AMFP Member Review Thread

[Alardem]

Love the backlash on this forum. Happens whenever a good game comes out.

For what it's worth, I've gotten through the first couple of levels and A Machine For Pigs is already a much better narrative than Bioshock.

[joru100]

Considering I gave the Dark Descent an 9/10, and Outlast an 8.5/10, I think Machine for Pigs deserves about a 7/10. Pretty good considering it's the Chinese Rooms first time really doing something like this.

[Streetboat]

I'm noticing that almost all of these reviews are from people who just joined-

I'm guessing that people who have been here longer are actually playing the game and enjoying it rather than sitting here whining.

Personally, I got about 2 hours in and had to stop because I have to go to class, but I'm loving what I played so far. I'm a bit biased though, because it's exactly like the stories I've made for TDD: concentration more on atmosphere, sound, and backstory more than making the player run and die. I really appreciate that. Oh, and the assets are absolutely beautiful.

[joru100]

Story: 7/10

When I heard the Chinese Room was going to develop the game I knew Machine for Pigs would revolve around the story, more than gameplay, which it did, but I can't but feel the narrative was too driven by notes and journals and not the experience. It was still a slight upgrade over the Dark Descent in this regard.

Atmosphere: 8/10

A nice recreation of the late Victorian Era/early Edwardian Era. It's got that steam punk Industrial Revolution feeling re-imagined. It's refreshing seeing as every indie horror game now is set in the same old cliched places (although Outlast was so good that you didn't care that it was set in a mental institution). My only complaint was with the blue fog, but it seems someone has found a script workaround so that helps. It makes the shadows and corridors seem more menacing that way. Try it out.

Gameplay: 7/10

I like that it didn't try to be exactly like the Dark Descent with the scarcity of oil, an inventory, etc. The puzzles aren't as strong as the Dark Descent though. In that game, you felt like you were being punished for having to walk around and find stuff (in a good, scary way). They also kept one of the worst features from the Dark Descent, the cheesy scripted cinematics. You know; loud thud, scream, and then a bunch of dizziness and blurriness. Yawn.

Scares: 6.5/10

This was the part that made me a little worried when I found out the Chinese Room were developing the game. I mean I loved Dear Esther because of the mystery - the ghosts in the corner of your eye 100 meters away, the strange lights in the distance... These tactics really helped set a mysterious and somber mood, but I wasn't sure how that would transfer to a survival horror. My concerns were correct. I feel like the Chinese Room fell somewhere between a survival horror and a drama story, but it wasn't as effective as I thought it would be. The game definitely still has it's moments though. Maybe I'm just being a little harder on A Machine for Pigs in this category because I felt the scares were scarier and more intense in Outlast, which I only finished playing a few days ago. I mean in Outlast you deal with the enemies and the threats much more often than you do in A Machine for Pigs, yet it was still harder to get used to the feeling of danger in Outlast, despite the frequent encounters.

Graphics: 6/10

Probably the weakest part of the game. They are essentially the same as the Dark Descent, but with a blue filter fog that almost gives this (possibly unintentional) artifacting effect. The lighting is also weaker than other recent indie horror games, and changing the gamma even by what should be a large amount didn't seem to really have an effect.

Soundtrack: 9.5/10

Loved Jessica's work in Dear Esther and I loved it here. If Mors Praematura was in a Hollywood horror film it would or should get a nomination.

Final Verdict:


Considering I gave the Dark Descent an 9/10, and Outlast an 8.5/10, I think Machine for Pigs deserves about a 7/10. Pretty good considering it's the Chinese Room's first time really doing something like this.

[kwahoo]

I agree with Streetboat in every point (got 2 hours too). And I don't need sanity meter, because I play the game (call it Gordon Freeman paradigm

[HumiliatioN]

I liked very much A Machine for pigs, but overall it lacks or storytelling a bit and ruins gameplay sometimes.

My full review:

Story: I liked how everything starts, but later on it becomes even scarier, when you read the notes about rising piggies and you reveal more secrets later on, but! I was disappointed when you can see dead childrens and then vanished and you already know there were dead already?! That was quite annoying imo and maded me little angry and story really lacks sometimes a lot. Overall it was still great adventure to go through. - 7.0/10

Gameplay:

Gameplay was pretty intense and actually liked that you don't need any tinderboxes or oil to fuel up your lantern and wondering most of the time in the darkness, but still I think it lacks and was kind of lame and unrealistic to play this way. When I reached first puzzles I was disappointed again.. because this game didn't have that inventory and it ruined completely "challenging puzzles part" for me. Still, I liked play this way now and it was more faster to progress, but I hope next installment doesn't have "removed inventory, never-ending lantern and so on.." - 6.5/10

Map Design:

I was really impressed how whole game was designed, so much rooms to explore and search stuff... Umm nope. Because of the "disabled inventory" blah. Well.. still map design was impressive, magnificent and really loved to see "Amnesia TDD assets" here aswell and looked how much they used those assets too. Outside enviroments were really great, streets and everything, really put effort on those. Overall this was one of the strongest point of the game. - 9.5/10

Lightning:

I can't really much say about this.. some places were lacking the realistic lightning like inside those windows and ceiling lamps. Overall it was quite nice, but I expected better lightning. - 6.0/10

Puzzles:

Puzzles were interesting and well executed, but still there were too easy I mean not ALL of them, but sometimes I didn't have to even think to progess on maps, I just switched levers normally like in ATDD, but more faster progressing in this game. Overall really nice ones, but lacks of challenging ones. 7.0/10

Scares & monsters:

I never watched Let's plays who pre-ordered the game only one trailer, so I didn't spoil any monsters for ruining my game experience, I was clueless how they look like and yeah, I was really scared when first encounter was coming and they chased me, I was really terrified, but later on I was disappointed they showed up second time and I was like "Lol a monster well you are not scary you are just a humanpig and ugly looking one" that was my reaction seriously and I they didn't scared me anymore at all. Overall new monsters was good add, but still failed miserably how they scare players. - 5.5/10

Music:

This was one of my favourite things on the mod and I really enjoyed listening them and some ambience sounds make the atmosphere really terrifying and scary enviroment. - 8.0/10

Atmosphere:

Well.. What I can say? This was one of the greatest atmospheres I ever played through, okay there are couple maps they don't fit at all and ruins sometimes, but overall really good executed and I was literally cringing because of the atmosphere is so great in this game. Enough said. - 9.5/10

Overall: If you like Amnesia or playing other FPS horror games, you should check this one out aswell. It's not a masterpiece at all, but much more better then "Justine DLC" stupid to compare these two, but you get what I mean by that. AMFP is really well designed by map designing part, atmosphere and really horrifying music. I expected so much more and feeled in the end little disappointed and reaction was like "Oh darn... that was it? Well.. good job, but make it longer next time please" I still enjoyed playing this and won't regret it, I will complete the game again sometime when I have more time.

Verdict: 8.0/10 - Really terrifying and succesful horror game after TDD.

[Adrien2002]

There is A LOT of things I loved in the game compare to the first. The lack of music when a monster is there, outside environment and all new textures, really, I love them. I am also happy to be able to play this game in Linux, Not all developpers are taking the time to make games for people like me.

Some textures are not as beautiful as others but there is so many things displayed on my screen !!

Musics are really nice, it is scary, the music succeed to make me stop to walk because I was scared...
The BIGGEST disappointment is... no custom stories but who knows, maybe it will be able soon
The monster scares me, I just saw the big pig walking slowly (I don't know if there is others). I miss the possibility to move every objects, it mades me feel I interact with my environment.

To know the game is soon finished and NOTHING ELSE after that make me feel sad Seriously, make the CS available guys !!!

Oh and, I want to say a BIG CONGRATULATION for this game to The Chinese Room. They made something very well !!

[Hunter of Shadows]

I'm not going to make any friends with this review, but here we go anyways

DISCLAIMER: This review is entirely my opinion, it is your choice to be offended or otherwise, I do not care if you are offended and will laugh at you if you choose to become offended by it



I can't say I was really surprised by this, but the game was compared to TDD, really really bad


The story was incomprehensible, the scares were bad, Oswald as bad, the mechanics were bad, and letting the the chinese room develop this is the source of all this badness, people praised Dear Esther, when in reality it was an absolutely awful game because it was so damn boring, and this has carried over to MFP's

I'm rating this so badly, because of how much of a massive disappoint it was compared to TDD, as pointed out by the Escapist's review, one of the reasons TDD was so scary was because you had to play around Daniel's fragile psyche, his was afraid of the dark, terrified of monsters, scared of this and that and the sounds he made reflected it.

But in this, Oswald has no fear of the dark, he is silent as monsters plow by his hiding spot, he makes no noises as he does gross things, in other words, he's a video game hero.

The stripped down mechanics also make this game even more dull and uninteresting to play, it felt like the only real mechanics were stealth, and hunting notes...and that's it.

I don't even want to talk about the story, TDD told it's story well, this didn't.

And the monsters good GOD, the two legged pigs were basically...pigmen from doom, and the other pigs were like dire pigs or something much akin to a dire wolf from fantasy, just a bigger meaner pig. There wasn't anything intrinsically horrifying by either of these monsters, especially since Oswald isn't really scared by anything.

So, bad game only worth it on a steam sale, thank you chinese room for ruining the potential of this by being YOUR USUAL, BORING DEVELOPER SELVES, if you were hoping for another round of mind melting terror like TDD, then move on and find another horror game like Outlast, it's certainly better then this garbage.

I'm guessing that people who have been here longer are actually playing the game and enjoying it rather than sitting here whining. Wink

I wish that was the case, but I'm smashing this game because of how much of a letdown it is

[Alex Ros]

Kinda fun to read all those reviews sort of "disappointed", "where are my inventory and jump scaring monsters". From one side all those so called reviewers do want evolution. But at the same time they're disappointed by evolution of the game. It's just nonsense, unsolvable paradox. Give me evolved new game, but leave everything as I loved it. Everything the same, but a lot of new monsters and everything expanded, and polished, especially graphics, models and textures.

And that's how, for example, the Elder Scrolls series is evolving. "Everything the same, but a lot of new monsters and everything expanded, and polished, especially graphics, models and textures."

From my point of view that's NOT EVOLVING, that's just BUSINESS, professional money making. I do not mind of AAA games and corporational studios. But Frictional are NOT such a studio. They're artists, as long as they are open to experiments. AMFP IS EXPERIMENT. And that's what whoever should ever expect from those guys... well... maybe I am wrong about Frictional, but I hope I am not so much wrong.

[Tomato Cat]

I give it a 6.5/10.

Graphics, level design and such:

Classic Amnesia textures and environments adapted to the "modern age." Quite spooky, but didn't really feel polished in some areas.

The outdoor environments were nice. This is definitely a welcome change! Now, the underground sections could have been done in a much more stuffy and depressing manner.

Story-wise:

Interesting, and I liked the mysteriousness. But it felt oddly paced and poorly delivered. The phonographs were nice, but there were so few that I felt it didn't contribute to the story. (I only found 4 or so) Also, WAAAAAY too many notes from the protagonist's journal scattered about. It would have been ok if they were narrated and in contiguous order (like in TDD.."Algeria 1/3").
After a while, I lost track of what was happening to whom, when, and where in the backstory.

Maybe I'm slow. I dunno.

Oh, the voice acting was great.

Gameplay:

Honestly, a step-down from TDD. This dead-horse has been beaten before, but I dislike the removal of the inventory, sanity meter, and fuel sources. These mechanics worked well in TDD. Why get rid of them here?
The inventory provided a means for more diverse and complex puzzles. The sanity meter and lantern fuel was a source of constant worry and really added onto the atmosphere. "Do I go crazy, or risk the monster seeing me? Doesn't matter... I'm almost out of lantern fuel!"

And, oh my god, the lack of item-interaction infuriated me. It broke the experience in a way that now the world didn't feel "real".

TDD provided an immersive experience, in that you could interact with the world in a realistic manner. Pushing a beam aside, making a barricade with crates, or picking up a handsaw.

Next to none of this was in AMFP and I sorely missed it.

The monsters and overall horror, and atmosphere:

Scary at first when all I heard were their noises and all I saw was the lantern flicker. Afterwards they felt, I dunno, stale? I had been desensitized by multiple encounters that posed no danger. Their form had sunk into my mind as non-threatening.

TDD easily trumps AMFP here. The grunt and brute retained their terrifying aspects throughout because almost every single encounter posed serous danger, even if I simply glanced towards them. And the hunting music...man that was scary.

As for scares and the dangerous monster encounters...Eh...they were ok. Nothing really "got me good" or stood out as exceptionally terrifying. (Mostly due to not having to worry about sanity or lamp fuel.)

*edit*
Puzzles:

There were some pretty cool ones! They felt refreshing and provided a, new, unique experience.
However, simplistic "turn the wheel" puzzles seemed too frequent.


Sound & music:

Both were excellent. =) The squeals and beautiful compositions sent chills down my spine.

Overall, not a BAD game. I can see that a lot of work was put into it. However, it's a step down from it predecessor. =/
Just my thoughts.