Full video review: https://youtu.be/dpl2eJs8JgU
Amnesia has been a very hit or miss series for me and I find it often leans more towards the latter. But this one... was actually good?
Gameplay
This is an entirely different game compared to Rebirth. The game is no longer a linear, point to point experience. Rather, you are simply dropped straight into this bunker, given a slight tutorial, and then told to figure out the rest yourself. You will get circles on the map to give you a general understanding of what you need to do, but how to do that is entirely on you.
It’s brilliantly designed like this. You’ll find a room that may contain a note that gives a hint as to where something is at and it all just feels so natural. The progression is organic, there’s plenty of room for exploration, and you can complete objectives out of order too. Not that you know you are doing that at the time, of course, which is what I like about it. It took the extreme structure that the prior game had and just completely swapped it up, giving us this entire bunker to explore that is actually fun to do so.
Horror Elements
Not having a definite direction and not knowing what is out there makes the game way more effective as a horror experience. I went for almost an hour before I even saw the monster here, just terrified of all the noises I kept hearing and what I was doing that would possibly draw its attention. You learn bits and pieces from notes, but for the most part, you are on your own. I really liked this approach and it really only works here because of how freeform the gameplay is.
Randomization
You cannot just pick up a walkthrough and breeze your way through the game, because item placements and the codes to unlock doors are all randomized. This makes no two playthroughs the same, as in one you may have more fuel or maybe more bullets, but be lacking in others. I had no issue with this setup either way, but felt it was important to point out regardless.
Repetition
I was not a fan of the extremely dated save system. You get a few save points in the entire bunker and that’s it, even less if you are on a harder difficulty. Given how spread out the bunker is, you can go upwards of 15-30 minutes without being able to save and just die and lose all of that progress. Having to replay a segment over and over and dying because the monster decided to change its pattern is just tedious.
Story
I liked the approach of being mostly told by the environment and all the little notes and photos scattered around, but I really do not like the whole “cosmic horror” element that the game increasingly leans into as it reaches its finale. The last game did this too, and while I think The Bunker did it better, it just felt weird to have this real, grounded setting - a WW1 bunker - mixed with this sudden departure into fantasy that rapidly escalates in the last 30 minutes of the game.
Other Issues
I have some other minor complaints, like the funky object collision, the controls being weird on some containers, and I did have the game freeze on me once too (really annoying given the lackluster save system). Otherwise though, I can’t think of any more off the top of my head. I see some make the case that the graphics are poor, but they aren’t THAT bad.
Performance
I had no issues running the game at 4k and hovering around 120 fps at high settings on my 3080 Ti. There are plenty of settings to change too, so there’s room to experiment if you need to get it to run on lower-end hardware.
Overall
Amnesia: The Bunker takes an entirely new approach to its gameplay and is an overall massive improvement over its predecessor, Rebirth. Gone is the structure and linearity of that one and now you have this semi open-world to explore complete with organic progression, great level design, and a genuinely scary monster. It may have issues with some gameplay elements and its story, but it overall feels like a horror game again, and I am excited to see the series continue in this direction.
Amnesia has been a very hit or miss series for me and I find it often leans more towards the latter. But this one... was actually good?
Gameplay
This is an entirely different game compared to Rebirth. The game is no longer a linear, point to point experience. Rather, you are simply dropped straight into this bunker, given a slight tutorial, and then told to figure out the rest yourself. You will get circles on the map to give you a general understanding of what you need to do, but how to do that is entirely on you.
It’s brilliantly designed like this. You’ll find a room that may contain a note that gives a hint as to where something is at and it all just feels so natural. The progression is organic, there’s plenty of room for exploration, and you can complete objectives out of order too. Not that you know you are doing that at the time, of course, which is what I like about it. It took the extreme structure that the prior game had and just completely swapped it up, giving us this entire bunker to explore that is actually fun to do so.
Horror Elements
Not having a definite direction and not knowing what is out there makes the game way more effective as a horror experience. I went for almost an hour before I even saw the monster here, just terrified of all the noises I kept hearing and what I was doing that would possibly draw its attention. You learn bits and pieces from notes, but for the most part, you are on your own. I really liked this approach and it really only works here because of how freeform the gameplay is.
Randomization
You cannot just pick up a walkthrough and breeze your way through the game, because item placements and the codes to unlock doors are all randomized. This makes no two playthroughs the same, as in one you may have more fuel or maybe more bullets, but be lacking in others. I had no issue with this setup either way, but felt it was important to point out regardless.
Repetition
I was not a fan of the extremely dated save system. You get a few save points in the entire bunker and that’s it, even less if you are on a harder difficulty. Given how spread out the bunker is, you can go upwards of 15-30 minutes without being able to save and just die and lose all of that progress. Having to replay a segment over and over and dying because the monster decided to change its pattern is just tedious.
Story
I liked the approach of being mostly told by the environment and all the little notes and photos scattered around, but I really do not like the whole “cosmic horror” element that the game increasingly leans into as it reaches its finale. The last game did this too, and while I think The Bunker did it better, it just felt weird to have this real, grounded setting - a WW1 bunker - mixed with this sudden departure into fantasy that rapidly escalates in the last 30 minutes of the game.
Other Issues
I have some other minor complaints, like the funky object collision, the controls being weird on some containers, and I did have the game freeze on me once too (really annoying given the lackluster save system). Otherwise though, I can’t think of any more off the top of my head. I see some make the case that the graphics are poor, but they aren’t THAT bad.
Performance
I had no issues running the game at 4k and hovering around 120 fps at high settings on my 3080 Ti. There are plenty of settings to change too, so there’s room to experiment if you need to get it to run on lower-end hardware.
Overall
Amnesia: The Bunker takes an entirely new approach to its gameplay and is an overall massive improvement over its predecessor, Rebirth. Gone is the structure and linearity of that one and now you have this semi open-world to explore complete with organic progression, great level design, and a genuinely scary monster. It may have issues with some gameplay elements and its story, but it overall feels like a horror game again, and I am excited to see the series continue in this direction.