What Have You Been Playing... IN AUGUST 2024?
Amnesia: The Bunker
The best part of the last Amnesia title I played, Rebirth (I'll try to attach that review to this one), was the first half of the game, where you
are in tunnels and a bunker, trying to avoid a nasty monstar. So I was interested enough in The Bunker to play and complete it (included with pc gamepass).
The premise is being trapped in a WW1 military bunker where your only companions are many horribly mutilated bodies and quite a nasty monster,
that is attracted to sound and which periodically patrols your general vicinity. If you've played Alien Isolation, you know exactly the tense atmosphere and the basic gameplay loop that The Bunker provides: You'll
make repeated forays out into the dark and creepy tunnels to gather fuel, supplies, clues, tools, weapons, and keys, so as to delve deeper (uh oh!), uncover the story behind the tunnel system and the monstar's presence, and finally escape.
As in Alien Isolation, you can't reason with the beast, nor can you kill it. But! you can scare it away with molotovs, grenades, or well-aimed shots,
or -- again as in Alien Isolation -- hide under tables and bunks till she
goes away. The game does a solid job with weapon animations and handling,
and the feeling of immersion is high. Lighting and audio contribute greatly
to the oppressive and tense atmosphere as you explore the ruins.
You'll have to decide whether this basic gameplay loop appeals, as you'll repeatedly be re-entering tunnel sections, like the Prison, Maintenance, Soldier's Quarters and Arsenal to explore, gather what you can, and scurry
back to your base before the generator (and the lights) run out. My big suggestion is to play on Easy difficulty, as otherwise the Stalker's
frequent appearances will be more aggravating then exciting, and save often
at the several savepoints scattered about; stealth and exploration are large gameplay components. The game atmosphere I did find fairly oppressive and a bit depressing, and I was a bit relieved to reach the ending -- exactly the relief you should feel to succeed at a dark and scary game! -- after
~12hours (I played some on Normal before restarting on Easy), with 24/44 achievements. I see that only 4.7% of gamers finished the game, that has to
be disappointing for the devs. I have no complaints to speak of, and if a tense horror experience is what you are looking for Amnesia: The Bunker provides it in spades!
Amnesia: Rebirth
First a shocking confession: I haven't played either of the preceding
Amnesia titles, though back in the day did play at least Penumbra Overture
(and Outlast), so had an idea of the first-person hide-and-seek gameplay.
I put some 15 hours into Rebirth, and it a solid B grade, but not higher. It actually felt long, and I was more relieved it was over than excited at the ending. The gameplay loop of exploration, simple physical puzzle solving,
and occasional hiding or frenetic running from evil spirits reaches it's
peak for me in the middle of the game as you explore an abandoned and
haunted fort in the middle of the African desert.
Subsequent to this, though -- **spoilers here** -- there's an abrupt change
of scenery to an alien world that took me out of the excellent tense
atmosphere that had been carefully built up to this point: I felt as if I
was playing two different games, and that this reduced the impact of the
whole. If Frictional had explored the desert mythology more and kept the world-building 'grounded', if you will, in this mythology I'd be more
pleased with the result.
Helpfully for the player, if you die, you are resurrected near where you
died, and you can save anywhere, with a history of savegames kept -- but at
the cost of exiting the present game, so no quicksave spamming allowed. My
only specific complaint is that in a couple levels I couldn't avoid being caught and killed, yet somehow resurrected beyond the point I was stuck at. This may be by design, but was a little surprising and removed just a touch
of the sense of accomplishment at getting past a hard bit. An xbox
controller worked well for me.
rms
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