Amnesia: The Bunker review

Amnesia: The Bunker review: Although horror games do not appeal to some people at all, the emotional changes that some people create in the person offer a different experience and they enjoy the feeling of being afraid. On top of that, discovering, solving and surviving something in this experience raises this feeling even more.

Amnesia achieved this as a horror series with old-school survival elements. On the other hand, Frictional Games’ latest game Amnesia: Rebirth did not satisfy some fans who have been following the series since the first game. Let’s see how Amnesia: The Bunker turned out.

Amnesia: The Bunker review / PC

As soon as it starts, we find ourselves as a French soldier in the First World War. We are looking for our direction while the sounds of bombs are coming in a ditch. Then, when we reach our friend, an explosion occurs and we wake up in a German bunker. In a report we found in the shelter’s infirmary, we learn that we suffered from memory loss due to our head trauma. Our real story starts from here. We have to get out of the bunker, but there is also a frightening presence in the bunker that is tracking us.

Amnesia: The Bunker review

For those starting the series for the first time, the game offers an interesting story start. Will he regain his memory, I can say that this creature increases my motivation to continue. On the other hand, the game is not narrative-centered, but gameplay-centered. If you want to learn something about the narrative, you should read the documentation.

Our Enemy: Darkness and Sound

When we look at the game purpose, it also reminds of an escape room type. We are in a shelter that looks like a labyrinth. It’s dark everywhere, we have a flashlight with a dynamo. Our chasing enemy is triggered by darkness and noise. That’s why we have to be as quiet as possible, run the generator, and find our way in a limited time before the generator shuts down. Speaking of navigation, we also don’t have a map that we can open from the menu, there are maps in certain rooms. This can cause us to get lost many times.

Amnesia: The Bunker review

The game plays itself with a bit of trial and error. After I put the fuel in the generator, I was looking at my watch to see how much time I had left and trying to figure it out. The generator timed out. When I stayed in the dark, the creature appeared and jumped in my face. Afterwards, wake up from the last record in the map room, go around again… Actually, this way the progress of the game slows down, but you increase your chance of exploration each time by trying different places and different interactions.

We can navigate around without starting the generator, but you must know your target. Since the flashlight has a dynamo, it makes a sound while charging, which again triggers the enemy. I can say that almost everything triggers the enemy, from activating the booby trap to running.

Now to the Recording Room

Amnesia: The Bunker review

The recording system is done manually when we turn on the gas lamp in the map room. That’s why I found myself rushing to the lamp in the map room as soon as I solved something. We can also access the last three recordings from the main menu. This is nice too. For example, you recorded in a troubled place, you can go to your previous start or two.

The game has three difficulty levels. But I must state that the game already has a difficulty as it carries the elements of the survival horror genre. Quite limited ammo, manual registration, and not-so-large inventory to name a few. The inventory is not large, but we have a chest. This feature also offered the player a good strategy. Should I take this health with me, if I leave it in the chest, if I leave two slots empty, etc. Survival players like it very much.

When talking about amnesia, the first thing that comes to mind is the mechanical environment interaction. In this game, we can also interact with many objects. Sometimes these objects can be the key to our progress. For example, we can break a door with a brick we pick up, pull the barrels forward and explore the passage behind it.

Amnesia: The Bunker review

I likened it to the escape room type above. The main reason for this is that we can find passwords from some objects we interact with, and this becomes a key to our progress. Sometimes even a photograph we find can shed light on our discovery. It is possible to access the passwords from the inventory section and see which one we use or not.

New Feature: We Now Have Weapons

In the old games of Amnesia we didn’t have a weapon to defend ourselves. There is this time. However, we use it more for environmental interaction. For example, we can break a lock or blow up an explosive barrel and clear our way. In other words, when it is said that we have a gun, I emphasize this so that it is not thought that it turns into a type of sniper. Still, it’s a nice innovation for the series.

Amnesia: The Bunker review

I liked the visual designs of the game more especially when I compared it with Rebirth, it tasted like old games. It made me feel like I was trapped in a bunker during the war. I should also mention that for those with indoor phobia, the design of the space can be disturbing. There are almost no large areas and almost all of the game takes place in a closed and dark area. The sound design has also increased the atmosphere of horror. Being a loud player, I jumped in fear in many places.

The biggest plus of this game for me may be that passwords or items change each time you play. Apart from that, there are also alternatives it offers. For example, you triggered the creature in some way. You can enter the closet to hide, or you can escape to the far back to the save room. You can break a door with a brick, but you can also throw a grenade. But no matter what, you need to do resource management well because, as I said, resources are not abundant due to the nature of its type. We can also produce new vehicles with resources collected from the environment. This also offers an alternative.

A Little Frustrating

Amnesia: The Bunker review

The game can be frustrating with some highlights. But on the other hand, it is clear that these are intentional things. For example, the sound of a flashlight with a dynamo, on top of that, it runs out of charge in a few seconds or requires a key for each bullet while reloading… All this slowness and limited time was actually made to add a challenge dynamic to the game. Of course, these items may not appeal to every player.

The game does not offer linearity like in the old Amnesias. There are multiple tracks in the same area that you can explore in front of you. The game doesn’t really help you where to start or what to do at this point. As I mentioned in another part of the article, randomness and alternatives change your progress on this path.

Although I was afraid of this invisible being until the first encounter, that frightening decreased for me after meeting. I felt immune, especially after the creature smashed my face a few times. This is inevitable after a point in games with dodge-chase dynamics in general.

Amnesia: The Bunker review

Controls

I’ve experienced the game with both keyboard/mouse and DualShock. Especially when charging the flashlight, DualShock’s vibration support was in place, adding realism. I haven’t had any issues with the controls. I experienced minor stuttering in some region transitions of the game, other than that, I did not encounter optimization-related problems such as crashes.

Conclusion

In order for me to recommend this game to you, you have to really like both the exploration genre and the survival-horror genre. As a horror lover, I found it to be playable over and over again, with the randomness factor being high as well. Due to the difficulty of moving in limited time, it requires you to be a player who likes to be challenged, otherwise it may not appeal to you.

The game is currently available on Steam, Epic Store, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S platforms.

Also, if you are interested in horror games, you can check out our article “10 places in games that will make you shudder”.