Amnesia: The Bunker

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.