Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Celebrating All Things Spooky – Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs

 Celebrating All Things Spooky, Reviews, Video Games  3 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Oct 032018
 

I loved Amnesia: The Dark Descent.

It was terrifying, atmospheric, and Lovecraftian, and it told a delightfully disturbing story.

Despite loving it so much, it took me until this year to finally get around to playing its sequel, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs. This is mainly because A Machine for Pigs was made by the developers of Dear Esther, which I didn’t enjoy at all.

But this year, I decided to kick off the Halloween season by finally playing A Machine for Pigs.

A Machine for Pigs is very different from The Dark Descent. The Dark Descent focused a lot on survival, with the constant danger of darkness and your limited supply of light, the sanity effects, and the general sense that a monster could force you to flee at any moment.

Its sequel is more linear and focused on storytelling. You still play a character with amnesia exploring a mysterious location, but the exploration is more of a straightforward journey from one area to the next as the story unfolds through notes and flashbacks.

I felt like I’d played this style of game before, which unfortunately made some of the story elements predictable.

Click for A Machine for Pigs spoilers
The protagonist wakes up wondering where his children are, while their ghostly voices beckon him into the depths. I would have considered it a surprise twist if they weren’t dead.

And the nature of the machine / the protagonist doing terrible things in the past felt pretty routine for this sort of story.

However, the storytelling itself was pretty solid. It built up a grim, disturbing atmosphere and it didn’t shy away from the gruesome details. And while some aspects were predictable, other parts went in unusual directions. I enjoyed the slight links to The Dark Descent.

I also liked the industrial, steampunk-esque setting. It worked well for the game’s story.

The weakest part of the narrative was probably the children. You start the game looking for your missing children, and the reason the protagonist keeps pressing on into the depths of the facility despite all the horror is to find them. But they’re barely featured in the flashbacks, so I didn’t feel the compelling emotional pull to search for them.

Click for A Machine for Pigs spoilers
Them being obviously dead didn’t help. It just made it sadder to read every journal update from Mandus about how he had to keep moving forward to find them.

But I did enjoy the horror as it unfolded.

In terms of gameplay, A Machine for Pigs wasn’t as scary as its predecessor, although it did have a few good scares and some intense moments. I also missed the level of interactivity the original had. Everything fits together into this game’s more linear focus on telling its story.

I’m glad I finally played Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, but I don’t think it will leave the same lasting impression on me that The Dark Descent did.

Celebrating All Things Spooky 2018

 Celebrating All Things Spooky, My Stories, Video Games, Writing  5 Responses »  Tagged with: , , , , , ,
Oct 012018
 

Welcome to the sixth year of Celebrating All Things Spooky! Last year’s celebration went well, so let’s continue the tradition with more horror game reviews and another video game giveaway.

But first…

If you enjoy horror stories inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft, be sure to check out my novella The Book at Dernier, which follows a scholar digging into dark secrets that should have remained hidden, and my novelette It Came Back, which is about a young woman who uncovers a deadly secret in her family’s past.

But if you like your spookiness to be a bit more lighthearted, my novella The Zombie Mishap is a comedy about the misadventures of two scientists after they accidentally create a zombie.

In addition to these, I also have a few short horror stories available as well: “Rokurokubi” in Wicked Words Quarterly, “Sand” (another Lovecraftian one) in The Mad Scientist Journal, and “The Artist” in Final Masquerade.

While I’ve included the Amazon links here, information on all the ways to read my fiction can be found here.

And now let’s move on to the free games.

Another Horror Game Contest

After taking a look at the way things worked out last year, I’ve increased the range of potential prizes:

  • Yomawari: Night Alone
  • Detention
  • Dead Age
  • Lakeview Cabin Collection
  • Five Nights at Freddy’s: Sister Location
  • $15 sent through PayPal
  • You pick a game for me to review!

These copies will all be Steam codes.

If you choose the review option, your chosen game must be something I either own or is easily obtainable, which you can discuss with me beforehand. I will start playing it in November.

Now, as with the previous two contests, your participation in discussions on my blog posts throughout the month of October will determine your score.

Rules

  • No purchase is necessary.
  • Only comments made between October 1, 2018 at 12:00 PM EST and October 31, 2018 at 11:59 PM EST will be counted.
  • 1 non-spam, non-anonymous comment on any blog post here = 1 point.
  • 1 non-spam, non-anonymous comment on a Celebrating All Things Spooky blog post = 2 points.
  • You must use an email address or website URL (or include another way of contacting you) in your comment so I can contact you if you win.
  • You must have at least 10 points at the end of the month to win.
  • The person with the most points will get their first pick of the prizes. The person with the second most points will pick second, and so on, until all prizes have been given out.
  • The winner will be contacted on November 2, 2018.

If you have any questions, please let me know. And now, let the celebration begin!

Celebrating All Things Spooky: Majora’s Mask

 Celebrating All Things Spooky, Reviews, Video Games  10 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Oct 302017
 

The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask is often referred to as the “dark” Legend of Zelda game, so what better time to look at it than during our celebration of all spooky and creepy games?

(Plus, I finished it yesterday.)

I never played Majora’s Mask when it originally came out, so I was thrilled by the announcement of Majora’s Mask 3D. Several friends warned me it could get repetitive, but I suggested it to a friend as a game we should play together in July.

…*looks at date* Okay, so it took a little longer to finish than I expected.

Unfortunately, the reason Majora’s Mask took me so long to complete isn’t just because I somehow put 59 hours into it, but because I often didn’t have the will to play it, at least not for more than one 3-day cycle in-game.

This is not to say I didn’t like Majora’s Mask! I enjoyed several parts of it… mainly when I was doing normal Zelda activities. I liked solving puzzles in the dungeons, I liked playing mini-games, and I liked using the masks, especially the transformation masks.

I also enjoyed the premise and story, although I’d argue that it isn’t nearly as dark of a game as people say. Plenty of dark things happen in the game, but there are dark events in pretty much every Legend of Zelda game. To me, Link’s Awakening is ultimately darker in the end despite its lighter presentation.

Click for Link's Awakening spoiler
In Link’s Awakening, either everyone you interacted with during the entire game was fake, or you killed them all. And the bosses fight you because they don’t want to be erased. That’s pretty disturbing…

But that doesn’t matter. Dark or not, I enjoyed the atmosphere and story of Majora’s Mask.

What I didn’t enjoy was the time mechanic.

I know, the time travel is central to Majora’s Mask. And I like the concept. Make progress, learn new information, get new items, and then reset time to avert the apocalypse while using what you did the previous time to get further.

Yet it leads to so much repetition…

From my understanding, the 3DS version made some of this a lot easier to manage, which I’m grateful for. Even with those changes, I found it annoying to repeat certain things over and over and over, and I was never pleased to run out of time while nearing the end of a dungeon.

I was conflicted going into The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, and I’m still conflicted now that I’ve finished it. On one hand, I enjoyed several things about it. On the other hand, I found it to be one of the most annoying Zelda games I’ve played. Overall, I think I would have enjoyed it more if it had a similar story but played more like a traditional game in the series.

But that’s just me, and I know this game is beloved by many people. What do you think of Majora’s Mask?

And do you consider it a dark game?

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