12/30/2023 0 Comments Amnesia game trailer 2012That idea makes for one of the most harrowing psychological horror games I’ve played in years. Every time I hear a thump I don’t recognize, it triggers my anxiety as I fear the monster approaches - like hearing a truck backfiring and instinctively ducking for cover. It stalks these soldiers, as ever-present as the monster lurking in the shadows. The bunker isn’t just a clever video game location, but a mental prison that visualizes the inescapable nature of PTSD. Some give some clues as to where the monster came from, but others are simply from traumatized soldiers working through everything they’ve been through. The more I explore, I find notes left behind by soldiers in the bunker. That’s because it isn’t just delivering scares for the sake of scares. Frictional Gamesĭespite that inherent frustration, The Bunker still largely works as a piece of video game horror. That’s a killer for a horror game, and it’s something that’s always breathing down The Bunker’s neck. After a while, I wasn’t so much scared as I was annoyed by the idea of having to repeat the same route for the fourth time. It doesn’t take much to stir the monster and it’s hard to avoid once it’s on the hunt. The flip side, though, is that it can be incredibly difficult to make meaningful progress. It makes the moment when the generator runs out of fuel truly scary my heart pumps out of my chest anytime the lighting grid goes black. The longer I spend exploring, the more I stand to lose if the monster kills me. The stakes are incredibly high, as I can only ever save by returning to a safe room at the center of the bunker. That loop makes for a strong - though at times frustrating - horror game premise. It plays like a scary spin on SteamWorld Dig, and is almost roguelite-esque in its nature. I fill the generator up with fuel, go on “runs” through the bunker to collect as many resources as I can before the lights go out, and try to make as little sound as I can while doing so. After an hour of playing, the loop fully clicks. And unfortunately for me, any noise will attract the attention of that monster I saw earlier, who persistently roams the halls. I do have a handy flashlight to help in those moments, but it’s a noisy antique that needs to be revved up like a chainsaw. When it runs out of gas, the structure goes completely dark. The bunker’s lighting grid runs on a generator that I need to keep fueled at all times. It’s a thoughtfully constructed space that turns exploration into a game of constant spatial reasoning. Scattered notes give me leads as to what the ultimate goal of each area is, but I can tackle the Resident Evil-like puzzle box in any way. After finding a way to release the bunker’s emergency locks, I’m free to explore all of its distinct areas – from living quarters to an armory - in any order I want. What immediately sets The Bunker apart from previous Amnesia games is its more open-ended structure. After witnessing that, my goal is simple: get the hell out of here. I stumble through the darkness until I find another living soldier, but I don’t get a chance to ask him where I am before a monster devours him. It’s a stark contrast to that chaotic intro, letting the violence I just witnessed soak in. Shortly after, I wake up in an eerily quiet French bunker. That sequence acts as a dark prelude that successfully colors the more traditional Amnesia gameplay that ensues. I don’t need Starfield because I have The Outer Worlds Trying to find the right scares for you? Here’s a guide to horror game subgenres Though I’m terrified of the unkillable monster that’s always stalking me from the shadows, the true horror comes from what Amnesia has to say about wartime PTSD - a vital subject that most proper war games try to keep locked in the dark.Īmnesia: The Bunker takes survival horror into a ‘semi-open-world’ sandbox Amnesia: The Bunker, developer Frictional Games’ most ambitious horror title yet, turns an abandoned World War I bunker into a sprawling haunted house. So perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised that the first horror game that would accomplish that for me in 2023 is, in fact, a new Amnesia game. That trend always leaves me looking for more cerebral horror games, ones that scratch the same itch as 2010’s psychologically unnerving Amnesia: The Dark Descent. There’s a slew of zombie games, for instance, that trade in sharp social commentary for mindless shooting. Though the horror genre has a rich history of using monsters as stand-ins for something truly horrifying, scary video games aren’t always so thematically ambitious.
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