Quick Look: Solo: Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs

Love these horror game quicklooks. Good stuff Patrick.

As for the naysayers here, I suspect you all lack a common thread of imagination or empathy that allows you to connect to fictional settings. I've seen these lack of fear in a lot of my army buddies, most of whom have been turned into sociopaths by the military. They can't comprehend how someone else feels, they can't put themselves in the shoes of others enough and lack the imaginative capability to suspend disbelief. That isn't a knock, just how it is for some people. If you aren't capable of letting yourself be immersed in a story then the problem isn't the game, it's you.

So simple solution: don't play these games, and don't expect others to share your lack of interest.

Ok, so I spoiled myself the story, because I'm sure as balls will NEVER play this. And I gotta say, it's pretty damn interesting. If I could handle playing such a game, I would.

If YOU can, you probably should.

Edit: Goddamit, Patrick. Ne-feh-rious. Not ne-faaah-rious.

@meatball: I haven't played the first one only because it won't work with the graphics card on my laptop

Damn, i get so annoyed watching this quick look. Don't get me wrong, Patrick is great, but he misses SO much of the game that I am just screaming at the screen to make him check certain places. He seems, for instance, very intent on not checking ANY drawers, which is making him miss a lot of good stuff, especially in the room with the creepy phonograph sounds.

This. Opening that desk drawer with that awesomely fucked up music playing will likely be one of the most memorable gaming moments I've experienced.

@fat_tomato: The first game was optimized pretty poorly. You almost had to have a certified gaming PC to get it to run worth a damn. Even my PC can't handle it on max, because for some reason the developers decided to allow you to turn on 128 samples of Ambient Occlusion (which is ridiculous, and didn't look good). I'm glad they reduced this number to a much more reasonable 32 samples in A Machine for Pigs. :P

@fat_tomato: The first game was optimized pretty poorly. You almost had to have a certified gaming PC to get it to run worth a damn. Even my PC now can't handle it on max, because for some reason the developers decided to allow you to turn on 128 samples of Ambient Occlusion (which is ridiculous, and didn't look good). I'm glad they reduced this number to a much more reasonable 32 samples in A Machine for Pigs. :P

Cannot wait to see this QL Patrick!

This looks awesome. I wasn't a big fan of the insanity mechanic in the first game...though I didn't manage to finish it. I realized these games aren't for me when I spent close to five minutes hiding in a cupboard in the first game. I'm undecided if if I want to play this or just watch a lets play since it would probably take years for get through it.

Machine for Pigs reminds me of Bioshock (the first one) in a whole bunch of ways. A couple of times I had to remind myself I was watching a quicklook for Amnesia.

@porousshield

Yeah I got that Bioshock vibe, they condense very complicated architecture into not only a natural looking realistic environment but also a very game friendly environment. Same with fallout 3 & new vegas just inspired art direction I guess.

Finished Outlast today. I think Outlast relies a bit too much on jump scares. I hope Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs does it by atmosphere, just like the first game.

Is it just me or is the frame rate terrible on this? Is it just this video or does the game not run so well?

Yep, no thanks. Fuck no, I'm out.

Yea Vinny is gonna fly to Chicago to film quick looks now.

I half expected a hand reaching out for Patrick's shoulders on that tiny picture-in-picture there for the entire video.

Yep, 100% agree. It was a big problem I had with The Dark Descent. Say what you want about how Outlast's jump scares are cheap, but hey, at least something happens. Amnesia prides itself on how it's all atmosphere, which is fine, but there's no real bite to the scares. Nothing ever makes me jump or feel paranoid in my own house. It's all just tension and then the enemies, when they do come, are lame.

I had to start skipping around in the Quick Look here. I guess I just want my horror to be a little more aggressive in trying to fuck with me. I'm sure this would be awesome on the Oculus Rift though.

i think your problem isn't with amnesia its with what you think the amnesia games are, amnesia is there to tell a story and give the deep foreboding feel of actually being in the story. The Horror genre isn't just about being jump scared, its an atmosphere, breathing it in and immersing yourself, its your story, and wallowing in the fear that you really just don't know what is coming next. Calling the subjects enemies is really not what these games are about. Look at Deadly Premonition as an example, certainly not the scariest game out there but it was certainly fucked up, and the game took it and ran with it.

I would love to see these guys do an Amnesia collection, Endurance Run!!!!

@sharkman: The game did a good job with atmosphere and story, but at a certain point, that's not enough. I go to the horror genre to be scared. Clearly, they wanted to scare me with the enemies in The Dark Descent, but they couldn't because I don't think they were designed very well. I figured out very quickly what the limitations were. You're supposed to believe there are no limits. The scariest part of Amnesia for me was the chase with the water monster because they broke down the limit it had before. After that, yeah, I guess it'd be story stuff, probably the area about torture and pain.

good QL

Really loved the writing pieces in this game. If the game had had subpar writing the atmosphere would have likely collapsed in on itself.