AMFP Member Review Thread

[SliceAndDice]

I'm around 4 1/2 hours into the game, so I'm not done yet, but I seriously doubt that there will be anything groundbreaking that will change my mind.

I can't really put my finger on it, but I feel like there is too much amiss. The game itself is not bad and I don't regret buying it but it is not a worthy successor to TDD... It feels almost tame compared to TDD. Like a nice Adventure Game and not a Survival Horror what I expected it to be.
I'll also never understand why they removed the sanity, the oil and tinderboxes and the WHOLE inventory at that?! All of those added a lot to the terror and atmosphere! Especially the sanity which reminded me of Eternal Darkness.

I do want to mention that there is a few things that I like after that little rant. The Soundtrack is excellent (Mr. Burns ) and the game looks really nice. This helps the atmosphere a lot. The Pigmen? seem to be smarter and are harder to avoid than the Grunt and Brute, which I enjoy greatly, since my old strategy of sneaking and hiding in the shadows failed quite a few times versus the Pigs.

At this rate, I'd give it a 5/10 while I would rate TDD with an 8/10.
I WILL edit this if anything groundbreaking happens during the last few hours of the game, but I seriously doubt it.

(Outlast is next. Let's hope this one will not disappoint...)

[Cuyir]

Excellent game.

Pros:
Thick atmosphere, well written, interesting, scary,disturbing, mindfucky, etc. etc. etc. Surprisingly enough felt like Amnesia till the ending, then it turned into a obviously TCR developed and written game (in a gooooooooooooooooood way).

Cons:
I didn't run into any bugs per se but I got physically stuck in the geometry a few times, which forced me to reload the game.

Lack of puzzles both worked for and against the game but I still missed them enough.

Regenerating health was out of place but I understand its inclusion.

Overall, highly satisfied with the game. Still unsure of what i'd give it out of 10, but it'd be between 8.5 and 9.

And because everyone's bringing up TDD: TDD 8/10

[zico]

Since my Review spans over the whole game, I'll put it in a giant Spoiler tag.

Please forgive several typos and grammar issues as
a) I am not a native English speaker and
b) my my is still trembling from the experience.

Amnesia - A Machine for Pigs
was truly an amazing and extraordinary experience.

Here's why:

Spoiler below!

The game lived and fed by it's story similar to the machine fed on life and my own mind while playing.

This game caused immense reactions in me. When starting in the Mansion I admit I DID NOT expect these children to be still alive anymore. But that didn't really kill anything for me. In fact I was surely noticing how Mandus himself was already far off the edge and so I sometimes asked myself if Mandus himself was still alive, if I was playing a "remnant" or maybe a totally different character.

I wanted to find out where the game led me and during the experience in the mansion I was fully immersed already. In fact when reaching the second map of the mansion I was pretty much sure the game would offer me the first chase with a monster since the layout would have been almost perfect for it. But it didn't and hell I am glad for it. Cause there was the chance that this may have gone wrong and spoil everything that was coming.

I gotta tell you I stayed away from many images of the game. Still I was somewhat sure the monsters would be pigs. But I wasn't sure of the details. In fact actually I suspected these enemies being TDD Gatherers with the pig masks which haunt you from the beginning.

So I went to the church and down to the basement. Along the way I got pretty unnerved already - especially by the semi encounter in that warehouse which gave me a pretty good impression on how FAST such an enemy would be. Descending the stairs made me jump when I saw a Pig rushing along. In fact I was more startled. I wasn't convinced this would be a monster since I expected those to walk on two legs. Going deeper I heard it, I saw moving shadows and yet I wasn't fully afraid. Hey, it's just a pig. ... even tho it was a very big one I saw ... maybe it's a bore. Then my light flickered and in the ambient light I saw this dark shape..... rising... standing up!

I KILLED my lantern and rushed to the next corner, listening to both the steps and the beat of my heart. Eventually my heart-beating went calm... but these steps were still there. IMMEDIATELY my heart was pumping again: This thing will not go away! There is no "search music" either! It's NOT GOING AWAY! If *I* don't slip along, I cannot proceed!

I gotta say this was when I was extremely shocked and totally amazed at the same time. Eventually I snuck by that thing and made my way to the factory which got me more encounters with these pigs.

By the time I reached the Bilge I got most of my fears covered. I had my first death behind me and I started to get "used" to them. However this occurred in the most perfectly and well considered moment. By that time I was fully engulfed by the narration - aware of the machine, disgusted of these disturbing events, unnerved by machine sounds and the mask which seemed to follow my every move. Things started to fall in place and still more questions were rising.

I have to say at this point that I never had a problem with the blue haze, many seem to complain about. I felt this was truly contributing to the atmosphere. After all this is not the story of a man but a machine. Cold as ice. Sterile I am tempted to say even tho many parts of the game are anything BUT sterile. So I felt this blue fog was VERY much fitting the atmosphere. But I was a bit confused why it was used THAT much everywhere. Until it occurred to me: The machine was EVERYWHERE, too.

And I put new life in it.

By that time the fear of monsters ceased and terror of Mandus' - and my own - actions befell me. I must say I really gotta compliment how Chinese Room managed to perfectly orchestrate the usage of the monsters as their encounters, the amount of encounters and my personal relation with them in terms of fear and interactions match perfectly my FIGHT against the machine... if that makes sense to you. In a way these pigs symbolized the machine. First I was afraid, then I accepted them and after they had beaten me, I took the fight to them - in the moment they took the fight against humanity. In the Pigline Mandus and I even KILLED one of these - once more symbolizing how Mandus was fighting the machine.

After that however the fear came back. Deeper in the bowels of the machine, that silence, more frequent flicker of the lights... Then this giant Tesla Pig was flashing into existence. I was truly horrified and I have to say I cowered in a corner and have that thing slaughter me. Only the second time I found the strength to fight back.

I won and I went to the heart of the machine, fully seeing the big picture. Something ends, something begins - the dawn of a new century - with a whimper of the machine.

I admit it still leaves me with questions I hope I'll find answers in my second Playtrough.


And I am sure on this new adventure I will be able to understand many things more clearly. The story was really well crafted and this is how the game painted true horror and terror in my head. Actually it's very similar to a specific event in TDD. The torture rooms. If you recall, in that event the game only uses audio, flashbacks, text to paint images of absolute, inhuman violence. This is especially powerful due to the atmosphere you experience in the Choir (or was it the Nave? I always mess these map names up). You have a lot of monsters there and I was totally beaten at this point, nerves almost cracking. That was a perfect setup for the torture scenes.

A Machine fror Pigs was using this very much, too. Even tho in a much more subtle but not less effective way. You have the machines, constantly hissing, trembling, creating startling sounds which made me wonder what kind of cues indicating danger they may hide. And all the notes, conversations, monologues were painting this image of that... world... these events - this machine for pigs. Some notes were downright confusing, some disturbing, most however were BOTH at the same time if read between the lines.

I loved every moment of it.

But I can also see why some don't. As I implied the story is a heavy factor here and the monster encounters were ... just not the SAME as in TDD. TDD was much more a straightforward game, pushing you under constant pressure, not giving you any space to breathe. In fact TDD was always the game for me where nothing you can do is RIGHT. You cannot fight the monsters. You gotta hide in the dark. And if you do, you'll lose sanity. Heck you cannot even look at them. A Machine for Pigs is TOTALLY different - as stated above. It's truly a game which lives more by it's story, narration and the thick-as-blood atmosphere created by the former. And by that I DO NOT WANT TO SAY: "If you don't like it you are just not smart enough for it."

Actually I think that it's very easy for the game to miss "the spot" where the game sparks your immersion. The whole reading between the lines again - in connection with the colourful but difficult language. Heck I had to read many notes two or three times.
But IF you fall in love with the game it's truly an outstanding experience.

I did not miss the inventory, I didn't miss the sanity meter - heck, Mandus was completely insane anyways - or anything else. If A Machine for Pigs would be any more like TDD, THIS game would not have worked.

And so I am glad this game turned out as it did. It's a different game and I very much appreciate it. Like I said if it would have been Descent, it would not have been the Machine. Also it's really great these games differ so that it's not that easy to draw parallels. Often when playing a sequel - one which is really good - I always get some sort of disappointment playing the original again due to the fact that it just doesn't have the improvements, dimension or whatever the sequel offers. And exactly the opposite is the case with a "bad" sequel. In this case both games are totally different cakes offering a totally different experience. And still I am glad they take place in the same universe. It just feels right and I think there is still enough connecting the to. In fact it takes A LOT to separate games. Much more than it takes to make connections. You always compare games to others. Willingly or unwillingly. For this you only take a few cues and that's enough to compare, judge, form expectations. Machine has a lot that separates it from Descent but also enough to make connections. So I am glad they did what they did in that regard.

So yeah, I know this was a very ... confused ... text. Heck, this wasn't even a "review". But please mind you, I just finished and what I wrote - I am still shaken inside. I am not making this up. Call me pussy if you wish. Say I am sugarcoating the game. I am not. I had a very powerful experience with this game. And one I am very happy I went down this road.

Thank you Frictional Games. And Thank YOU The Chinese Room!

[Nospheratu]

To be honest, while i enjoyed the game and found some of it's parts very satisfactory, the distinct abscence of some other parts led to my verdict being an overall 6 out of 10 (like i voted).

A quick recap of the pro's & con's in my opinion:

THE GOOD

• the visual department - i loved the victorian era & steampunk style as well as the inclusion of the outside world (walking in the streets)
• the sound department - sounds & music were lavish and very well made, although i'll have something negative to say on this later on
• the underlying allusions - as a reader of Orwell's Animal farm i appreciated the man/pig and social class exploitation notions

THE BAD

• the all too predictable plot twists
• the too simple puzzles
• too little horror - even the psychological kind; there were only two notes which i found disturbing enough to dwell on them for a while (sh*t & pixies)
• the cheesy music inserts - when the organ started playing at the church, i cracked a smile at that, but when the "punchline" music started playing at each major point which the developers tried to "hammer in", i was kind of rolling my eyes (even though the music in itself was very good)
  

THE UGLY

• the removal of game mechanics - if you would at least get blurred vision or have trouble coordinating your character while looking at an enemy, that would give them more merrit
• the removal of interaction with objects - as i mentioned in another thread, not being able to pick up any box or flowerpot broke the immersion for me more than any inventory could
• the lost story potential -
  Spoiler below!
  

  i was delighted when i found the reactor (i recognized it right away) and got even more intrigued when i heard the text about splitting the atom, the pile soon going critical and the great burning;
  
  i expected an appropriate optional ending to be present, but sadly it got removed, leaving some players somewhat dissapointed with the only alternative left.

TL;DR: This game had huge potential and would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for those meddling chinese (Scooby Doo pun intended). They should definitely have left out the "Amnesia" part in the name; it would have probably been received much better in such a case. I hope for a future DLC with the alternative ending, more object interactivity and possibly insanity effects. My 2 cents.

Edit: i rephrased some stuff so i don't sound too harsh since i found it to be a good game in it's own right.

[Nice]

I'll share my review but lemme comment on some of yours

All the "I was so dissapointed to not see inventory and CS and tinderboxes, i almost got a heart attack!"

First of all, they already said what the game will NOT have like 1 or 2 months before release and yet people still act shocked about it

Second, you want tinderboxes, oil, terror meter, sanity...What next? Brute? Grunt? Sorry but i believe FG wanted to try out something new otherwise this whole game would be no different than a custom story for amnesia if you know what i mean.

Enough reviewing other reviews

My personal, short review:

I was kinda surprised on how interaction was very limited but then i found out that if it wasnt, the puzzles would be impossible to solve due to no inventory. Think about it, if you could carry and grab EVERY single item in a puzzle game with no inventory...Well..You're in for a rough time.

The puzzles were not hard to solve it was pretty straight forward and quite repetitive. Spin the wheel, insert the cog or insert the battery, dont forget the pull the lever ofc. But then again, this game was not made for strictly puzzle solving so its okay. I bought it to explore a dark world, hear a story and get scared, not to solve puzzles. That's just me.

The music and sounds were TOO dramatic, complex and loud for my taste. For a horror game i prefer simble but disturbing music/ambience playing in the background. ATDD imo completely dominates AAMFP as far as ambience, sounds and music go.

Monster:

The problem here, atleast to me was that the monster was very predictable. Ofc it's a pig, and on top of that, it was the only monster in the game. When i played ATDD i was scared senseless because i did not know what to expect. Is there something that can come out of small openings or ceiling? are there ghosts? and so on and so forth. As for AAMFP i was pretty much prepared, i could safely assume the monster will be either half pig on 2 legs or half pig on 4 legs and was prepared to deal with it once i meet it.

The ending was better than ATDD, although i dont think i fully grasped the story
One type of scare was VERY repetitive, the "monster runs past by" or you get a glimpse for a quick second and then it vanishes.

I dont have time right now to get into great detail, i might edit the post later but to put it in short now:

From my review it might look like i'm completely hating on the game, that's not true. In my review i pointed out the bad stuff but this game has good stuff aswell.

It wasn't better than ATDD at all, but you have to consider the fact that ATDD was extremely beyond awesome.

The game was far from bad or dull, i give it a 7/10.

Here's also something for you whiny piggies that should know: This game was never ment to be something really big, if i'm not mistaken it was ment to be something a bit more than DLC but that's about it. They never planned for it to be something huge, their current project will take place for that.

Anyway, heads up FG and the chinese room i await your next product with excitement

[AngelOfPh34r]

Not done with the game yet, but i'm disappointed by the game so far, just in the play. Sure it's prettier, but we can't pick up ALL the things like before, and it's been oversimplified in other ways which in my opinion makes it TOO easy. I miss picking up oil for a dying lantern, medicine for injuries, etc. (for those of you suggesting an electric lantern, it still needs a power source) Without all these obstacles, everything is just plainly too easy. Even the puzzles aren't as difficult as before... And the map is way too linear. After waiting so many years for the game to come out... I'm just disappointed.

[JawlessWarrior]

Editing this in after writing: Anyone concerned about spoilers should skip over this. I know I used spoiler tags, but I've mentioned some smaller details throughout that I just don't feel like picking out. Read at your own risk.

Finally finished my second playthrough and got my thoughts together about the game. Probably going to be long.

One thing I was expecting but never really got was to be scared to tears. I have already played through it twice, whereas in the original I couldn't play for longer than half an hour a day. The pig monsters were creepier looking than the grunts or brutes in my opinion, but they were never really a threat. I saw it as more of a stealth thriller than a horror game, and thus never really got scared. I had moments of panic in some places, but none where it made me want to stop playing or moving forward. I feel if there were a couple more monster encounters in the game and if the areas the monsters did patrol were more complex and maze-like I'd be much more hesitant when playing.

Spoiler below!

Specifically the area with the cages disappointed me the most - so much could have been done with the way the player progressed past this area, like dead ends and perhaps an event trigger where a cage locks you in and the sound piques the monsters interest.

However, the AI has noticeably improved from the original game and I am very happy about that. It adds some more replayability, something I feel TDD lacked. I just hope the code and monster models make their way into custom stories.

Next I am going to talk about the plot and character development. Just gonna spoiler tag the whole thing.

Spoiler below!

The plot and atmosphere was significantly more dense and brooding than TDD. In TDD I never felt there was much at stake besides my own life (a killer/torturer turned good) but in AMFP, the whole world is potentially in peril and I wanted to save it. I wanted to know what happened to my children, my memories, and I wanted to shut that damn machine down. It was much more good vs evil while in TDD it felt morally grey, but not in a good way such as The Punisher's method of taking down crime.

In TDD, I didn't feel the hatred for Alexander as I did the machine in AMFP. I know many people had trouble understanding the plot, but after my second playthrough and watching some videos/reading some stuff I think I have a good grip on it. It was definitely complex, perhaps a bit too complex. But I loved it and I loved the writing style they chose for Mandus' journals. The way he spoke was just unique and refreshing, and really added to his character in my opinion.

Probably my favorite part of AMFP was the character of the monsters. They weren't mindless drones that just kill kill kill. They had personalities and some even were a bit funny (kind of out of place for an Amnesia game though). I'm thinking of the part of the game when you are going through what looks to be their living quarters. It added a little more life and realism to these 'monsters' and gave a little more depth. Sure, some of the interactions could've been done better but I think the game greatly benefited from its inclusion overall.

The most disappointing part for me was also the monsters, as I've already said. They weren't scary. However the one area where I feel they were terribly misused was the part when you go outside to see them raiding London. None of them were threats to me. And perhaps it was the limitations of the engine but I didn't get a good sense of scale from the level, which is what I think they were trying to deliver. This was the only part where I feel the game really failed, but I can see that they tried.

That brings me to my next point: the animations! Huge improvement, considering there were no unique animations in TDD. The pig monsters were killing people, grabbing things, eating... Was not expecting that. Its the small details that I can appreciate, and the animations were a home-run.

Gameplay-wise, the game felt a little shallow. It could have benefited from more complex puzzles, perhaps a cool physics based puzzle that requires heavy thinking but gives you that awesome "AHA!" moment. But no, they were all pretty straightforward and easy. The only reason for exploration was notes (TOTALLY worth it though).

I am extremely glad they did away with tinderboxes and oil. I see some people complaining that it was the 'survival' in 'survival-horror' or that it gave you something to worry about. Really it didn't. I had dozens of tinderboxes by the end of TDD (never used them) and lantern oil was more annoying than anything. In AMFP at least there is a very valid reason to turn it off. The only times it was off for me in TDD were when I was out of oil or when I was hiding. But again, it wasn't scary or even a cool feature. It was just annoying.

Another thing I think could have been done very well was the exclusion of an inventory. They could have pulled off some interesting puzzles without it, but they didn't. I can see why it wasn't included (and I am so thankful there aren't any damn keys in the game), but if I had to choose I'd rather go with an inventory system with complex puzzles rather than the shallow stuff we got in AMFP.

I give Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs a 7/10. It wasn't Amnesia. The plot, atmosphere, music, character development, and animations are fanflippintastic but it wasn't scary. It was more stealth thriller than horror at many points. There were improvements in a lot of areas compared to the original, but it changed too much.

I give A Machine for Pigs a 9.5/10. Huh!? Yes, thats right. If I take away the Amnesia name, this game is so much better. I don't have the expectations of horror and nightmares. I don't have any expectations at all really, its a brand new game. What I get is a great storyline following a character I care about who is selflessly trying to stop the end of the world at the hands of a machine he himself built. The gameplay is essentially based on exploration with some stealth thriller (which I never said was bad) elements thrown in.

The Good:
- No more tinderboxes/oil. It was never a fun mechanic and it should stay gone. And to the people complaining about not being able to pick up everything and its grandmother, who cares!? Why is that relevant to the gameplay? Throwing a chair across the room is fun I guess to see the physics engine at work, but it was never a huge part of the game in TDD.
- Plot is significantly improved.
- Animations (for me) were surprisingly excellent and added so much more the character/personality of the monsters.
- Voice acting/writing was top notch. Easily the most well written notes I've seen in any game.
- Atmosphere was perfect. The world could some to an end, and I felt like it really could if I didn't complete my mission.
- Didn't mention this before, but I am very happy there was no 'sanity' effect. It felt really forced in TDD and considering that AMFP isn't all too scary, it would be sorely out of place.

The Bad:
- Not really an Amnesia title.
- Environments could use a little more complexity, especially around monster encounters.

A great AAA quality game. Most of the criticism stems from the title of the game rather than the game itself. I loved every second of it, but it was not the sequel to TDD. I have to give props to thechineseroom. They deviated from the source material a little too much but created a bada$$ game nonetheless.

I apologize for any spelling/grammatical errors/any gameplay mechanic or plot device I left out. Very tired but this was the best time for me to write this.

Edit: Also I don't care what you say but electro-pig was friggin awesome. Loved the mechanic and story to it, I just wish it was more of a threat.

2nd Edit: Also wanted to address people complaining about length. I don't know about you, but it took me 7 hours total to complete TDD on my first playthrough. AMFP took me about 6, 6.5. Now take into consideration that the puzzles in TDD required an inventory and were more complex. However, they usually boiled down to running around a series of rooms over and over until you found what you needed. While this did set you up for a nice scare, it also felt a little frustrating and artificially bloated the length of the game. AMFP does not have this kind of bloat, so it will obviously be shorter.

[Fortigurn]

Seven hours in, and I've just completed the room with the control rods. Additions to my working hypothesis.

Spoiler below!

The voice instructing Mandus is his alter ego (or original self, prior to the breakdown), projected either onto the Machine as Mandus attempts to distance himself psychologically from his creation, or else projected onto one of his creations, such as one of the man-pigs. Either way it was clear he was only being used to restart the machine, adding weight to my hypothesis that Mandus was responsible for disabling it in the first place, and that his darker half is now in command, urging him to restore it. The children appear to have died in Mexico, or shortly after. Mandus feels responsible, and probably was.

Ten hours in.

Spoiler below!

I'm certain now that Mandus killed his children, prompted by his discoveries in Mexico. This was flagged in the opening sequence ('Daddy, daddy please don't kill me'), and his suggestion to his children that the ruined civilization he investigated fell as a result of not sacrificing enough children. There's obviously some missing information somewhere along the line here, but putting together hints from the earliest part of the game and a few more recent notes, it's possible he subsequently tried to put them back together again, or replicate them or something, using the Machine.

Nevertheless, the purpose of the Machine remains obscure, though its eventual use as a recycling of the upper classes is obvious enough. I'm still not sure exactly how or why that goal came to be, and the most obscure part is why Mandus would do all this, then suddenly regret it, sabotage the Machine, then go back to bed and promptly forget all about it, only to be woken by the Machine getting him to repair all the work he has done (whilst remaining completely ignorant of everything which had gone before). Then he has to sabotage it all over again! In TDD Daniel's amnesia was carefully orchestrated by the potion which was a main part of the story, but I see nothing yet in the narrative of MFP which explains Mandus' sudden reversal, let alone his complete amnesia.

I have a feeling the plot will end with quite a few threads still unraveled, and as the game continues to lean in a mystico-philosophical direction, I will not be surprised to see it taking refuge in a certain deliberate obscurity.

[Nospheratu]

And to the people complaining about not being able to pick up everything and its grandmother, who cares!? Why is that relevant to the gameplay? Throwing a chair across the room is fun I guess to see the physics engine at work, but it was never a huge part of the game in TDD.

I'll try to clarify this becouse for me personally it actually doesn't have almost anything to do with throwing things around "being fun".

I think that one of the major traits of such games is the immersion factor - the more the player feels like he is a part of the enviroment and story in the game, the better the whole expirience becomes.

Everyone of us probably at least once in his/her life dreamed,that he/she was doing some ordinary stuff like in the dreaming persons' waking state, for instance walking around the house, doing daily chores and talking to friends and/or relatives.
Now let's say you have 2 versions of the same dream - one where you can fully interact with the enviroment and one where you can't interact with almost anything around you. In which one of those two dreams would you have figured out that you're dreaming earlier, in the normal one or in the restricted one? I for one usually think at the first sign when something is out of place in my dreams: "There's something wrong here; oh wait, i must be dreaming!".
The same thing happened to me in AMFP - i honestly wanted to immerse myself in the game just like i did in TDD, but most of time i failed to do so becouse the lack of interactivity constantly reminded me that i'm only playing a video game.

When i started playing TDD, i moved a lot of stuff around in the first couple of rooms, but later on, when i figured out that most of it doesn't do anything, i stopped poking around as much as i did in the start. But here's the thing - just by being aware that i could pick up that figurine on the top shelf at the end of the hall if i wanted to made the whole expirience much more realistic to me, even though i actually left about 90% of the stuff intact.

As for most of the interactivity being removed becouse it would make the game more taxing for computers, i fail to see why they left the chairs interactive in AMFP since that also unnecessarilly taxed the CPU and there was absolutely no use for them anyway.

Sorry for the slight offtopic, just wanted to clarify this part.

[Nice]

@Nosfer

i can see your point but the reason they disabled interaction is because of no inventory. As you may have noticed, usually only the items ment for puzzle solving are able to be picked up, which ofc makes it possible to find them.

If every single item was able to be picked up in a puzzle game with no inventory, you're in for lots of trouble.

I think they removed inventory and other stuff for the sake of trying things out, bringing something new or fresh to the table and not just something that could aswell be an Amnesia CS.

edit: which also brings me to

Speaking of "immersion", having no inventory is more immersive than having one. I dont see how a person can carry 4 cogwheels, hammer, acid, huge machine batteries in his pocket.