Amnesia: The Bunker cool game review - The evolution of the series
The new Amnesia suddenly allows you to fight back against monsters by arming the player with a revolver, grenades and even a shotgun. Does this make the cool game any less scary? We'll tell you in the review.
The Amnesia series has always been characterized by a number of hallmarks: the emphasis on exploration and puzzles, the "madness" mechanic, the inability to fight monsters and the need to hide from them. Amnesia: The Bunker breaks those molds, leaving fans of the franchise with nothing more than a thorough exploration of the locations. And even then - with annoying backtracking.
The cool games is set during the First World War. The main character, a French soldier, is wounded and loses consciousness, but comes to his senses already in an unfamiliar bunker. Around - complete chaos, corpses and rats, some supernatural creature roams the dark corridors, and the protagonist will face a desperate struggle for life, which is accompanied by attempts to find out what happened here.
Considering that we are playing as the only living person in the bunker, we should not expect dynamics in the development of the plot from Amnesia: The Bunker. The story is told through notes and photographs, with which you can collect a complete picture of what is happening. It is unlikely that the scenario will surprise you: we will not spoil it, but the reason for the death of soldiers and the appearance of an ominous force here is as banal as possible.
The bunker is… well, a normal bunker: a network of underground halls and corridors that converge in the center into a hub that becomes a safe haven for the protagonist. Here you can take a breath, study the map, and also refuel the generator with fuel found on your travels : while it works and provides electricity, the corridors are illuminated, increasing the chances of survival, since the beast chasing the hero feels more comfortable in the dark.
To get out of the trap, you need to blow up the collapsed entrance. To do this, you need dynamite and a fuse handle. But first you have to find out where they are, as well as find the keys and tools that allow you to open access to the locked areas. Quests in Amnesia: The Bunker force you to wander through the underground tunnels, sending the player to one goal or another. Having learned about the place where the key item is located, you can only find a note there, which indicates its new location - such situations happen here more than once.
There is a lot of backtracking in the cool game, especially in the early stages, until you remember the location of the locations. The developers follow a classic approach to orientation: no map called at the touch of a button, you should rely only on memory and signs on the walls. However, the territory is not very large, it is difficult to get lost, and therefore the absence of a map and target markers does not cause serious irritation.
The monster settled in the bunker reacts to noise, so it is advisable to act as quietly as possible. Although this is not always possible, given that the player has to activate mechanisms, blow up locked doors and disperse rats. Many of the puzzles in Amnesia: The Bunker are physics-based, allowing you to drag crates, destroy wooden partitions, and set fire to spilled fuel.
Supplies for all this are scattered around the bunker: the inventory quickly fills up with canisters, empty bottles, grenades and rags. The crafting system allows you to create items from resources: from a piece of cloth, an empty bottle and a container of fuel, you get a Molotov cocktail, by combining a rag with a stick you can get a torch, and two rags turn into a bandage.
The capacity of the character's inventory is limited, so unused items will have to be thrown away or stored in a chest in the hub. You have to constantly choose what is more needed - a grenade or a canister of gasoline, a wrench that allows you to remove the gratings of ventilation holes, or a gas mask. A revolver, with which you can scare away a monster, and a flashlight dynamo, terribly noisy and annoying: if you neglect to refuel the generator that gives light, Amnesia: The Bunker quickly turns into a flashlight recharging simulator.
The protagonist of the cool game is an army soldier, so the use of weapons is not alien to him. At the same time, he has a more stable psyche compared to the protagonists of the previous parts of the Amnesia series, so there is no mechanics of losing sanity here. The monster usually warns of its appearance with a booming roar, making it possible to prepare and meet it fully armed: one or two bullets in the face are enough for it to crawl back into the hole. Biting rats can be lured with meat and driven away by fire. Molotov cocktails block narrow passages, and explosive barrels serve as an additional option for dealing damage to the enemy.
However, don't expect Amnesia: The Bunker to be played like a shooter. There is very little ammo here, and you will never have enough of it to do whatever you want: shoot padlocks, undermine barrels of explosives and mindlessly shoot at a monster. You will most likely always keep one or two bullets in the drum in case you encounter a creature, sacrificing other options.
The addition of weapons makes the game feel less scary than earlier releases in the lineup. But at the same time, it remains very atmospheric : the gloomy vaults of the bunker put pressure on the psyche, the rumble of the ongoing war somewhere on the surface reminds of the background of the plot events, and the rustles and growls of a monster prowling somewhere nearby do not allow you to relax. The sound is very good, so we recommend playing with headphones.
Immersion in the world is also influenced by the use of the dietetic interface : even though the inventory opens in a new window, pausing the cool game, you have to check the number of cartridges in the revolver and monitor the health level of the protagonist “by eye” - something similar happened in Alone in the Dark 2008.
Amnesia: The Bunker leaves a double impression. The cool game has become less scary and now allows you to fight back the monster. Fans of the series probably won't appreciate this move, but players who don't like to hide in closets will surely be delighted. Resource management and obsessive backtracking are tiring, but also provide more opportunities to explore the world and solve problems. The puzzles are simple and the plot is trite, but the atmosphere and sound are great.
The World War I bunker turned out to be a very unpleasant place. It is unlikely that the protagonist would like to return there, but you can: thanks to the random generation of the location of resources and the choice of difficulty level, each playthrough of the cool game will be different from the previous ones.
