Amnesia: The Bunker

The freedom and lack of arrows in every direction also means you need to be more driven to make it through the adventure. I miss a custom difficulty mode from the start, unfortunately you can lock your ability to progress if you're not careful with fuel (right now in isolated situations) and 2023 locking us to 60fps is a bit outdated. Otherwise, it's the best horror game of the year

Amnesia: The Bunker is a truly terrifying experience that will keep you on the edge of your seat and your sanity. The overall experience is thrilling amidst all the horror, leaving me (almost) craving more. Almost.

With The Bunker, Frictional has boiled the series’ gameplay formula down to its most salient and effective horror elements while trimming any excessive fat. For fans of horror, only three words are necessary: go play it!

With Amnesia: The Bunker, Frictional Games returns to pure horror, expanding and reworking the theoretical foundation it had already demonstrated with Penumbra and Amnesia: The Dark Descent. The result is one of the most terrifying experiences in recent years, in terms of video games, highly elaborate in design and harsh towards the player, to the point of being jagged in its distressing apparent simplicity.

Shifting toward a more open-ended structure, Amnesia: The Bunker's dynamic encounters and emergent gameplay allows it to remain freshly terrifying and tense throughout the several hours your first run will likely take. Beyond just claiming the title of the best Amnesia game to date, it's also one of the best survival horror experiences of recent times, and a perfect entry to spearhead the future of the franchise into a new direction.

Amnesia: The Bunker has become one of the best horror games in an ever-changing landscape on par with titles like Resident Evil 7 and The Dark Descent. This game not only is a return to form for Frictional Games but it also paves the way forward thanks to its systems that encourage creative solutions to problems and an ever-changing nature that will keep players on the edge of their seats as they face off against the supernatural threat that's roaming the halls of the bomb shelter.

Amnesia: The Bunker is purist survival horror at its best with a thoughtful take on the genre and mind-shredding scares. Even the most hardened gamer will feel their pulse racing as they are stalked through the underground hell, feeling a desperation to see daylight. The challenge is not just mastering your environment but mastering your own fear of the evils that lurk in the darkness.

Amnesia: The Bunker is a successful experiment for the renowned horror franchise, branching the series into survival horror, room escape, rogue-lite and extraction genres. Impeccable audio design and tense gameplay make for one of the scariest horror games in recent years.

Amnesia: The Bunker is a strong addition to the legendary franchise. The gameplay is at it's best, and the audio and visuals bring the claustrophobic setting to life. The adaptations to the formula make it stand out in the series, with well-tuned and executed abilities added to the player without undermining the scares. However story-wise the game falls short of the highs of it's predeccessors, but not by much. Whilst it has it's flaws, The Bunker shines as a potential new dawn for the series with it's creative changes.

Amnesia: The Bunker is a heart stopping horror that constantly leaves you in fear, but it's all the better for it.

Amnesia: The Bunker continues Frictional Games’ smart evolution of the series with an intense survival horror/immersive sim cocktail that almost balances its ideas perfectly.

A necessary refresh of the series after Rebirth and a very good purchase for horror game fans.

Amnesia: The Bunker is another Frictional Games classic, pitting players against a truly terrifying foe while providing immersive elements that are constantly engaging. While the AI can leave a bit to be desired, the atmosphere and story will keep players on their toes.

This is a game that people should stomach to experience how horror games can make you feel when set in an isolated dark environment with minimum ammo and a huge monster tracking you down. A truly dreadful experience, in a positive sense, which is something only horror games can deliver.

Not only does the game capture the essence of Amnesia in a good way, but it also develops the series further with new, exciting ideas.

The bunker thus feels genuinely coherent as a place, and alongside a vividly oppressive monster, that's enough to ensure this latest bout of Amnesia is one we won't easily forget. [Issue#386, p.114]

The cat-and-mouse dynamic between player and adversary, so familiar by the end of the campaign yet so aggressively unpredictable every time, really does possess the texture of a bad dream, or an endless cycle that the player can never wake up from. Thankfully, the narrative’s willingness to step aside is what really brings the nightmare to life. The Beast is not used as a vehicle for philosophical musings, he is not an expression of Henri’s subconscious mind or his hidden traumas. He is brutality personified, as senseless and blood-soaked as The Bunker’s setting.

Quotation forthcoming.

Amnesia: The Bunker exists for one purpose and one purpose only: to terrify you. It isn’t here to be groundbreaking, it isn’t here to flip any scripts, it’s just here to instill fear. And it does an incredible job of that. The stage is set from the second you’re left to your own devices, and it only gets worse as you progress. It’s the kind of game that makes you want to put on a pair of nice headphones and turn off the lights to immerse yourself, then make you regret that decision for all the right reasons. There’s definitely room to improve on certain things, particularly when it comes to the story and controls, but it’s a very solid game that any horror fan should play. If you’re looking for something that’ll scare you, you will absolutely find it here.

Previous Amnesia games have repeatedly fallen behind the horror that haunted the castle in the original game, but Amnesia: The Bunker is already showing potential in this regard. Bunker still feels like an exciting and increasingly important step forward for the Amnesia series. Players will love the change in the scale of the gameplay and the bigger storytelling and the new ways to interact with the world our hero is in. Having weapons and all the explosions you will bring back can change the atmosphere a lot but I will say they are not endless, and what will happen when you are left alone with the monster?

If you really like both exploration and survival-horror genre, Amnesia: The Bunker can satisfy you. As a horror lover, I found the game replayable with the high randomness factor.

The Amnesia moves forward and does not stand still. Graphics and technical condition are definitely not among the tip of the iceberg, but the gameplay and atmosphere is excellent.

The terror and isolation you feel here is a devious construct you must outsmart to escape to the surface and makes this feel like a true horror game in the best of ways.

An incredibly well-made and entertaining game with excellent world-building, narrative, and atmospheric audio that is sadly let down by psychological horror that borders on harassing. It’s not for the faint of heart.

Amnesia: The Bunker is not for the faint of heart. Frictional Games courageously breaks free of its own formula to examine what truly gets the blood pumping and the brain racing, and the result is a challenging and nearly unmanageable combination of stress and fear. While it misses the mark somewhat with story and atmosphere, The Bunker makes up for it through engaging and one-of-a-kind gameplay, which stretches the limitations of the horror genre.

Amnesia: The Bunker corrects the missteps of its predecessors and adds in a sense of invention, creating a truly unsettling adventure.

Frictional Games' signature psychological horror is applied to a compact but tense sandbox setting with fairly strong results.

The Bunker is a nice change for the series, while also, in a way, returns to its origins. It can be very frustrating, but it’s definitely an Amnesia game that, we think, fans of the original will enjoy.

The playful formula of Amnesia: The Bunker is configured as the most articulated and varied in the entire history of the brand. The introduction of weapons proved to be pleasant, because it was far from a risky action drift. Even the fascinating setting chosen for this new iteration confirms the indisputable talent of Frictional Games in crafting digital nightmares. Ultimately, if you are a fan of the series or are simply looking for a horror that thrives on tension, characterized by a valuable level design and well-crafted gameplay, you have come to the right place: the Amnesia bunker is a place you will never forget easily.

Amnesia: The Bunker is a labyrinth in which it is easy to get lost, but in which it will be just as easy to want to return. This new survival horror manages to be a challenging and tense challenge without falling into the easy temptation of jumpscares or holding the player's hand too much. Whether you have already memorized the previous chapters or have decided to give the Amnesia saga a chance for the first time, The Bunker therefore proves to be a new success achieved by Frictional Games and an experience to be recovered for all lovers such.

Amnesia: The Bunker felt like it was somehow different from its predecessors. The puzzle-heavy horror game and a hint of resource management give the anxiety of suddenly plunging into danger. I felt like the franchise made a different approach but in the end of the day it’s worth the adventure.

Amnesia: The Bunker is excellent, offering the dread and terror you’d expect along with engaging new mechanics. Some technical issues occasionally break the immersion, but Frictional’s approach to frightening and challenging you still offers its best thrills.

An exciting horror-game with strong borrowings from Alien: Isolation, where you explore a convincing setting in a physically believable way.

Amnesia: The Bunker is a bold new direction for the series, and it chiefly pays off with brilliant scares and disempowerment of the player. The bottlenecked level design can be frustrating though, as can the nature of do-overs with the beast hot on your heels.

With reasons to return to the game after hitting the credits, Amnesia: The Bunker is the longest-lasting game in the series so far. And thanks to incredible atmosphere, opportunities for player creativity, and an inventory metagame that makes each success or failure entirely your own, Amnesia: The Bunker is proof that Frictional has still got it. This is a team that continues to refine the horror genre, and though I've found each of their games intriguing in different ways, they haven't scared me the way this one does in a long time.

I can't say Amnesia is still a groundbreaking horror franchise like it was at the beginning. The larger story it was building has already been played out with Rebirth. But Amnesia: The Bunker proves that smaller, anthology-style episodes within its universe can still bring the tension and the scares. And Frictional's bag of tricks is far from exhausted when it comes to getting our hearts pounding and making us carefully consider how to use the limited tools available to us. It's not an unmissable experience, but as an Amnesia fan, it definitely sated my appetite for some gut-churning horror and moody, bleak storytelling.

Amnesia: The Bunker is an immersive and terrifying experience where players are encouraged to experiment with all the in-game resources to escape a frightening situation. The lack of handholding causes some confusion in the opening moments, but the more you invest, the better this nightmare becomes. This is unlike any entry in the series to date, and I’ll hesitantly recommend it to anyone looking for a challenging scare.

Amnesia: The Bunker is one of the most terrifying horror games ever made, but those looking for Resident Evil 4 levels of length and replayability are going to be left seriously disappointed.

While Amnesia: The Bunke' is a brief, albeit very replayable experience, we’d wager that even the most grizzled survival horror veterans will be clenching their sphincters as they navigate Frictional Games' masterclass in terror. The overhauled gameplay loop is a welcome change, though 'The Bunker' does fall victim to the same shortcomings as its predecessors, which makes it feel somewhat dated in places.

Frictional once again shows that it dominates the horror adventure genre by heart and gives us a somewhat more generic installment than Rebirth, but equally capable of offering us a remarkable survival experience.

Amnesia: The Bunker introduces a brilliant gameplay with many new features for the series. It is a real survival horror with a great atmosphere and a superb concept. Too bad for the random encounters with the creature, often not well balanced.

Amnesia: The Bunker has a fantastic dynamic involving light and power management, as you explore an atmospheric WW1 bunker and avoid a monster with a keen sense of hearing. Despite a lack of puzzles, a bland story, and a few monster quirks, it packs enough good horror to keep players on edge.

A successful game that adds a different flavor to the Amnesia series. It promises a satisfying few hours for horror thriller fans. It is also a good starting point for those who aren't familiar with the genre.

Amnesia: The Bunker focuses on horror element while it relieves the burden of storytelling side. The overall ambiance of staying together in the bunker with mysterious monsters in the dark is well suited. In particular, the creepy sound effects such as monsters' howling and echoes in the cave did a great job holding the tension throughout the game.

Amnesia: The Bunker lacks the story-telling and emotional heft of the previous games in the series. But, if you are in the mood for a scary and tense game of cat and mouse, this game will satisfy your needs.

While it may not entirely hit as a whole, Amnesia: The Bunker marks a high point for the series in many ways. It continues to feature impressive graphics and sound design, and a few of the mechanics here should join other constants. It falters a bit in its story, which is suitably mysterious and mystical, but at least partially predictable from a very early stage. It doesn't drag the experience down too much, but just enough. Still, it feels like a best-in-class dread simulator that doesn't overload you with a series of ever changing objectives, keeping your mission tight and focused throughout, allowing that sense of dread to be its main propellant.

In its best moments, Amnesia: The Bunker joins Outlast and Alien: Isolation at the pinnacle of this style of horror, but this is a game with a split identity. Combat feels out of place and mostly ends up being a navigation tool, while I would have liked to see better use of light as a defence against the creature. The story is somewhat predictable, but Amnesia: The Bunker excels with its atmosphere and the kind of tense gameplay that will thrill genre fans.

Amnesia: The Bunker is a bold new step for the series and it’s the shot in the arm that I think it’s needed for some time now. This first attempt isn’t perfect and has some teething issues as it figures out its new identity, but it makes up for it by being a truly terrifying experience that shows how bright the series’ future can be.

Opting for a new semi-open world approach and a more sandbox-orientated set of tools to tinker with, Amnesia: The Bunker forgoes many of its previous series staples in favour of a single persistent threat and a fantastically oppressive World War 1 setting. It stumbles at times owing to crashing problems, a bothersome save system and the occasional gameplay limitation, but Amnesia can comfortably forget its memories of the past if this is the future it has lurking ahead.

Amnesia The bunker has all the essential elements to become a good horror title. While on the lower difficulty levels it can be a walk, the higher levels take us into the real experience, completely overwhelming us at many moments in the game. The graphic quality reaches what is necessary so that it does not feel like an ugly or poorly cared game and its sound is completely achieved so that we feel that we are trapped with no way out. Highly recommended for those looking for a terrifying experience but don't want to get frustrated with tricky maps or puzzles, Amnesia The Bunker is a straightforward game and offers much more than meets the eye.

Sure, its lackluster story is made up for by its perfectly built tension and horrifying atmosphere, but a more in-depth story, some more thought-provoking puzzles, and refined visuals could have made for one of the most horrifying experiences in gaming.

A new concept for the Amnesia series works not well. There is a lot of tension, but no real horror and no real fun.

The ghost that is chasing you is actually quite skilled and learns with time. On the other hand, it loses the horror element a bit, because it scares you twice at most and then it doesn't have any aces up its sleeve. [Issue#328]

Amnesia: The Bunker deviates from the rest of the series. This is not a linear story game, more of a semi-open world horror in which you’re hunted by a terrible beast. Once you see through the tricks, however, the illusion of fear is gone and a horrifying WWI bunker becomes just a corridor full of locked doors.

Certainly the more restrictive means of progression in The Bunker has its own pleasures even within a more open framework, but the game insists on calling a shot that it has no hope of making.

Amnesia: The Bunker has all these little pieces that work well, but doesn’t fully deliver on its main hook. Fans of the series may be set up for a No Man’s Land of disappointment, where just a few tweaks here and there might make it a much more enjoyable experience. With it also launching on Xbox Game Pass, that might be the best place for it to gain an audience.

Amnesia: The Bunker is genuinely scary, and its puzzles are fun to solve. Old-school survival-horror fans in particular will find a lot to like about the game. It randomizes certain elements in subsequent playthroughs to keep things interesting and that combined with its open-ended nature makes it the most replayable Amnesia game, even though it doesn't quite stick the landing like its predecessors. Luckily, Amnesia: The Bunker is a day one Xbox Game Pass game, so horror fans can brave its terrors for themselves without making any kind of major financial commitment.

I often felt like I was fighting the game just to get around, which was frustrating in a software kind of way rather than an atmospheric enhancement. I wasn’t scared because I was too busy squinting or yanking on the flashlight’s pull cord just so I could pull on doors and latches. No amount of spooky ambiance in the background could bring me back into the experience.

While the classic Amnesia gameplay is available here in a lot of ways, it’s mixed with some underwhelming, poorly balanced monster gameplay that doesn’t work as well as it should.