Putting into words how it feels to be blessed to play this game before release would not be possible. I remember playing The Dark Descent and finding it’s atmosphere too intense to continue playing. The Justine DLC which left me often frozen in the corner, incapable of turning around to see the monster. The fond memories for one of my favorite horror games, Penumbra Black Plague that I played with the woman I loved as it marked the first game I’d ever complete on M&K (big deal for me as a controller player with a roller brain). The sad yet also beautiful story of SOMA which put Frictional Games’ narration onto another level. I was ready to go into Amnesia: The Bunker and honestly I do not think the Bunker was ready for me.
Whilst I am not a fan of Machine for Pigs or Rebirth, the anticipation I had for The Bunker in the hopes that it would bring back that atmosphere of The Dark Descent but with the excitement and thrills I experienced from Penumbra, I have found that Amnesia: The Bunker is a true Survival Horror Game. It is as though Frictional Games took everything they had learnt from their previous games and combined them to make the most refined, narrative-driven and horrifying experience possible by placing you inside a literal ticking bomb that was set to explode the moment you take your hand off the generator.
Horror on a Timer
Everything you explore and do is timed. From the flashlight that you must wind up in your hand, to the crates you can move in front of the holes to block the Beast’s grasp. Or the limited fuel to run the generator and the daisy-chained lights system that punishes your curiosity. Every move you make in the Bunker is crucial and any can result in your death. You cannot slow your pace otherwise you will run out of light. You cannot panic or go in head strong as the Beast could catch you the moment you forget about its existence. Everything is a threat. Your limited space asks you to prioritize items over others, do you need fuel as you take in every nook and cranny of the bunker’s rooms or is health your main concern?
Everyone Has Their Limits, the Same is Said for Your Inventory
For those who are used to the limited inventory and ammo system in Resident Evil, The Bunker takes the cake on rationing your supplies. Finding boxes of ammo scattered around only to have a single bullet at a time, I see why the revolver is your weapon of choice as you pop a bullet in one by one, only to see those shell casings drop out after using your few shots on explosive barrels, demonic rats and the monstrous abomination itself.
The combination of having limited fuel to act as your only means of safety – the light, which you learn that the Beast is afraid of. The fear of the generator going out will itch at your mind as you try to scramble your way through puzzles that require a lot of back-and-forths. Whilst horror games follow this formula of fetch quests, the bunker has you face many situations that whilst you will often backtrack you may find that the feeling of your light going out any given moment because you forgot to check your pocket watch or having to loudly wind up your flashlight, makes for a perpetual tense experience and one that not many games have done or will successfully replicate in the future.
Fight, Flight or Freeze – The Choice is Yours to Make
The fear that I experienced in The Bunker is brand new, much like how I felt playing The Dark Descent for the first time. It is a suffocating fear and one that resulted in a lot of pause screens to re-evaluate my next move or to take a breather for what is inevitably going to happen – an encounter with the Beast. Many horror games places their players into a corner where they cannot do anything except wait for the threat to pass them by or to hide until the coast is clear. The Bunker instead allows players to back the Beast into the corner depending on the action you choose to take. You can lure the Beast into a booby-trap, distract him by creating noise elsewhere to then run to your destination or try giving him something sentimental. The choice is yours on how you get out of situations alive and if you happen to put yourself into a corner then no one is to blame but yourself.
The Bunker was both terrifying as it was an immense pleasure to play. Figuring out where to go first and learning the map layout (without even grabbing the maps in the game itself), I enjoyed picking different options depending on the situation. I relied solely on the winding light and pocket watch that I rarely picked up ammo or turned on any light switches unless it was crucial to completing a puzzle.
With so many tools are available through exploration and puzzle solving, it opened up more possibilities on how to get around the area faster or to survive against the Beast – should it come at you headstrong. The Bunker is a clever mix between the tense atmosphere of the Dark Descent mixed with the grittier, choose-your-own-adventure-style Survival Horror of Black Plague.
Everything is incredibly thought out to the point that you literally have all the options in the world on how to get past obstacles or beat puzzles. Block holes to stop the Beast from getting through, blast your way through doors, snip at booby-trap wires or give the Rats a new delicious meal. You can progress at any point you wish to, unlocking new areas to explore whilst simultaneously moving towards the end goal – escaping. The maps are great, being that they are all linked together and provide different types of gameplay in each. Whilst I will say that I experienced frame rate drops between the loading of the next map, this did not ruin my experience at all. I found myself hardly using stealth until the Arsenal and Roman Tunnels. But the reality of it is that depending on how fast and clever you are at figuring out how to beat puzzles and unlock new areas, you will surely find that what you see in The Bunker is more than enough to satisfy the most hardcore of horror fans.Â
Horror Entertainment at its Peak
The fact that I forgot to take screenshots throughout my entire first playthrough and got myself killed a few times getting that clean photograph of the Beast showed how addicted I was to playing this game. My usefulness as a writer faded into the background as I was swept up into the map’s layout, the various paths I could take, the limited inventory system and working around how to avoid the Beast at all costs. Because of this, I had to dive back in again, for screenshots and clear steps for our iconic readers to take at their attempt to master the bunker.
It is weird to say that I had a lot of fun playing this game, especially when I spent time full sprinting from the sounds of the Beast getting close or the visuals of it moving through the ceiling. Perhaps I am just a glutton for punishment but I often found myself smiling or laughing when the Beast entered the scene after I had clumsily thrown a grenade at a wooden door or fell for the booby-trap with a clear red cross to avoid.
The Horrors of War
The horror of Amnesia: The Bunker immediately kicks in once you enter. Unlike other Frictional Games however, the horror is at its highest for realism. Set at the time of World War I, the events that unfold are some that should terrify most, if not all people. It is underrated horror but one we can all agree is unimaginable from our privileged point of view. With so many video games glorifying war and idolising criminals, we can only get glimpses into a possible reality through the lens of horror set inside the trenches. And that is exactly what The Bunker offers players. The entire setting of the game is dark, gloomy, muddy and wet from the downpour and bloodshed.
Amnesia: The Bunker is addictive as it is terrifying. It deals with real issues of Shellshock, PTSD and fear of the unknown. The mystery of the Bunker is solved and learning its truth will leave you torn and heartbroken. The nightmares that these men endured in the trenches – going mad over time, losing hope that they will never see their family again, or creating their own twisted ideologies about their purpose and who the enemy truly is. The paranoia and prior events before Henri awakes are similar to John Carpenter’s The Thing – of men losing trust in each other and inevitably clashing, resulting in the worst to happen.
Even being able to head to the Pillbox, with a lovely landscape scenery to take a panorama photo (I know, I know, it’s World War I) was destroyed by the incoming fire from enemy lines. A reminder that whether you are inside or outside the bunker, the threat of war remains heavily in the balance.
The Tunnels, my god, the Tunnels. Just when I had gotten used to the fact that some mutated humanoid abomination was following me through the walls, I was forced into a corner where the only place was to drop into the torture pit. Following the melody of We Whirl the World, I started to believe that I too would lose my mind down in the depths of hell itself.
Concluding Thoughts
You get to set your own pace on completing Amnesia: The Bunker. I do think that Frictional Games may be the best at telling a story through the collecting of notes and documentations. From letters, diary entries to photographs, you will slowly uncover the secrets of the bunker and its tunnels. But what is the best thing about Frictional Games narration and pacing in this one? All objectives are located inside the notes. Therefore if you are one of those players who skips reading lore, you may find yourself completely lost on what to do. The only hand-holding that exists in this game are the tutorial hints on how to use items and controls. This can be turned off of course, leaving you completely in the dark and I love that. All important information is marked by a red pin where if you complete the objective, the pin will vanish.
Amnesia: The Bunker is definitely worth your time and money if you are looking for the next best Horror Game to play. The Bunker is Frictionals best since Penumbra: Black Plague and definitely the best of the Amnesia series. The horrors of war with something somehow darker than what is going on up above will keep you strapped into the bunker and wondering if it is best to leave what lurks below alone, or to befriend the darkness as what is happening outside is not much better than this. The war goes on, with bombs landing overhead and the rumbles causing rocks to fall from the bunker’s ceiling. As above, so below – the devastation of war going on above trickles down into the bunker’s depths, leaving the soldiers blind, lost and mad as the tunnels call their names to sicken their bodies further.
