Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs

About Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs

A Machine for Pigs is the 2013 follow-up to Amnesia: The Dark Descent, made by The Chinese Room, the studio behind Dear Esther, and published by Frictional Games. It shares the first game's world and its fear of the dark but tells its own story, with music by Jessica Curry. It is sold on Steam and as part of Amnesia: Collection on PlayStation, Xbox and Switch.

Oswald Mandus, a wealthy industrialist, wakes in his London mansion on New Year's Eve 1899, wracked with fever and guilt from a disastrous expedition to Mexico. The house is silent, the ground shakes, and he knows only that his children are in danger. A voice on the telephone guides him down into his meat-processing factory and the machine beneath it.

It plays more like a dark story you walk through than the original. There is no inventory and no sanity meter, the lantern never runs out, and puzzles are simple: power the machines, open the way. The fear comes from the place, its steam and grinding gears and abattoir smells, from notes and phonograph recordings that reveal what Mandus built, and from the pig-men who prowl the tunnels and whom you can only flee.

It divided fans of The Dark Descent, who missed its survival systems, but its writing and atmosphere have their admirers. It suits players who want a short, bleak, story-led horror game about industry, cruelty and guilt.

How to play Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs

1. Explore the mansion and factory in first person, opening doors and drawers and reading the notes you find.
2. Use your electric lantern to light the way, and turn it off when you need to stay unseen.
3. Restore power and work the machines to open the path deeper into the factory.
4. When you hear the pig-men, keep away from them, hide in the dark or run.

Tips

• Listen to the phonographs and read the notes; they carry most of the story.
• Turn off the lantern near enemies; light draws them.
• Don't stop to fight; you can't.

Questions