Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs is a survival horror video game, developed by The Chinese Room and published by Frictional Games. It was released on the 10th of September 2013 for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. Shipping was at first speculated to be early 2013 but was pushed to a later date due to both the "overwhelming response" and Frictional Games' desire to meet the expectations of the public. It was delayed further due to the increase in game size from "experimental game" to "a full-fledged Amnesia game".
The game is an "indirect sequel" to The Dark Descent set in the same universe, but featuring different characters at a later period in time.
The plot of A Machine for Pigs follows the amnesiac protagonist, Oswald Mandus, as he explores the labyrinthine and grimy streets of London and industrial tunnels underneath, looking for his missing children while trying to solve various puzzles, avoid hybrid monsters, and avert catastrophe. Throughout the game, more and more of Mandus's past is revealed. Like the previous game, Mandus has no means of self-defense, but must use hiding, running, and his wits to survive.
A Machine for Pigs was critically well recieved upon release, with some negative attention for what some viewed as stripped-down gameplay, a lack of real threat, and technical flaws, but also with positive attention focused on its story, atmosphere, and thematic depth.[2][3][4]
The game was released for PlayStation 4 on November 22, 2016, as part of the Amnesia: Collection, which also includes Amnesia: The Dark Descent and its expansion Amnesia: Justine. The Amnesia: Collection was released for Xbox One on September 28, 2018 and for the Nintendo Switch on September 12, 2019. The Amnesia: Collection release for PS4 brought Trophies to the game, which was later added to the PC release as Achievements, which also made it onto the Xbox One version when it was released.
Gameplay[]
Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs is a survival horror game involving stealth elements and psychological scares. It uses the same engine as The Dark Descent. There are a few jump scares but the game, like others in its class, depends more on the atmosphere, music and pacing. The monster AI and gameplay mechanics in this game differ from that of The Dark Descent.
Unlike The Dark Descent, players no longer have sanity (therefore unaffected by levels of light and witnessing disturbing events), an inventory system, the ability to collect and combine items, nor a way to monitor health. However, like the previous game, players are still able to collect and read notes, use a journal as objective reminders, use dark areas to more easily hide from enemies, and move physical objects around. Light still attracts enemies, causing players to resort to strategy and stealth in many areas.
Puzzles[]
Enemies[]
Plot[]
Setting[]
The game takes place in London. Set in 1899 on New Year's Eve (60 years after The Dark Descent), the game follows Oswald Mandus, a wealthy industrialist, who has recently returned from a disastrous expedition to Mexico, where tragedy struck. Hit by fever, Mandus has frequent dreams about a dark machine until he regains consciousness. Little does he know that months have passed, and upon awakening, he hears his children calling for him to find them.
Storyline[]
Mandus wanders out of his bedroom to find his children. During his search, the house shakes, and Mandus hears a machine roar into life beneath his feet. He also receives mysterious telephone calls, which at first are cryptic, but then tell him that his children are trapped in the bowels of the machine, and to rescue them he must repair it.
Heading down into the depths, Mandus slowly regains his memories and encounters the monstrous porcine slaves that patrol the corridors and catwalks. When Mandus finally reactivates the machine, he realizes that he was betrayed; his children had been murdered by him before he slipped into a fever, and the guiding voice was the other half of his soul combined with the machine.
Now fully functional, the machine unleashes an army of pigmen onto London, killing any and all they come across and sending them down to feed the machine's monstrous appetite. Oswald, realizing that he was the one who created the machine, returns underground to destroy it once and for all. The Machine pleads with him to reconsider, as he reveals Oswald murdered his sons after he was shown a vision of their future deaths in World War I. But Oswald realizes he has no right to take the fate of humanity into his own hands, and in his final act of redemption and guilt, he deactivates the Machine. As the world enters the 20th century, Mandus and the machine both lay dead far beneath the streets of London.
Ending(s)[]
Unlike other games in the series, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs has only one ending in the final project. Voice lines for alternate endings remain in the files of the game; however, the other endings were cut at some point during development.
Characters[]
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Locations[]
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Inside Oswald's Mansion:
The city outside: Mandus Company Meat Processing Factory, first descent: |
Manpig massacre:
Mandus Company Meat Processing Factory, second descent:
Epilogue:
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Development[]
Writing[]
Programming[]
Voice cast[]
Audio[]
- Main article: A Machine For Pigs: Soundtrack
Release[]
Marketing[]
- Main article: Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs/Marketing
Initially codenamed as "gameB", the announcement of A Machine for Pigs was preceded by a viral marketing and alternate reality game campaign that began when Frictional Games updated their website Next Frictional Game, which had prior been used to announce the first instalment, in early 2012. The website featured a heavily blurred image, the Amnesia logo and a caption reading "Something is emerging...".
Examination of the site's source code led fans to a webpage that resembled a computer console with usable commands and a countdown. After the expiration of the countdown, a message on the page read "A machine for pigs coming fall two thousand twelve." The game was formally announced via video game blog Joystiq.
On June 14, 2012, the first teaser trailer was released on the frictionalgames YouTube channel. It showed various scenes from the game, from industrial settings to more studious rooms. Also unveiled was the website for the game. On October 31, 2012, to coincide with Halloween, a second trailer was posted to the frictionalgames YouTube channel.
Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs was given the launch date of September 10th, and became available for pre-order through Steam GOG Desura GameFly Gamer's Gate Mac Game Store and via the Humble Store on their webpage, at a 20% discount of the announced launch price of $20, making it $16 through these pre-order deals. The games full box art was posted to their Facebook page a day later.
Availability[]
Reception[]
| Reception | |
|---|---|
| Aggregate scores | |
| Aggregator | Score |
| Metacritic | PC: 72/100[5] |
| Review scores | |
| Publication | Score |
| Adventure Gamers |   [6]
|
| Eurogamer | 7/10[7] |
| Game Informer | 7.75/10[8] |
| IGN | 8.3/10[9] |
| PC Gamer (UK) | 89%[10] |
| GamesRadar+ |  [11]
|
| Gamespot | 8/10[12] |
| Polygon | 8/10[13] |
| Forbes | 8/10[14] |
Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs received mixed to positive reception. IGN gave the game 8.3/10, calling it a "wonderfully unsettling dip into the world of psychological horror", giving praise to the game's atmosphere, environment and "macabre [and] savagely poignant story", while criticizing The Chinese Room's removal of a lot of the mechanics from the first game, as well as the game's simple and dissatisfying puzzles.[9] Kotaku's Kirk Hamilton called the game's story a "wonderfully macabre indictment of the industrial revolution" and described it as "Upton Sinclair's The Jungle meets H.G. Wells' The Island of Doctor Moreau."[3] The game scored 72/100 on Metacritic by the 59 sampled critic reviews, while the user reviews were more mixed, holding (as of May 2023) a 5.9 out of 10.[15]
Trivia[]
Gallery[]
Video[]
See also[]
- The Chinese Room
- Frictional Games
- Amnesia series:
- Penumbra series:
- SOMA
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs – English credits
- ↑ Campbell, C. "Review: Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs". Accessed 9 October 2024. Published 10 September 2013. Rely On Horror. https://www.relyonhorror.com/reviews/review-amnesia-a-machine-for-pigs/.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Hamilton, K. "Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs: The Kotaku Review." Kotaku, G/O Media Inc. Accessed 26 February 2023. Published 9 September 2013. https://kotaku.com/amnesia-a-machine-for-pigs-the-kotaku-review-1274112886.
- ↑ Rossignol, J. "Wot I Think: Amnesia - A Machine For Pigs". Accessed October 2024. Published 9 September 2013. Rock Paper Shotgun, Gamer Network Ltd. https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/wot-i-think-amnesia-a-machine-for-pigs.
- ↑ "Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs for PC Reviews." Accessed 26 February 2023. Metacritic. https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/amnesia-a-machine-for-pigs.
- ↑ "Review for Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs". Accessed 26 February 2023. Published 16 September 2013. Adventure Gamers. https://adventuregamers.com/articles/view/25259.
- ↑ "Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs Review". Eurogamer. Accessed 26 February 2023. Published 9 September 2013. https://www.eurogamer.net/amnesia-a-machine-for-pigs-review.
- ↑ "Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs Review - Jumping At Shadows". Accessed 12 May 2023. Published 9 September 2013. Gameinformer. https://www.gameinformer.com/games/amnesia_a_machine_for_pigs/b/pc/archive/2013/09/09/jumping-at-shadows.aspx.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs Review". Accessed 26 February 2023. Published 10 September 2013. IGN.com. https://www.ign.com/articles/2013/09/10/amnesia-a-machine-for-pigs-review.
- ↑ "Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs review". Accessed 26 February 2023. Published 9 September 2013. PC Gamer. https://www.pcgamer.com/amnesia-a-machine-for-pigs-review/.
- ↑ "Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs Review". Accessed 26 February 2023. Published 9 September 2013. GamesRadar+. https://www.gamesradar.com/amnesia-a-machine-for-pigs-review/.
- ↑ "Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs Review". Accessed 26 February 2023. Published 8 October 2013. Gamespot. https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/amnesia-a-machine-for-pigs-review/1900-6414003/.
- ↑ "Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs Review: Pearls Before Swine". Accessed 26 February 2023. Published 9 September 2013. Polygon. https://www.polygon.com/2013/9/9/4709464/amnesia-machine-for-pigs-review.
- ↑ "Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs' Review (PC)". Accessed 26 February 2023. Published 9 September 2013. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/games/2013/09/09/amnesia-a-machine-for-pigs-review-pc/.
- ↑ "Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs for PC Reviews." Metacritic. Accessed 12 May 2023. https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/amnesia-a-machine-for-pigs.
External links[]
- Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs official website
- Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs GOG storepage
- Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs Steam storepage
- Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs Wikipedia article
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