Best Of

At my current rate of two games per year the backlog will take me approximately 170 years.

At any rate:

Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs

This is not a sequel to Amnesia: Dark Descent. It is just another game in the same style made by the same team.

A Machine For Pigs is not what I would call a game. It is a first-person visual novel.

A Machine for Pigs is extremely well-written, just like Dark Descent was. The story is deep, intense, horrifying, grim, and gruesome. It tells a tale of a wealthy industrialist in the waning days of the 19th century who, wracked by madness and illness, does some pretty terrifying things. Through the game you discover the tale in bits and pieces as you play this man who has, of course, awakened from a fever-induced amnesia.

You travel through the streets of London 1899 and through the halls and corridors of your estate and eventually, the titular Machine. You walk around with a lantern, solve very simple puzzles (put this thing here, pull this switch, pull this thing, open this door... that sort of thing), and avoid monstrosities called Manpigs. There is very little of the latter and a great deal of the former (that is to say, this game is basically a ton of walking through corridors).

Just like with Dark Descent, I found myself thoroughly bored and just hoping for the next bit of story. I think I'd rather just read this thing as a short story.

However, the game does serve up a phenomenal atmosphere, which is something a written novel could never do. The sound effects, the glimpses of the machine and its dark, dark work through bars, windows, and catwalks, the background screams and squishing of viscera, blood, fluids pumping through pipes, lots of breathing and flashes of electricity and steam venting all serve as a perfect backdrop for a tale that wonderfully captures Victorian horror; the steam, the feeling of Progress! Science! Wonders! Mystery!, the primitive but promising technology, and the supreme evils of Empire, God, and Man all set the stage for a deliciously darkthought exercise in what it would be like for this man as he descends into pure insanity. You really feel for him as he desperately seeks redemption for what he has done.

I can't say I liked the game, but I did like the story. The pace, just like with its predecessor, was glacial, and that turned me off for months. Coming back to it felt like a chore, but I'm sure lots of people love games like this. It just ain't me.

The graphics were good but not as good as Dark Descent. Almost the whole game takes place in endless dark metal corridors with lots of brass, pipes, steam, and dark wood accents. It gets really boring after a while.

It's super easy to avoid the manpigs... even easier than the Dark Descent. In addition they got rid of the dumb "insanity" mechanic as well as stupid inventory management of oil and crap for your light. Now your lantern just works and all you have to do is walk through about five hours of this game to get to the end and get the whole story.

Onward!