AMFP Member Review Thread

[LordGubGub]

I noticed that many people have criticized A Machine for Pigs for the elements that didn't carry over from The Dark Descent (sanity, oil, interaction, etc.), and I just thought I would share my thoughts here.

Firstly, I prefer no sanity meter. It made things stressful and scary at times in The Dark Descent, but overall it was just annoying. There were times when it wasn't even a scary part of the game, but Daniel's sanity was low. I'm not scared, why should Daniel be? I don't need the game to tell me how I am supposed to feel. It's a unique idea, but not necessary for A Machine for Pigs. The only sanity meter I need is the one in my head.

Searching for oil and tinderboxes was kind of frustrating in TDD. Obsessively searching every corner of every room for some oil got kind of annoying. Later in the game, the lantern became a "too awesome to use" item for me, and I ended up barely ever using it in order to conserve oil, and by the end of the game I had plenty of oil (which was useless by then). Tinderboxes only came in handy a few times, and I had around 30 or more by the time I beat it. Again, it did make things stressful and scary, but I can live without it.

As far as interaction goes, it worked for The Dark Descent. But honestly it's not needed in A Machine for Pigs. Would it make sense for Mandus to run around his house, smashing pots, throwing his things around, and making a mess of his bookshelves? No, not really. In TDD, most of the items that you could interact with were kind of pointless anyway. Woohoo, I can throw these barrels around and stack boxes! If anything it can distract players and can ruin immersion for some (not everyone of course). It's an interesting and very cool feature, but it's not needed to make the game immersive and enjoyable in my opinion, and didn't make much of a difference for me. Additionally, since most of the "puzzles" in AMFP involved carrying around items (because of the removal of the inventory system), it might get confusing trying to figure out which items are important. Also, didn't the devs state that making many items interactive like in TDD decreased performance by a lot? That's a valid reason to remove the feature, at least I think so.

What I'm trying to say is that the decisions The Chinese Room made were wise. The elements from TDD that were removed from AMFP allowed me to focus more on the narrative and horror elements, which just made the experience absolutely terrifying. I do love TDD though. I loved it when I first played it, and I love it now. It is a fantastic game, and the survival elements are what made it enjoyable for some people, but I could live without them honestly. I was more terrified playing AMFP than I was playing TDD, which is saying a lot. I feel like a minority when I say this, but I like AMFP better. Everything about it was just amazing. It's one of my favorite games this year, and one of my favorite games of all time.

I know many of you will disagree with me, but I felt I would share my feelings about AMFP, and I hope I'm not the only one who feels this way. Amnesia: TDD and Amnesia: AMFP are both Amnesia games at the core, but they are both very different games. I can see where people are coming from that negatively criticize the game, but I have to disagree with them.

Thank you to those who have taken the time to read this, I had a lot to say, and I tried to make this as short as possible, but unfortunately it's still really long. lol