![]() ![]() A masterful horror game elicits true fear by making someone terrified to take a step, and this one did. In stark contrast to Dark Descent‘s oil-fueled need to rush ahead, several areas in A Machine For Pigs had me crouched and crawling slowly through environments with my lamp off to stay quiet and hidden. Finally, where Dark reveled in illogical and difficult puzzles, Pigs focuses more on environmental storytelling and tight, suspenseful progression. Pigs also avoids repeating the fantasy castle and cavern environment that Dark had and instead opts for a pseudo-steampunk Victorian setting that was more grounded in reality. The sanity meter is nonexistent, the new lantern now lasts forever, and enemies don’t rush players upon first glance. Although it was co-produced by Frictional and The Chinese Room ( Dear Esther, Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture) it’s obvious the latter developer did the heavy lifting, and players familiar with their work will notice obvious influences.įor Pigs, many of Dark Descent‘s mechanics are stripped-down, but for the better. This sets up an odd scenario where anytime an enemy shambles in, players are encouraged to hide and not look at the enemy - it’s the most obtuse way to keep tabs on its location! Instead of delivering suspense, it boils down to staring at outdated wall textures while hoping the enemy leaves.īy the time I finished The Dark Descent I was ready to give up on Amnesia: Collection, but I pressed on to A Machine For Pigs, and I’m glad I did. A horror game should never cause someone to rush unless something threatening is trailing close behind.Īnother fault (also present in 2015’s Soma) is that when an enemy shows up, they become increasingly aware of the player the longer the player stares at it. The result? What should be a slow-burn horror tale becomes one where I constantly felt the need to rush to the next area in order to preserve my oil. However, the lantern runs on oil, which is occasionally hard to find. Its biggest issue is that its mechanics don’t mesh well together.įor example, The Dark Descent has a sanity system that causes Daniel’s vision to blur (among other things) if he spends too much time in the dark. The Dark Descent got better after that unfortunate incident, but anyone playing it for the first time (like me) has likely already played a better horror game during the six years it took for Frictional to bring it to consoles. Back to the title screen I went to start over. ![]() After getting stuck and running around for a while, I looked up a guide and confirmed that the game had messed up. I encountered a scripted event that slowed the framerate so much it could have passed for a PowerPoint presentation, and a staircase that I needed went glitchy and completely disappeared from the environment. Unfortunately, my first session with The Dark Descent started poorly. If I gave myself amnesia to escape a terrible situation, I’d leave notes telling me to vacation in the Bahamas, not continue doing the same dark deeds that drove me to my troubles in the first place. Fortunately, pre-potion Daniel was nice enough to leave a trail of notes for his post-potion self to follow, although one wonders why he erased his memories at all if he intended to carry out a plan that he created himself. Although I respect its role in creating its own subgenre, this pioneer hasn’t aged well.Īs the title suggests, Amnesia: The Dark Descent has players shaking in the boots of Daniel, a man who willingly drank an amnesia-inducing potion prior to the start of the adventure. Contemporary survival horror titles such as Outlast, P.T., and even Slender grew out of the exploration-based atmospheric horror The Dark Descent spearheaded. Instead of focusing on combat and killing, it stripped players of the ability to defend themselves and only allowed them to run and hide in dangerous situations. When Amnesia: The Dark Descent originally launched in 2010, it set a new standard for atmospheric horror games. However, I’ve never been a PC gamer, so Amnesia: Collection offering remastered versions of their previous PC-only games on PS4 seemed perfect. That title ended up as my 2015 Game of the Year, so naturally, I was keen to play their previous works. My only experience with Frictional Games prior to this was Soma. WTF I’ll never get used to holding R2 to open doors.ĭuring my time with Amnesia: Collection, I kept thinking about its target audience.
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