Amnesia: The Bunker

Review

Amnesia The Bunker is the fourth instalment of the horror series developed by Frictional Games. The game is set in France during the First World War, therefore before the events that took place in Amnesia Rebirth. Playing as Henri Clément, a French soldier, you find yourself trapped inside an underground bunker where all the soldiers seem to be already dead, but you realize you are not alone. In fact, inside the bunker lies a nightmarish beast that moves between tunnels and continuously hunts you down. Your objective is to escape from the bunker, but in order to do this you will need explosives and a detonator to clear the exit path. The search for these key items will be very complex and require solving environmental puzzles while avoiding the monster and managing resources as best as possible. As you may have already guessed, the whole game is designed as a hide and seek playground, which reminded me a lot of Alien: Isolation, since the creature can be often unpredictable and it definitely takes some time to figure out his patterns. Narratively speaking, there isn’t really a lot of content to see and most of the story is told through letters written by dead soldiers. Trying to understand who you are and what happened in the bunker is interesting, but I think there could have been more narration, like in SOMA or the more recent Amnesia: Rebirth. The game is also relatively short compared to the latter, depending on how quick you are to solve the puzzles and find all the key items.

As suggested by the tutorial, light will be the most important source of survival. As you explore the bunker, the monster will continuously move through the tunnels and come out when he hears too much noise or when everything is dark. To light your path, you will have a dynamo flashlight with a string that can be used to turn it on for a few seconds. However, doing so will produce quite a bit of noise, depending on the number of times you pull the string, which means that the monster may hear you and decide to come out. Inside the administration area, which is a safe room where you can save your game, check the map and store items in a chest, there is also a generator room that can be loaded with fuel tanks to power the bunker and light several of its areas. Once the generator is powered, you will have to be really fast to explore the bunker (to avoid running out of fuel) and be as quiet as possible (to not attract the monster). In the meantime, you'll also have to solve different environmental puzzles by finding hidden codes and key objects that will give you access to new areas. These puzzles require some experimenting and fast thinking because the monster is always around and the generator will eventually shut down.

The gameplay mechanics include physics-based interactions through which you can open desks, pull levers, lift boxes, move barrels, rotate objects and more. What really makes the difference is a careful management of resources, such as fuel tanks, revolver ammunitions, flares, bandages and more. These items appear randomly with each new game and, depending on the selected difficulty (easy, normal or hard), there may be enough or very few of them. Your inventory is very limited though, which is why you often have to go back to the administration room to unload your items in the chest. Exploring will allow you to expand your inventory with additional pocket bags, but you will often have to decide what to take with you and what to abandon. Key items also take up a slot in your inventory, so you need to plan things carefully to prevent the generator from shutting down without making any progress.

One thing that should be specified is that the game has a single manual save, which means not only that you have to go back to the administration room every time to save your progress, but also that you have to understand if it's actually worth saving. Many times I found myself in doubt as to whether, with the current resources, I would have been able to explore some other areas of the bunker, or if it was better for me to reload my save file and try again. So remember, only save if you have enough resources for your next journey. The tension generated by the scarcity of resources and the presence of the monster is always high and several times I found myself having to reload the save because I realized I had consumed too much fuel for nothing. Other times I was literally scared by the monster presence, so much so that I had to take a break from playing. Few times I was afraid of stepping out of the closet because the monster was moving nearby. The environment is very claustrophobic and contributes to generating a sense of perennial anxiety, given that it is also filled with dangerous traps, such as tripwires and grenades attached to doors (so they explode when you open them). Playing in the dark and with a good pair of headphones really increases the tension, but it’s definitely worth trying.

Once you understand how the monster moves, however, the game becomes less scary and you are able to predict his movements and sometimes even lure him elsewhere to break a locked door or trigger a trap. As mentioned, the creature hates light, but is also very sensitive to sound, so throwing a bottle on the ground, setting off a trap, shooting a lock or smashing a door with a brick will attract him in no time even if the area is well lit. Worst case scenario, you can always defend yourself using grenades and your revolver. On normal difficulty, two well-placed shots are enough to hurt the monster and make him return to the tunnels for quite enough time, allowing you to freely explore the area even by running and making noise. This "trick" is very useful for scouting large areas and can be used multiple times, assuming you have enough ammo.

Game graphics aren’t really breathtaking, but each room contains a lot of detail and interactive objects, which is great. The atmosphere is always terrifying, also thanks to the spectacular sound design which constantly scares you with the creature’s roars, the noises of rats feeding on the soldier’s corpses and the random bombings on the bunker’s surface.

Overall, Amnesia The Bunker is truly a fantastic game, which can scare for long enough until you are able to overcome the obstacles and escape the bunker. While the narrative is a bit lacking, the setting is always terrifying and the monster appearances will force you to hide or run for your life. The game is slightly different from the previous Amnesia: Rebirth but equally capable of offering a remarkable horror experience.

Review written by Sonic Punk for Zeepond.com

Amnesia: The Bunker Steam Store Page