Amnesia: The Bunker Review, Not For The Faint of Heart
The scariest game of 2023
The Amnesia series needs no introduction for horror fans. Amnesia: The Dark Descent, the inaugural entry in the series, has been infamously regarded as one of the scariest games ever made since its release in 2010. The sequels didn’t quite receive as much praise, but with The Bunker, Frictional Games has proven that they still know how to make a horror game.
Set in WW1, The Bunker puts you in the boots of French soldier Henri Clément. After surviving a mortar strike, Henri awakens in the infirmary of a bunker to find all the occupants have been slaughtered by a terrifying beast. To escape, he must find a way to blow open the debris blocking the only exit. The monster constantly stalks Henri from the beginning of the game up to the very end.
Stalkers aren’t a new concept for horror games. Silent Hill’s Pyramid Head, Resident Evil’s Nemesis, and Alien Isolation’s Xenomorph are some of many pursuers that have stood the test of time. When done correctly, a relentless, unstoppable force is easily one of the scariest villains in a horror game. When your only chance of survival is to run and hide, you feel helpless.
While many stalkers are absent stretches of their respective games, the beast is a constant threat. Once the player gets access to the entire bunker, nowhere is safe. Aside from the game’s only safe room, the beast can emerge anywhere and anytime. I had to take frequent breaks playing this game because the intensity never lets up.
What makes The Bunker so intense is how organic the horror is. The game doesn’t rely on arbitrary jump scares to frighten you. The natural behaviors of the beast and the mechanics that work against you are enough to create plenty of fearful moments. The entire time I played, I felt an unshakeable dread when I had to leave the light of the save room.
The Bunker makes excellent use of lighting and sounds to create an atmosphere of pure terror. By default, all lights are off save for dim red emergency lights. As you creep through the narrow corridors, you hear the beast sneaking through the walls or growling in an adjacent room. Visibility is so limited that it’s hard to determine where the beast is patrolling. I found this uncertainty paralyzing at times. The gloomy underground shelter makes The Nostromo in Alien Isolation look dazzling by comparison.
Henri does possess a flashlight, but it’s activated via a pull cord and only produces a paltry 30 seconds of light. Each activation risks alerting the beast to your presence. It’s a constant risk vs. reward mechanism that challenges the player to wander through the dark in exchange for purported safety.
There is one brief bit of salvation in the form of a generator that activates many lights throughout the bunker. However, it must be constantly refueled to keep the lights on. When the generator has power, the beast will hide in the walls instead of patrolling the halls, making exploration significantly safer. Fuel is limited, so the player must choose between expending their precious resources and riskier traversal.
It’s pretty clear when the generator runs out of fuel. There’s nothing more terrifying than picking up a key item far from the save room, only for the lights to immediately shut off, followed by a guttural howl from the beast indicating that it has emerged ready to hunt. The game only has a single centralized save room, so death often means losing significant progress. Most of the stress I experienced playing the game was from going long periods without saving when exploring the deeper parts of the fortress.
Unfortunately, the game becomes almost trivial once Henri discovers the fuel storage in the maintenance sector, giving the player an infinite fuel source. I kept the generator running almost indefinitely after this point, meaning I could explore with little fear of getting ambushed by the beast. The game would have been significantly better without this exploit since the beast is the only threat Henri faces.
Sound also plays a critical role in the game’s environment. The beast often uses sound as its primary method for locating Henri. Likewise, the player must often rely on sound to identify where the monster lurks. You must constantly listen carefully to the world around you. Headphones are a must for this game.
The game frequently forces the player to make noise to progress. Locked doors must be blown open with a cinderblock or a grenade. Bodies must be burned with petrol bombs to prevent dangerous rats from blocking your path. Heavy objects must be pushed over to clear the route forward. But you never really know if the beast will respond or not.
The game’s audio and visual cues elevate the atmospheric tension to another level. When the beast is lurking nearby, the lights begin to flicker ominously. Rats scatter, and radios abruptly go silent. Henri’s heart starts racing as the creature draws near. Staring at the beast distorts your vision. Direct eye contact will reveal your location, even if you are hiding under a table or in a closet. It’s a suspenseful feeling, unlike anything I’ve ever experienced in a horror game.
This feeling is emphasized by how helpless Henri is against the beast. The game gives you a sidearm, but bullets are extremely limited and merely stun the beast for a few seconds. Unlike Alien: Isolation which provides the player with a host of options for self-defense, The Bunker emphasizes avoiding detection in the first place. There were very few instances where I survived an encounter with the beast after it detected me.
While I enjoyed the first half, the game loses steam by the time you reach the end. Once the beast kills you a few times and you start to understand its behavior, it’s not as frightening. Resources eventually become a non-issue. I ended up with plenty of ammunition, healing items, and generator fuel. I won’t spoil the ending, but the final sequence after you blow open an escape route was also rather anticlimactic. The game is at its best when you don’t know anything. The initial learning curve of managing the generator fuel and avoiding the beast is easily the best part. The game isn’t very long (4–5 hours). It’s a short yet brutal affair, unlike Alien: Isolation which felt a bit too dragged out at times.
The Bunker is a perfect snack for horror fans. The game effectively uses lighting, sound, and organic horror to create fear and helplessness. The constant risk vs. reward choices and limited resources keeps players on edge during exploration. However, as the game progresses, it loses some of its fear factor, and the final sequence lacks impact. Despite its flaws, The Bunker showcases Frictional Games’ expertise in crafting potent horror mechanics and serves as a reminder of the Amnesia series’ enduring appeal and chilling atmosphere.
