The empty rooms and dead-ends make the environments feel as if people once thrived here, that this place was genuine but now reduced to a ghost town. Back tracking doesn't feel cheap but fills the player with dread having to sneak past a previous enemy one more time. The levels are more sprawling meaning that there is always more than one passage to explore.

Not to give away any of the plot but the ending is surprisingly powerful and resonates with the player far more strongly than The Dark Descent's ending.

It makes the ordeal even more suspenseful as failing has such a greater cost. It adds a poignancy to the horror that is very rarely seen in modern survival horror. Oswald Mandus's journey to save his children from the horror's of the past is told in a very compelling way that never feels overly sentimental. The story is certainly a key feature in this. This is definitely an experience not for the faint hearted. This reviewer's personal favourite moments are entering the chapel to the sound of organ music only to find that there is no one there, sneaking past the enemies in the holding pens (a scene not out of place in a Saw film) and finally discovering the true nature of the ghosts that stalk you. The Resident Evil franchise should look on with envy. Your muscles will tense and your breathing will get heavier. Nowhere ever feels safe and there are moments in the game that are authentically disturbing. When you finally reach the end, you really feel as if you have just been through a living nightmare. But that is really the only negative criticism that can be said because A Machine For Pigs is frightening.

Amnesia a machine for pigs ending