Amnesia: The Bunker Review – Short but Thrilling

Amnesia: The Bunker is a first-person atmospheric horror game developed by Frictional Games and launched on June 6, 2023, on PC, Xbox and PlayStation. Amnesia: The Dark Descent launched in 2010 and was one of the jump-scariest games of its time. The way the monster stalked you when you made sound, and got you cornered still gives me frightful memories. Later in 2020 came Amnesia: Rebirth which had all the terrifying beats of the original with new enhancements to physics-based mechanics and a deeper narrative experience. Now we have The Bunker and while shorter in length, this game treads new ground with a semi-open world and a less linear experience giving you more freedom of exploration.

Set during World War 1, players take on the role of Henri Clement, a French soldier who is left behind by his battalion and finds himself trapped inside an abandoned military bunker. A deadly creature stalks the corridors, hunting for its next meal. However, the creature is not the only obstacle Henri must face. The bunker is a labyrinth of twists and turns, filled with traps and other hazards. You have a flashlight to light the dim corridors, but this is an old wind-up style that doesn’t last long. It also attracts the damn monster so you must use it sparingly. The monster moves quickly so it’s a delicate balance of inching forward, having a quick look around the room to plot your course, then making a break for it in the darkness.

The atmosphere in all Amnesia games has always been one of its strongest points, and it’s ever present here. The bunker is a dark and oppressive place that makes you feel isolated and alone. The game’s sound design is excellent, amplifying steps and bumps in the dark which kept me on edge. It reminded me a lot of those times hiding in Alien: Isolation as the alien stalked me in overhead ducts or neighbouring corridors. However, unlike Alien: Isolation, the monster AI isn’t as smart and won’t actively hunt as efficiently, unless you make lots of noise. We have a gun with us, but ammunition is extremely limited. Shooting the monster in the face will drop it to the ground temporarily and buy us time to make a quick escape.

This makes the game more challenging and suspenseful. The player must be on the lookout for crates, barrels and other items to move around and create barriers or leading the monster into a trap so you can get away. Puzzles we come across often require items from our limited inventory space like wire cutters, but we need to find them first. Other times you may need to find codes to get into lockers, with clues on dog tags spread around different areas. You may need to push a crate over a gap in the floor to cross it, or you might be able to use a lever to move a platform. These puzzles help to break up the horror tension just a little and provides a small sense of accomplishment in between being pursued by the monster.

Overall, Amnesia: The Bunker is a short but enjoyable horror game with the eerie atmosphere as its strongest point. Fans who played and loved the first Amnesia games may find the less linear and more open approach to be too dissimilar. This is shorter than the previous games, but the jump and scare factors are still there as you learn the monster’s mechanics and find items you can use to escape from it.

This review utilised a Steam key provided by Evolve PR/Terminals and Amnesia: The Bunker is available now on Steam, Epic Games Store, GOG, Xbox and PlayStation.

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