The masters of horror deliver a fresh spin on the Amnesia formula - Amnesia: The Bunker Quick Review
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PLAY IT OR SKIP IT?
Play it, unless you’re too scared. Like previous releases from developer Frictional Games, Amnesia: The Bunker is not for the faint of heart. Some fans worried about the announcement of this fourth game in the Amnesia series, particularly when it was revealed that it would be the first game in the franchise to give players a weapon. Those fears were misplaced, though; the limited ammunition and other defensive options in The Bunker are a far cry (pun intended) from turning Amnesia into just another power fantasy. This is still a game about being trapped, hunted by horrific forces beyond your comprehension, and more or less powerless to stop them. And with some new twists, it’s still utterly brilliant.
TIME PLAYED
So far I’ve spent three hours crawling through the cramped corridors and dingy, rat-infested living spaces of Amnesia: The Bunker. From everything I’ve read, that places me just around the halfway point of this brisk, intense experience.
WHAT’S AWESOME
• The setting. Each Amnesia title has had its own distinct feel, but The Bunker really stands out from the pack with its World War I setting. The dirty trenches, deadly mustard gas, and general sense of humanity’s ability to commit great atrocities are perfectly primed subjects for the horror genre. The so-called “Great War” is woefully underexplored in gaming in general, but I’d much rather games like this that explore the lasting trauma of this terrible event than games like Battlefield 1 that try to make it something heroic and exciting.
• Freedom. This may sound like a silly bullet point in a game where I spent most of my time running through tiny hallways like a rat in a maze, but I was genuinely impressed by Amnesia: The Bunker’s open structure. I don’t say open world, because calling this space an “open world” would be laughable, but I was able to decide which objectives I wanted to tackle and what parts of the bunker to explore in what order. I had to plan each of my delves deeper into the bunker while operating from a hub where I could stay safe and power up a generator. It’s a great twist on the formula that helps make for a deeply memorable setting.
• Emergent gameplay. Taking a page out of games like Deus Ex and System Shock, Amnesia: The Bunker embraces a free-form approach to puzzle-solving. At one point, as I nervously crept down the passageways of the bunker’s administration area, I could not for the life of me figure out how to get one door open. Then I remembered something that I had been taught way back at the start of the game; I ran into a nearby room, picked up a heavy brick, lugged it over to the door, and then smashed that sucker open. I knew the noise of busting down the door would be enough to lure the game’s strange monster to where I was, so I slid into hiding in a nearby closet...but not before prepping a grenade that I tossed out to stun the beast when he showed up. This is just one small example, but there really are many paths through the bunker and many possible ways to get through every scenario the game throws at you, and figuring them out was a blast.
• Weapons as puzzle pieces. Speaking of multiple solutions to every puzzle, we should talk about the gun. Amnesia: The Bunker’s most controversial addition to the series is a revolver. First things first: Ammo is extremely limited, and frankly, from the little testing I did before running away screaming, gunfire doesn’t seem to hurt the game’s monster very much. No, the reason you want a revolver is the same reason you want grenades, glass bottles, and undefinable chunks of meat: to solve puzzles. I found myself carefully hoarding bullets not so that I could attack the supernatural enemy in a blaze of glory, but rather so I could use them to shoot the locks off of doors, or carefully blow up grenades attached to trip wires from afar. Frictional has done something brilliant by adding a gun to the game but making it a tool you use rather than the only verb that ends up mattering in gameplay.
• The writing. I haven’t finished Amnesia: The Bunker yet, but having played all three previous Amnesia games, I have strong suspicions about what direction the story is going in. It’s not going to shock anyone, and it’s not like the idea of literalizing trauma into a monster is some bold new idea in the horror genre. That said, most of The Bunker’s backstory is told via notes I picked up as I explored, and these tidbits are just as sharply written as anything Frictional has ever done. I’d love something that breaks totally new ground like Soma did in 2015, but for something that mostly sticks to the expected formula, I’ve been totally happy with what this game offers.
WHAT SUCKS
• Spending a lot of time hiding in the dark. If you’ve played any previous Amnesia games, you already know the score here, but a lot of my time in The Bunker was spent hiding under desks or beds or inside of closets, waiting for the monster stomping around outside to leave me alone. The good news is that The Bunker’s monster AI is pretty forgiving. As long as I got myself into hiding relatively quickly upon realizing the creature was headed my way, it usually didn’t catch me. But, you know, still lots of time just waiting and staring at a mostly pitch-dark screen. If you’re impatient or don’t like stealth, be warned.
💬 Are you brave enough to enlist in the war and enter the trenches of Amnesia: The Bunker? Or would you prefer to leave this kind of depowered horror back with the first Amnesia game in 2010? Share your thoughts in the comments!
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