Let’s start off by putting it out there that I’m a fan. I loved the Penumbra series. I loved Soma. I loved Amnesia 1 and 2. I haven’t had a chance to play Amnesia: Rebirth yet but at some point I will. And when you play a Frictional game, you’re in for an immersive, unforgiving experience. That’s part of the charm. Typically, you’re alone with no assistance and either monsters or some sort of supernatural entity. Your own fear amplified in the darkness, that sort of thing. Play alone in a darkened room for the best effect, especially with surround on. Light action mixed with puzzles and psychological components makes for some of the best horror gaming out there because it’s actually scary, and so when I got Amnesia: The Bunker, I figured I knew what I was in for, and I was pretty much right.
It’s World War I and you’re a French soldier in the trenches. The bullets are flying, the bombs are bursting and you manage to make it into a bunker for safety. Unfortunately for you, you’re trapped. And more unfortunately for you, you’re not the only one there. Something has killed all the soldiers in this underground base and you’re trapped with it. Oh, and you’ve only got one bullet. That’s Amnesia: The Bunker. Like other Frictional games, it’s a first person horror game which requires you to solve puzzles to escape, all while dodging a vicious killer monster that has dug warrens throughout the bunker that you’re in. Manage to survive long enough and you can blow the tunnel open and escape. Otherwise, you’re meat.
What you’ll quickly find is that unless you’ve played other games in the series, this is unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. The power is out, there are no real weapons to speak of, and the longer things are dark, the more dangerous they get. As you wind your way through the tunnels and corpses, you’ll find notes that help you along the way, guiding you through the passageways of the bunker so that you can assemble the gear you need to survive. You’ve got a flashlight, but this is WWI and it’s a dynamo flashlight. That means that you need to wind it a bunch of times and the light only lasts for about 30-40 seconds. It also makes noise. Noise attracts the creature. Darkness allows it to stalk you. You see where this is going.
Fortunately, there are cans of fuel for the generator around. Sadly, it is possibly the least efficient gas generator of all time and you’ve only got a couple of minutes with each filling in order to make it to safety. Don’t figure out what to do in time? Well…you are a delicious snack. Thankfully there are save points near the generator but assume that the only way to figure out what to do and do it efficiently is to die repeatedly. There are multiple ways to perform the various tasks required to progress and while the game somewhat guides you, getting there is on you. It’s more of a figure it out as you go thing rather than a “here is the way”. That’s because the Amnesia series is all about immersion and there are no real visual cues aside from a glimmering object or the blood rimming the screen when you’re about to perish.
You can’t carry a lot either because you’re a real person and real people don’t have pockets full of a hundred items. You’ll have to pull things open, push them closed, lock doors manually because that’s how doors work and so on. Dragging heavy objects takes time and makes noise…and attracts monsters. Blocking holes and doorways helps keep them out. Logic. But survival quickly gets challenging as you progress. Getting to certain points in the game ensures that you’ll have to avoid the monster somehow because as you wander through its territory, it definitely knows you’re there, and since the AI is pretty decent here, you just might die faster than you think.
Now t hat you have an idea what Amnesia: The Bunker is all about, I’m going to tell you why I hate it. First off, this is one dark game. The lights only stay on momentarily and the dynamo flashlight is time-consuming and frustrating. Just looking around from room to room quickly becomes a chore and turns you into monster munchies pretty fast. Now, when I play stuff like this, I like to look in every nook and cranny, wander about, enjoy the gruesome scenery, etc. You can’t do that in The Bunker. There just isn’t enough time. The press of the monster in the darkness is ever-present and this is a short game…maybe 5 hours or so. It’s just not designed for that.
So when I play through, memorizing the tunnels and navigating them in almost complete darkness, I die. A lot. I tried cranking up the gamma to make it easier to see but this is one of the only horror games where that simply doesn’t work. That’s a shame because the visuals are utterly gorgeous too. The ripped holes, the bloodied corpses, the dusty shelving and shaking walls and rusty metal look amazing…if you had time to enjoy them. But this is about the experience and not just the look so away we go, into the dark to run for fuel canisters and trigger flame traps and ooooh, that flame looks so cool. Squirrel! Distracted. Ran out of fuel. Monster. Dead.
So things aren’t going my way, but I still want to look around. This damned dynamo flashlight though…I’ve gotta crank it. What’s that over there? Ah, crap, it died again. Wind, wind, wind, wind, wind, wind. Growl. Louder growl! Oh crap! Dead. That’s how things went for me for a long time. And maybe it’s because I’m older and I’ve played a lot of horror or maybe it’s because I’m so familiar with the older Frictional library but dying and being chased in The Bunker didn’t give me the thrill of fear that I was expecting. I don’t think it’s because it’s not scary. It absolutely is. I think it’s because I’ve gotten to the point where I knew what was going to happen, it did, and it fit into the overall schema that I had running in my brain already. The formula was set and because of that, I just didn’t get that endorphin rush that pulls you back in, turning what for anyone else would be a stress-inducing nightmare into a mechanical experience.
But what I’m here to tell you is that my experience is the exception that proves the rule with Amnesia: The Bunker. Because it is absolutely terrifying, challenging, and fun. You can’t cheat either, since all the lockers and even some of the layouts are randomized and procedurally generated but the overall game is not. That means no looking for codes online, no skipping progression, and absolutely more deaths and terrifying chases through the near-dark. The music and sound effects are spectacular too, something that Frictional has always been excellent at. You feel trapped, you feel like the world is closing in on you, and as your light fades, you feel like the world is disappearing with it and you can’t breathe as the panic sets in. Well, unless you’re me, which you definitely aren’t. I’m me…you’re not taking that away.
As you make your way through the armory, the barracks, the prison, the maintenance tunnels, and back to escape, you start to realize that The Bunker is really something special. There just aren’t many games that have this kind of focus and attention to detail and the conversion to controller for the Xbox is both smooth and effective. I’ve typically played Frictional games on the PC using a mouse and keyboard and I wasn’t sure how effective the controller would be, but the mapping and design here is fantastic and the immersion stays high, even with the occasional image of how to turn or move objects, due to the hand cursors used.
Considering the versatility of the game and the problem solving that you can do, there’s a lot going for Amnesia: The Bunker. Remember how I said there were multiple ways to do things? I mean, you can waste one of your bullets to blow a barrel and rip through a door, sure. But why do that when you can lure the monster in the dark to rip through it for you, run away, and then go back after? The potential is endless. Every portion of the game has multiple approaches depending on your preferences and for that to be effective takes some serious design chops. Everything about Amnesia: The Bunker shows the care and consideration that went into designing this game as an experience and that’s something you just don’t see in most games today.
Ultimately, this is going to be a game that you either love or hate. If you’re expecting to cut down a bevy of monsters and gun your way to freedom, The Bunker might be a disappointment for you. But if you want a more visceral horror experience that forces you to think as well as react to survive, then this is possibly one of the best games out there. If you’re like me and like to leisurely explore while you meander through hallways full of death? Well, you’ll die a lot. Trust me. But regardless of how you feel about it or what your approach is to horror gaming, Amnesia: The Bunker is one of the best experiences that has come out in recent memory and it is well worth your time to experience it.
This review is based on a digital copy of Amnesia: The Bunker provided by the publisher. It was played on an Xbox Series X using a 55” Sony 1080p TV. Amnesia: The Bunker is also available on PS4 & PS5 and on PC on Steam, Epic, and GOG.
Nate Van Lindt has been a gamer since the days of yore (aka Commodore 64), and has played a bit of virtually everything out there. He's also an avid comic book collector, both vintage and current, and reads a fair amount of sci-fi and fantasy. On top of that, he watches a fair number of movies and TV shows as well. Oh, and he has a family, a full-time job, and lives somewhere in the urban wilds of Southwestern Ontario, Canada, foraging for old video cables and forgotten game soundtracks.