares than atmosphere (less scary)
- Enemies don't pose a huge threat (can be easily dealt with)
- No sense of urgency (hiding is pointless, no resources to manage, etc.)
- Dialogue can be inconsistent and pretentious at times (often speaking in riddles)
- Story is convoluted and at times pretentious
- Not as interactive or well designed as Amnesia TDD
5/10 - just get it on sale