Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs

A Machine For Pigs is an almost flawless exercise in lurking horror that’ll send shivers down your (wait for it) swine.

A cerebral and spooky sequel that expands on the franchise’s story and themes, while slightly dialing down the terror.

The blood curdling story which has you twisting between empathy and loathing is truly fantastic, and it’s one of the best reasons to put aside any fears you may have and play this great game.

A Machine For Pigs is a terrific survival horror experience, a game that horror fans should not miss.

Incredibly tense horror with a smart story and great use of sound. [Dec 2013, p.72]

Grand in ambition but focused in execution, A Machine For Pigs is a terrific slice of Victorian industrial horror that will stay with you even as you try to sleep with the lights on.

Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs has its faults as a game, but as an experience it can’t be faulted. [Oct 2013]

Though its sharp fangs of resource management may have been dulled, in place of the swift bite is a deeper, more haunting world that will linger with me much longer than the original.

Played with one’s thinking cap on, A Machine for Pigs is sure to horrify even when it doesn’t frighten.

A perfect clash of Dear Esther and Amnesia, focused on straining your nerves while easing - perhaps a tad too much - on the interaction and gameplay. [Issue#234]

Familiar design that's thankfully still thoroughly unsettling. You'll never look at bacon the same way gain. [Oct 2013, p.78]

More of a side story than a full sequel, A Machine for Pigs is memorably dark, disturbing, and bizarre.

Does what Amnesia: The Dark Descent did, and then some. We think that’s a good thing. Our underwear (yes, we share the same pair of underwear) begs to differ.

Scary as hell, but not so much like its predecessor The Dark Descent - considered one of the scariest games ever made -, this Machine for Pigs is truly a terrifying Lovecraftian tale of Victorian and industrial horror, with unthinkable machines, mad doctors and more, but with some wrong design decisions.

This is a captivating adventure, but it's also a very dark and disturbing one that touches on depressing real-world themes and doles out psychological horror along with monsters and gore. Still, this gives the game added depth and a literary weight that elevates it well above much of the horror genre in general, especially in a game that arrives without much pretension and with a plot device about murderous pig-men.

Its systems are deeply simplified, its sense of dread less all-encompassing. But it still leaves a lasting impression. The horror it filled me with was more subtle and insidious, and it's not going to be out of my system for many days to come.

After an hour of 'easy' exploration, you welcome back the real survival horror of Amnesia.

The Chinese Room proves once again that it has wonderful, affecting stories to tell and can create environments that ooze atmosphere. The same could be said of some of the horror film genre’s best directors. However, A Machine for Pigs guides players along the bloody processing line too strictly, removing the impact of interactivity.

The best way to enjoy Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs is to treat it like an interactive movie. Just don’t expect any scares in this otherwise impressive drama.

Quotation forthcoming.

However while The Chinese Room have attempted to make their Amnesia a purer horror experience they’ve merely succeeded in removing all the actual gameplay along with the first game’s brilliant sanity meter.

It is not as terrorizing and suspenseful as the predecessor but A Machine for Pigs still has its moments, while telling a grotesque horror-story.

Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs isn't as much of a game as its predecessor, and gets less frightening after a while. If you wouldn't have to change your underwear 17 times we'd even go as far as to describe this as an interactive novel. At those times the game shines with an intelligent and nauseating storyline. It's just a shame that gameplay elements from The Dark Decent were unnecessarily sacrificed for that.

Now it's a narrative-driven game we still recommend, even though there's little to be found of what made the original Amnesia such an outstanding survival horror. In fact, we don't really know if it should have been called Amnesia.