Amnesia: The Bunker is a new installment in Frictional Games‘ Amnesia franchise, where players equip themselves with a revolver and a noisy flashlight and explore a World War I bunker from the perspective of a French soldier being hunted by an otherworldly creature. Keep reading if that’s not enough to make your hair stand on end. This is our Amnesia: The Bunker PC review.
Amnesia: The Dark Descent became a horror icon in 2010, cementing its place among Silent Hill and System Shock as one of the best horror game franchises. However, some of that brilliance began to dim when subsequent sequels didn’t live up to the standard of existential horror set by the original.
The original Amnesia used its domineering environment and narrow corridors to make the player feel helpless. Not only was running away from threats their only option, but the game also used its mind against them. No matter how simple the gameplay, it was incredibly effective as a horror tool – the danger was always present, and the panicked breathing of the protagonist Daniel in the dark brought visceral horror to the game.
A sequel closer to the classic Resident Evil but with the deliberate and steady pace that Amnesia is known for. Henri, whom you’ll learn more about through numerous diary entries and narrative passages, is a soldier and more resilient than the other main characters in the series. Anri can use grenades, flares, and other impromptu defenses along with the pistol.
This game, with its great and oppressive atmosphere and constant tension, will keep you on your toes and possibly fear. It’s vital that I tell you that the developers surpassed themselves and created something new but pleasantly familiar.
In Amnesia: The Bunker, you play as French soldier Henri Clement during the First World War. You find yourself in a bunker after being wounded, and all your fellow soldiers die or disappear, but soon you realize you are not alone. And your task is to get out of the bunker alive. Although this is a military bunker, there are very few resources and supplies, so think about your choice of combat and use of items. World War I is a time period rarely used in games, but it’s the perfect setting for a horror game. Soldiers during conflict often spent weeks in the trenches surrounded by the smell of death and earth without sunlight for days on end; it’s hard to come up with a historical backdrop that better captures the claustrophobic, crushing fear of the original game.
According to Fredrik Olsson, he stated in an interview that he wants The Bunker to be a game that you want to play multiple times, with each launch leading to a different moment in the “player’s story.”
The game forgoes the traditional linearity of Amnesia in favor of a semi-open world inspired by immersive sims. The game also randomizes the location of certain items, i.e., keys, notes, journal entries, and ammo, as well as additional vital items such as a gas mask or a lighter, which change from playthrough to playthrough, prompting you to complete every corner of each room. to understand where you need to go. move on. Because the bunker is usually underground, people need light, and the lights consume the fuel you pour into the generator, steadily bringing you closer to total darkness every moment. If the generator fails, you’ll have access to an old-school wind-up flashlight that turns on exceptionally noisily and gives you a dim glow for a few seconds before you need to turn it back on. It is worth considering that you are not safe even when the light is on completely. The creature that hunts us, and it does not like the light … But if it really needs it, it will come out.
Simulator elements come into play during the exploration part of the game – for example, a lock that requires a key can be broken with a well-aimed shot from your revolver, or you can pour gasoline on the ground and set it on fire to create a wall of fire. A locked wooden door can be broken by throwing something at it or blown up. But be prepared for the consequences of what you have done.
Ultimately, the biggest failure of the previous games in the series was their inability to hold the threads of tension for very long. Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs failed to recreate the danger created by the first castle game. But Amnesia: The Bunker has already created a truly terrifying setting and atmosphere. Imagine that you have just made some noise and are preparing for the appearance of what you attracted, and then suddenly, the lights go out because you did not calculate the time of the generator. Now you are sitting in complete darkness, something is walking around you, and you cannot use a flashlight, and it is at such moments that there is a feeling of congenital death.
But in such games, there are excellent research opportunities. Is it possible to throw a helmet or a brick at a monster? Giving a snack to giant rats to scare them away? Thanks to humorous elements, these interactive elements will not let you get bored and create additional tension.
The Bunker differs from the rest of the Amnesia series as it is an extremely careful resource management game in an open setting instead of a rigidly linear narrative. Each time you decide to leave your hideout, you have time before the generator runs out, so you must ensure that your actions do not count. And sometimes you will regret that at the beginning of the game, you spent an explosive barrel to scare away a monster.
Avoiding the monster can be extremely difficult, as it means making as little noise as possible, which means the game isn’t particularly fun. This means staying crouched, ignoring locked doors that can be blown or forced open, and refraining from using a flashlight.
But the biggest drawback of Amnesia: The Bunker is the length of the main story. The game is relatively short, so you can quickly go through everything. Despite its short duration, this intense experience will keep you on your toes. The fast pace adds tension and ensures that the game doesn’t get tedious. The game time, of course, depends on how lucky you are.
Detailed environments and a gloomy atmosphere create an ominous world. On PC, the game runs smoothly at 60fps, which is not revolutionary but makes the game feel smooth. But what I didn’t like was that the game is roughly divided into 4 zones for exploration, and the game has long loading times in the tunnels between them. When I played, I remembered similar loading levels in Half-Life 2 when you moved between locations.
Previous Amnesia games have repeatedly fallen behind the horror that haunted the castle in the original game, but Amnesia: The Bunker is already showing potential in this regard. The Bunker still feels like an exciting and increasingly important step forward for the Amnesia series. Players will love the change in the scale of the gameplay, the bigger storytelling, and the new ways to interact with the world.
Our review was completed with a key provided by PR.
