#634: Amnesia: The Bunker
Amnesia: Isolation?
Initial release: June 6, 2023
Platform: PC, PlayStation 4, XBox One, XBox Series X/S
Developer: Frictional Games
I admit it: I was never very nice to Amnesia: the Dark Descent. While I wasn’t as rough on the sequel despite all odds, the truth is that except for their apocalyptic sci-fi treatise SOMA I’ve never been a particular fan of Frictional Games’ work (or, for that matter, that of thechineseroom.) But Frictional surprised me with Amnesia: the Bunker, the fourth title in the landmark horror series. (I haven’t played number three, Rebirth yet — don’t worry, I’ll get around to it.)
The Bunker has a simple premise: you’re an amnesiac French soldier during the battle of Verdun in World War 1. You wake up alone in an abandoned bunker, with bodies and signs of death and destruction everywhere. You soon learn that the bunker is now the stalking grounds of some kind of bloodthirsty beast, that lurks in the walls and has slaughtered an entire troop of men just as efficiently as the German guns across the way. Your only chance is to find a way out.
I’m happy to explain that what sets The Bunker apart from its predecessors is that it actually steps away from the structure and gameplay the series is known for and instead takes cues from Alien: Isolation, to the point that comparisons between the two are not just inevitable but a frequent topic of discussion among fans of both games and fans of survival horror in general. Rather than a linear sequence of scares with no agency in your own defense, the entire game is set in a large, open-ended maze of a bunker and you are provided with all manner of weaponry — a revolver, a shotgun, grenades (explosive and gas), plus more improvised methods such as the ability to pour fuel on the ground and light a fire, or make your own molotovs using empty bottles laying around, or use strips of cloth to make bandages or torches (provided you can find sticks, which are rare.) In a way it plays out like a metroidvania — there are certain places you can’t get into without the right tools, and you’ll little by little unlock new areas as the whole bunker branches out from the central hallway, and like a true immersive sim, the game has a lot of ways you can get around a problem.
You’ll only have the one safe room if playing normally, and it will be your central command, with a wall map to give you a visual representation of the bunker as a whole (with new sections being added as you find their respective sub-maps) as well as keeping you oriented on where to go next; downstairs is the generator room, and this will be your favorite place in the whole game as it houses, obviously, the generator, which you will want to keep fed with fuel as much as possible, and you’ll have a pocket watch to help you track how much time is left before the lights go back out. As long as the lights are on, the monster will prefer to stay in the darkness — just don’t make too much noise. The generator system is actually kinda neat, as you’ll have to find power switches to throw the lights on in an area. (And if you’re wondering, no, having more lights on doesn’t drain the generator faster — thank goodness!)
Of course, in addition to the monster, there are other hazards. From traps being laid down by your fellow soldiers who have since perished, to giant, monstrous rats feeding on the many, many corpses scattered around the bunker — and who guard their food aggressively — there’s no shortage of dangers to deal with. And that’s on top of trying to avoid making too much noise — so be mindful of whether you want to drag that heavy box to one of the monster’s burrow holes!
I’m not entirely sure how the storyline fits into the broader Amnesia canon — covered in a large collection of readables, it’s slowly revealed to be something about sinister long-lost Roman ruins beneath the bunker — but one big thing is that unlike Alien: Isolation (which some viewed as overstaying its welcome) the game is actually rather short. I’ve got about 10 hours under my belt; I reloaded my save a lot, hoping to optimize my fuel usage, and one of those hours I left the game running while I took a bath. If you know what you’re doing, you could probably knock it out in four hours, and that’s even with the semi-randomized placement of resources.
I had a lot of fun with Amnesia: the Bunker. It’s a hopeful sign that Frictional are following the trend towards a more immersive sim approach to survival horror that I’m really hoping we see more of.
