Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs is a 2013 survival horror game developed by The Chinese Room and published by Frictional Games. Originally meant to be a mod, the game is an indirect sequel to Amnesia: The Dark Descent (2010), which was both developed and published by Frictional Games. While set in the same universe as the previous game, it features a new cast of characters and time setting.[1]
Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs was released for Windows on 10 September 2013. The game was released for PlayStation 4 on 22 November 2016 as part of the Amnesia Collection, including Amnesia: The Dark Descent and its Amnesia: Justine expansion. It received mixed reviews from critics.
Gameplay
The game is a survival horror game played from a first-person perspective.[1] Players explore the environments using a lantern, with diary entries and notes providing information on the lost memory of the title character. While the core of the game remains the same between the two, some elements of The Dark Descent have been removed for A Machine for Pigs, while new elements have been added, one reason being to provide a fresh gameplay experience to players of The Dark Descent.[1] The inventory has been removed,[2][3] along with the oil and tinderboxes.[4] Most of the puzzles are based on physically interacting with the environment because of this change. The sanity mechanic of the first game has been removed, meaning that the darkness and looking at the creatures no longer cause any drawbacks. Health lost when Mandus is injured, will regenerate after a certain period of time; thereby eliminating the need to find vials of laudanum to restore health as in The Dark Descent.
The game's level design has been touted as "significantly different" from that of The Dark Descent, with larger areas and outdoor environments included. AI was also adjusted to ensure players are unable to predict enemy behavior based on their experiences with the original game.[5]
Plot
The game features several interlocking storylines. Some take place in the past, some in the present, and some are overtly real while some may be imagined.[5] Set in London on New Year's Eve, 1899,[6] the game's protagonist is Oswald Mandus, a wealthy industrialist and butcher who is implied to be the great grand-nephew of Daniel, the protagonist of Amnesia: The Dark Descent. At the beginning of the game, he awakens from a fever that has lasted for several months, after returning from a disastrous expedition to explore Aztec ruins in Mexico. He hears the voices of his sons, Edwin and Enoch, calling for him as they lead him through the different areas.
Mandus receives a call from "the Engineer", who tells Mandus that Edwin and Enoch have been trapped far below them, in the "Machine" which Mandus created beneath his house. The Machine has been sabotaged, putting his sons in danger. The Engineer tasks Mandus with clearing the floodwaters and bringing the Machine back online, providing ongoing guidance through telephones throughout the facility. Mandus is opposed in his tasks by the Manpigs, deformed swine-like monstrosities that patrol the depths through which he descends.
After a series of puzzle-like tasks, Mandus eventually reactivates the Machine, but the Engineer betrays him, taking control of the Machine and unleashing Manpigs out into the streets of London to round up unsuspecting victims with which to feed itself. Mandus regains his memory, recalling the recent past: after returning from Mexico, Mandus was consumed with obsession over a vision of the future presented by a device discovered in an Aztec temple by him and his children, known as the "egg,” hinted to be an Orb. In this vision, Mandus witnesses the death of both of his sons at the Battle of the Somme. Driven mad by the vision, Mandus decided that he could not allow it to come to pass, and he built the Machine to create a godlike being via mass ritual human sacrifice to save humanity from its own carnage. He sacrificed Edwin and Enoch to the machine to spare them their fate at the Somme. From there, Mandus began a one-man vendetta against mankind, holding massive parties where he would capture and grind up rich socialites into sausage to sell, and killing hordes of child workers to feed the captive Manpigs. Mandus, however, soon came to realize the error of his ways and in a bid to stop the Machine, he attempted to sabotage it, before he was hindered by the onset of amnesia and sickness.
Now remembering everything, Mandus vows to finish what he started by destroying the Machine once and for all. Despite the pleas of the Engineer, who believes the world would be better off if the Machine is allowed to consume it, Mandus succeeds in recreating most of the sabotage. He reaches the inner chamber, where the Engineer himself dwells - a deranged fragment of Mandus's soul which has bonded with the machine and was given life by the sacrifices; it plans to wipe the world clean of life after witnessing even more future atrocities such as the atomic bombings at the end of World War II, and the Cambodian genocide. Mandus manages to reach the core of the machine, a massive pyramidal structure referred to as "The Temple" by the Engineer, and forces the Engineer back into his soul. Mandus sacrifices himself to the Machine, putting an end to both it and the Engineer, and ending the horrors above as year 1900 begins.
Development
"How come a game meant for Halloween 2012 has been delayed for so long? Originally we thought it would be a short, experimental game set in the universe of Amnesia, but The Chinese Room had a vision that was bigger than that. As their work progressed, the potential for a much greater project emerged. What we ended up with is no longer what we had first imagined, but a fully fledged Amnesia game. A different kind of Amnesia, but definitely not a short experiment."
In 2010, after the release of The Dark Descent, Frictional Games wanted to further the Amnesia franchise, but had no time for it. Later, they met Dan Pinchbeck of The Chinese Room at GDC Europe 2011, where the plan for the game began to form.[1][4] It was originally intended by The Chinese Room to be a small mod, but it was expanded to a larger scale project when "the two companies realized what could be achieved with a larger game."[4]
Development for the game began in December 2011 at The Chinese Room, while Frictional Games was producing and publishing the title.[1] The game was originally set to release before Halloween 2012, but was later delayed to early 2013 due to overwhelming response and to meet the expectations. In February 2013 Frictional Games announced a status update about the game in which they announced they would release the game in Q2 2013.[7]
In late May 2013, Jens Nilsson, the co-founder of Frictional Games, stated in a forum post that: "We know we will not make Q2 (2013), we also know when the game will be ready for launch. We have not set the exact day yet. You can however make good use of the weather outside this summer and look forward to gaming with the piggies as the summer comes to an end."[8] Dan Pinchbeck stated, "Frictional's take is, release it when it's done."[4] In August 2013, The Chinese Room confirmed on their Twitter feed that the final release date for the game was 10 September 2013.[9] The game was available to pre-order since 16 August.[10][11][12]
A PlayStation 4 version is included in the Amnesia Collection, released on 22 November 2016 via PlayStation Network, containing Amnesia: The Dark Descent and its expansion Amnesia: Justine.[13]
Two days after its release on PS4 Frictional Games posted a tweet stating that the port managed to recoup all costs and "more".[14]
Initially code-named "gameB" by The Chinese Room,[17] the announcement of Amnesia: 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,[18] which has prior been used to announce the first installment, in early 2012. The website featured a heavily blurred image, the Amnesia logo and a caption reading "Something is emerging...".[19][20]
The blurred image was hyperlinked to Google Maps with the search field set as "China".[19][20] The website was later updated with a slightly less blurred image, and hyperlinked to Google Maps with the search field set as "Boreray."[21] It was updated for a second time, with a non-blurred image (a piece of concept art), redirecting to Google Maps with the search field set as 502 2nd Avenue in Seattle.[22] The three hyperlinks were hints towards The Chinese Room's involvement in the game (a previous game by The Chinese Room, Dear Esther, was set on a Hebridean island like Boreray, and the address in Seattle pointed towards a restaurant named 'The Chinese Room').[1][22]
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."[23] The game was formally announced via video game blog Joystiq.[1]
On 14 June 2012, the first teaser trailer was released on Frictional Games' YouTube channel.[24][25] It showed various scenes from the game, from industrial settings to more studious rooms. In the final shot, the character wakes up to the sound of an enemy breaking down a door making piglike grunts and squeals. An unseen creature enters the room, its shadow is cast against the back wall as the player hides under a set of stairs. On 31 October 2012, to coincide with Halloween, a second trailer was posted on Frictional Games' YouTube channel.[26][27] Many new features were shown, such as the updated lantern and the new voice for the main character. The trailer also shows the protagonist being confronted by one of the enemies in the game. On 3 September 2013, Eurogamer released a video of the first 30 minutes of the game.[28]
Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs received "mixed or average" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator website Metacritic.[29]
Eurogamer gave A Machine for Pigs a score of 7 out of 10, noting that it "will absolutely keep you fed".[31]GameSpot gave the game a score of 8 out of 10, saying that while it's a "captivating adventure", it is also "a very dark and disturbing one that touches on depressing real-world themes and doles out psychological horror along with monsters and gore".[33]Edge magazine wrote that "A Machine For Pigs will prove divisive among fans of Frictional Games' much-lauded original".[30]
Jim Rossignol of Rock, Paper, Shotgun noted in his review of A Machine for Pigs that it "is a marvellous, revolting, disturbing sequel to Dark Descent".[36]PC Gamer's T.J. Hafer expressed his opinion that A Machine for Pigs adds to the palette of The Dark Descent's "helplessness to explore the emotion of fear". Hafer also added that the game "will hold your head underwater until you're about to drown and then bring you back up for air, again and again".[35]
A writer for Game Informer said that The Chinese Room "proves once again that it has wonderful, affecting stories to tell and can create environments that ooze atmosphere", also adding that while having trouble "giving into the scares", it "will still rattle of the faint of heart". He criticized the game however, saying that it is "hard to remain frightened [...] when you feel like the game is pulling punches".[32]
James Stephanie Sterling of Destructoid said that "if you want to be told a vexingly bizarre story presented with a real sense of style, The Chinese Room may have exactly what you want". She also said that "if you're a massive survival horror fan who wants to be made to scream, however, you probably want to stick your snout in someone else's offal".[37]
Sales
Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs sold 120,000 units in its first week.[38]
Related Research Articles
Double Fine Productions, Inc. is an American first-party video game developer of Xbox Game Studios based in San Francisco, California. Founded in July 2000 by Tim Schafer shortly after his departure from LucasArts, Double Fine's first two games – Psychonauts and Brütal Legend – underperformed publishers' expectations despite critical praise. The future of the company was assured when Schafer turned to several in-house prototypes built during a two-week period known as "Amnesia Fortnight" to expand as smaller titles, all of which were licensed through publishers and met with commercial success. Schafer has since repeated these Amnesia Fortnights, using fan-voting mechanics, to help select and build smaller titles. Double Fine is also credited with driving interest in crowdfunding in video games, having been able to raise more than US$3 million for the development of Broken Age, at the time one of the largest projects funded by Kickstarter, and more than US$3 million for the development of Psychonauts 2.
Obsidian Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Irvine, California. It was founded in June 2003, shortly before the closure of Black Isle Studios, by ex-Black Isle employees Feargus Urquhart, Chris Avellone, Chris Parker, Darren Monahan, and Chris Jones.
Soma is a survival horror video game developed and published by Frictional Games. The game was released on 22 September 2015 for Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, and PlayStation 4, and on 1 December 2017 on Xbox One.
Penumbra: Overture is the first in a series of episodic survival horror games developed by Frictional Games. The game follows a physicist named Philip who travels to Greenland after his mother's death and is forced to explore an abandoned mine. Penumbra: Overture received average reception from critics.
Frictional Games AB is a Swedish independent video game developer based in Malmö, founded in January 2007 by Thomas Grip and Jens Nilsson. The company specialises in the development of survival horror games with very little or no combat gameplay mechanics. It is best known for its games Amnesia: The Dark Descent and Soma.
Amnesia: The Dark Descent is a 2010 survival horror adventure game developed and published by Frictional Games. It was released in 2010 for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux operating systems, in 2016 for the PlayStation 4 platform and in 2018 for the Xbox One. The game features a protagonist named Daniel exploring a dark and foreboding castle called Brennenburg, while trying to maintain his sanity by avoiding monsters and unsettling events. The game was critically well-received, earning two awards from the Independent Games Festival and numerous positive reviews.
Batman: Arkham City is a 2011 action-adventure game developed by Rocksteady Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Based on the DC Comics superhero Batman, it is the sequel to the 2009 video game Batman: Arkham Asylum and the second installment in the Batman: Arkham series. Written by veteran Batman writer Paul Dini with Paul Crocker and Sefton Hill, Arkham City was inspired by the long-running comic book mythos. In the game's main storyline, Batman is incarcerated in Arkham City, a super-prison enclosing the decaying urban slums of fictional Gotham City. He must uncover the secret behind a sinister scheme orchestrated by the facility's warden, Dr. Hugo Strange.
Mikko Tarmia is a Finnish video game music composer known for working with Codeblender Software, Frictional Games, and Wolfire Games. He founded the independent record label The Sound of Fiction.
Costume Quest is a party-based role-playing video game developed by Double Fine Productions and published by THQ on October 20, 2010. In the game, the player controls a child who is trick-or-treating with their twin on Halloween night when they encounter a monster that kidnaps their sibling. The player must travel around the local neighborhood collecting items for their costume, candy, and fellow children as companions in order to face the leader of the monsters and rescue their sibling. The costume aspects are used in turn-based battle segments, where the player character and companions are transformed into whatever they are dressed as to fight other monsters; the costume aspects are also used for abilities outside of battles.
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is the eighth installment in the Tekken fighting game series and the sequel to Tekken Tag Tournament. It was released for the arcades in September 2011. It received an update, subtitled Unlimited, in March 2012. A console version based on the update was released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in September 2012, prior to the update. It was ported to the Wii U as one of the system's launch titles in November 2012, subtitled Wii U Edition.
Angry Birds Seasons is the second puzzle video game in the Angry Birds series, developed by Rovio Entertainment. Based on Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons was released for devices using Apple's iOS in October 2010 and then it was released on other platforms starting in December 2010. There have been no new releases since the release of Ragnahog on December 1, 2016.
The eighth generation of video game consoles began in 2012, and consists of four home video game consoles: the Wii U released in 2012, the PlayStation 4 family in 2013, the Xbox One family in 2013, and the Nintendo Switch family in 2017.
The Chinese Room is a British video game developer based in Brighton that is best known for exploration games. The company originated as a mod team for Half-Life 2, based at the University of Portsmouth in 2007, and is named after John Searle's Chinese room thought experiment. In August 2018, it became a subsidiary of Sumo Digital.
Dark is a stealth action role-playing video game developed by German team Realmforge Studios and published by Kalypso Media in 2013. Players control Eric Bane, a vampire suffering from amnesia who seeks to recover his memories.
Slender: The Eight Pages, originally titled Slender, is a short first-person survival horror game based on the Slender Man, an infamous creepypasta. It was developed by independent developer Mark J. Hadley using the game engine Unity and was first released in June 2012 by his one-man studio Parsec Productions.
Everybody's Gone to the Rapture is a 2015 adventure game developed by The Chinese Room and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. The game takes place in a small English village whose inhabitants have mysteriously disappeared. It is considered a spiritual successor to Dear Esther (2012), also by The Chinese Room. It was released for PlayStation 4 on 11 August 2015 and for Windows on 14 April 2016. It received positive reviews from critics.
Dark Souls II is a 2014 action role-playing game developed by FromSoftware. The second installment of the Dark Souls series, it was released for Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 by FromSoftware in Japan and Bandai Namco Games internationally. Taking place in the kingdom of Drangleic, the game features both player versus environment (PvE) and player versus player (PvP) gameplay. Dark Souls II was released in March 2014 after some initial delays, with the Windows version being released the following month.
Gone Home is a first-person exploration video game developed and published by The Fullbright Company. Gone Home was first released for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux computers in August 2013, followed by console releases for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in January 2016, the Nintendo Switch in September 2018, and iOS in December 2018.
Amnesia: Rebirth is a 2020 survival horror video game developed and published by Frictional Games. It was released for Windows, Linux, and PlayStation 4 on 20 October 2020, for Amazon Luna on 22 October 2021, and for Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S on 20 October 2022. It is the third installment in the franchise and serves as a sequel to Amnesia: The Dark Descent (2010). The game received generally favorable reviews.
Alone in the Dark is a 2024 survival horror video game developed by Pieces Interactive and published by THQ Nordic. The game is a reimagining of the original 1992 Alone in the Dark and is the seventh installment in the Alone in the Dark video game series. The game features a single-player narrative set in the 1930s, where players can choose to play as Edward Carnby or Emily Hartwood, as they make their way through Derceto Mansion to uncover the mysteries within. It was released for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S on 20 March 2024. Upon release, it received mixed reviews from critics.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
