The fourth entry in the Amnesia series of horror games is a welcome return to form, with one of the scariest monsters since Alien Isolation.
The middle of summer is not the most obvious time of year to be talking about survivor horror games, given how long it takes for the nights to draw in. But just days after we were interviewing the writer of Amnesia: The Dark Descent, about his work on the Alone In The Dark reboot, we found ourselves playing Amnesia: The Bunker, the fourth entry in the franchise and by far the best one since the original.
We consider The Dark Descent to be one of the scariest video games (or any other form of media, for that matter) ever made but the series has struggled to remain relevant since and given the original is now 13 years old it’s beginning to seem a little outdated. Although developer Frictional Games didn’t make the first sequel, A Machine For Pigs, they were behind 2020’s Rebirth, which was only slightly less disappointing.
There’s almost no story connection between any of the games, so jumping in with this fourth one is not a problem – especially as it’s a very different kind of game. It still manipulates that primal, human fear of the dark but in gameplay terms it emphasises the survival in survival horror, in a way that modern games never really do.
Although ammo and health (and save items in the original Resident Evil) are in sort supply in most survival horrors it’s rarely much more than a minor inconvenience. In The Bunker though you literally have to count the bullets, while generator fuel and bandages are arguably even more precious. However, it’s not just limiting your inventory that makes The Bunker interesting, but the open-ended structure it allows for, as you’re dumped in a typical horror movie scenario and left entirely to your own devices as to what to do about it.
The bunker in question is in the trenches of the First World War, as you play a French soldier (Rebirth also featured a French lead and a French military setting but as far as we understand Frictional are Swedish) who after a typically traumatic incident wakes up, heavily bandaged, in an all but empty bunker. The place is in pitch darkness and something, that is definitely not rats, is breaking through the walls to eat the few remaining survivors.
You’ve no idea what’s going on, either as a player or a character, but it soon becomes clear that the monster hates the light and so a pathetically weedy handheld torch, that you have to keep charged by pulling a cord, and a generator that is constantly running out of fuel, become your two most important tools. The latter is so important, in fact, that you’re given a stopwatch so you know exactly when it’s going to run out and you’ll be plunged back into darkness.
In truth, the monster itself and the whole being-afraid-of-the-light shtick is pretty old hat for horror games and movies. Doors are locked by key codes, door cranks have to be retrieved, and in an especially unexpected nod to Resident Evil there are not only old school safe rooms but a magic storage box to help with your excess inventory.
What makes The Bunker unique is that it’s essentially a sandbox and while it will log certain missions, such as finding a new valve wheel, it’s up to you to plan your forays into the darker areas of the bunker and what you’ll do to combat the monster as you go. Also, the location of items and the numbers of codes are randomised in each playthrough, so you can’t just go to YouTube and ask someone else how to do it.
The monster may be unoriginal in form, with surprisingly little plot to explain what’s going on, but it takes the concepts explored in Alien Isolation, of an unstoppable monster attracted by noise, to their logical conclusion. This one will not only spot you if you’re using a light, but it can hear you running or merely charging up your torch. The bunker is infested by rats, which will attack you, and it can even track the dripping blood trail that creates.
For the first time in an Amnesia game, you have a gun but not only is ammo extremely limited but, again like Isolation, it can’t kill the monster, only briefly stun it, and it’s far more useful for things like shooting the locks off doors.
This doesn’t make the monster as overpowered as it may sound, since it really does hate light. To the point where if you time a run correctly with the generator you can all but guarantee you won’t be troubled by it, which is both extremely tense when it’s happening and equally satisfying when you pull it off.
We really don’t mean to compare every new game to Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom but there are parallels between the two games, with The Bunker never having a set solution to its problems and there often being multiple ways to get at a specific item or location. There’s even a surprisingly good physics and destruction system, even if everything does feel a bit weightless when you virtually pick up items.
Despite there not being a dedicated PlayStation 5 version, the game’s graphics are surprisingly good. There are some simplistic textures and object models, but few games have ever handled darkness as well as The Bunker. Not the sort of grey mist that stands in for it in most games, where you can still just about make everything out, but a jet black void that is terrifying to walk through when you know that, unlike that midnight trip to the lavatory, there definitely is a monster out to get you.
The one thing all Amnesia games get right is the audio design and it’s once again fantastic here. From your footsteps to the ominous noises that are either a pipe gurgling mundanely or a horrible monster about to bite your face off, it’s all wonderfully terrifying. There is no VR mode but that may be simply because the whole thing would be just too much to handle if it were any more immersive.
The Bunker is a highly effective survival horror and a strange mixture of the innovative and somewhat overfamiliar. Considering how few quality survival horror games are released though its more predictable elements are well worth putting up with, in what is the most unseasonably scary game of recent years.
Amnesia: The Bunker review summary
In Short: The best Amnesia game since The Dark Descent and a welcome spiritual successor to Alien Isolation, that makes darkness more terrifying than any video game before it.
Pros: The open-ended gameplay and randomised items works extremely well, with multiple solutions to every problem. High effective visuals and sound, especially for a lower budget game. Genuinely terrifying.
Cons: A lot of the concepts have been seen before in other games, especially the modus operandi of the monster and the surprisingly Resident Evil-esque inventory management.
Score: 8/10
Formats: PlayStation 4 (reviewed), Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC
Price: £19.99
Publisher: Frictional Games
Developer: Frictional Games
Release Date: 6th June
Age Rating: 18
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MORE : New Amnesia survival horror sequel The Bunker is an open world sandbox
MORE : Amnesia: Rebirth review – don’t be afraid of the dark
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