[Reviews] Amnesia – A Machine For Pigs

[Ossie]

Just read through a bunch of reviews before coming here. Sounds like it's pretty agreed that the game takes a more subtle approach to its horror and focuses more on a horrifying/disturbing story. Which, bums me out that most take it as a negative. Almost sounds like Silent Hill 2 compared to Silent Hill. Can't wait to play it tomorrow to judge for myself.

Quite. But this is a little of what I feared - basically some people (remember that many of Amnesia's audience are teenagers) are looking for shallow jumpscares as some are unable (or unwilling) to invest in a story and more subtle, psychological horror. Their loss I guess!

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A major French PC gaming mag (Canard PC) calls it:

"bad, linear, pretentious, no gameplay and nothing like the first one"

Pretentious? A game?

It's a word commonly used by the uneducated to make their own opinion seem sophisticated and important when they are really trying to cover up the fact that they didn't understand the game's narrative or what it was trying to put across. Dear Esther was often called pretentious, and I've even seen people call Journey pretentious. The film The Fountain is also often called pretentious. I love Dear Esther, Journey and The Fountain - not sure what that says about me though ... pretentious?

But back to the reviews ........

Cinemablend:

4.5/5

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Amnesia...58938.html

"Stripping away stealth and puzzle elements sounds bad but The Chinese Room is actually adding by subtracting. The lack of actual challenge in the game means that the player is free to just take in every detail of this frightening world. You see every blood splatter and hear every footstep. It's an intense, nerve-wracking experience even without a monster chasing you down every corridor.

The horror genre is in sorry shape these days, with developers adulterating it with action and co-op in order to sell more copies. What The Chinese Room has done with Machine for Pigs is deliver a pure horror story. The game aims to do one thing and one thing only: frighten you. It does it well, too."