4/5 ★ – MPT's review of Amnesia: The Bunker.

almost dethrones TDD as the best Amnesia mainly due to an absolutely stellar focus on gameplay. The Bunker weaves a simple narrative and setting with a gameplay loop that somehow stays surprising and fresh through the whole game. these two features, the narrative and setting, are deceptively interesting. being a French soldier in WW1 who wakes up alone with amnesia in a sprawling underground bunker may seem (respectively) like both a boring retread and strange evolution from the previous games, but the story’s distinctive opening and its slow building through tonnes of great collectible notes really had me hooked. the bunker itself and its different sections make for a great survival horror playground that require distinct approaches to each area, especially later on in the game where there’s some insane encounters. the approaches you take are obviously all to counter the Beast, a really impressive stalker enemy. similar to the xenomorph from Alien: Isolation, it seems to learn and counter you right back at any chance it gets, making for some insane moments. how cool its AI and design are are only topped by how omnipresent it is, always either roaming around in the darkness, waiting at a hole in the wall or traversing through the walls of the bunker to cut you off or get close to you. on the higher difficulties you really never feel safe. but the gameplay is obviously the star of the show. there’s loads of systems that interact with eachother in such clever ways. the classic physics-based Amnesia engine melds with resource management to let you block monster spawns with boxes, move objects to reach vantage points/ objectives, use specific items to unlock doors instead of consumables and more, and the scarcity of resources and inventory space but wide array of uses for each item forces you to be conservative and strategic. constant level hazards aside from the Beast complicate this more, and the extremely significant fuel/ power/ darkness system, by making the game a time crunch, can dictate absolutely every action you take. as you’d guess this makes the gameplay very rewarding. this goes even further with how accessible it is. this might seem strange to anyone who’s played it on a higher difficulty (it can be pretty hard) but the amount of customising you can do by tweaking individual aspects of gameplay settings is ludicrous. there’s a load of potential for replaying and experiencing the game how you want to. there’s simply no excuse to complain if the game’s too easy or too bullshit when you can change it precisely to your liking. this makes 100% completion an absolute dream too, especially with how good Shell Shock difficulty is. the premier way to play the game imo. but none of this stops The Bunker’s pretty weak relatability in my eyes. sure there’s incredible gameplay systems and an abundance of customisation, a great stalker enemy and an interesting setting and narrative, but the unchanging nature of its areas and briefness of its length caused it to become very predictable after 2+ playthroughs. there’s minor tweaks to gameplay like hazard spawns and item locations sure sure, but if you know what you’re doing and start to get in the Beast’s head, it loses a lot of its excitement. this might just a me problem, but i really wish there was a more expansive bunker and unique moments like the blind man, prisoner and final encounter that could thrill me so much later into my playtime. but overall the game is a great survival horror experience and another great Amnesia game. it fits snugly into the series as the king of gameplay (and maybe coolest concept/ setting? up for debate) against a thrilling stalker enemy which unfortunately loses a bit of its steam the more you play it. still tho, very good.