#86: Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs

Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs

thechineseroom
Initial release: September 10, 2013 (worldwide)
Platform: PC

images c/o MobyGames

I have never been shy about how I feel about Amnesia: the Dark Descent and games like it. I also was thoroughly repelled by Dear Esther, the famous walking simulator-slash-overwrought arthouse orgasm. So when I heard that Dear Esther devs thechineseroom were making Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, a followup to Frictional's inexplicably popular stealth horror game, pretty much everyone assumed that I not only would hate it, I would super double hate it. Well, they were wrong... sorta.

I’ll admit I didn’t approach either Amnesia game in good faith. When I played the original game for review, I titled my desktop shortcut D.P. Loveshaft Presents: Duckface, All Too Fucking Duckface; likewise, for the followup, which I was going into completely blind and had only my negative reaction to Dear Esther to go on, I had given it the cheeky title D.P. Loveshaft Presents: Un Voiture de Police. (That’s French for “police car.”) I tell you this now not because I think it’s funny (though I do) but because I want to impress on you just how much I was ready to hate this game, and how I was pleasantly surprised, though “pleasantly” as a word might be doing a lot of work.

Part of it is that it’s a stripped down version of the original game’s gameplay. Enemy encounters are few and far between and, for the most part, easily dodged. The puzzles are elementary. The inventory, sanity system, etc. — all gone. And the whole thing’s like 5 hours long, much shorter than the interminable first game. Given how much I dislike the no-hands subgenre of survival horror, where you are unarmed in a maze of monsters and must scramble and hide with no real agency in your own defense, these changes are all a blessing. I don't actually have an issue with walking simulators like some people did; my objection to Dear Esther was entirely in reaction to its infuriatingly twee writing. It’s clear that thechineseroom are not good at making actual video games in the traditional sense, but A Machine for Pigs is proof they’re good for more than just bad poetry. Granted, there’s an element of laziness that belies thechineseroom’s lack of development skill: the engine is barely upgraded, and many assets are re-used.  (Part of this, in total fairness, can be blamed on the fact that A Machine for Pigs started off as a mod for Dark Descent.) However, towards the end the game begins to take on a more distinctive visual identity, especially with heavy use of color grading.

While it has some fairly loose connections to the original game, A Machine for Pigs manages to lash together a bit of sociohistorical commentary to a fairly creepy industrial setting, using the image of a vast, underground meat-packing plant as metaphor for our own self-destruction. Indeed, it’s that self-destruction that is the impetus for the whole plot, or rather, a glimpse into the future of the 20th century (which, like in the finale of Stonehearst Asylum, begins in mere hours) and all the horrors it would bring: the world wars, the Khmer Rouge, Rob Schneider movies, and so forth.

The actual plant is more interesting than you would expect, extending miles beneath the surface of London and populated by mutated pigmen who operate the machinery. These pigmen — themselves feeling a bit referential to The House on the Borderland — are also the primary antagonists, though you’ll be dealing with them rarely compared to the first game. The most surprising thing is towards the end of the game when things take an explosive turn as the pigmen burst onto the surface and chaos ensues. Wwhile you’re only on the streets for a few minutes in this chapter, it’s a dramatic tonal shift that really gives a sense of urgency.

To be honest, I’m just as surprised as you are that I don’t hate this game. I wouldn’t say I liked it, but I liked what it was trying to do. Its short length, relative ease, and fairly interesting story and themes all make for one of the more palatable “no hands” horror games — all thanks to a dev studio playing to their actual strengths.

-june❤