This game has been announced to not be a direct sequel, but instead a new story set in the same alternate history.
Set in 1899, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs follows the "wealthy industrialist" Oswald Mandus, who has returned home from "a disastrous expedition to Mexico, which has ended in tragedy." Struck by a destructive fever, Mandus is haunted by dreams of a dark machine until he mysteriously regains consciousness. Months have passed, unbeknownst to the industry tycoon, and as he emerges from his slumber the roaring engine of a mysterious machine sputters to life.
Joystiq scored an exclusive interview with the game developers!
It takes place sixty years after Amnesia: The Dark Descent at the turn of the twentieth century, yet the next game to carry the franchise's moniker will feel like familiar territory in one major respect: it is built to scare you senseless.
It's six-o-clock in the morning. My tea jolts me awake. The street outside is silent. It's serene and peaceful all around me, until I call Frictional Games designer Thomas Grip. His voice booms in my headset; he's obviously excited. This is the first time his team can talk about his upcoming project. This is how I was introduced to Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs.
Dear Esther writer Dan Pinchbeck of thechineseroom joins the call, his voice also brimming with glee. The three of us discuss game design, crowd-sourced funding, and how the two companies, Frictional Games and thechineseroom, came to work together. After a while it dawns on me that no one has told me the name of this upcoming endeavor.
I ask why we're playing the pronoun game. The title is referred to as "it" in place of any mention. Pinchbeck takes a breath to sturdy himself, almost to toss away his glee before he can properly reveal the upcoming horror title.
"It's called Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs," he says. There's silence.
Read the full interview w/ concept art at their website, don't want to steal their traffic!
If you played Frictional Games' surprise hit Amnesia: The Dark Descent, we hope you've emerged from that fetal position by now. If you have, you'll be pleased (or terrified) to learn that the developers apparently have something else up their sleeves.
A new teaser site (found at nextfrictionalgame.com) doesn't say much, but the Amnesia mention makes us wonder if it's a full-on sequel. Interestingly, if you click on the image, it takes you to this Google map of China. No hints regarding what that's about, but we're curious to see what the studio has in store next.
Also, the link on page now directs the viewer to a map pointing to Scottish island of Boreray!
Update Friday, Feb 17th:
Image is now clear and decidedly grim!
Map link is now a direct to Seattle, Washington.
Update #2
- Hidden C64 style console hidden on the page. - People figured out that promoting user THOMAS 100 times would redirect you to a zip-file called fragment_ebola.zip which contained this image.
Increasing the brightness and contrast reveals a series of hidden letters in the image. The current assumption is that these letters form the password to the console's admin account.
Hopefully the story won't suck balls and there will be more variety in enemies. While I was scared like a pansy really far in, I soon learned that just running around or really fast past them worked out really easily and just killed the game for me.
If they really up their game, this will be amazing!
On February 12 2012 14:56 matiK23 wrote: Hmm does that mean the monster in this one will hop at you with both arms foward and an ancient chinese seal on its face?
Haha!
I'd like to hope we'll get a bit more than that -- I mean, one of the main design goals of the original was to encourage the player /not/ to look at the monsters!
Sounds awesome! I heard that they will make this less scary though, at least with monsters and stuff. They are aiming to make it more atmospheric, at least that's what I have been hearing.
I hate to be a negative nancy, but a website proves nothing. Someone did something very similar for a supposedly "Black Ops 2" a few months back, and it looked all legit like this and stuff too and was later proved to be a fake. So don't get too hyped, although I love the idea of a Chinese Amnesia.
And yes, gaming magazines also reported on the supposed Black Ops 2 website, so it's possible GameInformer could be mistaken. I would like to be proven wrong though
EDIT: Fun Fact. If you look closely at the picture, you see the face of a little girl.
On February 12 2012 14:56 matiK23 wrote: Hmm does that mean the monster in this one will hop at you with both arms foward and an ancient chinese seal on its face?
Actually, I have a source within Frictional Games; he says they have a pretty good idea of what the new monster will look like. He gave me a piece of concept art, too.
On February 12 2012 14:56 matiK23 wrote: Hmm does that mean the monster in this one will hop at you with both arms foward and an ancient chinese seal on its face?
Actually, I have a source within Frictional Games; he says they have a pretty good idea of what the new monster will look like. He gave me a piece of concept art, too.
On February 16 2012 01:50 Ryhn wrote: Looks like the teaser site updated today!
Will update OP to reflect this.
I was going to see what they updated, but was met with this image instead of the Amnesia one.
I did as the image told me, and went looking for more info at the site. In the end I had looked through all the files and sourcecode on there, trying to find stuff. I was thinking it was one of those clue game thingies, turns out it really was an error image or at least, it seems like it was since I couldn't find anything of interest.
However, I thought that Frictional Games was going on about how they were going to create a game with less horror elements for their next game. Guess they decided against it.
I hope this is a respectable sequel. By that, I mean that it should be only a spiritual successor and not have the same character or anything. It should also use some of the principles from the old game but not too many while also building on the ones they are using. In order for this game to be just as scary, if not (hopefully) more so, they will need to keep a large bit of the game really fresh and change up the way their monsters work a bit so we don't already know what we can expect from them (like their AI and spawning tendencies) from the prequel. Remember folks, this is Amnesia, not Deja Vu. All in all, this announcement has me worried. Designing a successful sequel to a horror game is incredibly hard, especially one like Amnesia where a good bit of the horror came from the unfamiliarity and mystery of the backstory, monsters and other things. I'm also not sure if the creation of Amnesia didn't have a good bit of luck involved with how well it ended up coming out. We'll see, though. If these guys can make a worthy successor, I have a feeling they might just be the best developers out there for horror video games. Not much has ever come out that could rival Amnesia. If they can't pull it off, though, people might just remember Amnesia 2, and not the masterpiece of an original.
Agreed. Amnesia didn't exactly leave any room for a sequel in its ending, which points to an all-new scenario in this one.
Kind of worrying that it's still called "Amnesia" though... I hope it's just a working title or for marketing purposes because another contrived memory-loss survival horror game would be a little bit weak in the storytelling department, even if it is with different plot elements otherwise.
On February 18 2012 06:12 Kyuukyuu wrote: Agreed. Amnesia didn't exactly leave any room for a sequel in its ending, which points to an all-new scenario in this one.
Kind of worrying that it's still called "Amnesia" though... I hope it's just a working title or for marketing purposes because another contrived memory-loss survival horror game would be a little bit weak in the storytelling department, even if it is with different plot elements otherwise.
From the metadata for the web page:
"Welcome to the next frictional game site, a site with information about our game projects in development. We use this site to post content about a project in development, during the period it does not have a final name decided."
This implies that it may not be named "Amnesia" -- They may just be using the name right now because people recognize it.
Also, a link to the console people assume is for the ARG:
Amnesia didn't quite do it for me. To start, I was scared out of my mind because I came into it not knowing what to expect and I was quite terrified. But after like 2 hours of playing, each monster encounter is EXACTLY like all of the other ones. They are also sometimes forced... overally they just got way too predictable and easy. The storyline was interesting to follow, but the game just got less and less scary as it went on.
I might get the second one if it is ever cheap or on sale. Hopefully they will fix the things that made their first game fall just short of amazing.
On February 23 2012 13:45 ClysmiC wrote: Amnesia didn't quite do it for me. To start, I was scared out of my mind because I came into it not knowing what to expect and I was quite terrified. But after like 2 hours of playing, each monster encounter is EXACTLY like all of the other ones. They are also sometimes forced... overally they just got way too predictable and easy. The storyline was interesting to follow, but the game just got less and less scary as it went on.
I might get the second one if it is ever cheap or on sale. Hopefully they will fix the things that made their first game fall just short of amazing.
In the interview they mention that they're mixing it up a lot to keep things scary, trying to avoid the patterns that defused the game for some players.
On February 12 2012 14:56 matiK23 wrote: Hmm does that mean the monster in this one will hop at you with both arms foward and an ancient chinese seal on its face?
Actually, I have a source within Frictional Games; he says they have a pretty good idea of what the new monster will look like. He gave me a piece of concept art, too.
On February 23 2012 13:51 jmbthirteen wrote: I can't wait to watch Day9 scream in terror again.
We must get day9 to play this one SOOO BADLY the first was he did was so awesome, i myself who was too scared to play the game watch day9 go through it and even tho some people will call me patheic or something along those lines, i just found the view through day9 way more enjoyable and just the right amount of scary for me imo day9 and amnesia is the best combo
Yeah, like the others I really want to see Day9 play through this, but before I do I really hope to experience this game legitimately. I finished Dark Descent after watching Day9 play through it and even though I knew where all the scary parts were I was still really scared. I can't imagine how it'd be like if I played the whole thing through without expectations. I just hope I'll finish it before Day9 plays it because one of the best things about Day9 playing it through was the chat!
On February 23 2012 15:05 PolskaGora wrote: Yeah, like the others I really want to see Day9 play through this, but before I do I really hope to experience this game legitimately. I finished Dark Descent after watching Day9 play through it and even though I knew where all the scary parts were I was still really scared. I can't imagine how it'd be like if I played the whole thing through without expectations. I just hope I'll finish it before Day9 plays it because one of the best things about Day9 playing it through was the chat!
For sure,. I was another person who experienced the game through Day9 after only playing a little of the game on my own.
Want to do this one right, and I sure hope it's more than a worthy successor to the original.
On February 12 2012 14:59 Torte de Lini wrote: Hopefully the story won't suck balls and there will be more variety in enemies. While I was scared like a pansy really far in, I soon learned that just running around or really fast past them worked out really easily and just killed the game for me.
If they really up their game, this will be amazing!
Yeah, I had a few legitimate frights up until that first (maybe there's more?) water area where all you see is some feet run around. I died there.I tried to hop from safe place to safe place but failed. Then I got killed, and expected to actually see the monster, but got nothing. Then I start thinking:
"So I'm supposed to be scared of footprints in the water? Lol okay."
And so I just ran through the area, and I made it. That killed it for me. I get the monster being invisible or something like that, but when it kills you, you should actually see it. You need to be able to make the connection that the feet in the water is actually a horrifying creature, that you need to be afraid of, yet there was nothing.
On February 12 2012 14:59 Torte de Lini wrote: Hopefully the story won't suck balls and there will be more variety in enemies. While I was scared like a pansy really far in, I soon learned that just running around or really fast past them worked out really easily and just killed the game for me.
If they really up their game, this will be amazing!
Yeah, I had a few legitimate frights up until that first (maybe there's more?) water area where all you see is some feet run around. I died there.I tried to hop from safe place to safe place but failed. Then I got killed, and expected to actually see the monster, but got nothing. Then I start thinking:
"So I'm supposed to be scared of footprints in the water? Lol okay."
And so I just ran through the area, and I made it. That killed it for me. I get the monster being invisible or something like that, but when it kills you, you should actually see it. You need to be able to make the connection that the feet in the water is actually a horrifying creature, that you need to be afraid of, yet there was nothing.
However I'm hyped for this game.
Well it's the same thing with the monsters. Once you know how they work - they see you, you just run in a room and shut the door - they gone forever.
I think the monsters were a litle too predictable and easy to read. They should be more random, that way they'd be more scary.
On February 12 2012 14:59 Torte de Lini wrote: Hopefully the story won't suck balls and there will be more variety in enemies. While I was scared like a pansy really far in, I soon learned that just running around or really fast past them worked out really easily and just killed the game for me.
If they really up their game, this will be amazing!
Yeah, I had a few legitimate frights up until that first (maybe there's more?) water area where all you see is some feet run around. I died there.I tried to hop from safe place to safe place but failed. Then I got killed, and expected to actually see the monster, but got nothing. Then I start thinking:
"So I'm supposed to be scared of footprints in the water? Lol okay."
And so I just ran through the area, and I made it. That killed it for me. I get the monster being invisible or something like that, but when it kills you, you should actually see it. You need to be able to make the connection that the feet in the water is actually a horrifying creature, that you need to be afraid of, yet there was nothing.
However I'm hyped for this game.
Well it's the same thing with the monsters. Once you know how they work - they see you, you just run in a room and shut the door - they gone forever.
I think the monsters were a litle too predictable and easy to read. They should be more random, that way they'd be more scary.
Sometimes the monster would break through the door, but I know what you mean.
It also didn't help that the game had some silly bugs - like if you held a barrel up in front of you, the monsters would be unable to detect you if you stayed still.
I'm still looking forward to it, the above things kind of sucked about the first Amnesia, but if they fix them then A Machine For Pigs will be a 10/10 experience.
The concept art is nice and the name is intriguing. I'm trying to imagine what a machine for pigs is. Maybe its a self sustaining machinery for breeding and slaughtering pigs for meat and something went wrong. Or maybe industry that is run by semi-intelligent pigs instead of humans for some reason. Probably not but will be fun(creepy) to find out!
I have a feeling that this "machine for pigs" doesn't have to do with pigs at all, but is rather a metaphor for something. Either way, I am amped as hell to play this game... though I'll need to purchase some new pants if I'm going to play, since my current ones will undoubtedly be soiled.
It doesn't have anything to do with pigs. Another quote that was given by the developers to explain the title was "This world is a machine fit only for pigs. Fit for the slaughtering of pigs."
Sounds great, in my opinion. First one was great, have high hopes for the second.
On February 24 2012 01:01 Aeres wrote: I have a feeling that this "machine for pigs" doesn't have to do with pigs at all, but is rather a metaphor for something.
Agreed.
"It's called Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs," he says. There's silence.
"A Machine for Pigs?" I ask. The pair start to laugh. I'm not sure if they're having a laugh at first. Grip hears the hesitation in my voice -- primarily because I wanted to make sure I got the name right -- and speaks up. He explains the first time he heard it, he was against it. "But Dan said, 'No. This is the name.' Now it has just grown on me. Now it can't be called anything else."
Pinchbeck, who is acting as lead writer and designer on the project at developer thechineseroom, explains the title and in one fell swoop my confusion in its selection is assuaged. There's a purpose to it both in a narrative sense and as a staple of Amnesia's theme: get people out of their comfort zone.
(from Joystiq.com)
^ Reading this helped me give them the benefit of the doubt on the name. At first the name sounds silly, but the more I think about it (and look at a few of the concept art pics) I get a more sinister vibe from the title. It's actually kind of fun to tell people there's a new Amnesia game coming out this year and see the look on their face when you tell them the title. "A Machine for Pigs" is definitely growing on me
The title definitely has an eerie feeling when you think about it in conjunction with Amnesia, and it's pretty smart that they named it something that will keep people thinking about it, rather than "AMNESIA 2: EVEN DARKLIER"
On February 24 2012 01:01 Aeres wrote: I have a feeling that this "machine for pigs" doesn't have to do with pigs at all, but is rather a metaphor for something. Either way, I am amped as hell to play this game... though I'll need to purchase some new pants if I'm going to play, since my current ones will undoubtedly be soiled.
Agreed.
I think that it's a metaphor for greed (greedy as a pig) and the machine part is a literal machine. Given that it's about an industrialist, and that he wakes up inside a machine, the latter we can be almost sure of. Nature of the machine is anyone's guess, mine would be it creates some sort of fuel out of people, like the previous one did to an extent.
Kind of silly, but the "Ozy Mandias" thing as the video title has me intrigued.
Thanks for the link, the name of the titular character of this game is Oswald Mandus. It nearly seems like a shorthand for his name, although some of the letters are clearly switched around (Mandus to Mandias) so that could just be bullshit.
Edit: Yeah nvm, after googling for a minute, I found that Ozymandias is a poem from the 19th century. Quote from wikipedia: "The central theme of "Ozymandias" is the inevitable complete decline of all leaders, and of the empires they build, however mighty in their own time.[4]"
The central character is an industry tycoon who goes on a failed expedition to Mexico, and contracts a mysterious illness that puts him into a fever for months. Could be a sly way of indicating this tycoons empire is going to fall down around him. Also one of the youtube comments suggested the scream in the video could be a pigs scream. I've never heard a pig scream, so I can't attest to that, but I think the phenomenon does exist.
On February 23 2012 23:19 Talin wrote: They're really going to call it A Machine for Pigs? Come on, seriously.
I like the title. I mean it might sound a little clunky, but at least its not melodramatic, cliched, or pretentious. So many video game names are just played out, we get shit like "Dark Descending Shadow of Fallen Blackness Night" all the time. "A Machine for Pigs" is refreshingly simple and it actually makes me more curious as to whats gonna make it so scary.
I’m really looking forward to this. The first game was awesome and if they can produce something equal to Dark Descent I’ll be thrilled. (If they surpass it . . . I won’t even know what to say. Maybe, I’ll just scream.) And what I’ve seen and heard so far, I think the game looks very promising.
As for the title. Well, at first, I heard it and thought it was like an early April fools joke or something, because it was a ridiculous title. But it grew on me quickly, and a day later I decided I loved the title. Something about it, once you think it through, is eerie, and just perfect. Whoever came up with it is a genius.
Pigs are one of the most similar animals to humans. Not much hair. Pig organs can be used for human organ transplants. etc. Pigs also get slaughtered on a regular basis, and a machine for pigs is likely to be some sort of slaughtering machine.
I played the first Amnesia a few times through. It's pretty fun. Umm, people say it's the scariest game out there, but if it is, then... Idk, it just wasn't all too bad as far as scary goes. Personally, I think the scariness is terribly overrated. Very fun game though . I'm looking forward to #2 :D
Looking forward to this. Playing Amnesia at the moment, and I'm definitely one of those people affected by it. I guess it just comes to your suspension of disbelief, like with most horrors. If you just see it as a game, it will obviously not scare you at all, but I really immerse myself fully when playing a game like this, it's the perfect type of horror for me where instead of short shock moments, there's this constant tension. Doesn't matter if I know in the back of my head that I can just run from monsters, that part of my brain is fortunately not intruding when I want to enjoy the scarriness of the game.
I'm excited to see how Frictional incorporates outdoor environments into their horror framework, especially when you consider that much of Amnesia's scare factor was based on chance encounters in cramped hallways.
On a side note, I can't see any enemy that grunts like a pig being more disturbing than the monsters in Amnesia, although I know that's completely subjective. For some reason, I'm picturing something like Bebop from Ninja Turtles :D
On June 15 2012 14:34 Teence wrote: I'm excited to see how Frictional incorporates outdoor environments into their horror framework, especially when you consider that much of Amnesia's scare factor was based on chance encounters in cramped hallways.
On a side note, I can't see any enemy that grunts like a pig being more disturbing than the monsters in Amnesia, although I know that's completely subjective. For some reason, I'm picturing something like Bebop from Ninja Turtles :D
I imagine the pig monsters as terrible abberations, much like the ones in The Dark Descent, they'd be amalgamations of flesh with steel, I picture large hump back monsters with pig heads pointing upwards, large steel framework bursting from the raw, bloody, decaying flesh, a sickening combination of steel and slaughtered pig.
Incidentally, I really hope A Machine for Pigs is as beautiful atmospheric as the original, I REALLY didn't care for A:tDD's story, but this one... I REALLY think I could get into this one, the last was a little out there for me, but this, this seems JUST up my alley, if the frame work from A:tDD is still there, I'm going to cream my pants.
EDIT: Also, I hope the scenes are darker and generally more visually distorted than the teaser portrays, part of Amnesia's immense power as a terrifying game lies in the denial of concrete visual information, and I can see the experience being lessened heavily without that skewing darkness.
By the look of this teaser it looks like Machine for pigs will be like Black Plague was to the Penumbra series. Kind of like a really big expansion with modification.
If the Dear Esther writers are working on it, you can bet your ass it's going to be full of symbolism and suspense. Pretty exciting. I hope Day9 plays this one on stream too. Dark Descent was really funny to watch.
i lost interest when i found out the game wasn't being developed by any of the same people. I'm not saying it will or won't be good, but now i have no reason to have expectations. I don't really understand why this little indie developer would have such a huge hit and then risk their only popular franchise by having somebody else make the sequel.
On June 17 2012 07:01 radscorpion9 wrote: You know what that means...day 9 will probably play through it . I wonder if he'll be as scared as he was for the first one
On June 17 2012 00:49 UniversalSnip wrote: i lost interest when i found out the game wasn't being developed by any of the same people. I'm not saying it will or won't be good, but now i have no reason to have expectations. I don't really understand why this little indie developer would have such a huge hit and then risk their only popular franchise by having somebody else make the sequel.
Well even though they aren't directly developing it they are still the ones producing the title and are in charge of the whole thing and if they are satisfied by it then you can expect it to be good.
I think they are not done with the sound for the game yet. On the description of the video and on their website, they are looking for recorded sound of screams.
We Want Your Fear
(to be included, at your discretion, in all public statements pertaining to the computer game Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, with our heartfelt gratitude and devoted appreciation)
SQUEAL, little piggies, SQUEAL
We want your fear. Record your screams, your whimpers, your blood curdling shrieks of terror and you could star in Amnesa: A Machine for Pigs.
We are on the hunt for the sounds of fear, panic, terror, anguish, torture and horrid, awful death to include in the soundtrack for Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs.
Send them as Wavs, Oggs or MP3s to piggies@thechineseroom.co.uk
We don't care who does the screaming. We just want the fear
Really looking forward to this xD. Last one was awesome. However, i hope they think a bit more carefully about the ending this time. It was god awful in "The Dark Descent".
On November 01 2012 00:39 Guilford wrote: I think they are not done with the sound for the game yet. On the description of the video and on their website, they are looking for recorded sound of screams.
(to be included, at your discretion, in all public statements pertaining to the computer game Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, with our heartfelt gratitude and devoted appreciation)
SQUEAL, little piggies, SQUEAL
We want your fear. Record your screams, your whimpers, your blood curdling shrieks of terror and you could star in Amnesa: A Machine for Pigs.
We are on the hunt for the sounds of fear, panic, terror, anguish, torture and horrid, awful death to include in the soundtrack for Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs.
Send them as Wavs, Oggs or MP3s to piggies@thechineseroom.co.uk
We don't care who does the screaming. We just want the fear
In my fevered imagination a serial killer will now kidnap people and torture them, record their screams, and send them to Frictional.
The aamfp official website has just been updated. It is showing a fairly interesting short letter. Make me wonder what are the ingredients going to the food and the labour program. Knowing amnesia, it's probably something disturbing.
On November 01 2012 00:39 Guilford wrote: I think they are not done with the sound for the game yet. On the description of the video and on their website, they are looking for recorded sound of screams.
We Want Your Fear
(to be included, at your discretion, in all public statements pertaining to the computer game Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, with our heartfelt gratitude and devoted appreciation)
SQUEAL, little piggies, SQUEAL
We want your fear. Record your screams, your whimpers, your blood curdling shrieks of terror and you could star in Amnesa: A Machine for Pigs.
We are on the hunt for the sounds of fear, panic, terror, anguish, torture and horrid, awful death to include in the soundtrack for Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs.
Send them as Wavs, Oggs or MP3s to piggies@thechineseroom.co.uk
We don't care who does the screaming. We just want the fear
In my fevered imagination a serial killer will now kidnap people and torture them, record their screams, and send them to Frictional.
That sounds fantastic,since they would be genuine!
So according to Frictional Games they're looking at a Q3 release, anyone heard anything new about aamfp? Strange they havent come out with an exact date considering we're nearing the end of Q3
I've commented before that pig screams are terrifying and sound like something straight out of a horror movie. Putting them in a horror game makes a lot of sense and will make for some creepy scenes. From the few pictures we've seen I really like the aesthetic of this game.
You can't tell me if you hear that coming down the hall you won't shit your pants.
Actually, 50 percent of the time you will be shitting your pants at shadows on the wall or your own head.
It's just that great. True horror relies on the suspense - actually hearing that scream will be as scary as it is a relief. The developers talked about this a lot in their goal to make a true horror game - not just jump scare terror!
I agree though that the whole concept of slaughter seems more scary than pretty much anything in Amnesia except for the torture room scenes and the wine cellar.
Minimum: OS: Windows Vista Processor: 2.0 Ghz core i5 CPU or equivalent. Memory: 2 GB RAM Graphics: Mid-range NVIDIA GeForce 3x0 / ATI Radeon HD 5x00. Integrated Intel HD Graphics should work but is not supported; problems are generally solved with a driver update. Hard Drive: 5 GB available space
Recommended: OS: Windows 7 Processor: 2.0 Ghz core i7 CPU or equivalent. Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: High-range NVIDIA GeForce 5x0 / ATI Radeon HD 6x00. Integrated Intel HD Graphics should work but is not supported; problems are generally solved with a driver update. Hard Drive: 5 GB available space
I read the notice about the integrated Intel HD Grahpics, but do you think my integrated HD graphics 3000 could handle it? (acer aspire 3750 laptop)
Not to hijack the topic or anything, just wanted to let everyone who is an Amnesia fan know that Outlast might very well be worth your time. It's quite similar to Amnesia in tons of ways:
* No weapons, just running and hiding. * First-person shit-your-own-pants feast. * Puzzle solving with a ton of tension constantly * Pick up notes etc to learn about the lore
I feel the two games complement each other pretty well, Amnesia is very mystical with this constant feeling of some dark god wanting to kill you, while Outlast is borderline realistic making it quite chilling since it's a bit easier to immerse.
Surprised there was no topic about it on TL since there are so many Amnesia fans here, so I thought I'd make sure you at least know about it.
As for Machine for Pigs, I was a bit worried when I heard Northernlions first impression video. Apparently he considered the puzzle elements of Dark Decent too difficult and said Machine for Pigs was superior because it was more linear and simple, puzzle-wise. From reading other reviews, it seems he just didn't get far enough to run into real puzzles, hopefully.
I also heard there's no insane-meter anymore... does that mean it's perfectly safe to stay in the dark in machine for pigs, or is it just that the meter isn't shown?
On September 10 2013 15:43 Tobberoth wrote: Not to hijack the topic or anything, just wanted to let everyone who is an Amnesia fan know that Outlast might very well be worth your time. It's quite similar to Amnesia in tons of ways:
* No weapons, just running and hiding. * First-person shit-your-own-pants feast. * Puzzle solving with a ton of tension constantly * Pick up notes etc to learn about the lore
I feel the two games complement each other pretty well, Amnesia is very mystical with this constant feeling of some dark god wanting to kill you, while Outlast is borderline realistic making it quite chilling since it's a bit easier to immerse.
Surprised there was no topic about it on TL since there are so many Amnesia fans here, so I thought I'd make sure you at least know about it.
As for Machine for Pigs, I was a bit worried when I heard Northernlions first impression video. Apparently he considered the puzzle elements of Dark Decent too difficult and said Machine for Pigs was superior because it was more linear and simple, puzzle-wise. From reading other reviews, it seems he just didn't get far enough to run into real puzzles, hopefully.
I also heard there's no insane-meter anymore... does that mean it's perfectly safe to stay in the dark in machine for pigs, or is it just that the meter isn't shown?
In my opinion Outlast is not worth the time or money. The game is more disturbing then it is scary. That is all I can say without spoiling anything.
On September 10 2013 15:43 Tobberoth wrote: Not to hijack the topic or anything, just wanted to let everyone who is an Amnesia fan know that Outlast might very well be worth your time. It's quite similar to Amnesia in tons of ways:
* No weapons, just running and hiding. * First-person shit-your-own-pants feast. * Puzzle solving with a ton of tension constantly * Pick up notes etc to learn about the lore
I feel the two games complement each other pretty well, Amnesia is very mystical with this constant feeling of some dark god wanting to kill you, while Outlast is borderline realistic making it quite chilling since it's a bit easier to immerse.
Surprised there was no topic about it on TL since there are so many Amnesia fans here, so I thought I'd make sure you at least know about it.
As for Machine for Pigs, I was a bit worried when I heard Northernlions first impression video. Apparently he considered the puzzle elements of Dark Decent too difficult and said Machine for Pigs was superior because it was more linear and simple, puzzle-wise. From reading other reviews, it seems he just didn't get far enough to run into real puzzles, hopefully.
I also heard there's no insane-meter anymore... does that mean it's perfectly safe to stay in the dark in machine for pigs, or is it just that the meter isn't shown?
In my opinion Outlast is not worth the time or money. The game is more disturbing then it is scary. That is all I can say without spoiling anything.
That's sort of unexpected... you're of course entitled to your opinion even if you won't argue for it, but since rock, paper, shotgun said "Outlast is not an experiment in how games can be scary, it’s an exemplification." and all the rest from metacritic on top of that, one has to assume that you're in a pretty small minority.
Not saying that the game isn't disturbing, especially some parts... but then again, so is Amnesia Dark Decent. For example, when you throw body parts of random corpses into water to make a monster move away from you.
Hmm, I mean, the original game wasn't too frightening. I also play Dead Space and RE and other horror games like a non-horror FPS. The scariest thing is how ugly some of the zombies / monsters are. Almost reminds me of some of the girls at my old college.
Anyways, I'm really looking forward to A Machine for Pigs!! I'd like to check out the new puzzle and thrills and features.
On September 10 2013 15:43 Tobberoth wrote: Not to hijack the topic or anything, just wanted to let everyone who is an Amnesia fan know that Outlast might very well be worth your time. It's quite similar to Amnesia in tons of ways:
* No weapons, just running and hiding. * First-person shit-your-own-pants feast. * Puzzle solving with a ton of tension constantly * Pick up notes etc to learn about the lore
I feel the two games complement each other pretty well, Amnesia is very mystical with this constant feeling of some dark god wanting to kill you, while Outlast is borderline realistic making it quite chilling since it's a bit easier to immerse.
Surprised there was no topic about it on TL since there are so many Amnesia fans here, so I thought I'd make sure you at least know about it.
As for Machine for Pigs, I was a bit worried when I heard Northernlions first impression video. Apparently he considered the puzzle elements of Dark Decent too difficult and said Machine for Pigs was superior because it was more linear and simple, puzzle-wise. From reading other reviews, it seems he just didn't get far enough to run into real puzzles, hopefully.
I also heard there's no insane-meter anymore... does that mean it's perfectly safe to stay in the dark in machine for pigs, or is it just that the meter isn't shown?
In my opinion Outlast is not worth the time or money. The game is more disturbing then it is scary. That is all I can say without spoiling anything.
That's sort of unexpected... you're of course entitled to your opinion even if you won't argue for it, but since rock, paper, shotgun said "Outlast is not an experiment in how games can be scary, it’s an exemplification." and all the rest from metacritic on top of that, one has to assume that you're in a pretty small minority.
Not saying that the game isn't disturbing, especially some parts... but then again, so is Amnesia Dark Decent. For example, when you throw body parts of random corpses into water to make a monster move away from you.
Throwing body parts into water to make a monster move away from you is not disturbing. Also, there is no point in me arguing about a game without talking about the game in specifics because you know people might want to play it. I also don't care for game reviews. It is my fault for being hyped about this game and what I got was disappointment.
On September 10 2013 15:43 Tobberoth wrote: Not to hijack the topic or anything, just wanted to let everyone who is an Amnesia fan know that Outlast might very well be worth your time. It's quite similar to Amnesia in tons of ways:
* No weapons, just running and hiding. * First-person shit-your-own-pants feast. * Puzzle solving with a ton of tension constantly * Pick up notes etc to learn about the lore
I feel the two games complement each other pretty well, Amnesia is very mystical with this constant feeling of some dark god wanting to kill you, while Outlast is borderline realistic making it quite chilling since it's a bit easier to immerse.
Surprised there was no topic about it on TL since there are so many Amnesia fans here, so I thought I'd make sure you at least know about it.
As for Machine for Pigs, I was a bit worried when I heard Northernlions first impression video. Apparently he considered the puzzle elements of Dark Decent too difficult and said Machine for Pigs was superior because it was more linear and simple, puzzle-wise. From reading other reviews, it seems he just didn't get far enough to run into real puzzles, hopefully.
I also heard there's no insane-meter anymore... does that mean it's perfectly safe to stay in the dark in machine for pigs, or is it just that the meter isn't shown?
In my opinion Outlast is not worth the time or money. The game is more disturbing then it is scary. That is all I can say without spoiling anything.
That's sort of unexpected... you're of course entitled to your opinion even if you won't argue for it, but since rock, paper, shotgun said "Outlast is not an experiment in how games can be scary, it’s an exemplification." and all the rest from metacritic on top of that, one has to assume that you're in a pretty small minority.
Not saying that the game isn't disturbing, especially some parts... but then again, so is Amnesia Dark Decent. For example, when you throw body parts of random corpses into water to make a monster move away from you.
Throwing body parts into water to make a monster move away from you is not disturbing. Also, there is no point in me arguing about a game without talking about the game in specifics because you know people might want to play it. I also don't care for game reviews. It is my fault for being hyped about this game and what I got was disappointment.
I'm just saying, I come into the topic and recommend a game I know most people who like Amnesia will enjoy, and I'm hoping a lot of people try it out. You answering that it's a waste of time and money certainly lowers the chance that people here try it, which is unfortunate, especially if you won't really reason about why so they can form their own opinion. I certainly think you can comment on what you find disturbing and not scary without ruining the game... then again, if you don't think it's disturbing to throw around body parts, I don't really understand what you're finding disturbing about Outlast, other than an... uncomfortable meeting with a certain surgeon.
This game is just as hard to play for long periods of time as The Dark Descent was due to being legitimately scary as hell. I also see a lot of negative reviews from fans of the original blasting the removal of some "gameplay" mechanics. Like having to worry about how much oil you have to keep your lantern going (because that wasn't annoying at all).
I've only played 1.5 hours so far, but I agree with that 100%. No inventory, oil, or boxes of matches to find means there is no real reason to explore, unless you want to read notes. Kinda feels really one dimensional, slightly disappointed so far. :< Oh, and the fact that you can barely interact with any objects! In the first game you could pick up and move lots of things, now it only feels like you can interact with puzzle objects.
On September 11 2013 22:02 VirtuallyJesse wrote: I've only played 1.5 hours so far, but I agree with that 100%. No inventory, oil, or boxes of matches to find means there is no real reason to explore, unless you want to read notes. Kinda feels really one dimensional, slightly disappointed so far. :< Oh, and the fact that you can barely interact with any objects! In the first game you could pick up and move lots of things, now it only feels like you can interact with puzzle objects.
yep, have the exact same comments, kind of miss the gameplay in this game
Played 2 hours worth and admitting shitting myself a few times, and the general feel and aura of the first game is there (the creepy noises and general suspense) i think without the inventory its completely lost some puzzle solving mechanics, *small spoiler* finding an candle on a shelf i had no idea was part of a puzzle at all so it took ages to actually figure out, as well as removing the puzzle-reward-sanity-thing so u dont actually know if u've done the puzzle. But i do think the monster design is far scarier squeeling pigs is fucking terrifying.
If you have never played Amnesia or Penumbra before I would recommend starting with this game but if you have I really wouldn't recommend it at all. But that's just my opinion.
hm, only played an hour and i gotta agree with people so far..........BUT!!!!!! i still really like the game. i like the mysterious story. i hope for a great and twisted plot with a sick ending .
So far, everything that allowed me to progress through the game was found by accident...
There are no indications on what you're supposed to be looking for to advance the plot and like people said before, there's pretty much nothing to interact with which makes the game very counter intuitive since everything is so hidden.
A good example poor design in this game is when you're at the entrance to the church and there's a flashback saying something about climbing to a higher place blah blah blah. Gaming logic tells me I should look for something to climb but nope... I spent 30min dicking around because I didn't see the oil filling contraption before this area.
On September 11 2013 22:02 VirtuallyJesse wrote: I've only played 1.5 hours so far, but I agree with that 100%. No inventory, oil, or boxes of matches to find means there is no real reason to explore, unless you want to read notes. Kinda feels really one dimensional, slightly disappointed so far. :< Oh, and the fact that you can barely interact with any objects! In the first game you could pick up and move lots of things, now it only feels like you can interact with puzzle objects.
The extremely well written notes are reason enough to compel me to search every nook and cranny. I guess I do understand why people at least wanted a gameplay mechanic replacement for removing candle and lamp oil collection, but for me I found those a bit annoying in the first. I do agree that the puzzles, if you can even call them that, could have been a bit more engaging.
The story and setting and so well done though, that alone has me wanting to finish the game, despite being scared the entire time lol. Plus the sound design is one of the best I've ever heard in a game. Everything is so detailed.
I hope they release a patch that increases the amount of interactivity. I suppose if you've never played TDD before, like most of the pewdiepie/other youtube fans that FG hoped would buy the game, you wouldn't notice but I'm finding it really annoying.
Just finished it. Writing a (somewhat) non-spoilery summary of thoughts:
The first few hours of the game are pretty fantastic. Very tense, lots of exploring to do, a lot of the subtle fuckery you associate with TDD.
Then after a while The Chinese Room starts showing its colours and you end up with a lot of heavy-handed exposition and a lot of very scripted, linear environments.
The ending segments of TDD basically had semi-randomly patrolling monsters around large environments and puzzles to solve. It made it all very tense as you were combining items and working with stuff because you didn't know what to expect next. Here, that doesn't quite happen (partially due to lack of inventory; so puzzle solutions are generally very near).
Lack of interactivity in the environment is kind of annoying, being able to play with everything in TDD was just a nice immersive touch. The lantern being infinite and lack of sanity mechanics also made the dark feel far less oppressive; TDD has a great feeling of being hunted and small, that the darkness itself is out to get you, and you need to manage your light carefully. This game lacks that and suffers for it. I spent most of the near end sections just not bothering with the lantern at all, it isn't really needed.
Grab it in a sale, watch the inevitable screamy assholes on youtube, but it doesn't really measure up to its predecessor. Some decent genuine scares and some good mindfuckery at points but otherwise a lesser game.
They really need to stop pulling that shit of walking down a corridor and listening to conversations. The entire last hour is full of it, on really linear environments, with no patrolling enemies. It's just set piece after set piece, which is odd considering TDD went the other way; early encounters are all highly scripted, later ones are far more unpredictable and freeform.
Telepig at the end was more annoying than scary. It felt so out of place to have a 'Boss Battle' style enemy in a Dark Descent game and all I could think while encountering it was the meeting at The Chinese Room where someone suggested they need a 'bigger monster' to scare people at the end. Monsters aren't scary. The unknown is scary, and we've been playing with pigmen the entire game. Just because this one is sparking and goes invisible doesn't somehow make it nightmarish.
There's a lot of wasted potential here, but I'm not too surprised. Early sequences were fantastic, refueling the tank springs to mind, or just wandering around the house, all felt very tense. The centrifuge area was pretty solidly executed. But it all seems silly compared to how well done TDD was. I'm talking stuff like giving you no option but to go into water as opposed to just dropping you into it, or the cistern in TDD where there isn't even a monster for a long time but every player is freaked the fuck out and paranoid. None of that really happens here.
Too much Dear Esther. Dickensian-wanna-be narration along with mood music that gets louder and moodier as the game goes. Do you really, really like hearing obsolete words such as "offal"? Well, then this is the literary-visual journey you've been waiting for.
First time you see a pig-man is great, and there might be one or two other decent pig-chasing moments. But otherwise it kind of just felt like an extended, darker version of Dear Esther. TDD scared the hell out of me and made me extremely anxious at times. With this game, I was just never really worried. Even when it comes to the "mood" and "atmosphere", I think TDD did a better job.
edit:
TDD has a great feeling of being hunted and small, that the darkness itself is out to get you
And it's so obvious that this is what made the game great. I'm really surprised that they decided to just abandon everything that made TDD so wonderfully nerve-racking.
This lantern flickering is really getting on my nerves. Not only do I never have to worry about running out of oil, it even tells me when something is about to happen...
I'm less scared in the middle of the game than I was at the beginning. Pretty much says it all.
-Mandus' wife dies in childbirth. -He lives relatively happily until he takes a vacation to Mexico with his children. -There, they find the "stone egg," a relic of an ancient god that still holds his spirit or power or whatever. -The god shows Mandus visions of his sons dying very painful deaths in the Battle of Somme in WW1. -This drives Mandus to madness, so he kills his sons on the spot in order to spare them that pain. -However, this sacrifice strengthens the god's power, while simultaneously linking his soul to Mandus or something. -The god gives Mandus the idea that all of mankind of diseased, and plants the idea of the Machine in his head -Mandus travels back to London and spends the next year building the Machine for the purpose of making an army of pig men to kill everyone -But then, somehow, right before he unleashes them upon the world, he has a change of heart and goes about sabotaging the Machine, while simultaneously contracting sudden amnesia -This is where the game starts. You travel through the guts of the Machine, discover what a dickhole you've been, then kill yourself at the core of the Machine in order to kill the mad god that lives inside you.
Best summary I've seen so far.
General consensus I've noticed is Aztec god/orb gets into Mandus, Mandus goes crazy, starts butchering/converting poor, starts butchering/converting rich, has a change of heart, sabotage, amnesia. In the end he kills himself to kill the intelligence in the machine/himself organising all of this.
There's a few nasty plotholes, like why you have Amnesia, if this thing is the same as what Alexander was in TDD (which never really seemed actively hostile to mankind, just uncaring and wanted to get home).
This one felt a lot less scary than TDD, I rarely had to sprint except in the forced encounters. Despite having unlimited fuel I was content to not use my lantern for a majority of the game, and, after the intro portion, the tension never seemed to increase. probably partially because TDD was a supernatural horror that could throw enemies to you at random, where this one seemed really scripted and entirely predictable the whole way through. Turning a valve used to be the scariest thing, and i never got a moment of "Fuck, i have to go BACK into the water/X room!?" etc. The biggest thing is TDD forced you to move or you go insane and the game gets tougher on you, and made you want to not stand in the light OR the dark. none of these elements really appeared in machine for pigs.
I guess the overall feel is that TDD is a better game whereas AMFP is a better story. There are a lot of mechanics missing, puzzles are really simple and the game has less jumpscares/monsters/chases.
However the story in itself is a lot more twisted and deeply wrong compared to TDD. In TDD it's all about killing Alexander and that supernatural shadow following you, but that's it. In AMFP the story is a lot more intricate and well written I feel.
Also, the music and voice acting are truly excellent
And the ending scene where you walk to the machine to rip your heart is both beautiful and terrifying in a psychological way. The Machine's monologue is gorgeous.
So yeah TDD is probably the better game but AMFP is the better story and narration. Were you to write them as books, AMFP would be a way better read.
Also, as a side note, LOL at people complaining about the obsolete words and language. It's supposed to happen in 1899, so the old language IS mandatory to set the atmosphere. It wouldnt be half as good if the english level was that of a 15 yo kid born in the 90s. I've also seen people in streams laugh at the various "I am come" that are in the notes, which is sad. English unfortunately simplified all its grammar and language rules during the last century.
I feel like the people who made Dear Esther had too much of a say in this game . . .
When I look at this game I don't see an Amnesia game. I see a game trying to be like Amnesia but failing. TDD balanced the story with the atmosphere,scares pretty damn well. This game fails to do that. They took out what made TDD good and came up with this. No oil or tinderboxes or even an inventory. Oh and a lantern that doesn't run off of anything. There goes two things that TDD had. The feel or want to explore because you wanna explore to try to look for items along with notes because you are pretty much directed where to go with the linear levels. Second thing is that with nothing keeping the lantern on there goes the feeling of panic the sense of "oh shit i need to find oil please!!!" when your lantern is low because you do not wanna be creeping around with no lantern. This game you can care less and keep the lantern going on forever. Puzzles are meh.
They took what made the last game scary and fun and took those out and made a simplified version of Amnesia with too much of a focus on the story. Its like they focused all their attention on the story and then after that they were all like "Well, shit, I guess we have to actually put "scares" in this game! OH! And some scary atmosphere. I'm sure people won't notice."
I feel disappointed about this game. You wanna know whats funny? Is that a FREE HL2 MOD called Underhell has great story,scary atmosphere,gameplay and balanced them amazingly well and its longer then both outlast and AMFP combined and exceeds tenfolds and does so much better then what AMFP and Outlast failed to do.
On September 12 2013 08:13 Fatalize wrote: I guess the overall feel is that TDD is a better game whereas AMFP is a better story. There are a lot of mechanics missing, puzzles are really simple and the game has less jumpscares/monsters/chases.
However the story in itself is a lot more twisted and deeply wrong compared to TDD. In TDD it's all about killing Alexander and that supernatural shadow following you, but that's it. In AMFP the story is a lot more intricate and well written I feel.
Also, the music and voice acting are truly excellent
And the ending scene where you walk to the machine to rip your heart is both beautiful and terrifying in a psychological way. The Machine's monologue is gorgeous.
So yeah TDD is probably the better game but AMFP is the better story and narration. Were you to write them as books, AMFP would be a way better read.
Also, as a side note, LOL at people complaining about the obsolete words and language. It's supposed to happen in 1899, so the old language IS mandatory to set the atmosphere. It wouldnt be half as good if the english level was that of a 15 yo kid born in the 90s. I've also seen people in streams laugh at the various "I am come" that are in the notes, which is sad. English unfortunately simplified all its grammar and language rules during the last century.
No. I get that it's supposed to be obsolete and Dickensian, Old English. The problem is it tries too hard. It embellishes too much. It isn't Dickensian, it's a thesaurus-lover's wet dream. Also, a lot of Victorian literature, especially Dickens, was not at ALL representative of how people actually talked. Like The Pickwick Papers, the abundant formality of the language is itself a joke, intellectually impressive as it may be.
On September 12 2013 08:13 Fatalize wrote: I guess the overall feel is that TDD is a better game whereas AMFP is a better story. There are a lot of mechanics missing, puzzles are really simple and the game has less jumpscares/monsters/chases.
However the story in itself is a lot more twisted and deeply wrong compared to TDD. In TDD it's all about killing Alexander and that supernatural shadow following you, but that's it. In AMFP the story is a lot more intricate and well written I feel.
Also, the music and voice acting are truly excellent
And the ending scene where you walk to the machine to rip your heart is both beautiful and terrifying in a psychological way. The Machine's monologue is gorgeous.
So yeah TDD is probably the better game but AMFP is the better story and narration. Were you to write them as books, AMFP would be a way better read.
Also, as a side note, LOL at people complaining about the obsolete words and language. It's supposed to happen in 1899, so the old language IS mandatory to set the atmosphere. It wouldnt be half as good if the english level was that of a 15 yo kid born in the 90s. I've also seen people in streams laugh at the various "I am come" that are in the notes, which is sad. English unfortunately simplified all its grammar and language rules during the last century.
No. I get that it's supposed to be obsolete and Dickensian, Old English. The problem is it tries too hard. It embellishes too much. It isn't Dickensian, it's a thesaurus-lover's wet dream. Also, a lot of Victorian literature, especially Dickens, was not at ALL representative of how people actually talked. Like The Pickwick Papers, the abundant formality of language is itself a joke.
Dear Esther had the same problem.
Not gonna waste my time arguing but I guess you feel that way because there is no culture of poetry and well-written texts in english compared to a variety of other languages, mainly because of its simplification and worldwide spread.
On September 12 2013 08:13 Fatalize wrote: I guess the overall feel is that TDD is a better game whereas AMFP is a better story. There are a lot of mechanics missing, puzzles are really simple and the game has less jumpscares/monsters/chases.
However the story in itself is a lot more twisted and deeply wrong compared to TDD. In TDD it's all about killing Alexander and that supernatural shadow following you, but that's it. In AMFP the story is a lot more intricate and well written I feel.
Also, the music and voice acting are truly excellent
And the ending scene where you walk to the machine to rip your heart is both beautiful and terrifying in a psychological way. The Machine's monologue is gorgeous.
So yeah TDD is probably the better game but AMFP is the better story and narration. Were you to write them as books, AMFP would be a way better read.
Also, as a side note, LOL at people complaining about the obsolete words and language. It's supposed to happen in 1899, so the old language IS mandatory to set the atmosphere. It wouldnt be half as good if the english level was that of a 15 yo kid born in the 90s. I've also seen people in streams laugh at the various "I am come" that are in the notes, which is sad. English unfortunately simplified all its grammar and language rules during the last century.
No. I get that it's supposed to be obsolete and Dickensian, Old English. The problem is it tries too hard. It embellishes too much. It isn't Dickensian, it's a thesaurus-lover's wet dream. Also, a lot of Victorian literature, especially Dickens, was not at ALL representative of how people actually talked. Like The Pickwick Papers, the abundant formality of language is itself a joke.
Dear Esther had the same problem.
...there is no culture of poetry and well-written texts in english compared to...
Finished the game, some last maybe spoilery thoughts. + Show Spoiler +
Completed the game in under 4 hours according to steam.. not happy at all. I don't think I got a fright once outside of the jump-loud-noise scares. The original Amnesia took me like 10 hours to complete because I was so scared and moved so slowly. Nothing like that in this game. The flickering light every time an enemy is near? Not only does it feel ripped straight from FEAR, it was the one bad thing about FEAR. Why would you want to know when shits about to go down? Ruins any suspense. I thought the puzzles were bad, not that there was many of them, or any complex. With very limited interactivity with the environment (oil, matches, moving objects, why remove this?) you are just walking from point A to B while someone throws fancy words at you and tries to get you to read notes with more fancy words. One positive thing about this game is the audio. Amazing, Dear Esther had fantastic audio as well, it was to be expected. But this feels like a Dear Esther part 2 with Amnesia slapped across the top. The only relief I have is that this was not developed by the guys who made the first game, and I'm sure the Frictional Games developers will redeem my disappointment with their next game.
From a narrative stand point I absolutely LOVED this game. From the horrific motive behind everything combined with the old style of writing was a home run for me (even if some parts were predictable). My favorite parts of the game were reading the notes and the dialogue w/ the "bad guy" later on in the game once you know whats going on. + Show Spoiler +
My fav. non-note part of the game is the desperate rant at the very end about how bad the 20th century is going to be.
However my joy in the story is tempered by the game play.
- For starters the game is way too short. - The lights flickering whenever enemies are around? Are you fucking kidding me? That may be the worst horror game mechanic ever realized. - The puzzles were really simple. - A lot less things to interact with. - The game just didn't feel as scary despite the much more horrifying story. - A lot of stuff was telegraphed way ahead of time, hurting the fear factor.
For me i'd give the narrative a 10/10. However the game play gets like a 5/10.
They should just turn this into a book or something.
On September 11 2013 21:36 AnomalySC2 wrote: This game is just as hard to play for long periods of time as The Dark Descent was due to being legitimately scary as hell. I also see a lot of negative reviews from fans of the original blasting the removal of some "gameplay" mechanics. Like having to worry about how much oil you have to keep your lantern going (because that wasn't annoying at all).
That's actually a wholly irrelevant defense of the infinite oil lantern. Refilling your lantern was MEANT to be annoying.
It'd be like if you were playing a zombie survival game where you've got a car to drive and keep you somewhat safe through metropolises and zombie-dense areas, with the catch being that you've gotta stop and scrounge for fuel at any given opportunity, because if your car stops you can't get through these denser areas safely. Your car is your security blanket, but you need to work at keeping it working, and should always be afraid of "oh shit, what happens if I lose my car?" when the obvious answer to that question would be you're on foot and a dead man.
...And then you played the sequel to that game, wherein you got a presumably solar-powered magic car.
"Wow!", you say, "Boy am I sure glad I don't need to refuel this car anymore! I can always feel safe now! Refuelling was -annoying-"
On September 11 2013 21:36 AnomalySC2 wrote: This game is just as hard to play for long periods of time as The Dark Descent was due to being legitimately scary as hell. I also see a lot of negative reviews from fans of the original blasting the removal of some "gameplay" mechanics. Like having to worry about how much oil you have to keep your lantern going (because that wasn't annoying at all).
That's like saying it's annoying running out of gas in StarCraft. It's an aspect of the game you have to be cognitively aware of when playing that is integral to building the environment of absolute horror that the first Amnesia created.
Without spoiling anything, Machine for Pigs took out some of the really integral aspects of Amnesia. The first is the sanity system. You had to be aware of it because it made the game hard to play because your vision would get blurry and walking would be annoying. When you looked at the monsters you would lose your sanity, to hide from them in the dark would cause you to further lose your sanity. To use light or hide in the light would allow you to regain your sanity, but also expose you to the monsters even more. This creates a really important dynamic where the player has to choose what they think will hurt or scare them less.
Relating to this, when you looked at the monsters your vision would go blurry and the outline of the monsters running at you was absolutely gut-wrenchingly horrifying. It would scare the fucking shit out of you. When you actually look at the monsters they aren't particularly scary, but the sanity system blurs them so you can make out their outlines and let your imagination fill in the rest. It was a truly ingenious mechanic.
To tie a view aspects together, the lantern oil and inventory are a pretty big deal to me. Since you never really picked up items, the developers didn't bother making the environment really interactive. Think of the first Amnesia, you could manipulate almost everything in every room if you wanted to. In this one most doors won't open and pretty much anything that you can actually poke is relevant in some manner. It basically makes it so you are walking through a story and doesn't leave the player any actual room to explore the environment apart from maybe picking up a spare letter or something.
I will spoiler the next part because it's going to be a little more spoiler ridden, but it's about the inventory and puzzles. + Show Spoiler +
The lack of inventory in the game seriously took a toll on the puzzles too. The most elaborate puzzle is when you are trying to get the two items in the centrifuge to produce the acid. All you did was walk to two different rooms that took about 2 minutes each and shove something in a wind tube to transport it to the centrifuge. It required minimal effort or thought. Let's compare that with just one puzzle from the dark descent. Towards the middle-endish portion of the game you have to extract something (A poison I think?) from a corpse. Like 45 minutes prior you collected a needle, and somewhere along you got a small vile, and a third item I can't recall. You had to combine these items and jab them into the corpse to extract the blood.
When you actually figure out that puzzle, you feel accomplished because it was out of the ordinary and involved items you almost thought were worthless until this moment. You had to actually think about how these items could feasibly be Macgyver'd into something that helped with your objective. To draw one more comparison, at any time on the road to that task something could seriously fuck with you. You finally extract the blood and monsters come screaming into the room to ruin your accomplishment.
When we compare this to Machine For Pigs, you have really simple puzzles that are all within close proximity. When you find the fuses you need, they are right next to the machine they need to go into, because it would be seriously annoying to walk for more than 10 seconds having to hold something that wouldn't allow you to open doors without dropping it. They made it so it was a mechanical requirement to have things close to each other because they opted out of having an inventory. The further problem is that I knew when I had an item in my hand I am not going to run into a monster because it would be bad for the game. They can't have a monster appear and cause you to drop/misplace a key item in the game, it would just be stupid. So when I got the fuses, I was fairly certain nothing would come running at me. When I dropped the chemicals into the wind tube and headed back I figured the reason the tube was there was because a monster was probably going to attack me, lo and behold I was right.
When we compare the two scenarios, the first Amnesia destroys the second. They are able to set up involved puzzles that you get a real sense of accomplishment for completing, only to then replacement that feeling with one of absolute fear as monsters come to wreck your shit and you need to figure out where and what you have to do in order to survive. Due to not having an inventory all puzzles are very shallow and unsatisfying and don't really enhance the game in any way.
The monsters were also incredibly shitty compared to Amnesia, and it's not just about the design. If you compare the pigs with the Amnesia monsters, you can probably objectively say the pigs were scarier looking, but the actual appearance wasn't what made the Amnesia monsters scary, it was that they were blurry, shouted at you and caused you to lose your shit. This goes back to how the sanity mechanic played into turning what would be average monsters, into truly scary creatures. The Dark Descent monsters were also much more intelligent and seemed to be a bit more active in pursuing you. You would have to run and hide from them and actively try to avoid them. The first time I encountered the pigs I needed to get past it so I walked up, agro'd the pig and then did some loony toon-ish move by juking him around a crate then running past him. I never once had to hide from a pig, I just ran away and it either stopped following or just magically disappeared with no rhyme or reason. At no point did I ever have to hide in fear, or wait for a monster to pass. I'd either run or juke a monster, which when I can so easily avoid this primary monster in the game it kind of loses the effect since I have no reason to think the pig will ever catch me or ever be in a situation where he can seriously harm me.
To put this in context, I considered the first Amnesia to be genre defining. I don't ever get scared. The first Amnesia had me space it out over several days and during play I would have to get up and just walk around to regain my personal sanity. The game conquered its ambition and was truly great. Machine for Pigs just isn't the same caliber. It's a fun time and it's alright, but to argue the dumbing down and removal of fundamental game mechanics was good is absolutely silly.
On September 13 2013 13:42 On_Slaught wrote: I'm very very torn on this game.
From a narrative stand point I absolutely LOVED this game. From the horrific motive behind everything combined with the old style of writing was a home run for me (even if some parts were predictable). My favorite parts of the game were reading the notes and the dialogue w/ the "bad guy" later on in the game once you know whats going on. + Show Spoiler +
My fav. non-note part of the game is the desperate rant at the very end about how bad the 20th century is going to be.
However my joy in the story is tempered by the game play.
- For starters the game is way too short. - The lights flickering whenever enemies are around? Are you fucking kidding me? That may be the worst horror game mechanic ever realized. - The puzzles were really simple. - A lot less things to interact with. - The game just didn't feel as scary despite the much more horrifying story. - A lot of stuff was telegraphed way ahead of time, hurting the fear factor.
For me i'd give the narrative a 10/10. However the game play gets like a 5/10.
They should just turn this into a book or something.
Or a Blaire Witch style movie. That would probably be cool. I did also enjoy the story/narrative/writing. I play a lot of games for the story though, so that's why I enjoyed it. Totally worth the 16$ I paid just because it was a good story, but I still was expecting more. A friend of mine told me I should play the Penumbra games. They are apparently a bit older and the first one isn't that scary, but the two sequals are apparently close to TDD level scary.
I played this game for an hour and am disappointed so far. I don't know if I even want to finish the game. I kept going hoping something interesting would happen, but it never did. This is a change from the first Amnesia game because there were different, interesting things happening almost the entire way through. I think I probably should have known it would be like this, given The Chinese Room's history of making museum walking simulator games.
The game is also poorly designed so far. If you walk in a room with six doors, you know exactly two of them will open, the one you came in and the one you are supposed to walk out of. The "scares" so far, in quotations because I was not disturbed at any point in the game, have consisted of children saying children's poems, the narrator making piggy goes to market references, and shaky walls. There was also an orc who made my lantern flicker as I chased him down a dimly lit hallway.
This game should have stayed wee wee wee all the way home. I can also reference pigs and pig-related material repeatedly. This little piggy got none.
Honestly I just feel like the game was too simple. The beginning was pretty boring and I spent the entire "introduction" just basically trying to figure what the hell was going on. I loved the story/narrative as a lot of people here have agreed, but I think The Chinese Room really took its toll. Also, the graphics weren't impressive at all. I don't usually care about graphics and it doesn't make or break a game for me, but having the graphics advertised as a major selling point is a bit disappointing. The textures looked like a game from 2010, and as you got closer to in game objects it was clear everything was done with very little detail and meant to just look good from afar. This was especially apparent with fire. Not the biggest deal, but after seeing Dear Esther I expected more. Massive spoilers as I just break down most of the parts of the game.
You're basically tossed into the house with zero explanation as to what the hell was going on and they just expect you to finish simple repetitive puzzles. The first time i had to find a hidden lever it was kind of an "Ah hah!" moment for me, but after that it just degraded to a repetitive experience. The segments that were outside were really cool and interesting and it was a nice divergence from the original. I liked that part of the game and it had some cool environments.
Moving forward, going to the church was another pretty cool environment with lack luster puzzles. I thought there was a lot of potential here to introduce more of the key aspects of the story and explain a little further here. They did a bit of explaining with the document about Father Jeremy or whatever his name is, but I think that it was pretty obvious what had been going on at this point.
Once you enter the machine and get to the meat and potatoes of the game, I feel like the game kind of drops off and loses a lot of what the dark descent had going for it. I never felt at risk, I never felt captivated by the environment (except once you get to the main housing of the machine, that was pretty cool) or too scared to continue, The simplistic puzzles never made me venture through the factory for anything, since you couldn't collect items. The water parts of the game were also disappointing and the implementation of them was pretty stupid, especially when you just fall into the water. It made me a little tense, but not scared.
All in all, the stupid lantern mechanics, lack of inventory, and less than compelling reasons to explore the machine added up to make it a disappointing game. The fact that there were only a couple of sections where you didn't have the use of a lantern was disappointing. In the beginning I kept waiting for the scary parts and waiting for the game to make me jump,. It really never happened and I'm just thoroughly disappointed by the gameplay.