3/5 ★ – jonesey46's review of Amnesia: The Bunker.

Frictional Games, the developers of Amnesia: The Bunker, are a 'ride or die' developer for me. Every game they have put out, I have enjoyed and not only that, but one of their games, Soma, is a personal favourite of mine and, in my opinion, one of the best told stories in gaming. It's because of this that, no matter what, I will always be interested in anything they develop. Their breakout hit, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, made Frictional a staple developer for the survival horror genre, and with great reason. What Frictional excel in is storytelling, and atmosphere. They know how to make a horror game and they know how to manipulate their players into being scared. Gameplay tends to take a backseat in their games, however, that's not to say that the gameplay isn't good, it's incredibly engaging and perfectly plays into the themes and settings of their respective games. Amnesia: The Bunker, the fourth title in the series, is somewhat of a departure, not only for the series, but the developer also. The Amnesia series focusses on the developers strengths - story and atmosphere, however The Bunker turns the tables and puts gameplay front and centre, whilst putting story in the backseat for once. Although, I'd argue the story isn't in the backseat at all, in my opinion, it isn't even in the car - but we'll get to that. You play as Henri, a French soldier in the midst of World War I, after a short stint on the battlefield looking for your friend Augustin, you're spotted by Germans and wounded. Some time later, you awake in a bunker, with no memory of what's happened. The bunker seems to be empty but you soon find out that there is a monster in here with you and its hunting you down. Your objective is to escape the bunker without being mauled to death by the monster. Good luck! The biggest departure for The Bunker is its structure, and how you progress. While previous Amnesia games followed a linear progression path with a story that unfolds as you go, The Bunker has you start from a central point and allows you to explore various paths, progressing in a manner that the player chooses. The Bunker likens itself to an Immersive Sim and it is so confident in this, that one of the first things it will tell you is, "If you think something might be possible to do, it probably is". Granted, the 'probably' in that sentence gives the developers a sort of plausible deniability but in my opinion, it's more of a golden bullet for them as almost every single thing you might think of trying, will not fall under that 'probably'. The sentence that precedes that one is deviously condescending too, it tells you to "Use your wits and your brains. Experiment", which, to me, came off as an invitation to prove them wrong. The Bunker is filled with traps, locked doors, rotting bodies with rats chewing on them, coded locks, debris and all manner of various obstacles, all of which you can overcome if you "use your wits and your brains". The reality, of course, is that each problem only has a limited amount of solutions that all lead to the same result. It makes the 'choice' the game offers come off as superficial. If you need to open a door, it doesn't really matter how you open it, does it? In the end, the doors open, mission accomplished. Using the resources you have in that moment is what survival horror is all about and yes, Amnesia: The Bunker IS a survival horror game but its message at the start wants you to believe its more than that. This message, without a shadow of a doubt, is the dumbest thing an otherwise competent developer has done to sabotage their own game, which by all intents and purposes, is very good for the most part. This message will be burnt into your brain as you attempt the simplest of things, to overcome the simplest of obstacles, all whilst the game crosses its arms, doesn't budge an inch and says "nope". The thing is, you can fix this problem by just taking the message out. The game itself does not need to change one bit. Simply removing that text from the start and the loading screens, instantly makes this a better game. Videogames have limitations, we know this, we play them all the time, and that's fine! But telling your players to "use their brains" just immediately passes the buck of those limitations onto them, which only goes further to point them out. That message is the single biggest mistake this game makes, and it's right at the start. But let's move on... The ever present threat of the monster, aptly named 'The Beast' is the core of this game. As you explore the bunker, solving puzzles, gathering resources and attempting to escape by finding the various bits and bobs you need to blow the entrance of the bunker open, The Beast will be one step behind you, stalking your every move. If you happen to cross paths with them, well, it's game over. Thankfully, The Bunker gives you various ways of dealing with, or altogether avoiding the monster - most notably, a gun! Giving the player a gun is a series first and while it may make you feel a little safer, that feeling is only temporary - First of all, bullets are extremely rare, and have to be loaded individually, and laboriously. Second, The Beast is impervious to bullets, because of course it is. You can however stun them with a well aimed shot to the head, but this only lasts a few seconds, more than enough time to put some distance between you and it, however. The gun is more of a tool, than a weapon; You can shoot off locks, or explosive barrels, or even use it to attract The Beasts attention. Why you'd want to do this though - I have no idea. Other tools include; grenades, empty glass bottles, chunks of meat, a lighter, bolt cutters, a wrench, and various other scraps that can be crafted into more useful items. All of these have their uses but like I said earlier, the end result is always the same. That aside, resource management is a large part of the game and in true Resident Evil fashion, your safe room comes equipped with a storage box, unfortunately though, it isn't bottomless - and so, even the safety of hoarding everything and thinking you can store it indefinitely, something that's often used as a crutch in other survival horror titles, isn't there. This brings us to the great risk/reward systems that this game plays with. One of the first obstacles you will encounter in The Bunker, is a big iron door with a padlock on it. At this stage the only piece of equipment you've managed to procure is your gun, and you'll likely only have one bullet in the chamber. Shooting the padlock off is your only choice and the game is asking you to use your only means of defense to do it. This perfectly sets the tone for the game and what's to come, but it also communicates what role the gun plays. Another great example of exemplary risk/reward is the safe room, and the generator that lies within it. Very early in the game you'll be introduced to this safe room and this is where you base your operation of "get the fuck out of here" from. The safe room comes equipped with the aforementioned storage box and generator, as well as a lantern with which you use to save your game. The generator here runs on fuel and of course, fuel is a finite resource. You need to go and find some to keep it running, and it doesn't last long. The generator runs the lights and although they're dim, they help keep The Beast at bay, which is essential. But hey, if the lights go out and you're struggling to see, you can always take out your trusty torch! The torch in this game is both the worst piece of equipment you'll carry, and the most useful. To get it going you need to wind it up but that makes noise, which attracts The Beast. Everything has a cost. So now we have our gameplay loop - Much like my current game of the year, Pacific Drive, The Bunker sets you up in a safe place and demands that you leave safety behind to scavenge for resources and find a way out. You'll expedite the area, collect resources, haul them back, store what you can, refill the generator and head back out again. This was the most enjoyable part of the game for me. The bunker consists of four branches and to escape, you will have to explore them all. Certain branches are blocked off and require specific equipment to get through. Some equipment isn't scattered around the bunker on the progression path but actually locked up in the various lockers in 'Mission Storage'. You get the codes for these lockers from dog tags found on dead bodies around the bunker. Here's where The Bunker tries its hand at randomised 'emergent' gameplay systems. Upon completing Amnesia: The Bunker you will be told that "no two playthroughs are the same!" and all this means is that codes and their locations are randomised, as well as a few other things. So, lets use the lighter as an example - you might find the code for that locker at the start of the game, or the end. Because of this, the game has to play out in a way that accounts for some players not having the lighter until the very end, and so progression can never truly be blocked by not having it. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not. I'm leaning towards the latter, because despite being told "no two playthroughs are the same", I can't help but feel they are. It's the whole 'several ways to reach the same conclusion' thing again. The Bunkers insistence on its emergent systems, non linear progression and accounting for all possibilities in its gameplay means that the story suffers as a result. Most of The Bunker's story plays out through found documents, and this is fine in something like Dark Souls but we're talking about Amnesia here! The Dark Descent and Rebirth have incredible and confident stories, and leaving Amnesia aside, these are the guys that wrote and delivered Soma! This is the best they could do? This was the most disappointing aspect of The Bunker for me and it stings so much more because I know Frictional can do better. The story suffers so the gameplay can thrive, but the gameplay isn't exactly winning awards - so what was it all for? One aspect of the story I feel they should have leaned more into, is the idea that being stuck in the bunker with the monster, isn't as bad as what's outside the bunker. A bit later in the game you're required to climb up inside a pillbox to find the body of the Foreman, when you get up there you'll see the first bit of daylight you've seen the whole game. You might stop and admire the view but before long, bullets from German soldiers will race past your head and you'll immediately duck, do what you need to do, and happily climb back into the bunker. The idea of willingly going back into the bunker rather than face a barrage of bullets is an interesting one, and its one that doesn't get explored any further than its face value. Unfortunate. There are ties to Amnesia's greater story of the other world and vitae, but they're so thin they're barely worth mentioning. I think we've come to a natural conclusion here - Amnesia: The Bunker might have been a better game had it not had the Amnesia name tied to it at all. An entry in a franchise comes with expectations and whilst The Bunker certainly did try to set itself apart, I feel like tying it to a franchise holds it back. Couple that with the absurd messaging the developers insists upon players, and we have a strange experience I'm struggling to decide if I like or not. On one hand, I love the structure of the game with its centralised safe zone, forcing players to explore an intricate location all whilst being hunted by a relentless enemy and constantly having to balance resources. On the other hand, its lacklustre story, its somewhat poor monster AI, it's randomised elements and it telling you to think for yourself instead of actually designing the game to push players towards natural logic is, quite frankly, dumbfounding from a developer of this calibre. I seem to be in the minority here though because you don't have to look far to find statements such as, "a masterclass in horror game design" or "The best horror game I've played" and I'm sorry but I just don't get it. It isn't even the best horror game in its franchise, but if you think it might be possible to like this game, it probably is. Thanks for reading. - Some stray and spoilery thoughts: -There's a moment past the halfway mark when you'll return to the saferoom and find a big gaping hole in the wall, suddenly realising that your safeplace is no longer safe, and maybe never was to begin with. This was a really cool moment, but slightly undermined by the fact that I never saw the beast in the saferoom after this. -I started the game playing very conservatively with my fuel but before long, I had so much that I had to fill the generator to save room and managed to keep it running for about half the game. This was on normal difficulty. -A dog tag bugged out for me and so I was missing one locker code. I opted to brute force it rather than start a new playthrough. It took me just over an hour. The code was 6810. -The final showdown with the beast was horrendously bad and managed to sour the game even more for me at a stage where I was already pretty sour. -The reveal that the beast was your friend was simultaneously the most obvious and most terribly revealed plot point in the game. I actually can't believe how bad it was.