I was so looking forward to this...

When I heard that Frictional were teaming up with The Chinese Room (of Dear Esther fame), I was expecting something pretty epic. With Frictional's immersive gameplay and The Chinese Room's decent story writing and presentation skills, this seemed like a match made in heaven. The reality, however, was that development was handed over lock, stock and barrel to The Chinese Room. The result is not an Amnesia game, more "Dear Esther: The Horror Story". To say I was disappointed would be the understatement of the century.

The Dark Descent was one of the few games I enjoyed more for its gameplay than the story. The monsters terrified me and the entire atmosphere of Castle Brennenburg filled me with a sense of cold dread and impending doom. A Machine for Pigs felt like a different game entirely, with only mere vestiges of the Amnesia formula that I adored. The gameplay consisted mostly of walking around, reading notes, listening to gramophones and pressing a few buttons/pulling a few levers. The Pigs did not scare me in the least, they just provided an annoyance that I had to evade; unlike the Grunts, who scared the living hell out of me and made me want to hide until they went away. The game is more about seeing supposedly "scary" stuff happen, rather than experiencing it yourself. It seems like they were so proud of their story, that they removed almost all elements of gameplay so you would not get distracted.

Overall, I would not recommend this game to fans of the original Amnesia and the Penumbra games. While it might appeal to fans of Dear Esther, and games of that ilk where story is the sole focus of the game, it left me wanting much, much more.

I was so looking forward to this... When I heard that Frictional were teaming up with The Chinese Room (of Dear Esther fame), I was expecting something pretty epic. With Frictional's immersive gameplay and The Chinese Room's decent story writing and presentation skills, this seemed like a match made in heaven. The reality, however, was that development was handed over lock, stock and barrel to The Chinese Room. The result is not an Amnesia game, more "Dear Esther: The Horror Story". To say I was disappointed would be the understatement of the century. The Dark Descent was one of the few games I enjoyed more for its gameplay than the story. The monsters terrified me and the entire atmosphere of Castle Brennenburg filled me with a sense of cold dread and impending doom. A Machine for Pigs felt like a different game entirely, with only mere vestiges of the Amnesia formula that I adored. The gameplay consisted mostly of walking around, reading notes, listening to gramophones and pressing a few buttons/pulling a few levers. The Pigs did not scare me in the least, they just provided an annoyance that I had to evade; unlike the Grunts, who scared the living hell out of me and made me want to hide until they went away. The game is more about seeing supposedly "scary" stuff happen, rather than experiencing it yourself. It seems like they were so proud of their story, that they removed almost all elements of gameplay so you would not get distracted. Overall, I would not recommend this game to fans of the original Amnesia and the Penumbra games. While it might appeal to fans of Dear Esther, and games of that ilk where story is the sole focus of the game, it left me wanting much, much more.