Is A Machine For Pigs best suited to a 'mature' audience?

[Nyarlathotep]

But it was more complex than that, not terribly more complex, but still had more to it.

It has more mechanics but I don't think they add any legitimate depth to the game. They're just there to make it feel like "Survival Horror". As far as completion you can ignore all of that. You can even let yourself get killed over and over and still progress. These just aren't things the player thinks about on the first time through.

It's no different from pigs in faking its challenge. Pigs just threw the mechanics that served no real purpose away. Hoping to allow the player's attention to be pulled toward environment details for the sake of their purpose in the story and setting, rather than their purpose as gameplay objects.

Really? What was scary about it?

On a first playthrough? The whole game. I didn't know how rare the actual threats were. All of the fakeouts were convincing for me. Aside from the fear of the enemy encounters? The way it messed with the objects and geometry in weird ways. There was more psychological horror at play than in The Dark Descent. And, the story itself was sad and disturbing. All great aspects of the horror genre. It made me feel uneasy.