Amnesia: The Bunker review

Exceptional

by BloodScorchedSun

9/10👏

To begin with, I haven`t played any "Amnesia" game before and I see no reason to compare with all the games of the studio, including Soma, "Bunker" is a completely separate product with its own idea in the setting of the 1st World War in 1916. According to the screenshots and promotional materials, it generally seems that this is the dull "gray" walker only for fans, but I am a living refutation of this, very few games in my life I was once so fascinated, I don't like horrors, I don't like quests, usually i get bored in games where the entire timekeeping has to wander around a monotonous location (like Dead Space 1),

I didn’t expect anything from it at all, I thought it would be a maximum of 7 points, I couldn’t imagine that one of the best games of the year would come out, especially since it came out only 3 years after the release of the previous part "Amnesia: Rebirth".

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How to explain the gameplay in a simpler way.. In general, this is a wild mix of immersive interaction with objects, as in "Metro: Exodus" (look at least at the animation of starting our dynamic flashlight),

the concept of "isolation" alone with the monster from "Alien: Isolation",

survival horror with extremely low ammo, and a little looting/crafting, like in the old "Resident Evil",

And all this is one large semi-open location, divided into several sections, which becomes our home for the next 5-7 hours, with cohabiting with us.. climbing inside the walls, driving you crazy when he approaches, muscular semi-"Alien" humanoid being, with a gradual "opening" of certain rooms and a constant return (backtracking) to the safe zone to refuel the generator, which provides at least minimal lighting in the bunker, and which requires a little time management from you, because how much you pour into it, so much it will work,

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And the Gameplay component pays for all the shortcomings, most of which, by the way, are purely technical, since this is still an indie game,

well, the doors don`t open very conveniently, the jumping is strange, the water in level 1 is poorly done, the whole plot is in notes, it`s microscopic, and the initial cinematic prologue is too short,

The setting of the World War I bunker can be a little boring for someone (damn, think if the creators of the Metro did it game, and it would be a Soviet/Russian plundered shelter, it’s generally 10/10 automatic :)

But most of the serious flaws that I found during the passage justified themselves literally at the next turn, for example, there are subloads between locations, and you may think.. I can quickly run away from him to the second floor into the "loading", but no, after loading - the monster will stay next to you and your situation only get worse, when hunting it will crawl out in front of you from the very first hole in the floor, and you will have to fight back, or, for example, if you want to over-use the system a little, you take an already lit, but not completely burnt torch, in conditions of a very limited (VEEERY) inventory, you put the lighter in the safe-chest, and, then you find out that no - it won't work , everything is thought out as it should, the character doesn`t light the torch every time you take it out, but to use combustible items, you must definitely hold the lighter with you and occupy a whole slot in your pocket,

Of which you literally have a few, and even at the end of the game, when I already found the “backpack expander” 5 times, I still constantly had to face the dilemma “what to pick up and what to throw away”.. Everything is fine here with the ammo too, you can safely walk around for an hour, smashing the monster's face, spend everything, and then crawl with grenades the rest of the game, don't think that you can shoot back lightly here, "Amnesia: The Bunker" - is practically a perfectly molded survival, where even having a full inventory, even with maximum confidence, you can very stupidly dying, because Each meeting with a monster is a small challenge, well, the atmosphere itself is terrible, secondly.. You can roughly hear in which direction it crawls.. But the same sound spreads over the entire area of your headphones and your hands begin to tremble with uncertainty (here I can’t comment genius it or fail - I’m not a technical expert in sound design),

And upon eye contact with this "stooped dog", the light around you and in your hands, even with a full charge, begins to fade, and when you decide to aim to him, the character has to remove the flashlight from his hands, and go on - shoot in complete darkness, if, of course, you managed to remember where the outlines of the enemy, it's not an easy "shooter" ride at all, the game is brilliant in many aspects.. Damn, there is one moment in the middle where you need to open some room, but it only works when the generator is on, and if you are a little stupid in it, then the fuel will run out, the door will close, well, that’s it .. the end of the game for you.. and sometimes you can get stupid, which infuriates, because you can only save at the beginning of the location, in the safe zone, and you looted a bunch of things, but at this particular moment I was just glad that I got into a hopeless situation, I died, and I have to go through it again, well, because - well, it’s really my own fault, I didn’t think it through, and I fell into a brilliant trap,

Even the "grayness" of the setting .. visual, which for me has always been one of the key values in games, in rooms lit in one way or another, looks much more "warm" than it might seem from the screenshots (at least in "ultra" settings on my 2K monitor). Although the design of the monster, of course, looks very "default".

The quests here are not difficult, even if you don`t remember what you need, sooner or later, poking/trying all the places available to you, you will find something that will help you move forward.

On trifles, I can also add that at first the notes are very "knocked out from the immersion", despite the pause ; there is no hand-to-hand combat in the game and you can’t just stupidly hammer everything, hoping to open something) ; Despite the fact that almost all objects here have a physical model, they are scattered mostly with no reason, they could at least hide something under some helmets ; the immersiveness of pouring fuel into the generator slightly spoils the "icon" image, it's also clear that you can press, why knock out of the dive with it; at the end there will be one story-item that cannot be used in any way, although I understood what it means in the plot, and they could come up with something interesting with it ; well.. The game has a very strong vibe of "Doom" from 1993, occasionally we are shown the bright "sky of freedom", but still, in the dungeons of the bunker that don`t give the possibility of an exit.

👏Bravo, "Frictional", thanks for the Game!

💻🎧p.s. Do not play this on a joystick, for immersion only Keyboard+Mouse and headphones❗

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