Amnesia: The Bunker Review (PS4) | Push Square

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After effectively pioneering a new type of horror experience in 2010's Amnesia: The Dark Descent, developer Frictional Games hasn't shown much willingness to create something wholly authentic all over again. Two sequels followed the revolutionary original — with a few years of production set aside for SOMA — but with little in the way of gameplay alterations to separate them, this new third follow-up had to make somewhat of a change. Amnesia: The Bunker is undoubtedly a better game than its predecessor Amnesia: Rebirth, and while it never fully shrugs off that sense of «been there, done that», it feels like a better direction for the series.

Just like the previous three entries, though, Amnesia: The Bunker is still more about hiding in the shadows and creating distractions rather than engaging with the enemy. A clunky control scheme allows you to pick up and interact with almost anything in the environment, opening and closing doors (of which there are a lot) is still a chore, and one wrong move will probably spell your demise. That may sound familiar to series veterans, but there's just enough here to set it apart. One example would be the fantastic setting: the bunker itself.

The game takes place in an underground bunker during World War 1. Having awoken to find yourself abandoned and trapped inside, you need to find a way out while avoiding a monster that's on the prowl. Tight, barely lit corridors connect each section of the bunker, highlighting the unsanitary conditions soldiers had to live in during the 1910s. Shooting off those passages are living quarters, kitchens, and machinery designed purely to help the war efforts as human life is left to waste. It's an utterly dreadful place, and Frictional Games has