Line #79 VideoGame/AmnesiaAMachineForPigs


1	[[quoteright:255:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wwgbwz_3887.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:255:''"This world is a machine! [[TitleDrop A machine for pigs!]] Fit only for the slaughtering of pigs!"'']]
3
4	->''"He who makes a beast of himself removes himself from the pain of being human."''
5	-->-- '''[[Creator/SamuelJohnson Dr. Samuel Johnson]]'''
6
7	''Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs'' is the second entry in the ''VideoGame/{{Amnesia}}'' series, developed by Creator/TheChineseRoom (best known for ''VideoGame/DearEsther'') and published by Creator/FrictionalGames (also known for the ''VideoGame/{{Penumbra}}'' series) on September 10, 2013. It is an indirect sequel to ''VideoGame/AmnesiaTheDarkDescent'', originally started as a small mod before both companies saw potential that would be fulfilled with a larger game.
8
9	Taking place in the same [[TheVerse universe]] as ''The Dark Descent'', ''A Machine for Pigs'' is set sixty years later, in VictorianLondon, on New Years Eve, 1899. Wealthy industrialist Oswald Mandus has just awoken from a fevered comatose state that lasted him several months, haunted by nightmares of a vicious, dark, elaborate machine of mysterious purpose. And much more to his worry, as he stumbles around his estate, he finds that it appears to be completely empty, as his young sons Edwin and Enoch are strangely absent. Mandus must trace his life back to find out what happened during his months of unconsciousness, discover the whereabouts of his missing sons, and figure out what happened during his ill-fated trip to Mexico that immediately preceded it...
10
11	[[NothingIsScarier But mostly, he finds nothing...]]
12
13	Nothing but the twisted monstrosities that stalk the halls, and the cogs and gears of the great machine that whirs to life beneath him.
14
15	'''Character tropes go on to the [[Characters/AmnesiaAMachineForPigs Characters Sheet]].'''
16
17	----
18	!!This video game provides examples of:
19
20	* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: Justified, as they were designed to accommodate all the biological waste from the "products" stored above, then use the methane from it to further fuel the machine.
21	* AlternateRealityGame: The title, tagline, a release window, two pieces of artwork and hints of Creator/TheChineseRoom's involvement were all revealed through various fake websites.
22	* AmnesiacDissonance: The moment when Mandus discovers a note that reveals before his memory loss, he [[spoiler:used to send child laborers into the pipes of his factory to clean them and then [[CrossesTheLineTwice send more in to clean up the mess]] caused by the children being boiled alive by the extreme heat that traveled through the pipes, followed by letting the manpigs eat the children alive to keep the factory a secret.]]
23	* AndShowItToYou: When you finally find [[spoiler:your children]], they tear out their own hearts to show you. And do it again in subsequent meetings.
24	* AnimalMotifs: Diary entries repeatedly use ''Pigs'' heavily to represent people.
25	* ApocalypseHow: [[spoiler:The Engineer/The Machine plans a planetary class 3 type. Mandus witnesses the near destruction of London towards the end of the game.]]
26	** It is heavily hinted however [[spoiler: that the Engineer plans an EarthShatteringKaboom type apocalypse with its promise to "split the atom and the egg" (the world's core had been repeatedly referred to as a "metal/stone egg") using the power gained by the slaughter of London's population.]]
27	* ApocalypticLog: Mandus' final journal entry:
28	--> "I doubt I will ever be found, yet I leave you this, scrawled in the malodorous half-light, whilst my tormentor shuffles below, my fellow prisoners keen and squeal in the gloam, and where I wait for the knocking upon my cage that signifies it is, finally, my turn to make that dark journey into the interior."
29	* AppliedPhlebotinum: The mysterious Compound X that powers the Machine [[spoiler:and allows humans and pigs to be spliced together without killing them. It appears to have supernatural effects, up and including unhinging the subjects from reality, making them flicker back and forth from existence]].
30	** Considering that the Machine [[spoiler: and the manpigs were derived from studying what was left of Castle Brennenburg, and that the Machine draws its power from processing human bodies, its heavily implied that Compound X is related to vitae]].
31	* ArtisticLicenseHistory: The story takes place in the last hours of the 19th century, on the 31st of December 1899. Problem is, the Victorians were more careful with their calendar than our generation, and celebrated the turn of the 20th century when it actually happened, at midnight on January 1, 1901.
32	* AvoidingTheGreatWar: Played with. The Machine was built by Mandus, and is revealed to be his attempt to stop future wars from taking place after [[spoiler:he had a [[DreamingOfThingsToCome prophetic vision]] of the horrors of the World Wars, including his children dying in the trenches. The machine ends up [[HauntedTechnology inheriting a piece of Mandus' soul]], [[AIIsACrapshoot achieving sentience]] and [[WellIntentionedExtremist carrying out horrific acts of its own in an attempt to fulfil its purpose,]] and Mandus ultimately decides to [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifice himself]] in order to sabotage it, even though it means allowing the Wars to happen in the near future.]]
33	* BirthDeathJuxtaposition: Mandus' epic closing lines about [[spoiler:his and the machine's death at the beginning of the 20th century.]]
34	--> "And as the dust settled [[DiesWideOpen on my open eyes]] and we lay [[TogetherInDeath together embraced forever]], I heard miles above us, the sounds of the city turning over in its sleep. A church bell ringing out. And in that moment, the new century was born."
35	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:The Machine is destroyed and London is saved from its wrath, but Mandus sacrifices his life in the process. And of course, [[ForegoneConclusion the horrors of the 20th century are still to come]].]]
36	* BlackoutBasement: In some areas the lights will flicker and go out, leaving Mandus to navigate only by his own lantern. This actually has an in story explanation. [[spoiler: The Wretches' bodies contain the mystical Compound X that reacts to light in strange ways. On its own it simply becomes incredibly corrosive, but inside living bodies it produces stranger effects, apparently including electrical disturbances]].
37	* BloodMagic: [[spoiler:Used to bring a new god into being who would save humanity from itself. But to do this requires vast quantities of blood sacrifices, thus [[IndustrializedEvil the Machine was built to facilitate mass-production of such sacrifices]].]]
38	* BodyMotifs: Hearts. Mentioned in plenty of conversations, frequent references to the "heart" of the machine (which has a literal heart suspended in it) and [[spoiler: Mandus' means to turn off the machine is to have it rip his heart out.]]
39	* BookcasePassage: Plenty in Mandus' mansion. There are several hidden doors, leading to narrow passages inside of thick walls, with one-way mirrors for spying on people in rooms. At least one of these doors is behind a bathtub, the entirety of which rotates along with the floor and adjacent wall to expose the passage.
40	* BuildingOfAdventure: Most of the story takes place inside Mandus' meat factory.
41	* CallBack: There are plenty of references to the original ''Amnesia'', even if it is an indirect sequel.
42	** Mandus is well aware of the castle from the last game as well as the residents there, which is critical to the plot as [[spoiler: he uses the remains of a Servant Grunt as a partial blueprint for his Manpigs, and further refining the use of Vitae to twist captured humans into said manpigs.]]
43	** [[spoiler: There is a shattered Orb in the Aztec Temple which has been integrated into the machine.]]
44	** There are repeated references to "his great uncle's experiments" which implies that either Daniel or Alexander was his great uncle.
45	** [[spoiler:The Water Monsters reappear as some of Mandus' "failed test subjects" and haunt the sewers of the factory.]]
46	** One note explains that Compound X [[spoiler: is partly made of a formula created by Alexander, quite possibly vitae, the stuff of ''human pain and suffering.'']]
47	* CameraAbuse: There is blood smeared all over the screen when Mandus takes hits by the Manpigs.
48	* CollapsingLair: Due to Mandus' sabotaging, parts of the machinery collapse at the end.
49	* ConcealingCanvas: There is a lever behind a painting in one of the bathrooms that opens a secret door.
50	* CrapsackWorld: Victorian London wasn't a happy place, but it's actually a vision of [[spoiler: the 20th century]] that affects Oswald so deeply ''it makes him [[spoiler: construct a vast, demonic Machine beneath the ground with intention of slaughtering the entire human race like pigs.]]''
51	* CreepyCathedral: The chapel near Mandus' home, with windows are stained with the blood of pigs and their mutilated corpses piled atop the altar. [[spoiler: In the notes it is revealed this was a key source of "raw material" for the Manpigs, abducting entire congregations and sending them to the machine through a hidden passage.]]
52	* CreepyTwins: Oswald keeps catching glimpses of his ghostly looking, English-accented children running throughout the manor. [[spoiler:Exaggerated after he is tricked into turning the machine back on, where they appear right before the camera pale as corpses and covered in blood and ripping their own hearts out their chests.]]
53	* DarkerAndEdgier: ''A Machine for Pigs'' drops the lighter gothic horror of ''Dark Descent'' for IndustrializedEvil and even more grotesque BodyHorror. Similarly, the abstract CosmicHorror story of ''Dark Descent'' is replaced with a more personal and tragic tale of a father's love for his children causing him to do horrific things.
54	** The enemy hunting you goes from shadows and mutilated undead humans to even more twisted manpig monsters [[spoiler:that are still human]].
55	** Daniel tortured dozens or possibly hundreds of strangers to death out of selfishness. [[spoiler:Mandus mutilated and lobotomised thousands to "save them" from their own humanity. And [[KillTheOnesYouLove murdered his own children to spare them a more horrific death]].]]
56	** The villain is not some alien abomination from another realm [[spoiler: but ''a piece of Mandus' damaged soul'' given life.]]
57	* DoubleMeaningTitle: "A Machine for Pigs" has dual meanings. It refers both to Mandus' meat factory, and Mandus' personal metaphor for the coming industrialization of tyranny and war in the 20th century: a world-spanning machine that turns all of humanity into pigs for the slaughter.
58	* DownTheDrain: A particularly [[IntendedAudienceReaction disgusting]] example. Mandus must venture into the AbsurdlySpaciousSewer beneath his meat factory. [[NauseaFuel The corners of the walls are all caked in feces, and opaque chunky water fills the channels]].
59	* EatTheRich: [[spoiler:While under the Orb's influence, Mandus eventually directed his general anger and disgust at the state of the world towards of his fellow wealthy socialites and industrialists, seeing them as carrying a large part of the responsibly for the future horrors he had been witness to. As such, he invites them to lavish parties, getting them full of food and massively drunk -- then using traps in their bedrooms to feed the sods into the Machine, harvesting their vitae and butchering them up for product.]]
60	* EldritchLocation: It seems impossible that something as massive and bizarre as the depths of the Machine could be built under London by any normal means. Mandus even speculates that he is the first human ever to walk in those halls, even though the Machine is his own creation.
61	** [[spoiler: Near the end of the game, it becomes difficult to tell which parts of the factory are real and which parts are the product of Mandus' unraveling mind.]]
62	* EnemyWithout: [[spoiler:The Engineer is a part of Mandus' own soul embedded within the Machine, representing his mad wish to prevent his visions of war and bloodshed in the 20th century.]]
63	* EternalEngine: A horror version. Oswald's factory is an industrialized meat factory filled with corpses and blood that goes miles upon miles underground. [[spoiler:It was created to harvest [[HumanResources vitae]] on an industrial scale.]]
64	* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: A note in the very beginning of the game reveals [[spoiler:Jack the Ripper had two children that he appeared to care about. After Jack is turned into a manpig[=/=]experimented upon by Mandus, Oswald had to keep them locked in a room with reinforced windows to stop them from taking revenge and/or telling the police about what he had done to their father.]]
65	** Given what is later found in [[spoiler: the manpig nest]], it's likely that a far worse fate befell them than mere imprisonment.
66	* FadeToWhite: The screen fades to white when you die.
67	* FedToPigs: [[spoiler: This is the Machine's plan for humanity, both literally and figuratively. A diary entry also references Mandus murdering orphans he took in to work as cleaners by feeding them to the pigs stored in the factory.]]
68	* GeniusLoci: [[spoiler:The Machine hosts a piece of Mandus' own, broken soul. It is both sentient and completely insane.]]
69	* GoMadFromTheRevelation: [[spoiler:After witnessing the horrors of the 20th century, from the trenches of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI to the bombing of Hiroshima to the Cambodian killing fields, Mandus is so desperate to avert it he murders thousands of innocent people, including ''his own children'', and turns hundreds more into the tortured manpigs.]]
70	* GoryDiscretionShot: [[spoiler: The player stops the Machine by sitting in a chair and flipping a switch, which brings out several needles aiming straight for Oswald's heart. The screen goes black right when the needles jut in.]]
71	* TheGrotesque: Considering it's set in the same universe as ''Amnesia: Dark Descent'', it's no surprise the game is filled with BodyHorror-like squealing PigMan creatures and rivers of blood.
72	* HauntedTechnology: Mandus' meat factory almost seems to be alive, sputtering in and out of life on its own. [[spoiler:It actually is haunted by the Engineer, a piece of Mandus' own soul.]]
73	* HazardousWater: Sections of the machine are flooded, and Mandus must activate the bilges and release valves to get the water level low enough to pass. However, strange electrical disturbances in the water indicate the presence of something unseen wading through it.
74	* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Mandus shuts down the Machine and saves London at the cost of his life.]]
75	* HumanSacrifice: [[spoiler:Mandus, pre-amnesia, thought that the Aztecs' beliefs in human sacrifice having the power to prevent their civilization's own destruction were not wrong, they simply couldn't do so on the scale required. However, [[IndustrializedEvil modern industrialization gives other methods to achieve those same ends with much greater efficiency]].]]
76	* HumansAreBastards: The Engineer is a manifestation of [[spoiler: Mandus' desire to slaughter all of humanity like pigs... ''out of shock and disgust at the horrors he knows they'll beget in the 20th century.'']]
77	* IndustrializedEvil: A major [[{{Motifs}} motif]].
78	** A large part of the game takes place in a uncomfortably cramped, blood-stained meat factory.
79	** Experiments of combining animals or humans with machines are discussed.
80	** [[spoiler:Mandus was driven insane by visions of the evils brought about by the industrialization of tyranny and war in the 20th century.]]
81	** The Machine was designed to [[spoiler:manufacture vitae - an arcane substance derived from human pain and suffering - on an industrial scale]].
82	* InterfaceScrew: While the eye-bending screen filters from ''Dark Descent'' at low sanity aren't here, there are still some subtle changes in clarity and field of view.
83	%%** One notable mention is if you were to attempt to look at your journal at end game. -- Explain. There is nothing different in my version.
84	* ItWillNeverCatchOn: One diary note discusses Mandus' mocking [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Babbage Charles Babbage]] for predicting a "machine that can think like a man." [[spoiler:Doubly ironic, as Mandus later creates the Machine, which - thanks to a shard of his own soul - possesses all of his intellect and insanity.]]
85	* UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper: Referenced in Mandus' journals. The professor who visits him is even said to have performed autopsies on the Ripper's various female victims. [[spoiler: It is also implied that Jack may have become one of the manpigs or another of Mandus' experiments.]]
86	** Similarly the factory seems to be at least partially located in some of the Ripper's old haunts like Bucks Row or Hansbury Street.
87	* KillThePoor: [[spoiler:Mandus and the Engineer murdered thousands of the destitute to grow the Engineer's power, seeing it as a better alternative to dying at the hands of shrapnel and mustard gas in the coming decades.]] Particular groups Mandus abducted to further his dark research are [[DisposableVagrant the homeless]], {{disposable sex worker}}s and [[HeartwarmingOrphan innocent orphans]]. Eventually, however, [[spoiler:he comes to [[EatTheRich do the same to the rich]].]]
88	* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Mandus begins the game with no knowledge of the last few months, and immediately sets out trying to find his children, worried about what might have happened to them. [[spoiler: The revelation of what truly happened to his children, and the reason why he killed them, also plays into this: he sacrificed them to [[CruelToBeKind to spare them from a more horrifying death]] in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.]]
89	* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: Oswald's last journal, which stands in for an objective: "I search for instructions, for advice, for help in my goals, but in return the system mocks me. Simpleton, it says, you must find your own answers now."
90	* LightningReveal: Certain rooms late game will go [[BlackoutBasement suddenly and inexplicably dark]], and Mandus will be stalked by a manpig who [[{{Intangibility}} fades in-and-out of reality]], only revealed by [[PsychoElectro crackling arks of electricity that pour off the metallic implants jutting through its skin]] every time it becomes visible.
91	* LoveMakesYouEvil: [[spoiler:Mandus murdered his own children to spare them an even more grisly death at the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Somme Battle of Somme]] years later.]]
92	* MeaningfulName: Oswald Mandus is a play on [[LookOnMyWorksYeMightyAndDespair Ozymandias]], referencing his obsession with making his factory the "great work of the industrial age".
93	** [[spoiler:His 'slaughtering people to save them from war' mentality also reflects on [[{{ComicBook/Watchmen}} a specific other wealthy industrialist associated with the same name]].]]
94	* MechanicalAbomination: The eponymous Machine is [[spoiler:an artificial replacement for God created by the main character to prevent the horrors of the 20th century, sustained by human sacrifice on a literally industrial scale, but it instead creates the pig monsters and plans to destroy/consume humanity]]. It's a cross between an EternalEngine and EldritchLocation that has developed into a MadGod.
95	* MercyKill: [[spoiler: Mandus believed he killed his children out of mercy, considering their fates in the coming century, and the Engineer wishes to apply the same logic to all of humanity.]]
96	* MissionPackSequel: {{Averted\|Trope}}. Was ''intended'' to be a small GaidenGame with some experimental gameplay set in the ''Amnesia'' universe. However, as the writing for the project grew, the developers realized that the game had to grow along with it. The result is something closer in breadth of scope to the original game.
97	* MobileMaze: Some of the architecture changes as Mandus moves through the corridors of the machine. He might go into a small side area, only to turn around and have a much longer backtrack through a series of unfamiliar halls, or going into a small cul-de-sac might have a different exit when he turns back around.
98	* AMillionIsAStatistic: During his MotiveRant, [[spoiler:the Engineer]] contrasts [[WarIsHell the general horrors]] of World War I's trench warfare with [[spoiler:Edwin and Enoch's fated deaths at the Battle of the Somme]], [[OutlivingOnesOffspring a much more up-close and very personal horror scenario for Mandus]].
99	* MotiveRant: [[spoiler:The Engineer]] combines this with a surprisingly poignant VillainousBreakdown:
100	-->''"[[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI I have stood knee deep in mud and bone, and filled my lungs with mustard gas]]. [[AMillionIsAStatistic I have seen two brothers fall]]. I have lain with [[UsefulNotes/ArabIsraeliConflict holy wars]] and copulated with [[AtomicHate the autumnal fallout]]. [[ThoseWackyNazis I have dug trenches for the refugees]]; [[UsefulNotes/HistoryOfTheUSSR I have murdered dissidents where the ground never thaws, and starved the masses into faith]]. [[UsefulNotes/AtomicBombingsOfHiroshimaAndNagasaki A child's shadow burnt into the brickwork.]] [[UsefulNotes/{{Cambodia}} A house of skulls in the jungle.]] The innocent, the ''innocent'', Mandus, ''[[UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust trod and bled and gassed and starved and beaten and murdered and enslaved!]]'' [[HumansAreBastards This is your coming century!]] They will eat them, Mandus! They will make pigs of you all! And they will bury their snouts into your ribs, and they will [[PunctuatedForEmphasis eat. Your. Hearts!]]"''
101	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Said nearly verbatim by Mandus when he returns to the streets of London after [[spoiler: reactivating the machine and unknowingly releasing the manpigs onto the unsuspecting populous]].
102	-->'''Mandus:''' ''Oh no, oh God no. What have I done?"
103	* NoCanonForTheWicked: Several notes imply that [[spoiler:either Alexander or Daniel was Oswald's great-uncle, and that he based his work on their experiments and the Servant bodies found in the castle. Given that Alexander wasn't human or had a sister, it certainly rules him out, leaving Daniel as the uncle, as he is British, like Mandus, and has a sister. Since Daniel's sister Hazel only survives and lives past fifteen in the case that Daniel takes Agrippa's head, and in the only other ending where Daniel lives the castle of Brennenburg is destroyed by the Shadow, it's heavily implied that the Good Ending to ''The Dark Descent'' is canon.]]
104	* NonstandardGameOver: If you enter a section of the machine [[spoiler:after the attack on London]] before neutralizing the manpig in there, you are treated to a short cutscene of said manpig killing you before you can react. Justified since you have to complete a puzzle in there and you can't run back to where you came from, so the game just shoves you back to the previous checkpoint.
105	* NothingIsScarier: Much like the first game, in the first hour you don't come into full physical contact with the monsters at all, and instead you hear and see them as they [[ParanoiaFuel stalk you and begin to get closer and closer to you.]]
106	** Type III is used majorly throughout all of the outdoors segments. You're all alone on the deserted streets of the London, with [[OhCrap less that one tenth of it's population today]], and even though you can't see them, you ''know'' the manpigs are watching, but instead of attacking, they just watch your every move.
107	* NurseryRhyme: Mandus' dialogue in one of his flashbacks alludes to a particular nursery rhyme. Which one? "This Little Piggy", of course. Though evidently, having roast beef wasn't one of his options:
108	--> '''Mandus:''' ''I am off to market. I will cry all the way home. I will have none, I will have none at all.''
109	* OddlyNamedSequel2ElectricBoogaloo: The developers freely admit that ''A Machine for Pigs'' was an odd name for a sequel to a horror game, but the more they thought about it, the more that they liked it. They kept the name in part because it ''was'' so odd, that it would stick out in people's minds, and not fit into a neatly defined category for what people expect.
110	* OffingTheOffspring: [[spoiler:After seeing his children would die horrifically in World War I, Mandus cut out their hearts as a ritual sacrifice in hopes of creating a god who could save the world from the horrors of the 20th century.]]
111	* PaintTheTownRed: [[spoiler: After the manpigs go on their rampage through London's streets, Mandus must venture back down into the machine, passing the "Tripery" on the way. This is the place where all the blood runoff from bleeding out the "products" being processed gets run through. He passes pipes gushing with outflows of blood, through channels of rushing blood, and finally wading through what amounts to a small ''lake's'' worth of blood to exit. All this goes to show ''just how many people'' have been "processed" in the last few minutes.]]
112	* PigMan: The monsters chasing the protagonist, which angrily squeal as they [[BarrierBustingBlow batter down doors]]. Mandus even refers to them as manpigs.
113	* PostHistoricalTrauma: [[spoiler: Experiencing this is what drove Mandus over the edge.]]
114	* PoweredByAForsakenChild:
115	** The Machine is powered by Compound X, which is heavily implied to be [[spoiler:vitae, a supernatural substance derived from human pain and suffering]]. To keep up with its copious energy demands, the Machine was designed to manufacture Compound X on an ''industrial scale'', [[spoiler:which is why the Machine unleashes the manpigs on London towards the climax, to collect as many living people as possible to be tortured to death and drained of vitae]].
116	** Children have proven indispensable for maintenance work in the pipe system. Mandus regularly sends down orphaned children into the steam pipes to clean them up. [[spoiler: They often get scalded to death in the process.]]
117	* PsychologicalHorror: Like the first game, [[SequelEscalation but more so]]. The survival elements are downplayed this time around, while the psychological elements are played up. This was in part to play to Creator/TheChineseRoom's strengths telling interactive narratives, and in part because they wanted to distinguish it from the original game, saying that making the gameplay too familiar would just make the player more comfortable and undercut the horror.
118	* PsychologicalTormentZone: Mandus occasionally finds areas covered with children's wooden building blocks and teddy bears. Time often slows down here, and Mandus laments for what might have happened to his children.
119	* PurpleProse: Oswald seems to enjoy writing like this, as it is seem both in the pages he does not remember writing and in his in-game journal.
120	* RageAgainstTheHeavens: [[spoiler: While not his sole motivation, Oswald Mandus blamed God for his wife's death and wanted to create a new god to replace him.]]
121	* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler:To protect all of London from becoming sacrifices to the Engineer, Mandus re-merges with his creation, killing them both.]]
122	* ResourcesManagementGameplay: {{Averted\|Trope}}, unlike the original game, as there is no inventory, no tinderboxes, no oil limits on your lantern this time around. The developers have said that as a SurvivalHorror game, they are easing up a bit on the "survival" elements to shift more of their creative attention to the "horror" elements.
123	* RestartTheWorld: This is the motivation of The Engineer. He saw horrific visions of the 20th century, which included the Holocaust and the two World Wars (in which Mandus' children die), and came to the conclusion that the best way to prevent it from happening was to destroy humanity and start over.
124	* ScrewDestiny: [[spoiler:Mandus and the Engineer's original goal was to avert the horrifying wars and genocides of the coming century.]]
125	* TheSecretOfLongPorkPies: [[spoiler: As Mandus' diary entries first hint at and then ultimately confirm, the Machine is processing ''human flesh'' which Mandus is then distributing as pork. It's unclear if all the meat he produced was human, or if he was offering a mixture of human flesh and real pork. Several late-game diary notes reveal that Mandus took a particular cruel delight in first feeding human meat to oblivious wealthy individuals at parties held at his estate, and then abducting as many of those people as he could without generating panic to [[EatTheRich feed them to the next party's guests]].]]
126	-->'''Professor''': My dear Mr. Mandus, I admire your vision, I truly do--but there are surely not enough pigs in the whole of London to feed the appetite of such a machine.\
127	'''Mandus''': That all rather depends, Professor, ''on what one considers to be a pig.''
128	* SensoryAbuse: Done by creating music that is intentionally dissonant. [[https://soundcloud.com/thechineseroom/mors-praematura "Mors Praematura"]][[note]]([[GratuitousLatin Latin]] for "[[MeaningfulName premature death]]")[[/note]] in particular uses dissonant arrangements of opera, low winds, and strings to make the player uncomfortable.
129	* SerialKiller: Mandus' first sanity effect comes from finding the teeth of several victims of what is implied to be a serial killer. [[spoiler:A few hours later Mandus finds out [[TheKillerInMe it was he himself]].]]
130	* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Mandus, the Professor, and [[spoiler:The Machine]] are all very fond of using big words.
131	* ShoutOut: Early on in the game there's a room full of hunting trophies and you can find a spider that looks suspiciously like the ones from ''VideoGame/{{Penumbra}}'' in a display case. It's also sort of an in-joke or CallBack because ''Amnesia'' is ''Penumbra'''s SpiritualSuccessor and ''[[VideoGame/AmnesiaTheDarkDescent Dark Descent]]'' was developed by the same team even though ''A Machine for Pigs'' wasn't.
132	* SickeningSlaughterhouse: Mandus' meat factory, which is full of blood and guts, and filled with terrifying pig monsters.
133	* SoundtrackDissonance: Female-voiced soft opera music will often play over scenes of squalor and slaughter. Justified via SourceMusic, as the music is played over speakers in the machine as part of the process of soothing the "products" and keeping them calm as they traverse down the pigline.
134	* StartXToStopX: [[spoiler:Kill millions to stop millions from dying in the coming decades. Though of course, Mandus was completely out of his mind when he came up with this plan.]]
135	* SteamPunk: The visuals of the game use a lot of gears and cogs. They are even present in Creator/FrictionalGames' logo.
136	* StoryBreadcrumbs: The backstory unfolds as we discover Oswald's journal entries, which are received through the course of the whole game.
137	* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: The manpigs share many physical similarities to the grunts of ''VideoGame/AmnesiaTheDarkDescent''. [[spoiler:This is not a coincidence; the manpigs were explicitly based on grunt corpses and the remains of Alexander's vitae research that Mandus found in the ruins of Castle Brennenburg.]]
138	* TalkingIsAFreeAction: Or, at least, writing in your journal. Whilst pumping some gas, there's a JumpScare from the resident evil-demon-creature-things, and any sane player will finish the pumping, grab the gas can and haul ass. ''Mandus'', on the other hand, takes the time to ''write in his journal!''
139	-->Dear sweet Lord of all that is good and holy! I must make my escape, grasp this container and its putrid contents and flee this place for that creature, that nearly-man returns. I will head for the church, surely such an abomination could not follow onto hallowed ground!
140	* TitleDrop: The game's subtitle comes up in one of Mandus' journals, and is a running phrase through the entire story.
141	-->'''Mandus:''' This world is a machine. [[TitleDrop A machine for pigs]]. Fit only for the slaughtering of pigs.
142	** The Engineer drops this line in-game [[spoiler: during a bit of EvilGloating, after tricking Mandus into releasing the manpigs to slaughter the people of London]].
143	* TrophyRoom: Full of preserved large game, such as a bear, a hippo, and a large anteater, contained in glass displays. Mandus appears to have been a GreatWhiteHunter in his past.
144	* UncannyValley: The manpigs invoke this trope, not so much by their appearance, but by the way they move. When you see one for the first time, its stooped, three-legged gait makes it hard to tell if it's an animal that has been turned monstrous or a person that has been turned animalistic. It's a minor [[WhamEpisode Wham Moment]] when you see one standing up for the first time, revealing that they are indeed fully humanoid.
145	* VictorianLondon: The setting for the game is New Years Eve in London, 1899. While London has always been important to the main character of all previous Frictional Games, this is the first one to feature it as a setting. Unlike the ClosedCircle of Castle Brennenburg in the [[VideoGame/AmnesiaTheDarkDescent first game]], this location will have the player venture outside of a single building and explore the fog-shrouded streets, implying a somewhat wider circle.
146	-->'''[[WordOfGod Dan Pinchbeck]]:''' We're going full on ''Victoriana''.
147	* TheVoice: "The Engineer", a mysterious presence who contacts Mandus via telephone lines set about the environment, urging him onward.
148	* WellIntentionedExtremist: The Engineer [[spoiler:and formerly Oswald]] genuinely believe the horrifying sacrifices made were necessary to protect mankind from an even worse fate, [[spoiler:the unspeakable carnage of the 20th century's countless wars and genocides.]]
149	-->'''Engineer:''' Mandus, please. I am no more evil than you. We sought the same thing, to save humanity, ridding them of their painful, stupid, pointless lives.
150	* WhamLine:
151	** The end of [[https://web.archive.org/web/20130906113345/http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/4852/haxly.png this letter]] from an orphanage matron to Mandus, thanking him for providing her starving children with food.
152	--->'''Matron:''' I hope you will find our children full of promise. They will, I assure you sir, [[spoiler:make the most wonderful additions to your product line]].
153	** When the Halloween trailer was released, the last exchange in it was a WhamLine at the time.
154	---> '''Professor''': My dear Mr. Mandus, I admire your vision, I truly do— but there are surely not enough pigs in the whole of London to feed the appetite of such a machine.\
155	'''Mandus''': That all rather depends, Professor, [[spoiler:[[TheSecretOfLongPorkPies on what one considers to be a pig]]]].
156	* WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief: Unlike the more subtle Dark Descent and Justine, which chooses their surreal-horror settings in [[AliensInCardiff more remote locals]], Machine for Pigs ups-the-stakes to an almost [[AssPull absurd degree]] by having it based ''in London'' of all places, yet Mandus' factory and sinister plot therein is never uncovered until an ApocalypseHow happens.
157	* YouWakeUpInARoom: The story begins with Mandus waking up in a room not remembering more than his name, and that his children need him, which he immediately sets off to search for.

Context VideoGame / AmnesiaAMachineForPigs