Genuinely curious about this, A Machine for Pigs left me very sour.

More puzzle-oriented, like Amnesia. Machine for Pigs was made by a different developer, the one that also made Dear Esther (which was also light on gameplay).

There aren't many puzzles, its more story focused like A Machine for Pigs. There are some very basic puzzles, but they are not many.

It actually has much less puzzles than Amnesia, Thomas Grip said since the first day that he wanted a more story focused experience from SOMA. Instead of just scaring you like Amnesia he wanted psychological horror too that unsettles you by its themes and questions that it asks. Its for example why it lacks an inventory.

sounds good enough to me if the story is interesting, I just don't want to feel useless as the player

But it has an inventory screen... Huh, guess I haven't played enough of it yet.

No it has a button you click to see what you have on you. This is most often one or no items, like if you have your omnitool on. Its not an inventory like Amnesia/Penumbra where you can take up an inventory and combine items/move them around/use healing items.

Ohhhh, OK. Thought I would actually get to pick up some items and use them later on.

More gameplay than Hamnesia, less than Amnesia. It's not a "walking simulator."

I haven't finished the game yet but so far they seem to do a good job at giving you enough interaction with the world to fell like you can screw up, unlike A Machine for Pigs which despite over all enjoying it the lack of any real threat out side a couple of encounters very much destroyed any tension.