Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs Discussion Topic Part 2

[Sampyli]

Yo, new to this forum, just a massive Amensia fan who has decided to pass the time waiting for A:AMFP by obsessively thinking up theories on that the storyline will be about. It's really interesting to read through all your ideas about what might feature in the game. Is the titular 'Machine' literally a machine, or is it a metaphor? Did Mandus' kids/family die in Mexico, or are they the kids we see walking around in the trailer?

Anyway, thought I would throw in my thoughts. I reckon somebody close to Mandus died in Mexico; it's hard to think what other 'disaster' could affect him on such a personal level. Either one child, more than one (I have no idea how many he has/had), maybe his wife and kids. Even so; the loss of a family member driving you to create some machine to bring them back to life which feeds on humans? Seems like a longshot, unless Mandus had some kind of pre-existing mental condition and the loss of his family pushed him over the edge.

Makes me think maybe Mandus even caused the death of his family. Perhaps some supernatural force - think the Shadow in the original Amnesia - possessed him, or heck, just a result of irresponsible action/negligence on his behalf. So, wracked with Guilt, Mandus comes back to England with the idea of making a huge machine which consumes pigs to somehow bring his family back to life. Somebody on this forum mentioned the whole concept of 'vitae' - some vital essence that can be extracted from the living to bring back the dead. Perhaps this is the crux of how the machine works.

There's not enough pigs to feed the machine - or maybe their vitae isn't powerful enough - and in his desperation, Mandus starts feeding humans to the machine (we've all heard the quote from Mandus on this subject). Maybe these are adults - or maybe children. Something about that is even more disturbing, and I expect the disappearance of street urchins in industrial London would probably have been a regular occurence. Less questions asked about orphans or homeless kids than adults...

That gives us a potential premise for the game, but doesn't really shed any light on what the actual gameplay itself will focus on. Imagine the machine did work, but not as Mandus expected. His family did come back to life, but are not fully human - the vitae of the pigs and humans combined has turned them in to some kind of half-human, half-swine abomination. The central plot of the game could be Mandus realising what a terrible mistake he has made, trying to kill his family again so they can rest in peace. The reason I like this idea is that there could be a limited number of distinct enemies that we feel some connection to - not just faceless/nameless hordes that mean nothing to us. Think Justine, instead of The Dark Descent.

All of this is just wild speculation and I am probably way off the mark, but I'm interested to see you guys pick apart my theories and submit your own.

Damn dude, I love it! All that would fit perfectly
Now that you mentioned it, I got the idea that maybe the little boy in the teaser is someone who died because of Mandus, and he is having hallucinations, etc.

Also, 'the machine coughs, roars into life'; now what could that mean if it was metaphoric?