I decided to begin 2014 as I meant to go on, being chased through Victorian machinery by hideous creatures. For this edition of Z1G’s Horror Show, I played Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs.

“Daddy, please don’t kill me”.

Those are the first spoken words heard when starting A Machine for Pigs, and they aim to hook the player immediately. Our latest oblivious horror protagonist Mandus wakes up in a peculiarly designed mansion with the knowledge that his twin children are missing and with only a mysterious voice on the telephone for direction.

Before long, he is led into the eponymous machine like a pig to the slaughter (see what I did there?) in the hopes of rescuing his children who are trapped in the centre.

I am going to put this on record straight away: I never really liked the first Amnesia game. It was scary, nobody could deny that, but I felt that many of the mechanics that afforded it its terrifying atmosphere were just annoying, such as the sanity metre which meant you couldn’t stand in the dark for more than ten seconds without falling to the floor like the protagonist was choking on a peanut.

A Machine for Pigs strips a lot of features from its predecessor. The sanity meter has thankfully been disposed of and the lantern no longer needs to be refilled. Taking away these features makes the game less scary, but it also makes it much more enjoyable, which is a fair trade.

However, it also strips away the inventory system that was used for the puzzles in the original Amnesia, and doesn’t really replace it with anything. The result is that the few puzzles that are in A Machine for Pigs don’t evolve past picking up an object, carrying it to the next room and then using it.

Although it has received criticism for its lack of gameplay compared to the original and for the features it left out, A Machine for Pigs does improve on the original where it is most important. The boring medieval setting of the first Amnesia game is swapped for an interesting industrial Victorian aesthetic.

The narrative is what is improved most though. A Machine for Pigs tells one of the most intriguing stories ever told in a horror game, and even if the gameplay leaves the player wanting more involvement, the story will keep anyone invested till the climactic end.

What is probably most horrific about the story is that as grotesque and sickening as it is, it is still considered preferable to what actually happened in the 20^th century in real life, but I will not spoil anything. Play it for yourself to find out what I’m blathering on about.

A Machine for Pigs is still a frightening game. It may not contain a single, jump-out scare, and the amount of enemies involved is paltry in comparison to other horror games, but it unnerves the player in more subtle ways.

Instead of throwing monster after monster at the player until they are as ineffectual as shooting rolled up bits of paper at the player through a straw, A Machine for Pigs uses a fantastic score and narrative pacing to create a palpable atmosphere that keeps the player terrified even when they are seemingly in no danger.

It still contains enemies that will chase Mandus and rip his face off if they get the chance, but they are few and far between. The enemy design is inspired though. The hideous man-pigs are dehumanised enough that the player will run from their hideous forms screaming all the way, but maintain enough human traits to be tragic and sympathetic.

A Machine for Pigs might not be as immediately scary as other horror games, but it is still one of the most frightening horror games I have ever played, for what it lacks in immediate terror it makes up for with harrowing, traumatising concepts.

The parts of the game that are most frightening are not the parts where the player is in danger, but where the player has time to soak in the horrific imagery and ponder what is actually happening inside the groaning machine, and how many living things have passed through its mechanisms.

The machine itself is the star of the game. Astoundingly original, it splutters and hisses as Mandus stumbles around inside of it, switching it on one step at a time and giving it a grim, unnatural life. It is a machine designed for the efficient and soulless slaughtering of pigs by the thousands. It is a video game character unlike any other.

Due to its enthralling and eloquently written story and effective atmosphere, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs is possibly the best horror game I have ever played. Some might argue it does not deserve the title ‘game’ with its distinct lack of gameplay, but the story is so stirring and harrowing that it more than makes up for deficiencies in any other area.

It will scare you and it will entertain you, but most importantly it will feed your mind with brutally familiar concepts and imagery that is equal parts tragic and terrifying, but most importantly, it will instill in you the fear that the next bacon sandwich you attempt to eat will punch you in the face.

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